THE SALVATION OF INFANTS
The Signs of the Times -December 1, 1856
The doctrine of salvation by grace
alone, as held by all consistent Old School Baptists, is the only doctrine ever
published in the world that affords the least hope for the salvation of those
who die in infancy. This we propose to prove by the most clear and positive
testimony. All other doctrines represent salvation to be conditional; but the
theories of men vary much in regard to what the conditions are on which
salvation is to be secured, but all conditionalists agree that something is to
be done by the sinner, in order to secure salvation. Some assert that the
condition is faith and repentance; some that it is the giving up of our hearts
to God, while others contend that a law of righteousness must be worked out, and
“except we be circumcised and keep the law, we cannot be saved.” Some again
represent the salvation of infants of rest upon the piety of their parents, and
their work in having them baptized, or sprinkled into the pale of the church.
Perhaps the most common theory among the Arminians is, that infants are not
sinners, consequently are not lost, do not require to be saved. This last
position is generally taken by conditionalists, to avoid the inconvenience and
impracticability of showing how any infants can be saved on their conditional
plans. Hence they set forth one way for adults, and another for infants. But if
infants were not sinners, they could not die. “The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law.” “Death has passed on all men, because all have
sinned.” As Adam embodied all his posterity when he transgressed the law of God,
all the human family sinned in that transgression. “By one man’s offense death
reigned by one.” “Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men
to condemnation,” (
Admitting, then, what cannot be denied, that all infants are
conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, and that they all go astray from the womb,
speaking lies, the question arises, How can they be saved from sin, and the
consequences of sin? Divine revelation declares positively that there is but one
way. Our Lord Jesus Christ has said, “No man can come unto the Father but by
me.” “There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be
saved.” If then there is but one way whereby a sinner can be saved, and that one
way is Christ, then the notion that infants are saved by the piety, faith or
works of their parents, is swept by the board. How strange the infatuation, that
the piety and works of parents can save their infants, when neither can avail
anything in their own salvation. For salvation is “Not of works, lest any man
should boast.” As parents, therefore, cannot save their children, and God has
said, If Noah, Daniel and Job stood before him, they could neither save son nor
daughter, let us examine the conditional plan. Supposing salvation were offered
to all sinners, on condition of something to be by them performed, could the
infant perform it? Tell them that they must believe a preached gospel, repent of
their sins, make themselves a new heart and a right spirit that they must love
God, reverence, obey and worship him, that they must give up their hearts, and
that if they fail to do so, they must be damned, (for in this kind of language
all conditionalists talk and preach to adult sinners,) On that plan who could
hope for the salvation of a single infant very few, if any, even of the
Arminians, will claim that infants can be saved by their own compliance with
terms and acceptance of overtures, or even use of means.
Some contend that infants come into the
world pure and sinless, and go so far as to fix for them a period in life at
which they become accountable to God for their conduct; previous to which, they
affirm, the infant is not accountable To fix the precise time at which they
cross the line, and become responsible beings, has been a matter of grave and
perplexing deliberation among them. But in direct contradiction to this theory,
the Scriptures of truth declare that they are conceived In sin and shapen in
iniquity, and all infants and adults became accountable beings to God, as soon
as God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. To deny this, is an attempt to impeach the justice of God himself; for if
in their creation in Adam they were not accountable to God, what right had God
in justice to pass on them the judgment to condemnation, of which we read in
Romans v. 18? Did the holy and righteous God enter judgment on any that were not
accountable beings? Did, or did not death reign by one man, and from Adam to
Moses, over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s
transgression? Most certainly it did; see
First: The doctrine of eternal and personal election is
essential to salvation. We must admit this, or charge God with doing that which
was not necessary to secure the salvation of his people. For the apostle has
said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love,” (Eph. 1:3, 4). This was God’s method of
securing his object, namely, that we should be holy and without blame Arminians
may think election unnecessary to secure our holiness and blamelessness before
God, but it is enough for us to know that “So it seemed good in his sight.” And
whether men like it or not, God hath chosen us (his people) in Christ, before
the foundation of the world.
Second: As we have proven that all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and that the chosen people of God were all by nature the
children of wrath, even as others, and all were under condemnation by the law,
as sinners, therefore redemption was also indispensably necessary to our
salvation. And we are happy to find the testimony, “engraved as in eternal
brass,” that, “By one offering Christ has perfected forever them that are
sanctified.” That he has carried their sorrows, borne their grief’s, and the
chastisement of their peace was upon him, and with his stripes they are healed.
