Children in the Covenant: Part III

I have been extremely busy and have not had time to post. However, here is some grist for the mill from Schenck's book.

"The Reformed church has always believed, on the basis of God's immutable promise, that all children of believers dying in infancy were saved." (p. 118)

"Baptized children were to be taught and trained to believe, feel, act, and live as the children of God, not merely because it was wrong and perilous not to do so, but because failure to do this would be inconsistent with their position as members of the church." (p. 134)

"This [the classic reformed view] high conception of the promise of God and the significance of the baptism of children inculcates confidence, spiritual joy, and a high conception of God. It leads to reverent praise and thanksgiving. Furthermore it is an incentive, a stimulus to the Christian education of children. But where the truth of the covenant promise of God was forgotten, the consequence, Calvin thought, would inevitably be ingratitude to the mercy of God and negligence in the proper Christian education of children." (p. 149)