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of the Hebrews.' This is his prerogative above all his brethren. The {Syrians, Assyrians, Lydians, Persians, Armenians, Elamites, these all came of Shem ; but because they were ignorant of the knowledge of the true God, he doth not take his title from them, though they were great and mighty nations ; this was his prerogative, that Abraham came from him, and all Israel, the people whom God had chosen to himself, and among whom he would record his name, whilst all the rest of the world lay in darkness. A man would have thought that Moses should have set out his great ancestor in more magnificent terms. Another would have taken notice either of his long life (for he lived six hundred years), that he saw both worlds, both before the flood and after ; that he was one of the heirs of Noah, one of the three great princes of the world; that Asia, the paradise of the earth, fell to his lot, and Shinar, a land rich in jewels, gold, and spices ; another would have reckoned up the mighty kings descended from his loins, or have called him father of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, famous nations that made such a bustle in the world ; but Moses only calleth him father of the children of Eber, a nation shut up within the precincts of a little spot of land ; but theirs were the ' promises, and the adoption, and the glory,' Kom. ix. 4, ' and the covenant, and the law.' I tell you, to be a means to bring forth children to God, and to multiply the church, is as great an honour as can be put upon you.
3. If they die in infancy, we need not trouble ourselves about their salvation. God is their God, Gen. xvii. 1 ; and that is all the best of us have to show for his right to heaven. They are bound up in the same bundle of life with their parents, in covenant with God, and never lived to disinherit themselves. We judge of the graft according to the tree from whence it was taken, till it liveth to bring forth fruit of its own ; so of children, according to their father's covenant. God knoweth how to instate them in the privileges of it ; Christ died for the church, and they are part of the church, Eph. v. 26, 27.
4. If they live, and bewray the corruption of their natures, there is more hope of them than of others. The grace of the covenant run- neth most kindly in the channel of the covenant : Eom. xi. 24, ' How much more shall those which be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive-tree ? ' They seem to lie more obvious to the Lord's grace. God followeth them with more calls and offers of grace. The Jews were to have the hansel and first offers of the gospel, though they killed the Lord of life, first at Jerusalem, because they were children of the promise. Acts iii. 25, 26. God followeth a covenant people to the last, and beareth with them time after time, till he cau bear no longer. They have a greater holdfast upon God ; they may plead promises ; and if ever God touch their hearts with remorse, they may plead their father's covenant. After Solomon's warping, God remembers promises to David, 1 Kings xi. 12, 13, and 32, 34.
5. Among them salvation is most ordinary, though God leaveth himself a liberty to take men of an evil stock. A rose may grow upon a thorn ; viles virgulce pretiosa opohalsama sudant ; a slip of an ill stock may be grafted into the tree of life. Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz, and Josiah the son of Amon. Again, all the children of elect pai-ents are not elect, to show the liberty of his counsels. In the very
468 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE SONS OF THE CLERGY.
line of grace God will make a distinction, Abraham had Isaac and Ishmael ; and Isaac had Jacob and Esau : Josh. xxiv. 4, ' I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau ; ' intimating the distinction between the person and posterity of the one and the other. Though I grant all this, yet usually the children of godly parents are they that obtain the blessing ; they are in a greater nearness to grace than others are, and there is more to be presumed of their children than of others, because of the ordinary practice of the Lord's grace, and because they have more means and helps, and in an ordinary course lie more obvious to the blessing, have more instruction, are nurtured and trained up in the knowledge of God, and have the prayers and examples of their godly parents. It is to be presumed that all godly men will thus do. God reckoneth upon it ; Gen. xviii. 19, ' I know my servant Abraham, that he will command his children and household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.' He presumeth that in these families God is known and honoured, that there is less temptation to sin, as lying out of the devil's road. A godly family is the suburbs of heaven, where the young brood is hatched to supply the church.