19. Quest. What is required of persons to be Baptized?
Ans. Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and Faith, whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God, &c.
20. Quest. Why then are Infants baptized, when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them?
Ans. Yes: they do perform by their Sureties, who promise and vow them both in their names.
We desire that the entring In∣fants into Gods Covenant may be more warily expressed, and that the words may not seem to found their Baptism upon a really actual Faith and Repentance of their own; and we de∣sire that a promise may not be taken for a performance of such Faith and Re∣pentance: and especially, that it be not asserted, that they perform these by the promise of their Sureties, it be∣ing to the seed of Believers that the Covenant of God is made; and not (that we can find) to all that have such believing Sureties, who are nei∣ther Parents, nor Pro-parents of the Child.
In the General Wee observe, that the Doctrine of the Sacraments which was added upon the Conference at Hampton-Court is much more fully and particularly