"These little ones" What God has commanded ...

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"These Little Ones."

Preface

Within the last twenty years the mind of our ministers and people has been much exercised on the subject of the church relations of the children of the covenant, and it has received no little attention. That the general and growing attention given to the subject has resulted in great good no one can question.

It will doubtless, however, be freely admitted that we still see evidences and signs of the forgetfulness, the ignoring or the disowning of infant church membership and of God's precious covenant-promise to parents in relation to their children. Multitudes who would by no means surrender infant baptism are unable to say exactly why the infants of church members are baptized. Sabbath-school children whose parents are professors of religion hear never a word from their superin-

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tendents and teachers by way of instructing them concerning their covenant relations and covenant duties. Thousands of professors, and we know not how many pastors, are too well satisfied to have Sabbath-school teachers do the whole work of religiously instructing the children of the Church. Books are written on the conversion of children in which the subject does not have even the slightest mention. Committees consisting of ministers are often appointed by presbyteries to visit the churches within their bounds in order to warm up these cold churches, without receiving from the presbyteries any instruction to present the subject of the relation of the baptized children to the church, and to warn parents not to neglect covenant promises and covenant training and education. Conventions of elders and other convocations are held to consider how revivals may be brought on, in which not a word is breathed as to the need or the methods of arousing churches and Christians on this subject. And when the children of professors become communicants, it is frequently the case that the people have

PREFACE. 7

no other idea than that these children "join the church" just as adults join it when they are baptized. It is believed, therefore, that the necessity for the continued discussion of this subject is not yet superseded.

The subject handled in the first chapter is the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son in reference to the salvation of Christ's people, since it is this which lays the foundation of the covenant of grace, of which God and his people are the parties, and which covenant, when it is externally and visibly enacted, includes their children.

Our sole argument for the church membership of the children of professing Christians is the one derived from the fact that the children of God's people were by divine command included in the Church under the old dispensation. All the Jews of the old dispensation were professors of the true religion and constituted the visible Church, considered as a spiritual society, and yet their children were included in it by God's command. This is the broad and enduring basis of infant church membership.

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The last chapter of the book discusses the promise which God makes to faithful parents that their children shall be saved. We would especially call attention to this chapter.

It is deeply to be regretted that many Christians think and speak of God's plan of redemption, of their own salvation, and of the salvation of their children, without having present to their minds the ideas expressed by the word " covenant." The reason is that the word itself has been so much laid aside. The Scriptures represent the plan of salvation under the form of a covenant. They constantly use that word with reference to it. They also teach that every soul that is saved at all is saved by covenant, and that our children are saved by covenant. Christians should be just as familiar with the word " covenant" as they are with the words " grace," "throne of grace," "heirs of the promise," "kingdom of God," "redemption," "precious faith," etc. It would seem as if the word were very dear to the Holy Spirit, so frequently does he use it in the Bible. What is the

PREFACE. 9

basis of church membership but the covenant of grace which Christ condescends to make with his people ? To be regarded as within the covenant and to be recognized as a member of the Church are the same thing. Let us, then, hold on to the word if we would not lose sight of the truths expressed by it.

One word more. In regard to the subject of the church membership of the infants of believers, the question is not whether the recognition and treatment of them as members would be attended with evils or not, but the question is, What has God commanded ? Let us search the Scriptures to ascertain what God requires of us; then let us obey him, whatever may be our fears as to the evil consequences which may flow from our obedience.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I. page The Eternal Covenant between the Father and the Son 13

The Promise of our Covenant-Keeping God to Bless and Save the Children of his People 133

These Little Ones.

Chapter I. The Eternal Covenant Between The Father And The Son

We assume that it is the belief of our readers that the death of the infinitely holy and innocent Redeemer was a real endurance of the penalty of the law ; in other words, that the Son of God was substituted in our place, that our sins were charged to his account, and that he was punished in our room and stead. Now, there could be no such thing as his being substituted in the place of all his people without his being substituted in the place of each of them. Each believer may feel that the blessed Saviour took his place as truly as if he were the only one in the universe to be redeemed.

