SECONDLY. The second inference concerneth the children of believing parents. If without faith it be impossible to please God, then children must have some kind of faith, else they can never be accepted to life. I know that the apostle doth principally speak of adult or grown persons, men of age, such as come to God, and seek him but though, however, the rule is general, there is no salvation but by Christ, and there is no way of salvation by Christ but by faith; and by the analogy of faith it concerns all that are accepted to salvation; so that infants come under the rule, therefore some kind of faith they must have. It were uncharitable and contrary to the rich grace of the covenant to deny salvation and eternal glory to infants. The scripture showeth, that 'they are holy,' and dedicated to God, 1 Cor. vii. 14; and Christ says, 'of such is the kingdom of God,' Mat. xix. 14. Now this faith of infants is a matter very intricate and difficult. Several opinions there have been about it. Origen held that infants were saved by virtue of those good works, the faith and obedience which they yielded to God in the bodies of other men before they were born, when their souls animated other bodies. The Pelagians, against whom Austin disputes hard, that infants were saved out of the foresight of those good works which they would have performed, if God had suffered them to continue in the world. Against this Austin disputes, proving every man is to be judged, not according to what he would do, or might have done, but 'According to what he hath done in the body, whether good or bad,' 2 Cor. v. 10. And if this pretence were allowable, and a ground of salvation, then the men of Tyre and Sidon would be in a capacity of life without repentance; for if they had had the means, saith Christ, They would have repented long since,' Mat. xi. 21. Ambrose saith, They are saved by the faith of the church': Mark ii. 5, when Jesus saw 'their faith,' that is, the faith of the sick man that was healed of the palsy, and of those that brought him. But that seemeth improper by their being in the church; they have a right to visible ordinances; but grace is God's gift, and must be dispensed in his way. Beza saith, They are saved by the faith of their parents imputed to them. As they were infected by the sin of Adam by natural generation; so by virtue of the covenant of grace they are saved by the faith of their parents, but the child is not concerned in the acts of the father.
It is true, the faith of the parents makes way for the interest of the children in the covenant; but every one is saved by his own faith - The just shall live by his own faith,' Rom. i. 17. It is not in the power of another to damn or save me; for the immediate parents are not representatives and common persons, as Adam was. Though Adam be a means to transfuse and bring sin, yet the faith of the parents could not involve and put into a state of salvation and acceptance with God. The Lutherans, they say, that children have an actual faith, though, say they, the act be to us unconceivable. But this were to offer violence not only to our reason, but our very senses. Children are everywhere described to be those in scripture that 'know not their right hand from their left,' Jonah iv. ult. We see they have not the use of reason, therefore they have no knowledge of Christ and the mysteries of religion, and cannot have such an actual faith.
What faith, then, is left for infants, by virtue of which we may establish their acceptation with God? Some think that this question is altogether unnecessary, and say, that the scriptures are so sparing in this matter, that grown persons may be more careful of their own faith rather than of the faith of infants, who must be left, say they, to the free grace and pleasure of God. For my part I should think so too, and should not start this controversy were it not already agitated; and were not the comfort of parents very much concerned in it, I should leave them to the grace of God. But upon those reasons, I think it necessary to be determined; and I doubt not but it will make much for the glory of God and your own consolation. What is then to be said in this matter?
