Solace for bereaved parents: or, Infants die to live. With an historical account of the doctrine of infant salvation. Also very full selections from various authors, in prose and poetry

Front matter

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J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. }

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Preface

Oh, what is life ? 'Tis like the bow- That glistens in the sky ;

We love to see its colours glow- But while we look they die.

Life fails as soon ; to-day 'tis here, To -morrow it may disappear.

The following work is a very needful one, and will, I hope, prove acceptable and comforting. It is the first, and only American work, exclusively devoted to the consideration of the subject of infant salvation, and the comfort of bereaved parents. I have endeavoured to make it as comprehensive, and, at the same time, as much adapted to popular use, as possible. Besides, therefore, the argument contained in the first chapters, I have added a very full selection from various authors, both in prose and poetry ; so that the time, the taste, the circumstances, and the feelings of all classes of readers may be accommodated. The work thus contains a treasury of all the literary gems pertaining to this subject which have been dug up by the force of sanctified genius out of the minds of intellect, or secured from the fathomless depths of the ocean of thought. This collection is rich in such precious gems, gathered from all lands ; but will be found especially brilliant in the sparkling lustre of its American productions. Of such a cabinet we may well be proud, and with such comforters we may well be solaced in every hour of grief.

The collection in poetry, while it is select, is complete, as far as the author could find resources or references ; and as far as merit and proper Christian sentiment warranted their insertion ; and is the result of many years inquiry and research. And it will serve, I think, to prove that religion is the best inspirer of the muse, and brings out from the lyre of poesy its softest, sweetest notes. Indeed, in many cases, it has made poets where the fire of genius had slumbered under the ashes of a timid modesty, or the oppressive weight of worldly avocations.

I have been particular in exhibiting the connexion between the doctrine of infant salvation and the doctrines of Calvinism, as taught in the XXXIX articles of the Episcopal Church — (as these are interpreted by all its Evangelical members) — and in the Shorter Catechism, and other doctrinal standards of the Westminster Assembly, as these are held or approved of by the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, and Reformed Dutch churches. In doing so, however, my object has not been to sectarianize the work, or represent the charitable views it inculcates as peculiar to these bodies, but to show to the world, and to our

VI PREFACE.

Christian brethren of other denominations, that in holding Calvinistic doctrines, we do not hold their views of what these doctrines teach, nor those awful consequences which, in their conception of them, these doctrines imply. I hope, therefore, that this exhibition of the real nature and tendency of Calvinism will serve to put down misrepresentations ; to remove prejudices ; and to draw nearer together, in the bonds of charity and good- will, all who love the Lord Jesus Christ — " both theirs and ours" — in sincerity and truth, and who trust in the word of God only, in the grace of Christ only, and in the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost only. The Trinity of the one immutable Godhead, as the source of salvation, of grace, and of power — the author, finisher, and imparter of eternal life — this is the grand platform on which all true Christians can meet, sympathize, hope, rejoice, and triumph. May we all " stand fast" in this faith, and " keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of" a more open, more visible, and more consolidating " peace."

Not with mistrusting heart, or anxious brow,

My little book, I send thee forth again —

So thou the suffrage of the good obtain, I seek not what the worldling can bestow, Of perishable praise — enough to know

That at the lonely couch of grief or pain,

Thy simple page one passing smile may gain, Or kindle in the breast devotion's glow. Yet, shouldst thou find a place in blissful bower,

'Midst happy hearts, unthinking of their doom, In the fond trust of that delusive hour,

O whisper to them of the coming gloom , And tell them of the faith whose mighty power Can light the dreary precincts of the tomb.

THE AUTHOR,

Charleston, Dec. 1845.

