ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the various baptismal disputes, specifically those involving Thomas Blake, John Tombes, Cornelius Burges, Thomas Bedford and Samuel Ward. An examination of these debates will clarify Baxter's baptismal theology and provide the foundation for the analysis of his baptismal liturgy. The analysis of the liturgy itself, entitled 'The Celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism'. Thomas Blake believed that the visible church consisted of members belonging to both the inward and outward covenant, and that all such members had access to the sacrament of baptism. Baptism, however, only conditionally sealed the promise, since not all those baptized had justifying faith. Baxter, on the other hand, insisted that baptism absolutely sealed the conditional promise, and that a profession of saving faith was required to fulfill the condition. Baxter's argument with Tombes was not over the role of faith in baptism. It was an ecclesiological issue in that Baxter believed that Tombes denied infants their rightful membership within the visible church.
