The Bremen Delegation at the Synod of Dordt on the Baptism of Slave Children

Translated from Early Sessions of the Synod of Dordt (V&R, 2018), pgs. 140-46.

[Authors: Matthias Martinius; Heinrich Isselburg; Ludwig Crocius]

JUDGMENT OF THE BREMEN THEOLOGIANS CONCERNING THE BAPTISM OF CHILDREN WHO WERE BORN TO PAGAN PARENTS AND ADOPTED INTO CHRISTIAN FAMILIES

The question proposed to the national Synod by the Amsterdam church, given on November 20/30, session 17, is this: Whether children born of pagan parents and now adopted into Christian families should be baptized, if those who offer them for baptism pledge that they will educate them, or ensure that they are educated, in the Christian religion.

I. To respond to this succinctly and clearly, we judge that three things must be carefully distinguished: 1. The children of pagans; 2. The method of adopting them into Christian families; 3. The pledge concerning their instruction and education in the Christian religion.

II. Regarding the children of pagans, it must be considered whether they are capable of Christian doctrine, or incapable, and if incapable, whether this is due to a defect of nature or of persons. Of nature, such as infant age and lethal illness, through which the years of understanding are despaired of. Of persons, such as the defect of the senses of teaching, which they call hearing and sight, or of speech, or of the use of reason, as is the case in fools and the mentally impaired, whose understanding and instruction cannot be hoped for.

III. Then, the method of adopting pagan children into Christian families can be twofold due to human vice, namely legitimate and illegitimate.

IV. The legitimate method has various titles. For one is of donation, another of purchase, another of occupation.

V. Children of pagans are adopted by donation when they are given by parents or masters who are about to die or by those who will survive.

VI. By purchase, when slaves are acquired by Christians with money or merchandise, and at any just price.

VII. By occupation of those abandoned by parents or masters, or orphans, or those acquired by right of war.

VIII. The illegitimate method of adoption is violent or fraudulent.

IX. Thirdly, in the pledge, three things must be especially considered: who can and should make it, to whom it should be made, and how it should be carried out.

X. To whom, namely, whether they are bound to pledge only to the ministers of the Word who administer baptism, or also to the elders of the church, or even to the whole church in which the child is to be baptized? Moreover, should the church be publicly educated on this matter beforehand?

XI. By whom it should be pledged. Should the commitment be made by anyone who claims to be Christian, or should it be limited to individuals who are well-established in the community, hold positions of respect, and have demonstrated exceptional faith and moral character? Should we require sponsors whose dedication, intentions, abilities, and means to raise and educate the child to be baptized are beyond question?

XII. How the pledge should be made, namely, should it be the customary pledge accepted in churches, which binds Christian sponsors, or should it be a more specific and solemn commitment? Should it be such that the preachers, elders, and civil authorities hold the sponsors particularly accountable, so that if they happen to neglect their promised duty, they may not only be reminded of it but also be sternly commanded to keep their given word? After all, they already owe this voluntary service to these children by promise. For this reason, should the names of the sponsors, along with the necessary details, be recorded by the ministers in a specific church register and index?

XIII. These things being thus properly distinguished and considered in advance, the whole matter is determined in this manner:

1. Children of pagans legitimately adopted into a Christian family, who are capable of Christian doctrine, should be instructed before they are baptized, according to the most universal institution of Christ, namely, the command and promise in Matthew 28 and Mark 16.

2. If there are those in this group who are unable to learn due to a natural deficiency related to age, but this deficiency is accompanied by good health and the prospect of a long life, they should be nourished and cared for until they reach the age of reason and judgment. From their earliest years, as the saying goes, they should be instilled with the rudiments of truth that accord with piety, as if with pure milk. When they become capable of professing their faith and promising to strive and persevere in piety, they should be earnestly and devoutly encouraged to do so. Once they have demonstrated their faith and obedience to the church, it appears appropriate to initiate them into holy baptism in a timely and public manner.

