The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32…

ANSWER.

I will lay down the full answer to this in these Propositions. 1. It is true that Grace is not Natural to us, or conveyed by Generation. 2. Yet it is as true that Grace is given to our Children as well as to us. That it may be so, and is so with some, all will grant who believe that Infants may be, and are saved: And that it is so with the Infants of Believers, I have fully proved in my Book of Baptism: But mark what Grace I mean: The Grace of Remission of original sin the Children of all true Believers have at least a high probability of, if not a full Certainty; their parent Accepting it for himself and them, and Dedicating them to Christ, and engaging them in his Covenant, so that he takes them for his People, and they take him for their Lord and Saviour. And for the Grace of inward Renewing of their Natures or Dispositions, it is a secret to us, utterly unknown whether God use to do it in Infants or no. 3. Gods first-ordained way for the working of inward holiness is by Parents Education of their Children, and not by the public Ministry of the Word: of which more anon. 4. All godly Parents do acquaint ⟨p. 408⟩their Children with the doctrine of Christ in their Infancy, as soon as they are capable of receiving it, and do afterwards inculcate it on them more and more. 5. These Instructions of Parents are usually seconded by the workings of the Spirit according to the capacity of the Child, opening their understandings to receive it, and making an impression thereby upon the heart. 6. When these Instructions and the inward workings of the Spirit are just past the preparatory part, and above the highest step of Common Grace, and have attained to special saving Grace, is ordinarily undiscernible: & therefore as I have showed already, in Gods usual way of working Grace, men cannot know the just day or time when they began to be in the state of Grace. And though men that have long lived in Profaneness, and are changed suddenly, may conjecture near at the time: yet those that God hath been working on early in their youth, yea or afterwards by slow degrees, cannot know the time of their first receiving the Spirit. 8. The Memories of all men are so slippery and one thought so suddenly thrust out by another, that many a thousand souls forget those particular workings which they have truly felt. 9. The Memories of Children are far weaker then of others: