The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John…

Article IV. His Cares about the Children of his people.

But he Remembered, that he had Lambs in hi• flock, and like another David he could not endure to see the Lion seize upon any of them. He always had a mighty concern upon his mind for little Children; 'twas an affectionate stroke in one of the little Papers which he published for them, Sure Christ is not willing to lose •is Lambs; and I have cause to remember with what an hearty, fervent, zealous Application, he addressed himself, when in the Name of the Neighbour Pastors and Churches he gave me, The Right-hand of Fellowship, at my Ordination, and said, Brother, Art thou a Lover of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then, I pray Feed his Lambs.

BUt he Remembred, that he had Lambs in hi• flock, and like another David he could not endure to see the Lion sieze upon any of them. He always had a mighty concern upon his mind for little Children; 'twas an affectionate stroke in one of the little Papers which he published for them, Sure Christ is not willing to lose •is Lambs; and I have cause to remember with what an hearty, fervent, zealous Application, he address'd himself, when in the Name of the Neighbour Pastors and Churches he gave me, The Right-hand of Fellowship, at my Ordination, and said, Brother, Art thou a Lover of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then, I pray Feed his Lambs.

One thing whereof he was very desirous for ⟨p. 56⟩poor Children, was the Covenanting of them; he was very solicitous that the Lambs might pass under the Lords tithing Rod, & be brought under the Bnd of the Covenant. He very openly and earnestly maintained the cause of Infant-Baptism, against a sort of persons Risen since the Reformation, (among which indeed there are many godly men, that were dear to the Soul of our Eliot) who forget that in the Gospel Church-state as well as in the Jewish, The Promise is to Believers and their Child en: and are unwilling to reckon Children among the Disciples of Jesus Christ: or to grant, That of such is the Kingdom of Heaven: or to know, That the most undoubted Records of Antiquity affirm Infant Baptism to have been an usage in all the Primitive Churches; That even before the early days of Nazianz n, Chrysostom, Basil, Athanasius, Epiphanius, in the Greek, and Ambrose Jerome, Austin, in the Latin Church, all of which give glorious Testimonies for Infant Baptism, even Cyprian, before these assures us that in his days there was no doubt of it; and Oigen before him could say, 'Twas from the Apostles that the Church took up the Baptism of Infants; and Clemens Romanus before him could say, That Children should be Recipients of the Discipline of Christ; besides what plain evidence we have in Irenaeus and Justin Martyr; and that the very Arguments with which some of the Ancients did superstitiously advise the delay of Baptism,