1. Let it be premised, that the question is concerning the infants of believing parents; as for others, we leave them to the judgment of God. Some indeed think that all infants, as they perished in Adam, without knowledge of him, so they are redeemed by Christ without knowledge of Christ. As the Arminians say, that of infants there is neither election nor reprobation, and that no infant can be condemned for original sin; both which assertions are false. For we find that the predestination of God hath plainly made a difference between infant and infant: Rom. ix. 11 - 13, 'The children being not yet born, and having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was said, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.' Jacob in his mother's womb was in a state of election; and it is notable, that in many other places the scripture speaks as if God's decrees were dated from the womb and from the conception; as Jer. i. 5, 'Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet to the nations;' partly, because to sense that was the first time of our existence; and partly, because God's decrees do then begin to operate and to bring forth. God doth, as it were, then say, This is a birth I must look after; this is an instrument whom I have pre-ordained to make use of for special purpose. Man's ordination is at grown years, but God's from all eternity. And because of the special care of providence, it is said to begin then when the child is in the womb, Gal. i. 15, 16, 'When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.' The apostle mentions three things as the ground of his ministry: God's pleasure, or everlasting counsel, his separation from his mother's womb and actual calling. First, God determines from everlasting, and then the decree begins to break forth; and there is a special care of God about the birth, and afterward there is actual calling. All this is brought to prove that even children before they are born do not only fall under the care of providence, but under the special notice of God's decrees; and that other opinion, that none is condemned for original sin, is also groundless and contrary to the scripture; for we read, Eph. ii. 3, 'That we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.' It is mercy, that God will say to any that are in their blood and filthiness, Live. Who can quarrel with his justice that he should damn any, though he see nothing but original pollution in them? Among men we crush the serpent's eggs before the serpents be grown; and might not God destroy us for our birth-sin? I confess some among the orthodox think, that all infants that die in infancy belong to God's election; so Junius, and so Mr Fox, upon Rev. vii. 9, where there is a distinction between the sealed and unsealed, which he applies to unbaptized infants both in or out of the church. But I answer, as for those that are born out of the church, we have no warrant to judge them, as the apostle saith, in somewhat a like case, 1 Cor. v. 12, 'What have I to do to judge them that are without?' So what have we to do with them that are without? God's judgments are to be adored rather than curiously searched into; yet this is manifest by the whole current and drift of scripture, that there is a great deal of difference between those that are born in and those that are born out of the covenant. It is said to believing parents, 'The promise is unto you, and unto your children,' Acts ii. 39. I cannot apply that comfort to infidels. And those that are born within the pale are called 'children of the covenant,' Acts iii. 25. Those that are born without the pale of grace, are counted unclean; but others, holy, dedicated to God: 1 Cor. vii. 14, 'Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy;' so that there is a difference between infant and infant. The children of unbelieving parents are plainly asserted by the apostle to be unclean; we cannot have such comfortable hopes of them, and cannot say they are saved; therefore we must leave them to God's judgment. The question at present is of the children of the covenant, and those that are born within the pale of grace. And therefore -
2. Of those children dying in infancy, I assert, that they have faith, not actual faith, but the seed of faith, by virtue of God's election and his grace issuing out to them through Christ in the covenant, which I shall confirm by showing - (1.) That it may be so; (2.) That it must be so; (3.) That it is even so; (4.) How it is so, or what kind of faith they have: which things being cleared, the way to application will be easy.
[1.] That it may be so, because the only prejudice against this opinion seemeth to arise from the impossibility of the thing; and the Socinians that bring down all things to the line and rule of corrupt reason, count the faith of infants a thing so impossible, that they say it is a greater dotage than the dream of a man in a fever; therefore my first work is to prove that they are capable of faith. Certainly, totally incapable they are not, like stocks and stones, and things without life; and yet out of these God can raise up children to Abraham. Nor altogether as incapable as the younglings of beasts, because the perfection of their life is only sense and natural instinct, whereas children have reason. Now reason is in a nearer propinquity to grace than sense, therefore utterly incapable they are not, as stones, or as brute creatures are.
But to come more closely. The only reason why they are said to be incapable of faith is, because they cannot exercise it. Now, that they are not incapable of faith, though they cannot exercise it, I shall prove by several instances. This supposition will seem to infer that it may be so. If infants had been born of Adam in innocency, they had been capable of original purity and of the principle and root of all faith, and assent to the word of God would naturally have been in them, which in time, and according to the degrees of age, would have put forth itself. Infants in their measure should have been as Christ was. As soon as he was born, he was filled with the Holy Ghost, yet he grew in wisdom and knowledge, Luke ii. 40 - 52, The graces of the Holy Ghost did exert and put forth themselves in Christ by degrees. Now this, according to their measure, would have been the condition of infants born of Adam, if he had stood in innocency; therefore there is no repugnancy, but that by a supernatural work the seed and root of grace may be in them. I say, it is no more