BAPTISM, INFANT. The New Testament is silent upon this subject. The biblical argument in its favor is confessedly inferential. Starting generally from the institution of the family. it points out the fact that the ancient system of the Old Testament included children with their par ents in the same covenant, of which circumcision was the seal. It declares that the same essential relations of covenant remain under the New Testament. And it, therefore, argues the pro priety of a similar seal, which it finds in bap tism. This is, it is true, an ordinance of 'faith,' but no more so than was circumcision (Rom. iv. 11), which was indisputably applied to chil dren. Silence about it is as natural as the long silence of the Old Testament about circumcision, whereas discussion would have been aroused if no seal of the new covenant had been provided to take the place of the old. Equally inferential is the argument against it. This starts from the proposition that baptism is a profession of faith (Acts ii. 38), and since faith is impossible to in fants, denies the appropriateness of their bap tism. Irentrus in the early Church gives ex plicit testimony of infant baptism, as does a letter of Saint Cyprian and 64 bishops in council assembled. By the tune of Tertullian it was evidently in general use.
The development of infant baptism in the Church is closely connected with the development of the idea of the necessity of baptism to salva tion. The Second Century generally ascribed three effects to baptism: Forgiveness of all pre vious sins, communication of the Holy Spirit, and the impartation of a living power carrying immortality with it. The tendency was to as cribe this efficiency to the baptism as an external transaetion. Faith was not forgotten, but was left unadjusted to this really inconsistent prem ise. Hence the argument went unhindered for ward to the assertion of baptismal regeneration. lint if regeneration was effected by baptism, bap tism is necessary to salvation. And hence in fants, so many of whom die in infancy, must be baptized if they are to be saved. The entire Christian Church was soon united upon this rea soning.
Two tendencies were soon marked. The Greek Church emphasized more the effect of baptism upon the future, the impartation to the child of tLme gift of immortality, and the implanting in him of spiritual power. The Latin Church looked back rather upon the past, and hence baptism was held to effect the forgiveness of original sin.
The turning-point in the history of the subject was made by the teachings of Augustine. While there are two distinct periods in his doctrine, he is steadily more and more influenced by his doctrine of the Church. Membership in the visi ble Church is viewed by him as necessary to the reception of grace, and so to salvation. There fore baptism, as the door of the Church, is neees sary to salvation. It is the sacrament of regen eration. At first, Augustine taught that only actual sins were forgiven in baptism, but later he said that the guilt of original sin was also forgiven. Conversion, however, is necessary as well as baptism, and in his earlier treatises there is a degree of liberality in asserting the saving power of the former where the latter was invol untarily omitted. Later the necessity of baptism was more uncompromisingly asserted. Children must therefore be baptized. and in their ease re generation is wrought in baptism by the faith of the whole Church. While unbaptized children do not gain eternal bliss, they suffer no punishment.
At the Reformation the effort was made to ex tricate the doctrine from the externalism which had become fixed and intensified in the Roman Church, and to give a due place to the idea of faith. Luther held that faith was wrought in children; that faith innst come later to perfect the sacrament. The Anabaptists, who sought the most radical reform of theChurch upon the basis of the New Testament alone, re jected infant baptism as not mentioned in Scrip ture and inconsistent with the requirement of faith. The same view of the subject arose among the radical element of the English Reformation, the Congregationalists, who divided in Holland upon this issue. Some of them, returning in 1611. formed the first Baptist Church in London. (See 11.tyrisTs.) The large extension of the Bap• tists in the United States and their constant ex position of their position against infant baptism has led to a considerable neglect of it in de nominations that still maintain and generally practice it. The necessity of baptism to salva tion is now maintained only by the Roman ('atholie Church and by the saeramentarian party of the Lutheran and English churches.
Consult the books mentioned under Barnsm, to which add the classical work W. Wall. History of Infant Baptism (me, Oxford, 1862, 2 vols.).