'Furthermore, since the anti-christian apostacy, the Reformed Church hath ever owned this truth. As for those pure churches which for a long time flourished in Bohemia, Commenius testifyeth concerning them, that even children as well as others, were under discipline. Thus also it was in that gathered church which was in London in the days of Edward the Sixth, as their famous pastor, Johannes Alasco hath declared. And in one word, in Reformed churches generally, yea, even in those of the separation, witness Mr. Robinson, in his appendix to Mr. Perkins' catechism; and the churches in Plymouth colony, at this day extend discipline towards their children, and dismiss them also to other churches, although they were never in full communion with any church. Now it is a saying of above a thousand years old, that, "that which the universal church hold, and hath in all ages been practiced, is to be esteemed as apostolical." But this extending of discipline to the Children of the church, which we plead for, hath been the catholic practice of the churches of Christ, in all places, and in all ages, which is a great argument to prove that it hath the stamp of Jus divinum upon it. And although some now with us are apt to conceive that only parents, and not their children, are given to the elders and brethren of the Church, yet the affirmative of this question was so clear in former times amongst us, that children in their catechism were taught thus to believe. Mr. Cotton in his "Milk for Babes" hath again and again expressed

this.

Discipline is our great interest, which we are engaged to assert and plead for. This is the cause of God in New England in a special manner. We are the children of the good old non-conformists: now what was it that they did suffer so much for, but that they and their children also might be brought under that discipline and government, which Christ hath appointed in his Church? But if the Church hath nothing to do with such, these confessors have suffered many things in vain. Have we for our poor children's sake left a dear and pleasant land, and ventured our lives upon the great waters, and encountered the difficulties and miseries of a wilderness, and doth it at last come to this that they have no more advantage as to any church care about them, than the Indians and infidels amongst whom we live? When Pharaoh would suffer the children of Israel themselves to serve the Lord in the wilderness, but their little ones must not go with them, we know what spirit acted him. We may aver that they who will not suffer the children of Christ's people to come under his government, are not, in that matter, acted by his spirit."

"The neglect of discipline toward the children in question, hath been the woeful cause of much evil amongst us. There are many sad complaints against the rising generation, and too much cause for them, but how much sadder would it be if they who make such complaints should be any way with the guilt of these miscarriages, by withholding from this generation, that which is, by the Lord's appointment, the means of restraint and recovery out of this evil. This very neglect hath brought a wound upon those churches which-except the Lord be exceeding merciful-is now become immedicable and incurable. Hinc prima mali labes; children have been let alone so long, and are become so numerous, and many of them such Belialists, that it has now become a difficulty, and almost an impossibility, to bring them under the yoke of Christ."*.

How painfully true is this now, after more than a cen

tury and a half of neglect, and how immedicable at this day is the wound which this has inflicted upon the hopes of the Church! If any thing can save us from the dreadful evil of a host of baptized infidels warring with unnatural hate against the mother upon whose bosom they were laid in infancy, it is the restoration of the primitive practice to its purity. Let the Church faithfully watch over all its members, and administer discipline as it may be required. We have gone sadly astray from the good old paths trodden by our fathers, in regard to this matter, and having lost sight of the true relation of baptized children to the Church, we leave them to themselves, until they wander away and are lost upon the dark mountains. Nothing could perplex a church more than to ask; what is your duty to your baptized children, and how can you attain the end which you have in view in baptizing them? Dr. Dwight tells us that these children "cannot be excommunicated," that "their discipline is committed supremely to their parents and guardians," and that "the jurisdiction of the Church over the child, is merely nominal, and can exist to no valuable purpose."* And yet he asserts, that "children are now to be considered in exactly the same light, as under the former dispensation, unless the scriptures have evidently changed the state of their relations. and privileges,"t-which he denies to be the fact; he says also that "the peculiar duties and privileges of those who, have professed religion, are now in substance, exactly what they were under the dispensation made to Abraham." But one of the peculiar duties of the Church under the ancient dispensation, was to administer discipline to the children of the Church; and one of the peculiar privileges of those who were initiated into the Abrahamic covenant by circumcision, was that they were placed under the watch and care of the Church, and made objects of especial interest to the pastors. And Dr. Dwight himself, while he supposes that the jurisdiction of the Church in this case is merely nominal, and "can exist to no valuable purpose," and that any interference of the Church directly in the discipline of children would be productive of disorder, still maintains, that "the Church is bound to see that parents instruct and govern their children, and to call to a solemn

account all its members who reject or violate these duties; that "the several members of a church, are bound to reprove, and admonish baptized persons, whom they see in the commission of sin;" that baptized persons have a peculiar claim on professing Christians for this office of love, and are bound to receive it with humility and reformation;"--That "Ministers ought solemnly to enforce on them the duties arising from this relation, in a course of laborious catechetical instruction;--That should baptized persons, with these advantages, conduct themselves frowardly in a course of open obstinate iniquity, after they have come to years of discretion, the Church may with the strictest propriety, shut them out from these privileges, until by a penitent, and becoming deportment, they shall manifest contrition for their guilty conduct;-and that it is the duty of each church, to summon the baptized persons, who are minors, to be present at convenient seasons, while the Church offers up prayers to God peculiarly for them."*