Thirdly: Regeneration is indispensable
to our salvation. “Except a man be born again he cannot see the
Election, redemption and regeneration, and every other
requisite brought to view in the gospel of our salvation, are so essential to
our salvation that in their absence, all, whether infant or adult, must forever
perish in their sins. Now let us inquire if it was or is any more difficult for
God to elect, redeem or regenerate infants than adults? Election being before
the foundation of the world, must have bean wholly of God, and in that matter
the people chosen must have been perfectly passive, “Ye have not chosen me; but
I have chosen you,” (John 15:16). Adults then could have no more to do in
effecting their election, than infants, for it is all of God, “Who hath saved
us, and called us, with an holy calling; not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began,” (2 Tim. 1:9).
Redemption also was a work in which all infants and adults
were equally passive. “For our Lord Jesus Christ is of God, (not of us) made
unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” We had no hand
in this work. He, Christ, gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Can
there then be anything in redemption better adapted to adults than infants?
Neither adults nor infants could have any agency, directly nor indirectly in
their regeneration. None are so silly as to pretend that they were the agents of
their own natural generation, and if that was impossible, is it not a still
greater impossibility that an earthly, fleshly being could beget, conceive and
bring forth immortality? That which is born of the flesh is flesh, nothing more,
but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. “It is,” says Jesus, “the Spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words which I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are life.” But generation and regeneration imply a
prior existence in a progenitor. Levi was in the loins of his great grandfather,
Abraham, when Melchisedec met him and blessed him. And all the saints were in
Christ Jesus, their spiritual immortal progenitor, when the eternal Father
blessed him, and all his saints in him, with all spiritual blessings, according
as he had chosen them in him before the foundation of the world. What agency
could infants or adults, or adults more than infants, have had in that before
the foundation of the world? But the inspired testimony of God allows no room
for caviling on this subject, for, as we have already quoted, “They were born of
incorruptible seed, by the word of God,” “Which were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but of God.”
From what we have said and proved, it appears that in all
that is essential to salvation, the subjects of it are as passive in the hands
of God as is the clay in the hands of the potter. The mightiest man that ever
trod upon the earth, is just as powerless and helpless in the matter of
salvation, as the feeblest infant that was ever inspired with human life, and
neither the one nor the other can possibly be saved by any other than by the
power of God. To all who are saved it is said, “For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast; for ye are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that ye should walk in them.”
The hope and prospect of the application of this salvation which is altogether
of God, in regard to its application to any of the children of men, is founded
on the eternal purpose purposed in himself before the world began, and not on
anything to be done by us, after the world began; and on the faithful pledge
which God has graciously given. Hence Paul says, “In hope of eternal life, which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began,” (Titus 1:2). “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.” Can any child of grace ask for more?
“Enough, my gracious God,
Let faith triumphant cry;
My heart can on this promise live,
Can on this promise die.”
We have redeemed our pledge, and proved that the doctrine of
salvation alone by grace, as held by all consistent Old School Baptists, is the
only doctrine that can possibly save infants. But still the question returns,
Are all infants saved? The answer to this inquiry God has seen proper to
withhold from us, it is not our privilege therefore to answer it. Why he has not
told us plainly, may be that from necessity on our part, we should trust the
whole matter to him. The trial of our faith is very precious, and when we are
called to give up unto his hands our little ones, our faith and confidence in
him is put to a trying test. Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away; and blessed be the name of the Lord.” David said, “I was dumb, because
thou didst it.” And our God has said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Are we
afraid to resign our infants to his hand? Why should we be? We know that he is
too wise to err, and too gracious to be unkind.
We may take another view of this
subject. Had the Lord plainly told us that all who should die in infancy should
certainly be saved, would we not beg of him to take all our infants away in that
state? But there is no saving virtue in their early death, for in their death,
as in their birth, they are passive. The bounds of their habitation, as well as
the number of their days, are with the Lord. It is infinitely better for us,
better for our infants, and more sure to promote the glory of God, that it
should be even so. The writer of this article has been called in the inscrutable
providence of God to surrender four lovely babes to him who gave them, but he
has never felt in the least uneasy about their future state. They are taken from
the evils of this mortal state. And we do believe that God can and does
regenerate infants as well as adults. That quickening power and grace which
could reach the thief on the cross, in his expiring moments, or could impart
spiritual life to John the Baptist even before he was born, can and does reach
the dying infant. Without being born of the Spirit no infant or adult can enter
into the
