" The fact, too, that the blessings of the covenant of
grace are extended to the children of believing parents, is sufficient to
prove the validity of infant baptism. Peter said on the day of Pentecost,
when he called upon his hearers to be baptized: "for the promise is to you,
and your children, and all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call."
Thus His gospel excludes none, neither is it restricted to a certain age or
capacity. As the child, as well as the man, fell and died in the first
Adam, so the child, as well as the man, can be made alive in the second
Adam. As infants, therefore, are subjects of grace, why not subjects also
of baptism? As they are included in the covenant, why not enter it by the
divinely constituted sacrament of initiation? As they are included in the
plan of salvation, why not receive it in a churchly way? If Christ is the
Saviour of infants, why not bring them to Him through baptism?
Besides, the idea of following Christ reaches its full meaning only through
infant baptism. His own infancy, as we have already seen, is a warrant of
this. Without it He cannot penetrate and rule in every natural stage of
human life. Hence a denial of infant baptism is a subversion of the
fundamentals of Christian doctrine. The very constitution of the Christian
family, its unity and mission must be overthrown; for infant baptism is
incorporated with the nature of christianity itself, with the conception
and necessities of the individual Christian life, and of the Christian
family life.
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