A86524:130
The covenant of grace opened
The covenant of grace opened: wherein these particulars are handled; viz. 1. What the covenant of grace is, 2. what the seals of the covenant are, 3. who are the parties and subjects fit to receive these seals. From all which particulars infants baptism is fully proved and vindicated. Being several sermons preached at Hartford in New-England. / By that reverend and faithful minister of the gospel, Mr Thomas Hooker.The covenant of grace opened: wherein these particulars are handled; viz. 1. What the covenant of grace is, 2. what the seales of the covenant are, 3. who are the parties and subjects fit to receive these seales. From all which particulars infants baptisme is fully proved and vindicated. Being severall sermons preached at Hartford in New-England. / By that reverend and faithfull minister of the gospel, Mr Thomas Hooker.
London: printed by G. Dawson, 1649
THE Covenant of Grace opened in several Sermons.THE Covenant of Grace opened in severall Sermons.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3 God does engage himself to communicate spiritual good to children by means of their parents, as he sees fit, reserving secret things to himself, when and in what manner he will do it: he engages himself to communicate spiritual good to children, and he will use the parents as means of that good, and that he will do two ways.
3 God does ingage himselfe to communicate spirituall good to children by meanes of their parents, as he sees fit, reserving secret things to himselfe, when and in what manner he will doe it: he ingages himselfe to communicate spirituall good to children, and he will use the parents as meanes of that good, and that he will doe two wayes.
1 The parent covenanting with God, the Covenant is improved as a means that God will work spiritual good in the child: As when a Minister or a Friend doth give counsel that a person gets good by, God uses them as means of that good: so he doth parents; for by their means the children are brought into covenant, and so God communicates good to them, which before God had stirred up, and by the parents they come into covenant, and so God communicates good to the children. Hence we may come to see the right understanding of that which David saith, And thou Solomon my son, know the God of thy Fathers, remember I have engaged my self in covenant; and know thou that God that hath engaged himself to thy father, hath engaged ⟨p. 40⟩himself by the father to do good unto thee, and that is the best sense of those words, 2 Chron. 33 12. spoken of Manasseh, When he was in tribulation, he prayed to the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. I take the meaning to be this, when he was in affliction he besought God; but how came he to be his God, to have a title in him, he being so vile as he had been, he having made a league with the Devil, and destroyed all the worship of God; he was mindful of the covenant God had made with his fathers, as if he should have said; I am and have been a vile sinful wretch, and am not worthy to beg the least mercy from thee; but remember the covenant with my fathers, thou hast engaged thy self to do good to them: and so David, I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid; he had a very good mother, and he pleaded the covenant of his mother: she had given him many counsels, and wept many tears for him; and therefore he pleads the engagement of the covenant of his mother, and by his mother to himself; for the patents engage themselves for themselves and children, and God engages himself to them and to their children, that he will be a God to them, reserving secret things to himself.