“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body… For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.“
1 Cor. 11:28-32
“And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, ‘What mean ye by this service?’ That ye shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord‘s passover, who…'”
Ex. 12:26-27
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
1 Cor. 13:11
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Order of Contents
Articles 6+
Books 2
Quote
Latin 1
History of 2
Contrary to Westminster 1
Age & Requirements for the Supper 8+
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Articles
1500’s
Bullinger, Henry – ‘The Supper was not Instituted for Infants’ in Decades (Parker Society, 1852), 5th Decade, Sermon 9, ‘Of the Lord’s Holy Supper’, p. 426
Calvin, John
Institutes, need to get section
‘The Manner to Examine Children, Before they be Admitted to the Supper of the Lord’ in Works of John Knox, vol. 6, pp. 343-45
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1600’s
Westminster Assembly – ‘On the Conditions for Partaking of the Lord’s Supper’ April 17, 1645
Voet, Gisbert – 6th Question, ‘Is the Supper to be Granted to Infants, or to Children?’ [No] in Ecclesiastical Politics, vol. 1, book 2, tract 2, section 4, ch. 3, pp. 757-58 trans. Charles Johnson at Purely Presbyterian
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1700’s
Witsius, Herman – ‘Paedo-Communion is Unscriptural’ from Economy of the Covenants, vol. 2, 4.17, §28-32, pp. 457-59 at Purely Presbyterian
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1900’s
Bacon, Richard – ‘What Mean Ye by this service?: Paedocommunion in Light of the Passover’ (1996) 31 pp. 8 chapters
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2000’s
Schwertley, Brian – ‘Paedocommunion: a Biblical Examination’ (2008) 17 pp.
Pipa, Joey – ‘Paedocommunion: Wrong View of Membership & Sacrament’ (2013) 5 paragraphs
Pipa is the president of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Lee, Francis Nigel
‘Summary Against Paedocommunion’ (2014)
‘Catechism for Converting Paedocommunionists’ (2014) 201 Questions Note that the Catechism continues for 26 pages at the bottom.
Barth, Paul – ‘Paedo-Baptism, Yes; Paedo-Communion, No’ (2022) 34 paragraphs
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Books
1600’s
Wall, Thomas
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Quote
The Synod of Hercegszoloski 1576
Reformed Confessions of the 16th & 17th Centuries… ed. James Dennison, Jr. (RHB, 2012), vol. 3, p. 437
“43. Small children, who can neither examine themselves nor distinguish between the body of the Lord and other outward food, we do not admit to the Lord’s Table.”
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Latin
1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – 6. Question: Are Infants or Young Children to be Included [at the Table]? in Ecclesiastical Politics, vol. 1, book 2, tract 2, section 4, ch. 3, pp. 757-58
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The History of Paedocommunion
See also Voet above.
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Articles
1700’s
Waterland, Daniel – ‘An Inquiry Concerning the Antiquity of the Practice of Infant-Communion as Founded on its Notion of its Strict Necessity’ (†1740) in Appendix, pp. 75-135 in Sermons, vol. 2
Waterland (1683–1740) was an Anglican who held sacramentalist views, though here he ably surveys the history of paedocommunion.
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2000’s
Winzer, Matthew – ‘The True History of Paedo-Communion’ in Confessional Presbyterian #3 (2007), pp. 27-36
Winzer demonstrates that Paedo-Communion was an abnormal and sliver of a minority view in the early Church.
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Paedocommunion is Contrary to the Westminster Standards
Keister, Lane – ‘Exceptions Required to be Taken by Paedo-Communion Adherents’ (2009) 13 exceptions 16 paragraphs
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On a Fitting Age & Requirements for being Admitted to the Supper
Quotes
1500’s
Discipline of the Reformed Churches of France 1559
Synodicon in Gallia Reformata, vol. 1, p. xlvi
ch. 11, ‘Of Baptism’
“Canon 10. Such as present children unto baptism shall be of sufficient age, in their fourteenth year at least, and shall have communicated at the Lord’s Table; or if they be well stricken in years, and have not as yet received the blessed sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, they shall protest seriously that they will do it, and in order to it, that they will suffer themselves duly to be catechised.”
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ch. 12, ‘Of the Lord’s Supper’
“Canon 2. Children under twelve years of age shall not be admitted unto the Lord’s Table; but as for others who are above that age, it is left unto the minister’s discretion to judge whether they have sufficient knowledge to qualify them for their admission to it.”
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Scottish First Book of Discipline 1560
5th Head, The Necessity of Schools
“…the children… provided always, that first they have the form of knowledge of Christian religion: to wit, the knowledge of God’s law and commandments; the use and office of the same; the chief articles of our belief; the right form to pray unto God, the number, use, and effect of the sacraments; the true knowledge of Christ Jesus, of his office and natures, and such other [points] as without the knowledge whereof, neither deserves [any] man to be named Christian, neither ought any to be admitted to the participation of the Lord’s Table. And therefore, these principles ought and must be learned in the youth.”
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The Ninth Head, Concerning the Policy of the Church
“All ministers must be admonished to be more careful to instruct the ignorant than ready to satisfy their appetites; and more sharp in examination than indulgent, in admitting to that great mystery such as are ignorant of the use and virtue of the same. And therefore we think that the administration of the Table ought never to be without that examination pass before, especially of those whose knowledge is suspect. We think that none are apt to be admitted to that mystery who cannot formally say the Lord’s Prayer, the articles of the belief, and declare the sum of the law…
Every master of household must be commanded either to instruct, or else cause [to] be instructed, his children, servants, and family, in the principles of the Christian religion; without the knowledge whereof ought none to be admitted to the Table of the Lord Jesus. For such as are so dull and so ignorant, that they can neither try themselves, neither yet know the dignity and mystery of that action, cannot eat and drink of that Table worthily. And therefore of necessity we judge it, that every year at least, public examination be had by the ministers and elders of the knowledge of every person within the church: to wit, that every master and mistress of household come themselves, and their family (so many as are come to maturity), before the ministers and elders, to give confession of their faith, and to answer to such chief points of religion as the ministers shall demand. Such as are ignorant in the articles of their faith; understand not, nor cannot rehearse the commandments of God; know not how to pray, neither whereinto their righteousness consists, ought not to be admitted to the Lord’s Table.”
