The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q95. To whom is Baptism to be administered?
A. Baptism is not
to be administered to any that are out of the visible church,—
till they profess their faith in Christ,
and obedience to Him;[1]
but the infants of such as are members
of the visible church are to be baptise.[2]
[1] Acts 8:36–37; 2:38;
[2] Acts 2:38–39; Genesis 17:10 cf. Colossians 2:11ם12; 1 Corinthians 7:14.
Since baptism is a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace, it follows that only those who are members of the Visible Universal Church, i.e., those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, may be baptised (Mk 16:15–16; Acts 8:36–37; 2:38). Unbelievers, as such, ought not to be baptised until, upon the preaching of the Gospel unto them, they repent and believe, and make profession of their faith and resolution of obedience. When they do so, they become members of the Visible Universal Church of Christ, and though there is a possibility that they may not in fact be members of the Invisible Universal Church, the local church has the warrant to treat them as such (seeing she cannot see the heart of anyone) and therefore she has the warrant to baptise them to ratify their membership in the visible Body of Christ.
Now, infants do not have the ability to profess faith, and yet our Catechism
teaches us that they can be baptised. How is this so? In the first place,
remember that baptism signifies not the faith of the person being baptised but
the inward grace bestowed upon the person. Remember how the water of baptism
symbolises the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ. It is an error to think
of baptism merely as a means of declaring one’s faith publicly. Paul was
baptised by Ananias before he joined the church (Acts 9:17, 26)! In the second
place, the infants of Christians or believing parents, being visible church
members, may and ought to be baptised. Just as all who profess faith (though
not necessarily elect or regenerated) are to be regarded by the church as being
members of the visible church and represented by Christ in the Covenant of
Grace, so children of believers, though not necessarily elect or regenerated
(since only “children of the promise” [Rom 9:8] are elect), are to be regarded
by the church as members of the Visible Universal Church and represented by
Christ in the Covenant of Grace. Peter makes this point in his inaugural sermon
when he told the congregation: “For the promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call” (Acts 2:39).
It was for the same reason that God commanded that infants of Jewish families,
under the Old Testament, be circumcised (Gen 17:7, 10). Since the covenant
under which they were circumcised is the same Covenant of Grace for which
baptism is a sign and seal (see Galatians 3:29; Hebrews 6:17–18), and baptism
has replaced circumcision as the rite of membership ratification in the church,
it follows that New Covenant infants are to be baptised in infancy.
Although there is no clear statement in the New Testament that infants are to
be baptised or were baptised, there is every indication that it was the
practice in the early church for: (1) the privilege of infant membership in the
church, which was accorded to children of believers by circumcision, has never
been repealed; (2) there are many records of household baptism in the New Testament
(Acts 4:4; 16:15; 16:33; 1 Cor 1:16); (3) Paul points out that the Corinthians
knew their infants to be holy (1 Cor 7:14). How did they know except that their
infants were baptised just as the Jewish infants were regarded as holy because
of circumcision.