BAPTISM, INFANT. The chief arguments in favor of infant B. are based upon the proposition that the church is one throughout all changes of dispensation. From this it is argued that as infants were, so they still must be included in the visible church. It is maintained that in all covenants which God has made with men, their children have been included; that the covenant with Abraham was a renewed revelation of the cove nant of grace, the temporal promises made to him being connected with the greatest spiritual promises; that circumcision was a seal of the covenant with respect to these, in which the children of Christians have the same interest that Jewish children had; and that B. is a seal of the covenant now as circumcision was, the things to which it has immediate reference being also blessings which children are capable of It is contended that the arguments in favor of infant salvation derive additional strength from that view of the place of infants in the church according to which they are entitled to baptism. The passages which connect B. with faith are regarded as exclusively relating to adults, like the passages which connect salvatiou with faith and repentance. In reply to the argument that there is no express command for infant B., it is argued that
the state of the case rather demands of those who oppose it the production of an express command against it, without which the general command must be held to include it; the words and actions of our Saviour (Mark x. 14) with respect to children are quoted as confirming the opinion that the place of infants in the church is precisely what it was under the Jewish dispensation; and it is contended that it would have been a very great restriction of privilege in the new dispensation if infants had been excluded from a place which they beld before, as entitled to a seal of the covenant, whereas it is evident that the new dispensation is characterized not by restriction but by enlargement of privilege.—Those who hold the doctrine of infant B. are styled Pedobaptists.
The Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches regard the B. of infants as admitting them into the church, and making them members of Christ's body. The reformed (q.v.) churches hold that the children of Christians are included in the visible church from their birth, and therefore entitled to baptism. These are the natural starting-points of very different systems.