The language of the Bible is, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;" "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." These assurances do not mean that Christ obeyed and suffered for the company of his people in general only, and not for each of them in particular. They speak to each one as an individual who has faith, and say to him, "Christ was made a curse for thee, took thy place and was punished for thee; his own self bare thy sins, suffered the penalty which thou deservedst to suffer." It is thus we are to understand the two passages quoted above, and also a multitude of similar ones; as, "He was wounded for our trangressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ;" " Christ died for us ;" " Christ died for our sins ;" " The good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep ;" " He is the propitiation for our sins," etc.

The blessed Redeemer, then, in obeying and suffering represented us, acted as our substitute — that is, as the substitute of each of his people. But his substitution in our place in order that he might himself render a satisfaction to the law would not have availed unless the Father, the supreme authority, had consented to the adoption of the plan.

Without the approbation and sanction of the infinite Judge such a procedure as that of the substitution of an innocent victim in the place of the guilty criminal would clearly have had no validity.

Equally true is it that such a procedure would have been an act of the highest injustice without the free consent of the one whom it was proposed to substitute in the sinner's place.

What are we to infer, then, when we learn that the substitution was a thing of actual occurrence — that Christ, the holy One, actually died as our substitute? Are w T e not to infer that both the Father and the Son did in truth consent to the arrangement — that the sanction of the supreme Judge was really given, and also that the Son himself freely consented to being made our substitute? In short, are we not to infer that in the counsels of eternity there was intercommunion between the Persons of the Godhead, in which each signified his concurrence and agreement to the arrangement? Evidently we are shut up to this inference, and we readily see that in such an agreement the parties go far toward contracting a covenant. Only one thing more is needed to make the agreement a complete covenant.

That one thing is that the Father should stipulate to reward his Son on condition of his dying as our representative and substitute. If the Father freely delivered up his only-begotten Son to die in our place, and if the Son freely consented to be delivered up to die in our room and stead, and if, in addition to this, the Father promised to reward his Son for enduring the penalty of the law that we might escape, — then here we have all the characteristics of a covenant.

Now, the Scriptures not only declare that God did sincerely consent to his Son dying (himself, indeed, laying on his Son our iniquities), and that the Son came with delight to do his Father's will in the matter, but they declare that the Father stipulated to recompense, and that he has already begun to recompense, his Son for dying. They teach, moreover, what that recompense or reward was to be. The Redeemer was to be rewarded (the Scriptures teach) by seeing the eternal happiness, blessedness and glory of those in w r hose place he should die and for whom he should work out a righteousness. The heart of the blessed Son of God was set on seeing the salvation of his people, loved by him from eternity ; and it is as if the Father said to him, " Their salvation you shall see, provided you be actually substituted in their place and obey and suffer in their room and stead — that is, provided you perform the condition of the same covenant of works which Adam was under, now enlarged by Adam's disobedience." Thus it was that the two Persons of the adorable Trinity entered into a covenant.

Some of the passages which teach that the Father gave this work to his Son to perform (the work of bringing in an everlasting righteousness by his obedience and suffering), that the Son freely undertook the work assigned him, and that the Father stipulated to reward him by "giving" him all those in whose place he should die, are the following.

To quote a passage first from an Old Testament writer, in the memorable closing verses of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah we read as follows : " When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the 2 travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great , and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors ; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors"

Here it is declared that the blessed Messiah is to be the possessor of a rich reward promised him. He is to behold his seed, his saved ones, he is to see the glorious result of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, and all because by his own agreement the Father was to deliver him up and make his soul an offering for sin, and cause him to bear his people's iniquities. It is not possible to read these words of the sacred writer without seeing that what Christ suffered he had been designated to suffer, and that by covenant.