Chapter I. Page

Address to a Bereaved Parent 9

Chapter II

An Historical Account of the Doctrine of Infant Salvation, wherein it is shown that it was first advocated and received by Calvinists, and based upon Calvinistic Doctrines, including quotations from, or references to, the following Calvinistic writers, — Zuinglius, Calvin, Tyndale, (and other reformers or successors of) Perkins, Cotton Mather, Harris, Toplady, Dr. Williams, Scott, Newton, Dr. Gill, Pictet, Whitefield, Watts, Addington, Robert Hall, Howe, Dr. Lawson, the Lime St. Lectures, the National Covenant, the Confession of Faith, Dr. Jarkin, Dr. Cumming, Dr. Russell, &c. . 13

Chapter VII. Page

Shorter Selections in Prose, adapted to be read at short intervals, from Oliver Hey wood, Scott, Fenelon, and many Authors, with some very interesting and striking anecdotes illustrative of the triumph of Christian Faith under such bereavements . . .165

Chapter I. Address To A Bereaved Parent

Bid gentle patience smile on pain Till dying hope revive again ; Hope wipes the tear from sorrow's eye, And faith points upward to the sky.

Steele.

My Dear Reader,

This work is addressed to you as a bereaved Parent. God has given you a child whom you dearly loved, and God has taken that child away. He has " strickened the desire of your eyes," and iC wounded you sore." Like Rachel you weep for your departed child, and " refuse to be comforted because it is not."

Your grief, my dear friend, is natural, for your affliction is great. Your heart is left lonely and desolate. Its strings are broken. That joy which had swallowed up all remembrance of the hours of solicitude and pain, ^ now turned into melancholy sadness. That current of affection and gladness which had flowed out upon the object of your regard is turned back upon the soul — its channels arc dried up, and its fountain gone. The grief of a bereaved parent can only be known by those who have endured it. Of this it may be truly said, " the heart knoweth its own bitterness and a stranger intermeddleth not with it." There are susceptibilities in man which are only developed by an entrance upon the relation of parent, The individual who has never become a Father or a Mother, has never felt the most powerful of human emotions. He is a stranger to that joy which seems to fill the heart to overflowing ; and to that outgoing of the soul which identifies the parent with his child, absorbs all selfish regards, and inspires a willingness to endure all things for the sake of his beloved offspring.

Who then can truly sympathize with parents in their joys or sorrows, but he who has been himself a parent? An old writer has quaintly remarked, — -as illustrative of the adaptation of Christ, by the endurance of human misery, for his present office of Mediator between God and man, — that were his limb broken he should desire to have it set by a physician who had himself experienced a similar calamity. Sure it is that the wounded heart of a bereaved parent can only be bound up by one whose own heart has been in like manner torn, and who can sincerely weep with him who weeps over the grave of his buried offspring.

Young mother ! what can feeble friendship say, To soothe the anguish of this mournful day 1 They, they alone, whose hearts like thine have bled, Know how the living sorrow for the dead ; Each tutored voice, that seeks such grief to cheer. Strikes cold upon the weeping parent's ear ; I Ve felt it all, — alas ! too well I know How vain all earthly power to hush thy woe ! God cheer thee, childless mother 1 't is not given For man to ward the blow that falls from heaven.

I 've felt it all— as thou art feeling now ; Like thee, with stricken heart and aching brow, I 've sat and watched by dying beauty's bed, And burning tears of hopeless anguish shed ; I 've gazed upon the sweet, but pallid face, And vainly tried some comfort there to trace ;

I Ve listened to the short and struggling breath ; I 've seen the cherub eye grow dim in death ; Like thee, I J ve veiled my head in speechless gloom, And laid my first-born in the silent tomb.

It is on this account I would venture to intrude my thoughts upon your present solitude, and whisper words of consolation to that ear which can never more hear the infant voice now silent in death. Like you, my friend, I have been called to witness the unexpected departure of my children. Two of them I committed to the same grave, where they sleep the sleep of death. They were growing up together like tw T o young flowers, which had intertwined their tendrils, and mingled their sweet fragrance, but which were suddenly withered by the same rude blast. Like them, these children were lovely in their lives, and in death they were not divided. The same storm overwhelmed them both. They lie, as it were, arm in arm, and side by side, in the same deep and narrow bed of earth, until they awake in the morning of the resurrection. Nor do they lie alone, their narrow bed has been uncovered to receive another sleeper, the victim of a similar malady, whose sun of brightest promise went down while my heart was still rejoicing in the beauty of its day-spring.

