Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

(1) The position of our confessional standards. The Belgic Confession declares in Art.
XXXIV that infants of believing parents “ought to be baptized and sealed with the sign
of the covenant, as the children of Israel formerly were circumcized upon the same
promises which are made to our children.” The Heidelberg Catechism answers the
question, “Are infants also to be baptized?” as follows: “Yes, for since they, as well as
adults, are included in the covenant and Church of God, and since both redemption
from sin and the Holy Spirit, the Author of faith, are through the blood of Christ
promised to them no less than to adults, they must also by baptism, as a sign of the
covenant, be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of
unbelievers, as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, instead of
which baptism was instituted in the new covenant.” 55 And the Canons of Dort contain
the following statement in I, Art. 17: “Since we are to judge of the will of God from His
Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature, but in virtue
of the covenant of grace, in which they together with their parents are comprehended,
godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom it
pleases God to call out of this life in their infancy (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39; I Cor. 7:14).”
These statements of our confessional standards are entirely in line with the position of
Calvin, that infants of believing parents, or those who have only one believing parent,
are baptized on the basis of their covenant relationship. 56 The same note is struck in our
Form for the Baptism of Infants: “Since, then, baptism has come in the place of
circumcision, the children should be baptized as heirs of the Kingdom of God and of
His covenant.” It will be observed that all these statements are based on the
commandment of God to circumcize the children of the covenant, for in the last analysis
that commandment is the ground of infant baptism. On the basis of our confessional
standards it may be said that infants of believing parents are baptized on the ground
that they are children of the covenant, and are as such heirs of the all-comprehensive
covenant-promises of God, which include also the promise of the forgiveness of sins
and the gift of the Holy Spirit unto regeneration and sanctification. In the covenant God
makes over to them a certain grant or donation in a formal and objective way, requires
of them that they will in due time accept this by faith, and promises to make it a living
reality in their lives by the operation of the Holy Spirit. And in view of this fact the
Church must regard them as prospective heirs of salvation, must regard them as under
obligation to walk in the way of the covenant, has the right to expect that, under a
faithful covenant administration, they, speaking generally, will live in the covenant, and
55 Lord’s Day XXVII, Q. 74.
56 Inst. IV. 16:6,15.
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