Naturally, therefore, this sign and seal belongs only to those who are the Lord’s. Or, to put it rather in the positive form, this sign and seal belongs to all those who are the Lord’s. There are no distinctions of race or station, sex or age; there is but one prerequisite—that we are the Lord’s. What it means is just this and nothing else: that we are the Lord’s. What it pledges is just this and nothing else: that the Lord will keep us as his own. We need not raise the question, then, whether infants are to be baptized. Of course they are, if infants, too, may be the Lord’s. Naturally, as with adults, it is only the infants who are the Lord’s who are to be baptized; but equally naturally as with adults, all infants that are the Lord’s are to be baptized. Being the Lord’s they have a right to the sign that they are the Lord’s and to the pledge of the Lord’s holy keeping. Circumcision, which held the place in the old covenant that baptism holds in the new, was to be given to all infants born within the covenant. Baptism must follow the same rule. This and this only can determine its conference: Is the recipient a child of the covenant, with a right therefore to the sign and seal of the covenant? We cannot withhold the sign and seal of the covenant from those who are of the covenant. Read More»

B. B. Warfield | 1920 | (HT: Kim Riddlebarger)

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• Origen: The Early Church Received The Practice Of Infant Baptism From The Apostles

Post authored by:

• B. B. Warfield

  

  B. B. Warfield (1851–1921) was a scholar of the New Testament, textual criticism, historical theology, and systematic theology. He studied at what would become Princeton University and abroad, taught at Western Theological Seminary for nine years, and then at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was one of the most important exponents of Reformed theology in American history.

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