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Church of Scotland, General Assembly 1570
The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland… ed. Peterkin (Edinburgh, 1839), July 1570, 21st General Assembly, p. 121, top
“Anent the trial of young children, and how they are brought up by their parents in the true religion of Jesus Christ: it is ordained that ministers and elders of kirks shall, universally within this realm, take trial and examine all young children within their parochines [parishes] that are come to nine years, and that for the first time; thereafter, when they are come to twelve years for the second time; the third time, to be examined when they are of fourteen years, wherethrough it may be known what they have profited in the school of Christ from time to time.”
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1600’s
David Calderwood
The Perth Assembly… (1619), p. 89
“The Reformed churches observe the same order in admitting to the Lord’s table, either the children of Christians, or strangers from other parts: they admit them not but with prayers and after due examination of their knowledge, and personal profession of the known truth.
The Church of Scotland at the first reformation ordained that children should be examined for the first time at the ninth year of their age; for the second, at the twelfth, for the third at the fourteenth, and since has practiced continual examination in the catechetical doctrine with prayers reiterate, for their growth in knowledge and sanctification; and without sufficient trial they were not admitted to the Lord’s Table.”
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William Bucanus
Institutions of the Christian Religion trans. Robert Hill (London, 1606), Locus 47, ‘Who are to be Baptized?’, pp. 720-1
“Then, because to whomsoever the promise appertains, to them also belongs the sign, as therefore baptism is bestowed upon infants, is likewise the Supper of the Lord to be administered unto them?
Certain of the fathers have thought so, as Cyprian (Sermon 5, De Lapsis [Of Falls]) and Augustine (Lib. de Eccle. dogmat., ch. 52), being moved by these words, Jn. 6:53, ‘Except ye shall eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you.’
But we deny the consequent. For this place speaks not of a sacramental eating, but of a spiritual eating, or of faith, by which the faithful are quickened, which are annexed unto Christ, who offered his body and shed his blood for us. And by this means the flesh of Christ is made unto us meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed.
Secondly, that to whomsoever the promise appertains, to them also belongs the sign, is true, but according to the divine determination, appropriated to every sacrament: to wit, so that the sacrament of ingrafting be bestowed as well upon infants as those of years, but upon male children only, and that not before the eighth day, in the old Testament: but in the new, both to the male and female without any prefixed time. But the sacrament of nourishment to them of years only, and that for a certain peculiar end, and the diversity of the circumstance of the action.
So the Eucharist hath his proper end, that the death of the Lord should be declared in the public congregation in the using thereof. It is also commanded, that everyone which comes to the Lord’s Supper should examine himself: yea and peculiar actions belong to the external rite, to wit, to eat and to drink, which are not fit for little children. So under the Old Testament circumcision was appointed for infants but the Passover to them only which by reason of their age were able to ask of the signification thereof. Hereupon came those vulgar verses:
‘Ebrius, infamis, erroneus, atque furentes,
Cum pueris, Domini non debent sumere corpus.’
‘To drunkards and thin-famous sort, to men misled and mad:
To children, Christ’s body to give, it were an action bad.’”
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Gisbert Voet
6th Question, ‘Is the Supper to be Granted to Infants, or to Children?’ [No] in Ecclesiastical Politics, vol. 1, book 2, tract 2, section 4, ch. 3, pp. 757-58 trans. Charles Johnson
“As concerning children, we cannot bind all to the same measure of age. For there are some in whom spiritual knowledge, study and zeal for piety, and grave and well-ordered morals supply the defect of years. Yet it is not in the least to be approved that each and all alike, after the age of fourteen, initiated with the sacrament of confirmation (according to the Papists)… are received to communion.”
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1700’s
William Steuart of Pardovan – bk. 2, Title 4, ‘Of the Lord’s Supper’, section 2, p. 97 in Collections & Observations Concerning the Worship, Discipline & Government of the Church of Scotland… (Edinburgh, 1770)
“Those who are to be admitted to this sacrament must be found to have a competent knowledge of the fundamentals of the Christian religion, and to be of such an inoffensive walk and conversation, both towards God and their neighbors, that they are not known to be guilty of any scandal that merits church-censure. By the 12th chapter of the French Church Discipline, article 2, persons shall not be admitted to the Lord’s Supper till they be above twelve years of age. But I am sure, if children at nine years of age can express themselves piously and knowingly, showing that they have the grace signified and promised, the seal of the promise cannot warrantably be denied unto them.”
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Article
Westminster Assembly – ‘On the Conditions for Partaking of the Lord’s Supper’ April 17, 1645 in House of Commons Journal, vol. 4 (1644-1646) (Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1802), 17 April 1645, pp. 113-15
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On the Jewish Practice
“He [Judah ben Tema, fl. mid-second century AD] used to say: At five years of age the study of Scripture; At ten the study of Mishnah; At thirteen subject to the commandments; At fifteen the study of Talmud; At eighteen the bridal canopy; At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood];”
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“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom… Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.”
Lk. 2:40-42
“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.”
1 Cor. 14:14-17
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
2 Cor. 13:5
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