Among the many declarations of the New Testament writers on this subject, none, perhaps, is more striking than that familiar one contained in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians, where we are told that the eternal Son of God made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and urns made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And on this account, the inspired apostle goes on to say, God hath highly exalted him.

With the declarations of our Lord himself bearing on this subject all readers of the New Testament are familiar. Some of these declarations are found in John iv. 34; vi. 38-40; x. 27-29; xvii. 4, 9, 24. They should be taken together; and when thus read, they teach that the Father gave the Son a work to perform, a prominent part of which consisted in his devoting himself to death for his sheep; that he sent him into the world to accomplish that work, and that he promised to reward him upon its accomplishment by causing those given him to come to him, to be partakers of his redemption. Christ represents his coming, his humiliation, his dying, as what his Father's commandment had enjoined upon him and as what his Father loved him for: Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life. . . . This commandment [i. e., to lay down his life] have I received of my Father. And he represents the eternal life of his people as the recompense set before him for coming into the world and dying. He was not to lose a single one : And this is the Father's will that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeih on him may have everlasting life.

Thus it is evident that the work of Christ has immediate respect to a covenant. "The authority of the Father appoints certain duties to the Son ; the Father's love and faithfulness guarantee to the Son certain promises of support, countenance, comfort, victory. The Son undertakes the duties assigned, and appeals to the promises relating to them." It has been truly said that this wonderful covenant or compact between the Father and the Son, kept before the mind and not lost sight of, gives doctrinal significance to what were otherwise mere external history, for it places the outward movements of Christ's career on earth in their true relations with the eternal purpose of the Godhead and the eternal destinies of men.

The consent on the part of the eternal Son to subject himself to the law to which we were bound involved an agreement to become incarnate. This was a necessary preliminary step, and this, therefore, was a part of the work assigned him by the Father. He was to be born of a woman — born as we are born — taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. Thus, though he was to remain the same divine Person he had ever been, he was to take our nature into personal union with himself. Taking part of flesh and body, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, becoming in all things like unto his brethren, yet without sin, he would not only be constituted a person susceptible of suffering and death, but he would be made capable of sympathizing with his people, of being touched with the feeling of their infirmities. As his becoming incarnate was a necessary preliminary step, he covenanted thus to assume our nature no less than to die.

The subject of the covenant between the Father and the Son in reference to the salvation of man is full of mystery. It is, however, clearly revealed in the Scriptures, and what the Scriptures teach in relation to it we must reverently consider. There is, indeed, one only living and true God, yet in the Godhead there are three Persons. This admits of one being the object of the acts of the other, and of one loving and addressing the other. It admits of two of the divine Persons entering into a covenant with each other. " The infinitude of God does not render such a transaction impossible."

Although there is nothing in the nature of a covenant between two parties which requires that they should be on an equality, yet the two parties to the eternal covenant of grace are equal : they are equal in honor, power and glory. ]S"or are the Scriptures, when they affirm this equality, inconsistent with themselves in teaching that the Father sends the Son into the world, gives him a work to do and promises to reward him for performing the work assigned him. If this implies some kind of subordination of the Son to the Father, it is a subordination without inferiority. It is a subordination which is consistent with the Son's possessing the same infinite perfections that belong to the Father.

What makes it so important that the covenant of grace should fill a large space in our thoughts is, that it constitutes a union between Christ and his people prior to all the other unions which exist between them. It is the foundation of the representative union. When the blessed Redeemer covenanted with the Father to undertake the work of purchasing our redemption, he became, even in the counsels of eternity, one with us. Thus it became fit that he should become our representative, our substitute, and die for us. He could not be accepted as standing in the relation of the substitute and surety of his people without this previous covenant oneness. What comfort, then, should it give us to know that before the foundation of the world this union was really established ! Being identified with the people given unto him by the covenant which took place between himself and the Father, he becomes their competent and acceptable substitute and surety.

