07-Glass Eyes and Wooden Legs in 17th Century New England

Infant baptisers always have to face the issue – the problem – of church membership. Of course, if they grossly abuse the parable of the tares (Matt. 13:24-30), the problem seems to disappear. They just end up with what they think is right: ‘mixed churches’ comprising believers and unbelievers. They expect – and their system produces – churches which are composed of members, some of whom are regenerate and baptised as babies, some of whom are adults who have been baptised as babies but are unregenerate, and some of whom are baptised babies but who give no evidence one way or the other concerning regeneration. What a mixed multitude! This inevitably leads on to the idea of visible churches. The Westminster Confession, Chapter XXV, puts it this way: ‘The visible church... consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children’