An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the…

This he taught his Children, and they each of them solemnly repeated it every Lord's Day in the Evening, after they were Catechized, he putting his Amen to it, and sometimes adding, so say, and so do, and you are made for ever.

He also took pains with them, to lead them into the Understanding of it, and to persuade them to a free and cheerful Consent to it. And when they grew up, he made them all write it over severally with their own Hands, and very solemnly set their Names to it, which he told them he would keep by him, and it should be produced as a Testimony against them, in Case they should afterwards depart from God, and turn from following after him.

He also took pains with them, to lead them into the Understanding of it, and to perswade them to a free and cheerful Consent to it. And when they grew up, he made them all write it over severally with their own Hands, and very solemnly set their Names to it, which he told them he would keep by him, and it should be produced as a Testimony against them, in Case they should afterwards depart from God, and turn from following after him.

He was careful to bring his Children betimes (when they were about Sixteen Years of Age,) to the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, to take the Covenant of God upon themselves, and to make their Dedication to God their own Act and Deed; and a great deal of pains he took with them, to prepare them for that great Ordinance, and so to transmit them into the State of adult Church-membership: And he would often blame Parents, who would think themselves undone if they had not their Children baptized, and yet took no care when they grew up and made a profession of the Christian Religion, to persuade them to the Lord's Supper. 'Tis true (he would say) Buds and Blossoms are not fruit but they give hopes of fruit, and Parents may and ⟨p. 91⟩