Covenant Theology
An Excerpt from his work on the 5th Commandment
By Rev. Ezekiel Hopkins (1633-1688)
But then they are obliged to others, of a higher and nobler nature, which concern their Spiritual Good, and have an influence into their eternal happiness.
And, here, their first duty is to Incorporate them into the Church of Christ, by the presenting them to holy baptism; which is the laver of regeneration, and which Jesus Christ hath instituted, for the admission and initiation of new members into his body the Church, and of new subjects into his kingdom.
Nay, it is not an empty bare ceremony; but it is a seal of the promise of the covenant, a sign of the grace of the Spirit and a means appointed to convey it to the soul. And, therefore; those parents are highly injurious to their children, who, either through carelessness or contempt, debar them from so excellent and spiritual an ordinance and privilege; yea, indeed, the only spiritual privilege, which their age makes them capable of. What do they else hereby, but put their children into a worse condition than the children of the Jews? who, in their infancy, were admitted to the sacrament of Circumcision, which the Apostle calls a seal of the righteousness of faith: Rom. iv. 11; and, certainly, if this seal of circumcision were broken by the coming of Christ, and no other were instituted whereof the children of believers under the Gospel might be made partakers; our infants then must needs be in a worse condition than theirs; and Christ’s coming into the world hath, in this respect, rather diminished the privileges of the Church, than enlarged them. It ought, therefore, to be the first and chiefest care of every godly parent, to offer his children to this holy ordinance: especially considering, that they are partakers of his sinful and corrupt nature, that he hath been an instrument of conveying down along to them the guilt of the first transgression, and that defilement which hath infected the whole soul; and therefore it is the least that his charity can do for them, to offer them unto that remedy, which our Saviour hath provided both to remove the guilt, and cleanse away the filth of their natures. For, be the parents themselves never so holy and sanctified, yet their children are born in their filth, and in their blood. And this Austin expresseth by a very apt similitude. “The chaff,” saith he, “is carefully separated from the wheat that we sow; and yet the wheat, which it produceth, groweth up with husks and chaff about it.” So those, whom the Holy Ghost hath sanctified and cleansed, yet produce children naturally unclean, though federally holy. And, therefore, being born within the promises of the covenant, their parents ought to see that the seal of the covenant be applied unto them; that is, as they derive corruption from them, they may by them be brought to the means of cleansing and washing.
Taken from The Works of Ezekiel Hopkins, Volume 1, Pages 396-397.
