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EARLY ENGLISH BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONAL
CONFESSIONS
JOHN
SPILSBURY AND HIS CONFESSION
The personal confession of ten articles
Spilsbury submitted for the "Godly reader to judge, what difference there is between
him and me, in the main, that men should be so incensed against me, as to seek my life, as
some have done." Spilsbury wanted to disarm those who cast "reproachful
clamors… upon all without exception, that seem to be of my judgment about
baptism" by declaring "a word of my faith, what I believe and hold to be truth,
and desire to practice the same." One year later, Spilsbury would join with the other
Particular Baptist churches in London in publishing and signing the First London
Confession.
THE FIRST LONDON BAPTIST
CONFESSION OF FAITH, 1644
A CONFESSION OF FAITH of seven
congregations or churches of Christ in London, which are commonly, but unjustly, called
Anabaptists; published for the vindication of the truth and information of the ignorant;
likewise for the taking off those aspersions which are frequently, both in pulpit and
print, unjustly cast upon them. Printed in London, Anno 1646.
The Second
London Baptist Confession, 1644 [Spanish]
La Confession De Fe
De Londres De 1644
The text for La Confession De Fe De Londres De 1644 was provided by an anonymous friend.
HTML by Sam Hughey, The Reformed Reader, October 2, 2000.
THE FIRST LONDON BAPTIST
CONFESSION OF FAITH, 1646 Edition
The first edition was published in 1644.
This second edition "corrected and enlarged" was originally published in 1646.
A confession of faith of seven congregations or churches of Christ in London, which
are commonly, but unjustly, called Anabaptists; published for the vindication of the truth
and information of the ignorant; likewise for the taking off those aspersions which are
frequently, both in pulpit and print, unjustly cast upon them. Printed in London, Anno
1646.
AN APPENDIX TO A
CONFESSION OF FAITH, 1646, Benjamin
Cox
Published for the further clearing of
Truth, and discovery of their mistake who have imagined a dissent in fundamentals when
there is none.
Matthew 10:27,.28
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye
in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
LONDON, Printed in the year 1646.
THE FAITH AND PRACTISE OF THIRTY CONGREGATIONS, 1651
The period of the Commonwealth
(1650-1659) was more productive of Confessions than any similar period of Baptist history.
Formal associationalism was primarily the result of a native Baptist connectional
instinct (for Baptists were never independents, strictly speaking) and of expediency in
view of the tasks to be undertaken. A new sense of liberty challenged the nation
early in the sixth decade, and the churches, for the first time, had full freedom to
associate. Before 1600 permanent Associations had become typical Baptist
institutions.
An associational meeting was held in
1651, probably at Leicester, but it is not certain that this was the first such meeting of
the churches. Messengers for both special and constant were appointed and there was
agreement on sharing the needs of the poor. Thirty churches from an area one hundred
miles long and twenty-four miles wide were represented at the meeting, each by two
messengers or delegates.1
Probably the most important thing done in
the meeting of 1651 was the adoption of a Confession called The Faith and Practice of
Thirty Congregations, Gathered According to the Primitive Pattern. The
Confession is important because it is the first General Baptist statement representing the
views of more than one church, rather than because of the prominence of its author or
signatories. It shows essential agreement with the first General Baptist Confession
(1611).
The first forty-five articles concern the
doctrines of the churches; the remaining thirty demonstrate their practices. No
consistently Arminian system is revealed; rather, some traditional emphases of Calvinism
are set forth. Article 21 seems to follow the statement in John Smyth's one hundred Propositions
and Conclusions. The doctrine of free will is repudiated in Article 25.
Articles 4 through 16 present a pioneer statement of the Baptist doctrine of soul
competency. Article 48 contains an evident reference to immersion, though the term
is not used. Articles 45 and 75 appear to be directed at the Quakers, while the
emphasis in Articles 60 and 61 on the ministry may be credited, partly, to the cavils of
the Quakers. The "Postscript," having to do with the "Magistratical
power," may have been suggested by the statement of the London Confession on that
subject, but there may have been some feeling that an article on magistracy was out of
place in a confession of faith and practice.
THE TRUE GOSPEL-FAITH DECLARED ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES,
16542
The form which the Confession of 1654
took is more like that of the Particular Baptist Confession of 1644 than the Midland
Confession of 1651, but even the form shows complete independence, and the confession
possesses some novel aspects. The articles presenting the theological outlook of the
authors are especially lacking in detal. There is no mention of deacons among the
church officers listed (Article 22). There is no article on the Scriptures, though
the leaders in 1654 did not overlook this omission. In their introductory letter
they said:
We therefore do desire that whosoever
read it [the Confession] may weigh the Scriptures produced; and if it be according to the
Scriptures, there is light in it; for its the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles that
we square our faith and practice by, accounting that light within (not witnessed by the
Scriptures without) which some much talk of to be deep darkness...Let the Scripture
therefore be the rule of thy faith and practice...
