For he need not be told that the faith of parents brought blessings from the Saviour, when on earth, to their children, nor be reminded that the benefits of circumcision were bestowed on the ground of the parental relation to God.
One further illustration occurs to me of the power which resides in the sacraments themselves, in distinction from their being a testimony from us to God.

Let me call to your remembrance notices which you sometimes see, of young people going, in a frolic, before a clergyman or justice of the peace, to be married, when they intended nothing but sport, and found, afterward, that they had brought themselves into difficulty, and were legally held to be married.
You see by this that covenants do not, by any means, derive all their efficacy from the feelings of a contracting party.

Covenants and their seals are the most sacred of all human transactions, and cannot be lightly regarded, or trifled with.

God reveals himself often under the name of the God that keepeth covenant.

So that we may not set aside the sacraments, nor undervalue them.