Confirmation and restoration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…Confirmation and restauration the necessary means of reformation, and reconciliation; for the healing of…

Their sin and misery is come upon them without any actual consent of their own, by the will of others; and the Remedy must ⟨p. 5⟩be applied to them accordingly, not by any actual consent of their own (which is as impossible) but by the will of others, as the Condition, and by the Gift of God as the Cause. In his dealing with mankind; God is not so much more prone to wrath and vengeance then to Mercy, as to put Infants into the Comminatory terrible part of the Covenant, with their Parents, and not into the Remedying part; and to condemn them for their first Fathers Covenant-breaking, and give them no help from their gracious Parents Covenant-keeping; and to fetch weight from Parents sins to weigh down the scale of Vindictive Justice, and to put nothing from the gracious Parents into the other end. Yet is it not to Infants as the mere Natural Issue of godly Parents, that God extendeth this Grace. But 1. As they are Naturally their Own, the Parents have a Power of them to dispose of them for their good. 2. Every man that is Sanctified, hath devoted himself, and in General, all that he hath to God; according to the several capacities of what he hath, that every thing may be for God in its proper Capacity. 3. Virtually then the Children of the Godly, even in the womb are thus Devoted unto God. 4. It is the revealed Will of God, that Infants should ⟨p. 6⟩be Actually Dedicated and Devoted to him. 5. He that requireth us to make this Dedication, doth imply therein a promise of his Acceptance of what is Dedicated to him by his command. For his precepts are not vain or delusory. 6. He hath also expressly signified this in Scripture Promises, extending his Covenant to the seed of the Faithful, and telling us that his Kingdom is of such. 7. This Dedication is to be made by Baptism, the Ordinance which God hath appointed to that End; and in which he is ready to signify his Acceptance, that so there may be a mutual solemn Covenant.

THeir sinne and misery is come upon them without any actual consent of their own, by the will of others; and the Remedy must ⟨p. 5⟩be applyed to them accordingly, not by any actual consent of their own (which is as impossible) but by the will of others, as the Condition, and by the Gift of God as the Cause. In his dealing with mankind; God is not so much more prone to wrath and vengeance then to Mercy, as to put Infants into the Comminatory terrible part of the Covenant, with their Parents, and not into the Remedying part; and to condemn them for their first Fathers Covenant-breaking, and give them no help from their gracious Parents Covenant-keeping; and to fetch weight from Parents sinnes to weigh down the scale of Vindictive Justice, and to put nothing from the gracious Parents into the other end. Yet is it not to Infants as the meer Natural Issue of godly Parents, that God extendeth this Grace. But 1. As they are Naturally their Own, the Parents have a Power of them to dispose of them for their good. 2. Every man that is Sanctified, hath devoted himself, and in Generall, all that he hath to God; according to the several capacities of what he hath, that every thing may be for God in its proper Capacity. 3. Virtually then the Children of the Godly, even in the wombe are thus Devoted unto God. 4. It is the revealed Will of God, that Infants should