asteroid B612

Yesterday Marlowe was baptized into the family of faith. A moment of great rejoicing in our family.

Do you acknowledge that, although our children are conceived and born in sin and therefore are subject to condemnation, they are holy in Christ, and as members of his church ought to be baptized?

Do you promise to instruct your child in the principles of our holy religion as revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and as summarized in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church; and do you promise to pray with and for your child, to set an example of piety and godliness before him, and to endeavor by all the means of God's appointment to bring him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

Marlowe didn't cry at all. He didn't make a peep the whole time except for a tiny coo once while I was still holding him. He did, however, poop right before we were supposed to go up, so no chance to change him. (Sorry, Mark) Ellis also did really well. He kept waving to the grandparents (my ILs go to the same church and my parents came up from Lancaster--about an hour and a half--for church and dinner. and one of my sisters and one my brothers were there, too). I was glad he was well-behaved and didn't do something crazy like try to knock the cup of water over. He seemed really interested. He signed "eat". I think he thought it was the Lord's Supper (though nothing was set out for it). Signing is fun, because we could talk to Ellis the whole time and explain as best we could what was happening.

My family stayed for lunch. And some friends joined us.

In the afternoon, we had cake and invited church friends to celebrate with us. It was warm with a coolish breeze. Perfect late summer afternoon.

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From the Book of Church Order
Baptism is a sacrament ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a sign and seal of the inclusion of the person who is baptized in the covenant of grace. Teaching that we and our children are conceived and born in sin, it witnesses and seals unto us the remission of sins and the bestowal of all the gifts of salvation through union with Christ. Baptism with water signifies and seals cleansing from sin by the blood and the Spirit of Christ, together with our death unto sin and our resurrection unto newness of life by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ. Since these gifts of salvation are the gracious provision of the triune God, who is pleased to claim us as his very own, we are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And since baptized persons are called upon to assume the obligations of the covenant, baptism summons us to renounce the devil, the world and the flesh and to walk humbly with our God in devotion to his commandments.

Although our young children do not yet understand these things, they are nevertheless to be baptized. For the promise of the covenant is made to believers and to their seed, as God declared unto Abraham: "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." In the new dispensation no less than in the old, the seed of the faithful, born within the church, have, by virtue of their birth, interest in the covenant and right to the seal of it and to the outward privileges of the church. For the covenant of grace is the same in substance under both dispensations, and the grace of God for the consolation of believers is even more fully manifested in the new dispensation. Moreover, our Saviour admitted little children into his presence, embracing and blessing them, and saying, "Of such is the kingdom of God." So the children of the covenant are by baptism distinguished from the world and solemnly received into the visible church.