Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/491

Rh believers might keep their unbelieving wives, because the children which they had by such, were (by reason that one parent was a Christian) holy; to wit, with holiness of the covenant made with the faithful and their seed. And in this respect, the children of those that are in the covenant are said to be born unto the, and to be His children. Ezek. xvi. 8. 20, 21. And so the children of the Church are called the holy seede, differing herein from the seed of other people. Ezra ix. 2, 3." Ainsworth, Censure of Dialogue of Anab. p.67.

"This holiness is believed to consist in their belonging to the Church of . For they are reckoned, as if both parents were holy. But if you ask how the sons of Christians belong to the Church or to, we answer, no otherwise than the sons of the Hebrews, because they were of the posterity of Abraham, are said to be included in the covenant of . For promised to be not only his , but the  of his seed. Gen. xvii. Therefore, our children are baptized, as those of the ancients were circumcised, because they are not to be accounted out of the Church." P. Martyr.

"Hereby is the phrenzy of the Anabaptists wholly condemned. For St. Paul has pronounced the children to be holy, on grounds of which men can judge; not from the working of faith, or election, or confession of faith, but from the promise of, which was made to Abraham and his seed; I will be thy , and of thy seed after thee; i.e., of the children who shall be born of thee. And we, in like manner, believe, that infants, born of believers, are holy; and, on that account, receive them into the Church, when offered for Baptism; yea, and offer remission of sins, which is of the promise of , who, by that administration of the Sacraments, imparts Himself and His grace to us. We, as St. Paul, do not herein look to election, which is known to only, nor confession of the lips, which infants cannot make, and which is not always true in adults, but mainly the promise of . Then we look to that of which men can judge; that, namely, children who are born of a parent who calls upon , are holy, and in the covenant of , and therefore to be baptized." Bollinger ad loc.; so also Aretius.

The distinction between the two states of our children, before and after Baptism, is, in some measure, still expressed by Pareus (one of the reformed of Germany), who well says, "In the Church, we are born not Christians regenerated, but Christians to be regenerated;" and Ainsworth, l.c. p. 60. "The infants of the Church are, by the covenant of grace, of the body of, even, as by nature, they are of the body and stock of Adam."

In presenting this parallel between the interpretations of the