08-Jonathan Edwards, Infant Baptism and Church Membership: A Warning

In the previous article, I showed that when the original settlers
reached New England in the 1630s they were determined to set
up infant-baptising churches which consisted of regenerate
members only, and which would sustain this principle in the
future. Nevertheless, they knew that this would not be easy. They
would have to be vigilant, and remove any members that showed
they were unregenerate. Their preachers, Thomas Shepard in
particular, warned them from the pulpit and with his pen that they
would have to carry out this painful discipline if they were
maintain the original purity of their churches.