Another reason why it is important that the covenant of grace should be fully recognized and frequently held up before our minds, is that where Christ, the last Adam, is little recognized as a covenant head there can be little reason or inducement to recognize the first in that light either. "It will uniformly be found that the theology which is meagre in reference to the covenant of grace is still more so as to the covenant of works. In fact, it is more from what is partly the analogy and partly the antithesis of the two covenants, when set forth in the mutual light which they reflect on each other, that the covenant of works becomes manifest than in any very express or abundant evidence of its own alone."*

When the blessed Son of God, by the terms of the covenant of grace, became our substitute, it was with the view, as already stated, of performing the same condition the fulfillment of which was originally demanded of Adam in order to his obtaining eternal life — with this difference, that in consequence of Adam's transgression the condition comprehended more in its requirements than it

* The Atonement in its Relations to the Covenant, the Priesthood, the Intercession of our Lord, by Rev. Hugh Martin.

originally did. The eternal covenant between the Father and the Son was indeed a separate covenant from that made with Adam in Eden, yet the fulfillment of the terms of the one covenant was the express condition of the other covenant, except that in the case of man in a state of innocence the condition was only obedience to its precepts, whereas in the case of guilty man and that of Christ, his representative, it was not only obedience, but suffering.

As the covenant of grace was formed with Christ as the head and representative of his people, it was formed in him with all those given to him by the Father* Thus we see

* There is no doctrinal difference between those who hold, as we do, that the only real covenant connected with the salvation of man is the eternal covenant of grace between the Father and the Son, and those who hold that besides this eternal covenant (which they call the covenant of redemption) there is a covenant between God and believers, this last being styled by them the covenant of grace. It must be remembered that even the former class, who include all the facts of Scripture relating to the subject under one covenant, admit that the transaction with believers in reference to their salvation may be called a covenant, only they maintain that it is but the administration by the Mediator of the eternal covenant for the purpose of communicating its why the apostle draws a parallel between Adam and Christ. Adam and Christ are the respective federal heads or representatives of those whom the one by his disobedience involved in condemnation, and for whom the other has by his obedience obtained eternal life.

We have considered a few of the passages of Scripture which teach that the Son is recompensed for bringing in an everlasting righteousness through his obedience and suffering by seeing the eternal happiness and blessedness of those for whom he died; in other words, by witnessing the salvation of his Church. This was the joy which was set before him. This was his crowning reward, the I'ecompense which he most coveted. But in addition to this promise, which had respect to his beloved people, there was a promise or

blessings to those for whom they are intended. Tims they hold that this covenant with believers (which they contend should be looked at in the light of an administrative provision, since Christ gives them the faith he demands of them), promising them salvation on condition of faith, is not an entirely separate one from the covenant of which God and his Son are the parties. And the covenant between Christ and his people may with propriety also be called, as the other is, the covenant of grace.

stipulation which had respect to his own Person.

1. It was provided that he should be exalted to the throne of universal dominion.

Our Lord had reference to this promise of the eternal covenant when, just as he was about to ascend, he said to his disciples, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Heaven and earth are in scriptural language the whole universe. To this promise made to the Son the apostle also had reference when, writing to the Philippians, he says : Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name yjhich is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is I^ord, to the glory of God the Father; and to the Ephesians Goel raised Christ from the dead and set him at his oivn right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principedity and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put cdl things under his feet.

The absolutely universal dominion of the

God-man Mediator is also asserted in Hebrews when it is said, Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet; for in that he put all in subjection under him, lie left nothing that is not put under him.

Oar blessed Jesus has ascended up on high. He is recompensed for all his sufferings. He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him* The Father loveth the Son ; and in accordance with the arrangements of the counsels of eternity, he hath committed all things into his hands. Having been thus exalted to a position of unlimited dominion, he has received such names and titles as King of kings, Lord of all, and Prince of peace. As mediatorial King, our Saviour has the volitions and actions of all moral agents in the entire universe under his complete control. "All discordant passions and interests, all the activities of superior intelligences, as well the enmity of fiends as the ministry of angels," and even all irrational and inanimate things, are made subservient to his designs.

