# Thomas Goodwin on the admission of children to the sign of the covenant



## Reformed Covenanter (May 4, 2020)

These Things were so plain to the Jews in the Old Testament, that they made no question but that in the New Testament the Children should be admitted as the Parents were: Therefore you read little of the Baptism of the Infants; but it was clear, that if the Fathers and their Seed were then received into the Covenant by the Seal of Circumcision, (Col. ii. 11, 12.) then in the New Testament the were to be received by the Seal of Baptism; so that in the New Testament you read of nothing but of the joining and gluing to the Church; and as Man and Wife were joined by Marriage Covenant, so were they joined together by Covenant in Church-Fellowship. ...

For the reference, see Thomas Goodwin on the admission of children to the sign of the covenant.

N.B. While I did not agree with everything in Thomas Goodwin's book on church government, especially in relation to national churches and the authority of synods (he was a Congregationalist), there was still a lot of good material in it. Another useful reminder that an "all or nothing" approach to such things is a foolish one.


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