inconceivable than the original purity of infants, if they had stood in Adam. And I shall show you by another instance. Take nature as it is now corrupted; if they are capable of sin by nature, why not of grace, by a work of the Spirit of God above nature? Now we see that they are capable of the root of sin, which lies hid in infants, and bewrayeth itself in time; and if they are capable of sin, which is one habit, why are they not capable of grace, if the Spirit of God will work it, which is another habit? They are sinners not by any act of their own, but by an hereditary habit, or vicious nature received from Adam, though not exerting and putting forth itself by any act. So they may have grace, though not exerting and discovering itself by any acts yet lying hid and shut up in the habitual principle of grace. As they are defiled by the sin of Adam, though they be not capable to understand it, so they may be sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, though they be not sensible of the merit of Christ, nor capable of understanding the way and the work of redemption. To take off the prejudice of incapacity, take some resemblances of it in common things. We see that infants are capable of reason, though not of discourse; they are rational creatures. Infants have reason and understanding, though it lie hid for a while. The whelp of the wolf has a principle of rapacity, which discovers itself afterward. The vital and vegetative force in any plant lies hid in the seed and root, which to appearance is dead and dry, and afterwards plainly discovers and puts it forth; so infants, though they have no actual sense and knowledge of the redemption of Christ, yet they may have some impressions of the divine image upon their souls, which in time shows itself by light in the understanding, by purity in the heart, and by conformity in the life to the law of God. Again, that it is not impossible appears by those expressions in scripture, where some are said to be sanctified from the womb; as of John Baptist, it is said, 'He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb,' Luke i. 15. Grant it to be a peculiar privilege of John, but it is not so in all elect infants; yet it may be so. So those expressions of trusting God from the mother's womb, David speaks it of his own person. as a type of Christ: Ps. xxii. 9, 'Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts;' and Job saith, chap. xxxi. 18, 'From my youth he was brought up with me as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;' meaning, he had an indoles, or disposition of pity, put into him at his nativity. So also, why may not a principle of faith be put into us in the womb, if God will work it?
2. 1 shall prove that it must be so; how else should infants be saved? There is no salvation without the covenant, and in the covenant there is no salvation but by faith in Christ. By their natural birth, all children are children of wrath, enemies to God, guilty before God. As we read it, the word is hupodikos, liable to the process of divine justice: Rom. iii. 19, 'All the world is become guilty before God,' and so are infants; there is no reason to exempt them. They are all dead in sin; and the scripture saith expressly, 'He that believeth not, is condemned already,' John iii. 18; that is, liable to the sentence of condemnation; so that believers they must be, or else they must be damned; and regenerate they must be, or else we know there is no way of entering into the kingdom of God. Let any one show us any way or pleasing God without faith, or of entering into heaven without regeneration. John iii. 3, Christ hath expressly said, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' In the first commission of the apostles, when they went forth to preach the word of life, this was the tenor of the gospel: Mark xvi. 16, 'He that believeth shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.' Let men show any ground in scripture of a middle sort of men, between believers and unbelievers, or any other way of salvation but by Christ; and in Christ, but by faith in Christ. If men say, All those places belong to grown persons, or those that are of age; by this shift you may elude any scripture; and where then shall we have a rule whereby to judge of infants? which, how comfortless it will be to parents, and how derogatory to the grace of the covenant, anyone cannot choose but see.
[3.] That it is so I shall prove from the promise of God; for God being faithful and true, his promise is as good as a positive assertion God promiseth grace and glory to infants. Grace, Isa. xliv. 3, 'I will pour out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.' In the original, upon thy 'buds;' where the Spirit is promised to be poured out upon infants, not only on their seed in general, as implying persons of age, but on their 'buds,' ere they come to grow up to stalk and flower. Then for glory, Christ saith, Mat. xix 14, 'Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven;' heaven is theirs by grant and promise. Elect infants in general have jus ad rem, a right to heaven; but there is no jus in re, no actual right or interest, but by faith. But what need we argue, when we have a plain assertion? Luke xviii. 17, 'Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein;' they have not only a right to the kingdom of God, but they receive the kingdom of God 'as a little child receiveth it.' The sense carrieth it so; that is, receiveth it by faith, accompanied with humility. But more plainly yet: Mat. xviii. 6, 'Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me,' &c; there is the very word - 'which believe in me; these little ones.' Christ speaks not metaphorically. but literally; 'these,' such as were then before him, and of them he saith, 'which believe in me.' Some make exception against this, and say, The child to which Christ alluded was then grown. I answer, that cannot be: for in Luke it is called brefos, an 'infant,' Luke xviii. 15; in Matthew paidion, a 'little child;' and Mark ix. 36, it is said, 'Christ took him in his arms.' And besides, in children that are more grown, pride, fierceness, and other ill qualities are bewrayed; therefore such an one would not have been so fit for Christ's purpose to be propounded to the apostles for a pattern of meekness and humility. As they are called rational before they had the use of reason, so we have found that infants may, must, and have a principle of faith, from whence they may be said to be believers.
