"The influence... of this sorrowful denial of the covenanted rights and privileges of children, has been, and still is, very great. For it has penetrated deeply into the ideas of almost all other branches of the church, until it may be said to predominate over their own original views. Even Presbyterians, in no inconsiderable numbers, have fallen away from the principles of our Confession of Faith, with respect to the children of the church, which are drawn purely out of the Abrahamic covenant; and are powerfully influenced, often without being aware of it, by Baptist ideas and tendencies.
Hence, instead of regarding and treating their children as presumably of the elect, instead of reckoning with covenant assurance upon the regenerating grace of God for them, and aiming thereupon to train them up in the way they should go to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they assume—a fearful responsibility!—that they are not in the church, not “in the way,” not “in the nurture.” How widely this view prevails among us, can be measured by the general currency of the expression, “to join the church,” as applied to baptized children, when they come to their first communion."
Joshua H. McIlvaine, “Covenant Education,” from The Princeton Review (April 1861) 248-249), found at sacradoctrina.blogspot.com.
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