XVIII. The cause of infant baptism is not the actual faith of infants, of which they are no more capable than of that instruction by which the disciples of Christ are taught (Mt. 28:19). But it is both the universal command to baptize all the members of the church and the promise of the covenant made to parents and to their children equally (Acts 2:38, 39; Gen. 17*:7). The same thing must be said of the faith of covenanted infants as of their reason. Each is in them in the first act, not in the second; in the sowing, not in the harvest; in the root, not in the fruit; in the internal power of the Spirit, not in the external demonstration of work.
Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 3 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–97), 19.20.18 (p.419).
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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