It was when tossed upon that sea of trouble in which these sudden visitations involved me, I w^as led to the full investigation of the question of the salvation of infants. That examination more than confirmed my hopes. It strengthened them into a comfortable ASSURANCE THAT IN THE DEATH OF INFANTS, IT IS WELL WITH THEM, AND WELL WITH THEIR

parents — that God's purposes are merciful to both — and that while he glorifies himself in the exaltation of the children to heaven, he would also secure by such afflictions the sanctification and the salvation of their parents.

You will, therefore, allow me to present to your mind, in substance, some of those considerations by which I have been myself comforted of God, and through which you may also, by His blessing, obtain " beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," and enable you to believe that the tide of death, whose receding waves withdrew the desire of your eyes for ever from your sight, " like waifs flung for a season upon the shores of this world," has only borne them back again upon " the eternal sea which washes the throne of God."

Of one thing be very sure : " God does nothing without a reason. That reason may have respect to you — it may have respect to your child, and not unlikely to both. He sees effects in their causes. Your case may have been this : you may have been in danger of loving the world too much, and he removed the cause in time. Its case may have been this : it may have been in danger from the growth of a corrupt nature, and he took it in the bud of being that it might grow without imperfection, ' for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Think of your child then not as dead but as living, not as a flower that is withered, but as one that is transplanted, and, touched by a divine hand, is blooming in richer colours and sweeter shades than those of earth, though to your eyes these last may have been beautiful, more beautiful than you will hope to see again.

u c With patient mind thy course of duty run, God nothing does, nor suffers to be done, But thou wouldst do thyself, if thou couldst see The end of all he does as well as he.' v

Chapter II

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION, WHEREIN IT IS SHOWN THAT IT WAS FIRST ADVOCATED AND RECEIVED BY CALVINISTS, AND BASED UPON CALVINISTIC DOC- TRINES.

I stood beside a death-bed scene, a mother bent and wept,

But deep within her breaking heart, a deathless faith she kept :

She gazed upon her little one, so beautiful and still,

And humbly tried to yield him up unto her Maker's will :

She bent and kissed his pallid brow, she joined her hands in prayer,

And then I knew the Christian's hope had surely entered there.

When I was led to the investigation of this subject, nothing surprised me more than the difficulty with which I could then* find any thing adapted to my inquiries. With very ample resources, I could discover but little in the form of direct discussion, on this most interesting subject. It is certainly strange, that while works of consolation and advice had been prepared for almost every other class of mourners in Zion, bereaved parents were left to comfort themselves by those general considerations only, which leave their peculiar sorrows unalleviated.

With very diligent search I have procured an Essay on this subject by the Rev. Daniel Gillard, published in London in 1787 ; a similar Essay, entitled Grounds of Hope for the Salvation of all dying in Infancy, by the Rev. "William Harris, LL.D., published in London in 1821 ; An Essay on the Salvation

* Since then many things in prose and poetry have been written.

of all dying in Infancy, by the Rev. David Russell of. Dundee, published in Edinburgh in 1823 ;* a little volume addressed to Bereaved Parents, by John Thornton, published in London in 1831 ; a Sermon, by the late Dr. Henry ; and two others, on the death of their children, by Dr. Doddridge, and Dr. Cotton Mather. Besides these, I found only some scattered hints in various volumes.t

From an examination of all these, I matured that opinion I have embodied in the following chapters, the substance of which was delivered in discourses to my people. Their earnest wishes induced me to prepare them for the press. Some work of the kind is imperatively demanded. Almost all parents are called to endure the loss of children, and to feel the need of such a comforter. Within a few months, I have committed to the grave thirteen children, from within the bounds of my official ministration. Now there is no work to which such parents can have access, for of all those enumerated above, I may say, they are printed in England ; they are rare, and therefore inaccessible. Besides, even when parents may have a general persuasion of the safety of departed infants, yet, when such a belief is not founded on a firm and clearly established conviction of its truth, it will give way before the flood of sorrow, and fail to support in the hour of need. Just as men sport with death till called themselves to grapple with its terrors, so may men think lightly of the trial of a bereaved parent, until they stand by the bedside of their own dying child.

