Cotton Mather
Puritan Board Freshman
I was recently engaged in a conversation with a baptist who objected to my point about household baptism in acts as a non-sequitur. She said that no Presbyterian actually practices household baptisms, and that if a head of a household were saved, only the infants would be baptized and not the adults if unrepentant. I responded by saying that adult baptism if fundamentally different in nature than infant baptism. Infants are baptized on the basis of their federal union with their parents upon their profession of faith and inclusion into the covenant community. Adults, with the rational capabilities to make a conscious act of faith would be baptized upon their repentance and belief in the gospel. In an attempt to get a question answered let me post a hypothetical: A head of a household is saved by God later in his life. He has a 3 month old and a 15 year old. The 3 month old would obviously be baptized. Yet the 15 year old refuses the baptism, spurns the gospel, and wants nothing to do with the church in any way. Naturally, because of his rejection of the gospel he would not be baptized. Nevertheless, would this person still be considered a member of the covenant community in light of his federal union with his parents? I basically have a clue into what these answers would be, but I would love to hear some of your thoughts.