The Half-Way Covenant of New England

The "Half-Way Covenant" was an expedient adopt­ed by New England churches in the seventeenth cen­tury to allow baptized persons of moral conduct and orthodox belief to have their children baptized but forbidding them the right to partake of the Lord's Supper. It has been the rule to baptize those infants one of whose parents was a church member. When such baptized persons grew up and married but failed to join the Church, the question arose whether their children should be baptized. This...