* This is a most full and satisfactory work, and fully answers every objection.

t The only other treatise on this subject then known to the author, besides one by Mosheim, a Lutheran, is by Dr. Williams. I believe the same who advocated the cause of Modern Calvinism, and answered Whitby.

But then will they earnestly look for any light which may irradiate their darkness, calm their fears, and assuage their grief. A writer in an English magazine, speaking of the death of very young children, thus beautifully remarks : — " The soul of the cherub child, that dies on its mother's breast, wings its way to heaven, unconscious of the joys it might share here, as well as of the many, many miseries of which it might be partaker. This can hardly be called death. It is but the calm, soft ebbing of the gentle tide of life, to flow no more in the troubled ocean of existence : it is but the removal of a fair creature — ( too pure for earthly stay' — to make one of that bright band of cherubim which encompasses in glory and in joy the throne of the living God."

But glorious as the change may be to the little one,

it is hard for the mother to part thus early with her

fair-haired innocent — to break off all the delightful ties

of prattling tenderness that had bound her even in a

' few months, to that gentle form forever —

'Tis hard to lay her darling

Deep in the cold, damp earth — His empty crib to see, His silent nursery,

Once gladsome with his mirth,

To meet again in slumber

His small mouth's rosy kiss ; Then, wakened with a start By her own throbbing heart,

His twining arms to miss !

To feel (half conscious why)

A dull, heart-sinking weight, Till mem'ry on her soul Flashes the painful whole,

That she is desolate !

And then to He and weep,

And think the live-long night (Feeding her own distress With accurate greediness)

Of every past delight ; —

Of all his winning ways,

His pretty playful smiles, His joy, his ecstacy, His tricks, his mimicry,

And all his little wiles !

Oh ! these are recollections

Round mothers' hearts that cling — ■

That mingle with the tears

And smiles of after years, With oft awakening !

That this little volume therefore may be rendered as satisfactory as possible, it will be proper to give some historical account of the views entertained at different periods of the church on the subject of the salvation of infants. This will show the necessity for its present and thorough investigation ; and at the same time expose the groundlessness with which a belief in the future loss or damnation of infants has been charged upon Calvinists, and upon Presbyterians, as a doctrine peculiar to them, or involved in their system of belief.

Among the Jews, the hope of salvation seems to have been confined to themselves, and to their children who had received circumcision. " They imagined that the law of Moses made the very infants of the Gentiles be treated as sinners and hateful to God, because they were uncircumcised, and descended from uncircumcised parents. They of course imagined that all their own children were saved, and that all those of the Gentiles perished. It is partly on this account that the apostle, after mentioning the universal reign of

SOLACE FOR BEfcEAVED PARENTS. If

death from Adam to Moses, distinctly adds, that it came upon infants, as well as upon adults, without distinction of Jew and Gentile ; and then shows that infants, whether they descend from Gentiles or Jews, are treated as sinners, not by virtue of the law of Moses, but in consequence of the sin of Adam, the common father of the human race."

A corresponding faith was early developed in the Christian Church. Erroneous views of baptism, as in itself communicative of regeneration, led to the belief of its absolute necessity in order to salvation. Of course, those who failed to enjoy the benefits of this ordinance were believed to be excluded from all participation in the benefits of that gospel, with which it was so essentially connected. And hence it was supposed that the children even of christian parents who were not baptized, as well as all others in the same unfortunate condition, were cast, with unbelievers, into hell for ever ; or, at least, excluded from the divine presence, and the blessedness of heaven.

