"Improve the baptism of your children as an obligation and encouragement unto you, parents, to endeavor the salvation of your baptized little ones. Of your children, you may say, with Jacob in Genesis 33:5, 'These are the children that God hath graciously given to me.' And will you not heartily give back to God those children once again? Their baptism is to be the sign and seal of your doing so.
You generally bring your infant children unto the baptism of the Lord. I suppose you do so because you are satisfied that the children of believers were in covenant with God in the days of the Old Testament, and that the children of believers then had a right unto the initial seal of the covenant, and that in the days of the New Testament they have not lost this privilege. Well, but when you bring your children to the sacred baptism, what is it for? Oh, do not let it be done as an empty formality, as if the baptism of your children were for nothing but to formally and pompously put a name upon them. No, but let the serious language of your souls in this action be that of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:28: "I have given this child unto the Lord, as long as he lives he shall be given unto the Lord."
I find in the private writings of a holy man who died in this town not more than a year ago that the day before one of his children was to be baptized he spent the time in giving up himself and his child unto the Lord, and in taking hold of the covenant for both of them. He prayed that he might be able the next day, in much faith, love, and covenant obedience, do it at the baptism of the Lord. ON this he wrote, "It is not easy, though common, to offer a child unto God in baptism."
Sirs, when you have done this for your children, you have a singular advantage to plead for the fulfillment of that word upon them from Isaiah 44:3: "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon they offspring." You may go before the Lord and plead, "Lord, was not the baptismal water poured by Thy command upon my children? OH, do Thou now pour upon them the heavenly grace which that baptismal water signified." And now, no sooner let those children become able to understand it than you shall make them understand what the design of their baptism was.
Parents, I tell you now that if you let your children grow up without ever telling them that and why they were baptized into the name of the Lord, you are fearfully guilty of taking the name of the Lord in vain. It was the manner of an excellent minister, upon baptizing a child, to solemnly deliver the child into the hands of the parents with these words, "Here, I charge you to take this child now and bring it up for the Lord Jesus Christ." God from heaven speaks the same words to you, O parents, upon all your baptized children.
And, that you may bring up your children for the Lord Jesus Christ, you must, as soon as you can, let them know that in baptism they were dedicated unto Him. Show them that, when they were baptized, they were listed among the servants and soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that if they live in rebellion against Him, woe unto them! Show them from Matthew 28:19-20 that, since they are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they must observe all things whatsoever that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded them to do. Show them from Romans 6:4 that, since they are baptized, they are buried with Christ in baptism, and must live no longer in sin, but are dead unto all the vanities of the world. Show them from Galatians 3:27 that, since they are baptized, they have put on Christ and must follow His example, and be as He was in the world. Show them from 1 Peter 3:21 that, being baptized, they must now make the answer of a good conscience to all the proposals of the New Covenant.
God propounds to your baptized children, "Shall My Christ be yours, and will you be His?" To this they must conscientiously answer, "Lord, with all my heart!"
Put this very solemnly to your children, "My child, shall God the Father be your Father? Shall God the Son be your Savior? Shall God the Spirit be your Sanctifier? And are you willing to be the servant of that one God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit?" Do not leave them until their little hearts are conquered unto that for which they have been baptized. It has been the judgment of some judicious men that, if infant baptism were more improved, it would be less disputed. Oh, that it were thus improved!"
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