Thus it was for nineteen generations,--from Adam to Abraham.
When, therefore, God reestablished his church at the call of Abraham, it was no new thing to connect parents and their children in covenant promises and blessings.

It had its origin in the very nature of man.
Abraham, and the covenant made with him for all believers and their children, are, indeed, a striking illustration of a principle recognized and applied by the Most High; but the principle itself is older than Abraham,--it is coeval with the moral constitution of man.

In making a covenant with Noah, God included his children; so with David, making mention of his house, "for a great while to come." As soon, therefore, as religion was established in the earth, by securing its perpetuity through the conservative influences of one selected line of descent, the child was taken, as being the object of the covenant, and the means of its perpetuation, and received its seal.
God designed to perpetuate religion in the earth, thenceforward, chiefly by means of the parental relation; for the parent represents God to the child more than any other fellow-creature, or thing, can do,--more than any instituted influence, whether of prophet, priest, church, or ritual.

Setting up his church for all future time, with Abraham for its founder, God included children with parents who covenanted with him, as the objects of special regard and promise, and he appointed a rite to mark and seal that covenant.

Thus it was from Abraham to Christ, during three times fourteen generations.
But the day of types and symbols was succeeded by another era, in which the church of God comes forth with the glory of God risen upon her, and all the nebulous matter of types and ceremonies is gathered together into two permanent sacraments; for human nature was not beyond the need and help of outward signs.