But it does mean that all infants born of at least one faithful parent are holy and baptizable (and even saved, in the event of their dying in tenderest infancy). For they take their salvational status from the believing parent, whose influence over the children predominates even when the other parent is an unbeliever.
B.: But how can you claim that such little babies are already ‘saved?
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P.: Well, Christ cleanses these covenantal infants by the opera-tion of His Holy Spirit through the sanctifying parent(s), so that even the faithlessness of one of the parents cannot thwart the gracious operation of the influence of the other (faithful) parent in the lives of their infants — and particularly in the lives of such of their infants as die in infancy. That the infants and even the grandchildren of believers are not merely ‘sanctifiable (like the unbelieving spouse of a believing spouse) but actually ‘holy (like the believing child of a believing parent) — is evident. For they do not, like heathen children, have to be brought from outside the covenant into the Lord. No! As Christian children having been conceived and born inside the covenant, they are to be brought up inside the covenant “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”45
