Ch.47 of the ße of Beleevers. are intereffed , then againft parents tender of their Infants to an Ordinance, in which of right they are entitled, though they lay not to heart a right and pious way of performance of it. Refîîes, (faith Mlafler Firmin) it toorange to fee hoW We jumble the mo'? holy and prophane men together ; If cArafler Greenham Mailer Perkins, Mailer Rogers, Mailer Dod, or whom y!u Will, fhould come and bring their children to be baptized, let the rnofl ignorant rot, drunkard, rwearer, uncle ne perfon, fcorner of godlineffe, &c, come, he fhall have his childe baptized as well as they, Have they their children taken into Covenant ? fo have I files the drunkardfwear- er, &c. 'hall we owne all thefe men alike under the Covenant fo as to give the Peale of the Covenant alike to all ? This many a time bath beene in my thoughts, and in nothing did I ever receive more full fatisfaiion, not one of thefe holy men would have made any filch complaint; And in cafe the children of fuch fhould meet in this Ordinance, I could as eafily difference them by their vifage and features, as I could refpe&ive to their feverall interefIs or pubh- cations, Parents are in Covenant with God , as long as they keep up the name and profefl`ion of Chriftians ; the one with all care walks up to the termes of the Covenant, and the other are as loofe and careleffe in it : Mailer Greenham, Mailer Perkins could not tranfmit to their children their graces ; neither do there tranf- ;¡ mit their perfonal wickedneffe : Look into the Common-wealth of Rom, and call out the molt deferving Patriots, Pet against them 1 Verres, Catiline, or who you will; freedome of birth, intereft in na- i priviledges is like to the iffue of either, and fo it is in the Church of God, the Common -weale of Ifrael: and it can be no otherwife; if there be any priviledge divolved from parent to childe; And when this falls, Infant- baptifine falls together with 1 it; nothing in the childe (as Mailer Firmin well obferves) without . relation to the parent can give any intereft. SE ET. 455
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