The Confession always uses
"dipped" for baptized. It also is the first Baptist Confession to
prescribe the laying on of hands for all baptized believers. This practice appears
to have been but lately brought to the attention of Baptists, and John Griffith was a
leading exponent of it. It was not yet commonly used among General Baptists.
The Quakers took prompt notice of the stiffening opposition of the Baptists of whom
Griffith was leader. In 1654 Edward Burrough answered Griffith's A Voice from the Word of the Lord, and
in 1655 Richard Farnsworth published a critical answer to the Confession of 16543. Perhaps the
Confession steadied all London General Baptists, after making them aware of the serious
danger in which they stood, for it does reflect a certain stability and maturity of
thought which characterized the churches represented by it. It also gives the best
picture of the reaction of Baptists to the first serious effort of the Quakers to win
London.
THE MIDLAND CONFESSION
OF FAITH, 1655
In the Midlands in 1655, General Baptists
far outnumbered their Calvinistic Brethren. The General Baptist Confession of 1651
had been signed by members of thirty congregations of the area, but when the Particular
Baptists met in 1655 to constitute their Midland Association, there were but fourteen of
their churches in the eight counties, and only seven of them were as yet willing to
associate.
Two principal factors led to the formation of the Midland Association in 1655. One
was the general trend among Baptists at that time toward associating. In promoting
this trend the London churches took the lead, and they evidently were concerned with the
beginnings of the organization in the Midlands. That Daniel King, who undoubtedly
was leading the Midlands churches to associate, belonged to that circle is shown in a book
of his published in London in 1650. In this book, A Way to Sion, which was
an exposition of Baptist teaching, the Epistle Dedicatory was signed by four prominent
London leaders. Probably at the suggestion of the London churches, he was by 1655
giving much of his time to buyilding up associations of churches in various parts of the
country. The other factor promoting the organization of the Association was the
great activity of the Quakers in the Midlands in 1654 and 1655.
The Confession was probably modeled after the London Confession of 1644 but its statements
are original. In spite of its brevity, the theological portion is a careful and
praiseworthy summary of Calvinistic Baptist doctrine of the middle of the seventeenth
century. The primary purpose of the Confession was instructional rather than
apologetic. Its usefulness was not soon lost. The London Confession of 1689,
however, concluded that which was wanting in breadth in the Midland Confession.
THE SOMERSET CONFESSION OF FAITH, 1656
The seventh meeting of the Association
took place at Bridgewater on September 5-6, 1656, at which time a Confession of Faith was
approved. It was evidently the work of Thomas Collier, but the fact that decisions in
favor of some of the positions announced in the Confession were made at this meeting,
might indicate that he had help in preparing the Confession. It is evident from the
Epistle Dedicatory that
the Quakers were chiefly responsible for the appearance of the Confession in 1656. The
authors said that two facts caused them to set forth their beliefs. First, they denied the
"general charge" that their churches were not Calvinistic and so were out of
accord with the London Particular churches, and owned both the London brethren and their
Confession. Second, that they were:
"very sensible of the great
distractions and divisions that are amongst professing people in this nation, the many
ways and wiles of Satan to seduce and deceive souls, the great departing from the faith,
and that under glorious notions of spiritualness and holiness."
The Quaker fire was burning menacingly
around the Baptists when their Western (or Somerset) Association met in September, 1656,
at Bridgewater. The Confession which the churches at that meeting decided to publish may
have been originally drawn up before 1656, possibly in 1653 when it, like the Midland
Particular Association Confession, would have served as a basis of union, for the authors
said that "when the Lord set us first upon this work, we did not think of bringing it
to public view," but meant it to "try our unity in the faith." In either
case, Collier, who in 1654 was given the unique office of "General Superintendent and
Messenger of all the Associated Churches," was its principal author.
The Confession bears the mark of careful
preparation, and the impress of Collier can be seen at various points. While an effort is
made to approximate the theological position of the London Confession, there is complete
independence of expression, and there are some noteworthy omissions of material of the
older document. Perhaps there was some ground for the saying that these Baptists did not
quite have the same theological outlook as their London brethren. McGlothlin suggests that
"some jealousy and fear" of the London churches prompted the setting forth of
this Confession, but it seems improbable that this fear concerned the authority of the
London churches as much as the theology of some London Baptists. The Calvinism of the
Western Association was not of a rigid type.
Footnotes:
1 The Confession is very
rare, copies of the original being found only at the Angus Library, Regent's Park College,
Oxford, and at the British Musem. Apparently neither Underhill nor McGlothlin knew
of its existence, and it has probably not been printed in modern times. A facsimile
copy of the document found in the British Museam is given here. [return]
2 Whitley, A Baptist Bibliography, pp. 56 and 60.[return]
3 Whitley, History British Baptists, 89 [return]
CARTER
LANE DECLARATION OF FAITH, 1757
JOHN GILL'S DECLARATION OF FAITH,
1757
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