idea, that circumcision, or baptism, confers the blessings on the child; but is it not a token, or seal of some blessing to be communicated to that child, which is truly dedicated to God, and trained up in his fear? God cannot, consistently with his holiness, receive children to heaven, merely because they are baptized, but why may he not promise the parent, who truly takes hold of his covenant, and, committing his infant into the hands of Christ, has him baptized with water-why may he not promise, that his child shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost? This would not be saving a wicked child for the sake of the goodness of his parent; but it would be changing a wicked child into a good one, and so rendering him meet for heaven, and this in a way of covenant faithfulness to his believing parent. Why may not the Lord promise such a blessing as this, as well as a fruitful field, increase of cattle and flocks and full stores, as an expression of his love to, and delight in his obedient people? This is expressly mentioned among the other blessings promised to the obedient in the 28th chapter of Deut. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body.' But Solomon says foolish (i. e. a graceless) son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.' From this we learn, that children, to become a blessing, must become pious. God's promise to bless the fruit of the body must then include the blessing of grace. In the 103d Psalm, it is declared, The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant.' Does not this put the children of godly, covenant-keeping parents in a fairer situation for a blessing, than the children of those not in covenant? It is said of the saints, that they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. This is never said of the offspring of the wicked If the children

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of the wicked are blessed, it is not a covenant blessing: Hence the force of this exhortation, Deut. 30. 19. Choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. There is a threatening in the 4th chapter of Hos. which is the counterpart of this promise; See. ✓ing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

It is very evident, from what has actually taken place, that parents, both good and bad, are often made to give a moral complexion to the character of their children. This is evident, not only in the case of Adam and Abraham, of whom we have spoken already, but the same truth is displayed in the case of Cain and Seth, two sons of Adam, and in the case of Esau and Jacob, the two sons of Isaac, who gave complexion to their desce dants for many successive generations. Ham, one of the sons of Noah, brought a reproach upon his posterity, which is not wiped off to the present day. The curse pronounced upon Amalek Exod. 17. 16. throws light on this subject; Because the Lord hath sworn, that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. But why would the Lord have war with Amalek from generation to generation? Because this generation, which was now upon the stage, had laid wait for Israel in the way when he came up from Egypt. This generation gave character to all the succeeding generations, and the Lord had war with them till their name was blotted out from under heaven; and all this was particularly designed, to manifest the divine displeasure against those, who laid wait for Israel in the wilderness.

The truth now under consideration is strikingly illustrated and proved, by the present state of the Jewish nation. The Jews of the present generation feel the weight of that imprecation, His blood be on us and on our children! They are punished for their own sins. Each generation follows the steps of the

one which has gone before-approves its sayings and crucifies the Son of God afresh. Here is a clear and actual illustration of that which has been so difficult to many, viz. God's visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. That these unbelieving Jews. do not go to hell for their father's sins, will be seen by and by, when the present, or some succeeding generation shall turn unto the Lord.

As soon as this

takes place, the curse will be taken off, and the Jews, which have been broken off, will be graffed again into their own olive tree, and will, with us, partake of all the root and fatness of the olive; Rom. 11. As soon as the current of iniquity ceases to flow, God will cease to visit the iniquity of the father's upon the children, whether it be in the fourth, third, second, or even first generation: Therefore, as soon as the. Jews shall return unto him from whom they have so long revolted, not only the Gentile church will open, her bosom joyfully to receive them (for to her it will be like life from the dead;) but the Saviour himself will, with all readiness, embrace them and give them as good a place in his family, as if their father's had not crucified him. This will show plainly, that it is their own and not their father's sin, which now causes the separation between them and Christ. Yet it is most manifest, that it is a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, which has happened to Israel. God is evidently manifesting his infinite displeasure against. the murderers of Christ, by suffering their posterity, for such a course of generations, to continue in unbelief, and to be scattered around the world, as a hiss, a proverb and a bye-word. In the latter day glory, when the people shall turn to the Lord, they shall prove his faithfulness to his promises, as they now prove his severity in executing his threatenings. It will then be exemplified, by the uninterrupted descent of the blessing, as it is now by the descent of the curse. By comparing Isa. 59. 20, 21. with Rom...

11. 26, 27, it appears that the prophet is speaking of the conversion of the Jews at the Millennium. At that blessed period, this will be true: As for me, this is my covenant with them saith the Lord: My Spirit which is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." A careful attention to this scripture, will reflect great light upon the covenant, which God made with Abraham, which indeed is the gracious olive in which believing gentiles now flourish, and into which the returning Jews will be re-engraffed. In the Millennium, and not till then, the blessings of this covenant will be realized in their full extent. The covenant, through the unfaithfulness of parents, and the consequent disobedience of children, has run out of some branches of families, in which it has once had place. The covenant was in the family of Abraham, but its blessings did not descend to the generations of Ishmael's posterity; nor to those proceeding from the sons of Keturah. This was the case of Esau and his posterity, though he was the son of a covenant father. After a while, ten of the sons of Israel with their generations were broken off from the church; and soon after our Saviour's advent, the other two tribes, a few excepted, were broken off. Thus, the covenant kept departing out of the mouth of the seed, and the seed's seed; but in the good days which are coming, it will be directly the reverse; then it will not depart out of their mouth, i. e. they will be real and not hypocritical professors; it will not depart out of the mouth of their seed; which is as much as to say, their children shall all be taught of God; it will not depart out of the mouth of their seed's seed, thenceforth forever: This is a declaration, that their children's children will be pious, and that this order of things will continue for a long time, if not to the

very end of the world. And let it be noticed, that all this good is communicated by virtue of God's covenant; This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. Now, there will be no new covenant made with the church in the Millennium. It will seem to be new, by being more strictly kept, and by its blessings being much more fully realized: But the same covenant has existed all along, and it is wholly our fault, that we do not now so keep it, as not, only to prevent it from departing out of our mouth, but also out of the mouth of our seed.

In the Millennium, when the blessings shall descend so uninterruptedly, from generation to generation, the children of the pious will not be saved without personal piety. Godly parents will not then take their ungodly children to heaven; but godly parents will then be enabled to travail again in birth for their children, until Christ be formed in their souls. The faithfulness of these holy parents will issue in the salvation of their children, because it will issue in the holiness of their children; and this altogether through the mercy of God. I say altogether through the mercy of God; for it is not supposed, that parents, by any means, merit such infinite and eternal blessings for their children. They do not merit their own salvation; much less can they merit any thing for others. It is all free, unmeritted mercy, that God has ever promised any blessings to parents for their children; especially that he should say, I will be a God to your seed after you. It is all of mercy that God has established any connexion between a pious education, and the piety of children; that he has said, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' After this merciful establishment, it is all of mercy, if parents are enabled to train their children up in the way they should go. But what we maintain is this, that if they