The subject of baptism is the faithful people of God, without any distinction of nation, sex, or age. Indeed, infants of the covenanted must be baptized as equally as the infants of the covenanted were once circumcised because the promise made to Abraham and His seed, Christ having been revealed, was not diminished but enlarged through the mouth of Peter: “The promise is yours and your children’s” (Acts 2:39). In this argument St. Peter commanded each one (ἕκαστον) to be baptized (Acts 2:38). Indeed, the Israelites, who once were “near,” and the faithful from the Gentiles, who once were “far off” (Acts 2:39), are held with no distinction under the New Testament (Gal. 3:28). For the children of the faithful Gentile, notwithstanding infidelity of the other parent, are “holy” (1 Cor. 7:14). Therefore, since baptism as equally as circumcision seals that covenant for those who believe, into which their children have been received as holy, in the same right baptism is administered to these as circumcision once was to those. For Christ commanded “to make disciples and to baptize the nations,” with no distinction of age (Matt. 28:19). Therefore, those who are born in the lap of the church are fit at the age of infant to begin the institution and must be baptized as equally as their parents. Therefore, the apostles baptized whole “households” (1 Cor. 1:16). (XXII–XXVI).

J. H. Heidegger | A Concise Marrow of Christian Theology, 24.9, trans. Casey Carmichael, Classic Reformed Theology (Reformation Heritage Books, 2019), 179.

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