Matthew Henry on Covenant Children (Acts 2:39)

Matthew Henry on what Peter was telling the Jewish audience of his sermon, where he said "the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39):

(3.) “Your children shall still have, as they have had, an interest in the covenant, and a title to the external seal of it. Come over to Christ, to receive those inestimable benefits; for the promise of the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, is to you and to your children,” Act_2:39. It was very express (Isa_44:3): I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed. And (Isa_59:21), My Spirit and my word shall not depart from thy seed, and thy seed's seed. When God took Abraham into covenant, he said, I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed (Gen_17:7); and, accordingly, every Israelite had his son circumcised at eight days old.

Now it is proper for an Israelite, when he is by baptism to come into a new dispensation of this covenant, to ask, “What must be done with my children? Must they be thrown out, or taken in with me?”

“Taken in” (says Peter) “by all means; for the promise, that great promise of God's being to you a God, is as much to you and to your children now as ever it was.”

-Matthew Henry on Acts 2:39