1. Why infants ought to be baptized —
[The great argument for not baptizing infants is, that they are incapable of performing the duties of the Christian cove- nant, and therefore they ought not to have the seal of that cove- nant applied to them. Now if children had never been admitted into covenant with God at all, this argument would have had some weight. But under the Jewish dispensation they were admitted into covenant with God at eight days old ; and the seal of that covenant was applied to them. Moreover, this was done by the absolute command of God; who ordered, that a contemner of this ordinance should be cut offfxora his people. This objection therefore can be of no validity under the Chris- tian dispensation. It is further objected, that God does not particularly order children to be baptized. True, he does not ; nor was it necessary that he should : for there was no change of the persons who were to be admitted into covenant with him, but only of the rite by which they were to be admitted. If there was to be a change of the persons as well as of the rite, we might well expect that he should have revealed his will to us respecting it. But there is not one syllable in the whole New Testament that will admit of any such construc- tion : and if God has not deprived children of the honour and privilege of being admitted into covenant with him, who are We, that we should take it away from them ? By thus robbing them of their privileges, we represent Jesus Christ as less mer- ciful to children now, than he was to the children of Jewish parents : and we put an almost insurmountable obstacle in the way of the Jews ; who, though convinced of the truth of Chris- tianity, might justly keep back from embracing it, on account of their children ; seeing that, while they remain Jews, their children are partakers of the covenant; but, when they become Christians, their children are cut off from all interest in it.
Some indeed are superstitiously anxious about the early administration of this ordinance to their children, as if their salvation entirely depended upon it. That it should not be needlessly delayed we grant : but the command to circumcise the children on the eighth day sufficiently shews, that the chil- dren who died under that age, did not perish for the mere want of that ordinance : and Christian parents may be equally assured, that, if their infants die before they have been initiated into the Christian covenant by baptism, the want of that ordi- nance will not at all affect their eternal welfare. It is the avowed contempt of the ordinance, and not the providential seclusion from it, that makes us objects of God's displeasure.]
2. How baptized persons ought to live — [Though this idea has been in part anticipated, it may very properly be repeated in our practical application of the subject.