3. If any of these individuals are unable to comprehend doctrine due to a severe and terminal illness, their masters and owners should bring them to Christ through baptism in the same manner as their own children. For their dying children, they rightly seek the external sign of the gracious covenant. Although these are not their natural parents, the law has made them as such, requiring them to provide, to the best of their ability, everything that contributes to both temporal and eternal well-being. Indeed, if all the vows made by those under the authority of the head of the household are considered valid or void based on his authority and judgment, why shouldn't the baptismal vow and promise that he makes for the one to be baptized, either personally or through others, be considered valid?

4. Those who are unsuited and incapable of learning doctrine due to personal limitations, such as being mute, deaf, or lacking rational faculties, should be baptized just as those born to Christian parents. This is appropriate because we do not despair of their salvation, we do not expect prudence and learning from them, and because, although not by nature, they have legally become part of the Christian family.

5. Regarding those received as gifts from now-deceased parents or pagan masters: if they are capable of learning, they should first be instructed, then baptized at an appropriate time, lest they be drawn back to worldly ways from the truth they have acknowledged, while lacking this spiritual motivation. If they are incapable of learning, they should be baptized immediately as if they were one’s own children. However, if those who gifted them to us are still alive, we must earnestly strive for their edification through the baptism and instruction of these individuals. If they live where they can be contacted, they should be notified beforehand. For if we have their consent, there is no risk of scandal, and indeed, it presents an excellent opportunity for the parents, along with their children, to be welcomed into the Christian church.

6. Those who have been justly purchased or legally acquired, if they are capable of learning, should first be taught. If they are incapable, they should be baptized and instructed in piety when they become able.

7. None should be seized and dragged to baptism by our teachers violently or fraudulently in the manner of the Papists. For the worship of God should be free from all violence and fraud.

8. It will be beneficial for the pledge of diligent instruction of gentile children in Christian piety and religion to be made not only to the ministers and church elders, but to the entire congregation where the child will be baptized. This should be preceded by a solemn reminder. The promise should be made not by just anyone professing to be Christian, but by those who are well-known, respected, and have an outstanding reputation for faith and life. There should be no doubt about their intentions, will, purpose, abilities, and resources required for Christian education and instruction. We suggest that this promise should not be ordinary, but special and more formal. The preachers, elders, and civil authorities should consider the sponsors particularly obligated. If the sponsors neglect their promised duty, they should not only be reminded but also strongly encouraged, urged, and compelled to fulfill it. Since they already owe this voluntary service to these children, the ministers should record their names along with relevant details in a register specifically created for this purpose.

XIV. Among others, we have these reasons for this judgment:

1. God’s command and the example of Abraham applied here by just analogy. For he circumcised, at the Lord’s command, not only those born in his house, but also those bought and foreigners who were counted as part of his family, Genesis 17:11–13. God’s words are thus: “You shall circumcise the foreskin of your member, which shall be a sign of the covenant struck between me and you, and you shall do this on the eighth day after birth, for males of every kind, whether born in the house or bought with silver and foreigners, from any other race than yours, so that with all circumcised, both those born at home and those acquired with money, your bodies may be marked with the sign of this my everlasting covenant.” And in the argument of verses 20–26, both those with whom God made no covenant and those with whom he did are said to be circumcised.

2. It is the duty of masters to bring their servants to God and Christ in every way that they can.

3. God’s law demands that we love our neighbor as ourselves.

4. Thus, we fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah 2 and 55, Joel 2, Obadiah, and similar ones.

5. If they are not baptized, or at least prepared for baptism, their presence in Christian households will be a cause for stumbling.

6. The shared experience of baptism will serve as motivation for our people to work more diligently in instructing those they have taken responsibility for in the Christian faith.

7. If it was permitted in the Old Testament to make proselytes, much more so in the New Testament, where God proclaims to all people that everyone everywhere should repent, Acts 17.

XV. But here also some objections that seem to militate against the determination of the proposed question must be briefly dealt with and resolved.

Objection 1

All who are to be baptized are from the number of Christ’s disciples or are called. But those children of Gentiles are not from the number of Christ’s disciples.

