(3). It appears, that the infant-seed of believers, are to be consecrated or devoted to God in baptism, because they are included in the covenant wherein God has promised that he will be a God to his people, and to their seed; who are, upon this account, styled _holy_ Ezra. ix. 2. And it is said concerning Israel, that _they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their off-spring with them_, Isa. lxv. 23. the _branch_ is said to be _holy_, together with _the root_, Rom. xi. 16. and _the children of the promise are counted for the seed_, chap. ix. 8. that is included in that covenant in which God promised that he would be a God to children, together with their parents, as he says to Abraham; _I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and to thy seed after thee, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee_, Gen. xvii. 7. And, in this sense, I think, we are to understand the apostle’s words, in 1 Cor. vii. 14.[74] _The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife by the believing husband; else were your children unclean, but now are they holy._ By these, and other expressions of the like-nature, we are not to understand the special saving grace of regeneration and sanctification; for that is not a privilege that descends from parents to children by birth, as our Saviour says, _We are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God_, John i. 13. Therefore, when some, who are on the other side of the question, think that we intend hereby the saving blessings of the covenant, or that holiness which is an internal qualification or meetness for heaven, they do not rightly understand our meaning. Some, indeed, may have given occasion to conclude that they intend this, who speak of the grace of regeneration as conferred in baptism; and assert, that it intitles persons to salvation, if they happen to die before they are adult: Whereas, if afterward they appear to be in an unconverted state, by the wickedness of their conversation, they are said to fall from that grace. This is what I do not well understand; nor do I intend, when I speak of the infants of believers as an holy seed, that they are all internally regenerate or sanctified from the womb; but they are included in the external dispensation of the covenant of grace; which must be reckoned a greater advantage than if they had descended from Indians, who are strangers to it.