530 The Life of Faith. In fumm, pray, becaufe you believe that praying Believers (hail have the promifed biding : And believe particularly and abj®- lutely, thatyou (hall have that promifed blefïng through Chrit1 becaufe you arc praying Believers, and therefore the, perfons to whom it is promifed. CHAP. X XI I I. How to live byFaith towards Children, andother Relations.. Dire& r. Elieve Gods Promifes made to Believers and their Ufeed.(ofwhichl have written at large in my trea- tife oflnfant- baptifm.)Andlabour to underhand how far tho`e promifes extend, bothas to the perfons and the bleffings.Thcre was never an age of the world, in which God did not di- (linguiih the holy feed, even Believers and their Children, from the ref(f ofthe world, and take them as thole that were fpecially . in his Covenant. Dire6'r. 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge, makeyou omityour fericus, folemn and believing Dedication ofthem unto God, and entering them into his Covenant. For the reafonwhy your feed is called Holy, and in a better cafe than the feed of Infidels, is not meerly becaufe they are the íffpring ofyour bodies, and have their natures from you 7, much lefs as deriving any graceor vertue from you by gencra non: But becaufc you are perfons your felvcs who have dedi- cated your (elves with all thatyou have,abfolutely toGod by Cbrift And theybeingyour own, and therefore at your difpofal, your wills are taken for their wills, fo far as you ad in their names, and on their behalf: And therefore when you dedicate them so God, you do but that which you have both power and com- mand ro do : And thereforeGodaccepteth what you fo dedicate tohim. A -.a Baptifm is the regular way in which tbú dedi- cation (hould b {olemnlymade a But if through the want ola Minfer, or water: 11. time, this benot done, your believingde- dication ofyour ehilà to God, without Baptifm (hail be accepted. For it is the jubilance, and not the fign, the sa R, and not the Rotor, which God rtcquircth in thiscafe. ae($
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