We do not attempt to explain how all this is consistent with the position that "the religious discipline of children is committed supremely to the parents ;" and that "the jurisdiction of the Church is merely nominal, and can exist to no valuable purpose." But we wish to express our hearty assent to the propriety and necessity of those exertions. We believe that the Church is bound to watch with parental anxiety over all its children; that children are bound to walk in all the ordinances of the gospel blameless; that pastors are bound to feed the lambs of Christ's flock, and to treat them as of right belonging to the fold, and claiming their guardianship and direction; and that this is by no means an interference with the rights of parents. The religions discipline of those infant members, is not committed supremely to them, but to them in connection with the Church; they have dedicated their children to God in an ordinance which makes them as truly members of God's visible kingdom; they have given them to the Church, which is the mother of all: and they have covenanted to co-operate with the constituted authority of the Church, in training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They cannot complain therefore, that the Church-in the exercise of its legitimate powers

Theol. 5. 391, 2.

maintains a careful supervision of their moral conduct, and administers from time to time, the admonition which may be necessary to secure the great object for which they publicly received the seal of the covenant. If churches would pursue this course, and if pastors would collect all the baptized children, under their care, into a class for the purpose of giving them instruction as to their peculiar relation to God and the Church, and the duties which grow out of this relation, and the great blessings which may be expected in consequence of their dedication to God:-thus separating them from the world, and giving unbaptized children a practical exhibition of the advantages of a covenant relation to the people of God-we believe that a great change would soon be witnessed in the Church, and in the community around us, and that God would gloriously fulfil that promise which he has made to us and to our children, by pouring out his Spirit. So that "our sons and our daughters should prophesy, and our young men should see visions, and our old men should dream dreams."

We cannot close without remarking distinctly, that although we maintain, in consistency with the scriptures, and with the doctrine of our fathers, that baptized children are members of the church-as truly as their parentsand of course subjects of discipline, yet that they are not to be allowed to vote in the church, nor to receive the sacrament of the supper until they manifest a Christian temper, and publicly acknowledge the covenant into which they have been baptized. This is not at all inconsistent with what we have said above. A right and interest in a thing may exist where it is not immediately claimed and enjoyed. A king may be crowned before he is able or qualified to hold the sceptre. Rights vested in infancy, may be held in abeyance, until there is a capacity for enjoyment, or until some condition is performed. Children are truly citizens of the commonwealth, but are not permitted to act in public affairs until they are of age. So in the case before us. Baptism vests a title to all the privileges and blessings of the Church, which the subject not only may claim, but which he should be instructed it is his duty to claim as soon as he is capable of enjoying them. Every church member, does not, as a matter of course, partake of the Lord's Supper. The Jewish child did not, while an infant, eat of the passover; and many adults were often

prevented, by a variety of causes, from partaking of this national feast. The Lord's Supper, like the Passover is commemorative of that redemptive act by which the Church is delivered from slavery, and made free with the the liberty of the sons of God, it is a sacrament of confirmation and growth in grace; or according to Mede, the distinction between Baptism and the Eucharist is this, namely, that Baptism is the rite only of our new birth, in which God accepts us to be his servants; but the Lord's Supper is the sacrament whereby we exercise the functions of the new life, worshiping and glorifying God through Jesus Christ, offering up spiritual sacrifice and service to him. This requires a right state of the heart, and ability to discern the Lord's body. Baptism, like circumcision, places the subject in the Church, and gives him a right to participate in the sacrament of the supper, as soon as he can be made to understand its nature and to feel a personal interest in it. And as it was the duty of the Jewish parent-a duty to which he stood pledged by the rite of circumcision-to teach his children diligently the meaning and design of the passover, and to prepare him for a worthy commemoration of it, as early at least as the twelfth year; so we regard baptism as binding the Christian parent to teach his children the meaning of the Lord's Supper, and to impress upon them a sense of their obligation to partake of it, with a thorough preparation of the heart.

"As the circumcised person"-we quote from Dr. Dwight—" was required to make a public profession of religion, so is the baptized; and both are equally required to make their profession with sincerity and piety. The baptized person is also required, not only as a rational being under the dispensation of the gospel, but also as a person, who by his baptism is brought under a new and additional obligation, to celebrate the sacramental supper, as soon as he becomes possessed of sufficient understanding to discern its nature and use, and to celebrate it with decency; and so soon as he shall have sufficient understanding to make a rational profession of religion, previously indispensable to his participation of this ordinance."*

This is unquestionably the duty of all baptized children; and the Church should require them, at a suitable age,--which of course must be left to the discretion of each particular church-to recognize publicly their covenant, and assume the responsibilities which devolve upon them

Theol. 5. 359.