Presumptive Regeneration, or, the Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants

by Cornelius Burges

“So far is it said of us that we should teach that baptism effecteth nothing upon infants until they come to age; that on the contrary, we know that the effect of baptism, which is performed immediately by God himself, (sometimes) goes before the very celebration of baptism: therefore we say that, either then there is some effect in truth and indeed, when the sacrament is administered; or else there will never follow after any at all, that is, then our sins are truly remitted, and our adoption made sure to us: but all this, morally,” and not by virtue of any inherent force in the outward signs to convey those graces naturally to the receiver by virtue of the outward act performed in such manner as the virtue that is in a potion conveys itself necessarily to the expelling of corrupt humors out of that body into which it is received. This physical efficacy, as they term it, is a thing which both he and all sound divines professedly disclaim. To make an end with this author, he allows an efficacy, we see, and expounds himself to mean only a moral efficacy.