[4.] How is it so. What is the faith which children have? I proved before that actual faith they have not, which begins in knowledge and ends in affiance. It remains therefore that they have the seed of faith, or some principle of grace conveyed into their souls by the hidden operation of the Spirit of God, which gives them an interest in Christ, and so a right to his merit for their salvation. I confess among the orthodox there are different expressions about this matter, but they all agree in the thing. Some call it a habit of faith, some a principle, some an inclination some the first-fruits of the Spirit, others the gift of the Spirit, which answers to actual faith. All agree in this, that it is some work of the Holy Ghost, which gives them a relation to Christ, and by virtue of this relation, they have an interest in his merit for the remission of sins and acceptance with God. The more usual terms are principle and habit. Some dislike the word habit, because the word is not scriptural, and because it seems more proper to faith that is grown and actually exercised, and because the habit of grace is not the condition of the covenant. More properly, it may be called the principle, or the seed of faith; for so the work of the Holy Ghost is expressed, 1 John iii. 9, 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God;' where the grace of regeneration is called the seed of God, which is cast into their hearts by the Spirit of God in a way unknown to us. In short, it is the work of grace, whereby the heart is quickened with spiritual life, and made a sanctified vessel to receive Christ. By the sanctifying Spirit all outward means are supplied, and infants are enabled unto that, which Dr Ames calls 'a passive reception,' by which they are in Christ, and united to him. It is not altogether without act, though it be such an act as is proper to their age.
Obj. But you will say, Do all elect infants receive this sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost, or seed of faith? We see many infants of believers, whom in charity we judge to be elect, because the promise is made to them and their seed; yet, when they are grown up we see they show themselves to be never regenerated in their infancy.
I answer, in this case we do not speak universally, but indefinitely; we do not say that all infants do believe in Christ, but infants - and in the judgment of charity we presume it of all infants, that die in their infancy. We must leave God to the liberty of his counsels, lest the freedom of grace should seem to be prejudiced by the merit of any family. God will take one and leave another, take Jacob and leave Esau; only we say this in the general, that we have more cause to hope well of all the children of believing parents. Why? because the grace of election runs and flows most kindly in the channel of the covenant, and therefore there is greater hope of such. Rom. xi. 24, the apostle calls them, 'The natural branches,' so as that they were more easily grafted in. The apostle puts a 'how much more,' upon them; 'How much more shall the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?' God may suffer the branches of the covenant to grow wild, and may graft in a strange slip, but it is most kindly to the natural branches; they have a greater sufficiency of means, an external right, as soon as born. Certainly it is a great advantage to be born of parents within the covenant; they have an excellent inheritance, till they disinherit themselves by their own unthankfulness and rebellion. Look, as we judge of the graft by the stock from whence it is taken, until it bring forth other fruit, by which it may be discerned; so for children, we judge of them by their parents until they come to years of discretion and choose their own way, and so do actually choose or refuse the grace of God.
Use. 1. To press parents to bless God for the rich grace of the covenant. Ah, consider not only your persons are accepted with God, but also your seed, by virtue of which the merit of Christ is applied, and the Spirit of Christ infused into them, leaving God to the liberty of his counsel, Oh, how greatly doth the Lord love those that fear him He cannot satisfy himself in doing good, only to other persons, but will do good to their children and posterity for their sakes. So that though they are broken off by their positive unbelief and apostasy, yet as the Jews were hated for their own sake, yet they are beloved for their fathers' sake, and therefore they shall be again grafted into the stock; so they are under the care of providence until they are converted. Oh, how should we entertain the grace of the covenant with humility and reverence, and stand and wonder that God should not only accept our worthless persons, but also graft our seed into the stock of grace. 'When God came to tender the covenant to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 3, it is said, 'Abraham fell upon his face,' a posture of humble reverence, as wondering at the large and diffusive mercy of God; and David, 2 Sam. vii. 18, 19, when God had taken him into covenant and his children, 'O Lord God, what am I? and what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?' that thou hast heaped so many privileges upon me. 'And yet this was a small matter in thy sight, O Lord God; for thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and is this the manner of man?' He stands wondering at grace. Natural love like a river is descending: it runs downward. All our care next to our souls is for our children; for in them our life is multiplied and continued in the world. Children are the parent multiplied; therefore one saith of children, They are 'a knotty eternity;' when the thread of life is run out, there is a knot knit, and it is continued in the child. Therefore what a mercy is it that God hath not only provided from eternity for our souls, but hath spoken a good word concerning our house for a great while yet to come, that he will continue his grace in our line.