This opinion prevailed generally in the Church until after the Reformation. It was the opinion of Augustine, of Gregory, Ariminiensis, Driedd, Luther, Melanchthon, Tilmanus, Heshusius, " who have all fallen into the worst of St. Austin's opinion, and sentence poor infants to the flames of hell for original sin, if they die before baptism."* " The Catholic faith," says Augustine, " resting on divine authority, believes the first place to be the kingdom of heaven, whence the unbaptized are excluded ; and the second Hell, where every apostate and alien from the faith of Christ will experience eternal punishments. A third place we are wholly ignorant of, nor shall we find it in

* See Jer. Taylor's Works, vol. 9. p. 129. 9* the Scriptures."* The decree of the Council of Trent, by which it is determined that " whosoever shall affirm that baptism is indifferent, that is, not necessary to salvation, let him be accursed," is still binding on the Roman Catholic Church : for their catechism also teaches that children, "be their parents christians or infidels, unless regenerated by the grace of

BAPTISM, ARE BORN TO ETERNAL MISERY AND EV- ERLASTING destruction."! " Nothing," says the Council of Trent, " can be apparently more necessary, than that the faithful should be taught, that the law of baptism was ordained by the Lord for all men ; so that unless they be regenerated by God, through the grace of baptism, they are begotten by their parents, be they believers, or unbelievers, to everlasting misery and perdition."* " No other means of salvation" adds the Catechism, " is supplied to infants, except baptism be administered to themPh " There is a third place for infants," says Bellarmine, " who die without baptism. This Limbus Puerorum is for the eternal punishment of loss only :" that is, " the loss of the presence of God." II "Since, then," adds this defender of the Papacy, " infants are without reason, so that they cannot imitate the sins of their fathers, and are nevertheless punished with the most severe of all punishments, that is to say, death temporal and eternal ; it necessarily follows that they have some other sin, for which they are justly punished : and this is what we call original sin. It cannot, therefore, be

t See Cramp's Hist, of Council of Trent, p. 129, and the works quoted.

X Concil. Trid. Sess. VII. can. v. p. 51. Roma?, 1564.

|| Bellarm. de Purgat 1. II. chap, vl torn. ii. p. 410. A. Colonise. 1628.

doubted that infants (for whom it is shown from the word of Christ and apostolical tradition that Baptism is necessary ',) have sin, which they bring with them from their mother's womb."* This belief passed down to the Reformed Churches, and was at first very generally held. The Church of England placed the unbaptized on the same footing with the suicide and the excommunicated, and denied to them the office of burial, t And this still continues to be the doctrine of the church, and of all high-church prelatists who agree on this subject with the Romanists. " Without baptism," say the Oxford Tracts, " none can enter the kingdom of heaven."* " And so momentous is this dogma in their judgment, that one leading object," says Mr. Bridges, himself an Episcopalian, "of their great movement confessedly was to bring it more fully before the church."§ The question of the future condition of infants became thus involved with that of baptism, and was not considered upon its own merits. Ecclesiastics, who were secluded from all personal interest in domestic life, were of course insensible to the happiness connected with the enjoyment of children, or to

* Bellarm. de Amiss. Gratiae et Statu Feccati. lib. IV. c. 7. torn. iv. p. 61. G. 62. B.

t See Burns' Eccles. Law, vol. i. p. 266, and Wheatley on the Book of Prayer, p. 477.

X Vol. i. p. 260. See also Dr. Pusey's work on Baptism, passim, Bethel on Baptismal Regeneration, pp. 7, 8, 9, &c.

§ See his Sacramental Instruction, p. 46, 47, where he quotes a host of authorities, including Perceval, Keble, Dr. Pusey, Sewell, Bishop Mant, &c. It would even appear that some evangelical Episcopalians of our present day are unwilling to say anything about the future condition of unbaptized children who die in infancy. See the Churchman's Monthly Rev. May 1843, p. 372. This doctrine of the absolute necessity of baptism to salvation was established in the Western church by papal authority, and was retained in the English church after the reformation, until the year 1604, when it was declared to be necessary " where it may be had." See Hallow on the Order of Baptism, &c, and Ogelby on Lay Baptism, p. 159, 160, &c the distress consequent upon their loss. The fate of children awakened; therefore, but a relative interest, as it affected other truths considered of more importance.