The dominion of which we speak must not be confounded with that providential goveminent which necessarily belongs to Christ as a divine Person, and of which he can never divest himself. We are speaking of that sovereignty which attaches to that wonderful and glorious Person, the God-man, occupying the office of mediator, and which has been given him in fulfillment of the promise of the covenant made with him by the Father. Our Mediator is not the Logos, but that man in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, the Son of God, with our nature in such intimate union with his divine Person that it is as truly his own as his divine nature is. " That a person in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and w T ho is filled with all the love, tenderness, compassion, meekness and forbearance which Christ manifested while here on earth, has all power in heaven and earth committed to his hands, and is not far from any one of us, is an unspeakable delight to all his people."

It is in order that he may carry on his mediatorial work that he is thus exalted. But such exaltation would not have been possible unless he had already been in possession of divine perfections, for the nature of this dominion, and its extent, demand such perfections. God has not said, "Sit on my right hand," to any creature but to Him who was already the brightness of his glory and the express image of his Person. For only one possessed of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence could exercise a dominion embracing all creatures and all orders of beings^ and reaching even to the reason and conscience. Inasmuch as this kingdom, extending over the universe, has been given to Christ in order that he may have power to consummate the work of redemption, when this purpose is accomplished he will deliver it up and no longer as Mediator reign over the universe. But he will still remain the Head and Sovereign of the redeemed in heaven, and that for ever.

2. But the exaltation promised the Redeemer in the eternal compact consists not only in his being appointed to have dominion over the universe. It consists also in his being appointed to administer the affairs of his own people — his Church as distinct from the universe.

This Church is a kingdom of vast extent. In one aspect it embraces the body of Christ's professing people — that is, the visible organized church ; in another aspect his kingdom relates only to those who have the Holy Spirit and are truly members of his body.

First. We will first say a few words about his kingly office, as it relates only to these latter — viz., to those who have the Holy Spirit and are his own true people.

In executing his kingly office as it relates to his own true people — his own redeemed ones — he performs acts which terminate directly on their souls; for, seated on his throne, he " as Mediator effectually applies to his people through his Spirit that salvation which he had previously achieved for them in his estate of humiliation." As the God-man and Head of the Church, the Mediator has received the Holy Spirit to send to his chosen people to renew their hearts, to sanctify, establish and comfort them, and to enrich them with heavenly gifts.

The apostle speaks of this in his Epistle to the Ephesians where he says, To every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And Peter teaches the same truth when he says to the Jewish rulers, Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin.

Christ is the source of the inward life of his people — the Church for which he died — and also of its power. This would not be possible if he were only human, but he is more than human. His Person is divine; he is the God-man ; and it is as such that in ascending up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The gifts bestowed upon his people are those which he secured for them by fulfilling by his obedience and death the conditions of the covenant of grace. And it is by bestowing upon them these inward gifts that he applies his purchased redemption to them.

Had our first federal head, Adam, fulfilled in Paradise the condition of the covenant of works, had he when on probation strictly adhered to the law's demands, he would have received at the close of his probation the reward promised him, and the blessing would also have come upon his posterity. We should have been made partakers of it. We should have partaken of it immediately upon our coming into existence, for we should have had no depravity to be first removed in order to render us capable of fully entering upon our reward, and no act of our souls would have been necessary to make Adam's obedience our obedience. And as no act of ours would have been necessary, as no co-operation on our part would have been required, to place us in the position to be benefited by Adam's obedience, so no one holding an office analogous to Christ's kingly office would have been needed to administer to us the spiritual and eternal good secured for us by Adam's perfect conformity to the divine law during the limited period of his probation. The good merited for us by Adam's righteousness we would at once have enjoyed.