Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…

But this is injurious to Infants, and against the will of God, and hath more inconveniences than benefits. (Though for my part, as much as I have wrote against them, I wish that it were in the Church now, as it was in the days of Tertullian, Nazianzen, and Austin, where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism, but all left to their own time: For then some (as Augustine, &c.) were baptized at full Age, and some in Infancy.) The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy; which is, That by the due performance of Confirmation, there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership, into the state of Adult Church-Membership; and due qualifications therein required: and that the unfit may, till then, be left inter Auditors, without the Privileges proper to Adult Members; of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation.

But this is injurious to Infants, and against the will of God, and hath more inconveniences than benefits. (Though for my part, as much as I have wrote against them, I wish that it were in the Church now, as it was in the days of Tertullian, Nazianzen, and Austin, where no man was compelled to bring his Infants to Baptism, but all left to their own time: For then some (as Augustine, &c.) were baptized at full Age, and some in Infancy.) The second therefore is the only just and safe Remedy; which is, That by the due performance of Confirmation, there may be a Soleman Transition out of the state of Infant Church-Membership, into the state of Adult Church-Membership; and due qualifications therein required: and that the unfit may, till then, be left inter Auditores, without the Priviledges proper to Adult Members; of which I have fully written in my Book of Confirmation.

26. Another Advantage which I found to my Success was, by ordering my Doctrine to them in a suitableness to the main end, and yet so as might suit their Dispositions and Diseases. The thing which I daily opened to them, and with greatest importunity laboured to imprint upon their minds, was the great Fundamental Principles of Christianity contained in their Baptismal Covenant, even a right knowledge, and belief of, and subjection and love to, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and Love to all Men, and Concord with the Church and one another: I did so daily inculcate the Knowledge of God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, and Love and Obedience to God, and Unity with the Church Catholic, and Love to Men, and Hope of Life Eternal, that these were the matter of their daily Cogitations and Discourses, and indeed their Religion. And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance, and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know, and do not show that they excel them in Knowledge, and easily over-top them in Abilities, the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise as they; and they will be apt to contemn their Teachers, and wrangle with all their Doctrines, and set their Wits against them, and hear them as Censurers, and not as Disciples, to their own undoing, and to the disturbance of the Church; and they will easily draw Disciples after them: The bare Authority of the Clergy will not serve the turn, without over-topping Ministerial Abilities). And I did this also to increase their Knowledge; and also to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their former Light, and to draw them on with desire and Delight. But these things which they did not know before, were not unprofitable Controversies which tended not to Edification, nor Novelties in Doctrine contrary to the Universal Church; but either such Points as tended to illustrate the great Doctrines before-mentioned, or usually, about the right methodizing of them.