The horror naturally associated with this fearful doctrine was nevertheless very early felt, and at different times manifested. Various theories were adopted to throw over it a veil of charity, and to render it more tolerable to the wounded spirit of mourning parents. In the time of Augustine, Vincentius, Victor and some others believed that infants dying without baptism might, notwithstanding, be saved.* This opinion was favoured by some of the School Divines, in reference to cases where baptism could not be had, inasmuch as it was the will of the parents that it should be enjoyed.t Bernard, Biel, Cajetan, and some others, adopted this charitable supposition.! And so also did Peter Martyr, Wickliffe, the Hussites, and the Lollards, who adopted, preached, and suffered for, all those doctrines which are now denominated Calvinistic. But this opinion has been considered as involving unconquerable difficulties. Jeremy Taylor says, " What will be the condition of unbaptized infants, so dying, I do not profess to know or teach, because God hath kept it as a secret."§ Baxter, with all his charity, and perhaps too liberal views of Christian doctrine, could only go so far on this subject as to say, " I think that no man can prove that all unbaptized infants are damned or denied heaven. Nay, I think I can prove a promise to the contrary." Beyond " penitent believers and their seed," he says, " what God may do for others unknown

* See Jer. Taylor's Works, vol. ix. p. 90. t See list of in Hooker's Works, vol. ii. p. 219. % Jer. Taylor's Works, vol. ix. p. 91 and 93, § Jeremy Taylor's Works, p. 92.

to us, we have nothing to do with, but his Covenant hath made no other promise that I can find."* Similar were the sentiments of Bishop Hopkins : u Not only infants baptized," says he, " but all infants of believing parents, though they should unavoidably die before baptism, are in the same safe and blessed condition." This, however, is the extent to which he could apply his hopes.t

To this charitable view of the matter, which Calvinists, and Calvinistic Churches generally adopted, the Pelagians could not fully assent. i They excluded infants when unbaptized from the kingdom of heaven, but promised to them an eternal and a natural beatitude. This opinion was embraced by Ambrosius Catharinus, Albertus Pighius, and Hieronymus Savanarola, Gregory Nazianzen, Athanasius, Ambrose, Pope Innocent III., and others. § Hence arose the present doctrine of the Romish Church, which teaches that there is a limbus patrum, or place on the borders of hell, for those who had believed in Christ before his advent ; and a limbus infantum, for children who die unbaptized.

When the mists, however, which had gathered round the ordinance of baptism were gradually dispersed, this subject was examined on more impartial grounds. The natural feelings of the heart were permitted to declare their interest in the decision of the question. The hope expressed by Wickliffe in reference to unbaptized children was eagerly embraced by his followers, who were all Calvinists, and who all re-

* See Works, vol. v. p. 326 and 323. t See Works, vol. ii. p. 429.

X See the Articles of the Synod of Dort, with Scott's Notes. Works of Scott, vol. viii. p. 576.

§ See Jer. Taylor, vol. ix. p. 90, garded baptism in its truly simple and scriptural character. Zuinglius was perhaps the first who proclaimed hope for the salvation of all infants, whether christian or heathen, who died in their infancy, and before they became chargeable with the guilt of actual transgression. He maintained, that in consequence of the atonement of Christ offered for all, " original sin does not even damn the children of the heathen." For this conclusion concerning children generally, Zuinglius quotes Romans v. ; though he admits that we have but little light upon the subject. He rejects the idea that baptism washes away original sin and condemnation. The blessing, he says, is not tied to signs and symbols ; baptism recognizes and attests the privilege rather than confers it. " What scriptural authority," he asks, " is there for ascribing such an effect to baptism ?" " The words . of Mark xvi. 16," says he, u relate to those only to whom the gospel was sent. They that hear the gospel and believe it were blessed ; they who hear it, and believe it not, are accursed. But this is no prejudice to election, for both they who come to Christ are drawn to him by the Father, which is election : and they who come to the Father are chosen by him ; but so that they may at length come to him by Christ. The (infant) children of Christians are the children of God by virtue of the covenant. Concerning the children of heathens, we decide nothing : though I confess that I incline to the sentiment which considers the death of Christ as available to the salvation of all who are free from actual sin."* For this doctrine Bossuet charges Zuinglius with being a Pelagian, and pronounces this a