Use 2. It should encourage parents to found a covenant interest in their own persons. Oh, lay the foundation of it in yourselves! Ps. ciii. 17, 'The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children.' Oh, it is much that it is from everlasting to everlasting; that we may go from one eternity to another; that we may look backward and see purposes of eternal grace, and look forwards to see possessions of eternal glory. But this is not all his righteousness unto children's children. Learn to fear God; that is the best way of providing for your children. We all seek the welfare of our children. You may heap up riches and honour upon them, and leave a curse with it; you may entail them an estate, and wrath with it; but leave them a covenant interest, that is an excellent inheritance. Wicked parents do as it were stop the way of God's mercy from descending upon their posterity; at least, they do not open a passage and channel, that grace may run down freely and with an uninterrupted course. God often threatens, that 'The posterity of the wicked shall be cut off,' Ps. cix. 13. You may not only injure your own souls, but your posterity. Oh. for your poor babes' sake, learn to fear God, that you may not leave them to the wrath and displeasure of God! It is said to Cain, Gen. iv. 10, 'Thy brother's blood crieth to me from the ground.' Some commentators infer that Cain was accountable not only for the murder of Abel himself, but for the murder of all the holy seed that should come of his loins. God will require not only the neglect of your own souls at your hands, but visit you for neglecting your children; that you have not taken a course to open a passage, that grace may descend to them.
Use 3. Here is comfort to believing parents concerning their children dying in infancy. We should not doubt of their salvation, unless we should wrong the covenant of grace. To what end doth God say, I am your God, and the God of your seed? Consider, Jesus Christ himself was the advocate of children, and would plead their right against his own apostles, when they thought Christ would have nothing to do with children: Mat. xix. 14, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven' - suffer them to come; I have provided heaven for them, as well as for others. And Christ that hath said, 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven,' certainly will find out a way how to settle the title upon them, and to enstate them into the kingdom of heaven. David, when his child died, comforted himself in this: 2 Sam. xii. 23, 'But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.' It is not only meant of the state of the dead, that were a brutish argument, but 'I shall go to him;' the meaning is, to the glory of the everlasting state; nay, though they die without the seal of the covenant. The Hebrew children were murdered as soon as born, Exod. i. 22; and Mat. ii. 16. The children of Bethlehem shed their blood by martyrdom, before they shed their blood by circumcision, and therefore leave them in Christ's arms.
Use 4. To teach us confidence in the power of divine grace. God can shine into the dark hearts of children, therefore certainly there is no heart so dark but God can enlighten it. Our trouble at our first conversion doth not arise out of the doubting of God's love, so much as of his power. This hard heart will never be softened; these rebellious affections will never be subdued to the discipline of the Spirit; this blind mind will never be enlightened. If once they could glorify the power of his converting grace, comfort would sooner be settled in their heart. Aye, but the Lord can shine into the hearts of infants, therefore do not doubt of it. You see what he can do in those that have not the use of reason. God can give the principle of grace: Isa. lxv. 20, 'The child shall die an hundred years old, but a sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed;' speaking of the grace of the gospel. There are many expositions of that place. Some carry it this way, that a child in the christian state shall be as perfect and as ripe for heaven as if he were a hundred years old. This is the power of divine grace, therefore wait upon God.
Use 5. Here is encouragement to the neglected duty of education. Many times we neglect our little children, think we can do no good upon them. Oh, water the seed of grace, for aught you know they may be sanctified from the womb. It is said of John the Baptist,. Luke i. 15, 'He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.' Oh, this will make them exert and put forth those hidden operations of grace which God worketh upon their souls; therefore water the seed of grace with the dew of education. God will call you to account for the education of your children: Ezek. xvi. 20, 'Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured: is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children?' that is, dedicated to me by circumcision. Consider, they are God's children, and you are only entrusted with them that you may bring them up. Let us, that have been instruments to convey an evil nature to them, assist them in the work of grace. Many have been converted by private education before they have been called by the ministry of the gospel,. You cannot do your children worse hurt than to let them run wild. Consider they are the natural branches of the covenant, and you should bestow culture upon them. Dionysius, the tyrant, to be revenged of his adversary, brought up his child to riot and wantonness. You cannot do yourselves a worse injury, nor yourselves a greater revenge, than to let your children run wild.
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