The response to the minor premise:

1. All people, Jews and Gentiles, should become disciples of Christ in the New Testament, Acts 17.

2. Those who have been adopted into the family of Christians and religious people are already beginning to be disciples of Christ, which is also a kind of calling into the kingdom and church of Christ.

Objection 2

Whoever is to be baptized, they are in God’s covenant of grace. The children of unbelievers are not such, namely those who are born of both pagan parents.

Response: The major premise should be explained in this sense, that those to be baptized are either born in the church, and thus by the very mark of birth are under the covenant (insofar as God promises to be God to the faithful parent and his seed, even if they are impure by original sin), or others born outside the church are called into it, and under the paternal authority of Christians obtain the dignity of Christian children and family members. Such also were the foreigners in Abraham’s house. Moreover, someone is said to be in the covenant of grace just as in the church, either externally only, or internally and externally at the same time. Hence it now appears that the minor premise is denied.

Objection 3

But, you might say, they cannot be called “holy,” even in the sense of 1 Corinthians 7:14.

Response: They are not holy by nature, nor by origin from a Christian family; they may even be not yet regenerated. But it is enough that they have begun to be holy insofar as they have been separated from the impure pagan way of life and have come under the hand of the saints and members of God’s household, who embrace them with paternal faith and charity, endeavoring to the best of their ability to educate them in the fear of God and faith in Christ.

Objection 4

It may also seem that Christ’s order is being reversed, since he commands unbelieving people to be taught before being baptized in Matthew 28.

Response: The solution to this objection is clear from the determination of the aforementioned question. Those who can be taught should certainly be taught first. However, those who are unable to learn are received into the faith of the doctrine that will follow through the piety of those who act as spiritual fathers in this situation, similar to how Jews refer to “fathers of the covenant.”

Objection 5

But thus it will seem that Christ’s grace pertains to all.

Response: And it does pertain to all who are brought to him and believe in him, without respect to race or persons, Acts 10.

Objection 6

No example is read in the Holy Scriptures of either circumcision or baptism being conferred on those infants or children whose parents remained unbelievers.

Response: It is not necessary for such examples to be written, but it is enough that a rule exists from which this case can be judged. This is found in Genesis 17 and has been applied above.

Objection 7

Scandal in this matter is to be feared if those lightly received fall away from the Christian faith.

Response:

1. They should not be received lightly, but circumspectly and religiously, with a conscience sufficiently informed by the Word of God.

2. Scandals which arise by accident will not delay the duties of piety.

3. The danger can be blocked through confirmation, by which those who are older may repeat and strengthen the vow made in baptism.

By this confirmation we understand that when these proselytes have been baptized, around the 12th or 13th year (which custom, though not bad, the Jews observe today even in a bad matter, and indeed Christians in some places in Germany observe in a good matter), they should be solemnly reminded by the minister of the Word and the sponsors, and other religious men, of the seal of baptism once received, with an exhortation to constancy in faith, a grave threat of God’s wrath if they look back to the world and return, and violate the faith once given to God and the church, moreover with an admonition that they themselves, having been converted, should also have the zeal and care to convert others and gain them for Christ. Thus, truly, they are confirmed in preserving Christianity with a solemn stipulation.

Objection 8

It could be further objected that this counsel nurtures in people’s minds a superstitious opinion about the precise necessity of baptism.

Response:

1. The Word and sacraments are indeed to be greatly valued, not only as signs of God’s grace, but also as seals and instruments through which the Holy Spirit is effective.

2. Therefore, the external means of salvation are not to be neglected by us when they are available. Meanwhile, God’s freedom in operating is to be left to him. Superstition and idolatry, by which they are corrupted, are to be wisely removed through true and full instruction.

XVI. Nevertheless, many issues arise here about which one cannot or should not make definitive pronouncements, especially if one does not have a full and detailed understanding of the state of the church seeking advice, or if much of it remains unknown. Rather, these matters are rightly left to the piety, experience, wisdom, and skill of the ministers of the Word, and other good and God-fearing men in that church, who can do everything for building up, and nothing for tearing down.

These things are stated with respect to the better judgments of others.