ceived him in a figure."* The figurative resurrection of Isaac represented the resurrection of Christ, of whom he was a remarkable type, the spiritual resurrection of all those, who are said to rise with Christ, and to be quickened together with him, and their resurrection from the grave to eternal life. If the children of Christian parents appear, when they die, to die in the Lord, the parents ought to trust in the power and grace of God, hoping that their children will obtain a resurrection to an unspeakably better life. When their children, in this mortal life, appear to be dead in sin, they ought to trust in the power and grace of God, and humbly hope, that he will quicken them to spiritual life. In this confidence and hope, they are diligently to use the proper means for the quickening of their children; humbling them.. selves before God for their past deficiencies, and neglect of parental duty, imploring his forgiveness, beseeching him to enable them from this time to be faithful to their children, and to bless their endeavours to promote their salvation. However discouraging may be the prospect with regard to any child, let the parent not cease to labour for his spiritual good; *Heb. xi. 19. considering, that what he says and does, may be recollected by the child, and prove a mean of his salvation, when he himself is resting in the grave, is comforted in the bosom of Abraham, and is with his Lord Jesus in the heavenly paradise.* *Pious Samuel was the child of pious parents. So remarkable was his piety, that nothing appears, in the Scriptures, against him, from his childhood to his death. How great a grief must it have been to him, when he was old, that his sons did not walk in his steps! 7* SERMON. III. ROMANS, iv. 11, 12. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had, yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; And the father of circumcision to them, who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised. In the preceding discourse it was taken for granted, that infant baptism is a Divine institution. In proof of this, I shall now offer some arguments. Argument 1. Infant baptism may be argued from the connexion, which, according to God's covenant, subsists between believing parents and their children. The.Christian church is the ancient church continued under a new dispensation, under which it is enriched with great blessings, and enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles. There subsists between believing parents and their children under the gospel, a connexion similar to that, which subsisted between parents and children in the ancient church, according to the covenant established by God with Abraham, when he constituted him the father of many nations. In the ancient church, circumcision, which was appointed a token of the Abrahamic covenant, and may be said to have been a seal of it, was applied to infants. Baptism has, in a certain sense, taken the place of circumcision, and may be said to be a seal of the same covenant, considered as including that new covenant, of which Jesus Christ is the Mediator. It appears proper therefore, that infants should be baptized. The perpetuity of the covenant connexion between parents and children is exhibited in the law of Moses, in the Psalms, and in the prophets.. See Deut. vii. 9. Ps. cv. 8, 9. Ezek. xxxvii. 25. That there was to be such a connexion between parents and children under the gospel, appears from the following passages in Is. lxv. 23. Jer. xxxii. 38, 39. and Zech. x. 9. "They are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them." "And they shall my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way, that be |