DOCSLIB.ORG

Samuel Renihan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

VU Research Portal From Shadow to Substance Renihan, S.D. 2017 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Renihan, S. D. (2017). From Shadow to Substance: The Federal Theology of the English Particular Baptists (1642-1704). General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 iv Acknowledgements I am indebted to my supervisor Prof. Henk Bakker whose encouragements and eagerness have remained consistent from the very first email I ever sent to him until this day. Without his willingness to oversee and assist me, this dissertation would not be a reality. Prof. Bakker’s insights and comments on my chapters, as they developed, were useful for correction and improvement in style and content. He guided and promoted my progress from start to finish. My co-supervisor, Dr. Aza Goudriaan, likewise provided needed and much-appreciated feedback on my first complete draft. Their contributions have been invaluable. I am grateful to the reading committee, to W. van Vlastuin, William H. Brackney, Curtis W. Freeman, Larry J. Kreitzer, and Michael A. G. Haykin. Their constructive criticisms and advice provided important balance and refinement in my work. I have special regard for and gratitude to Larry Kreitzer for patiently teaching me how to conduct research in key archives, for pointing me to important sources, and for helping me to interpret the results of my research. I can think of no greater tutor for such endeavors than Larry, for which I am humbly thankful that he has given me so much of his time. I am thankful to the staff of the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the British Library, the Lambeth Palace Library, the Bedfordshire Archives, and the Huntington Library for their assistance in my research. I am thankful for the dear departed Ron Baines who offered me helpful advice and enlightened me about various aspects of Baptist History entirely unknown to me. I regret that my finished work could not benefit from his careful and useful discernment. I am thankful to Richard Barcellos, Gatlin Bredeson, Jim Butler, Stefan Lindblad, Cameron Porter, and my brother Micah Renihan for proof-reading chapters and offering helpful advice about style and readability. I am thankful to my church, Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, for their patience and support during my doctoral studies. The members and my co-elders have been an encouragement throughout this time. I am thankful to my father, James Renihan, for instilling in me a love for Baptist history. He brought me on my first research trip to the UK and showed me around London. He lent numerous books. He answered numerous questions. He corrected numerous errors. The resources he provided for my studies, the guidance he gave, and the knowledge he shared make me thankful that he is my Benjamin Coxe, or my Edward Harrison, as I am his Nehemiah Coxe, or his Thomas Harrison. It is impossible to measure or express the debt of gratitude I owe or the depth of love I have for my father. I am thankful to my wife, Kimberly, and my young son, Owen, for their love and support in these years. Kim perseveres despite many afflicting health conditions, and her perseverance has been a continual model of fortitude and patience for me. My work has, v at times, asked her to suffer for my sake. She has done so willingly and lovingly. Her parents have done the same, providing any and all needed assistance for me and my family in times of need. Owen has not understood what a Ph.D. is all about, but he knows that Nehemiah Coxe died in 1689 which means that all my work has paid off. Above all, I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the everlasting new covenant of grace. vi Abbreviations 1LCF – A Confession of Faith of Seven Congregations or Churches of Christ in London, Which are Commonly (But Unjustly) Called Anabaptists. London: 1644. 2LCF – A Confession of Faith Put Forth by the Elders and Brethren of Many Congregations of Christians (Baptized Upon Profession of their Faith) in London and the Country. London: 1677. ODNB – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online edn. Oxford University Press. SD – A declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the congregational churches in England agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658. London: J.P., 1659. WCF – The humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament sitting at Westminster, Concerning a Confession of Faith, with the Quotations and Texts of Scripture annexed. Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament. London: Company of Stationers, 1647. The majority of the primary sources used in this dissertation come from the Early English Books Online database. Original spelling, capitalization, and emphases have been preserved in titles and quotations unless noted otherwise. 1 Introduction This is a study in Historical Theology, describing the federal theology of the English Particular Baptists within the years 1642-1704. In the early part of the seventeenth century doubt concerning the practice of paedobaptism arose among a group of English Separatists. A number of those who initially questioned paedobaptism eventually rejected it and came to be known as Particular Baptists.1 From the beginning of their formation and throughout their continued existence the Particular Baptists justified their dissent on the point of baptism and the nature of the church by an appeal to covenant theology in published books, pamphlets, and confessions of faith.2 Like their confessions of faith, the Particular Baptists’ federal theology was not a wholesale rejection of that of the paedobaptists,3 but rather a conscientious modification and realignment. In their minds, this produced a federal theology that was biblically faithfully and logically consistent. A. Status Quaestionis Scholarship of Reformed covenant theology has seen a shift in recent decades, leaving behind the shadow of “two traditions” theories that had previously enjoyed popularity and acceptance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.4 These theories reduced a given theologian’s thought to a central dogma and interpreted their covenant theology 1 “It may be proper to observe here, that there have been two parties of the English Baptists in England ever since the beginning of the reformation; those that have followed the Calvinistical scheme of doctrines, and from the principal point therein, personal election, have been termed Particular Baptists: And those that have professed the Arminian or remonstrant tenets; and have also from the chief of those doctrines, universal redemption, been called General Baptists.” Thomas Crosby, The History of the English Baptists, (London: Printed for, and Sold by, the Editor, 1738), I:173. 2 In this work, the terms “federal theology” and “covenant theology” are equivalent. Some have distinguished covenant theology as a theological system in which the covenants play an important role as opposed to federal theology, a subset of covenant theology in which individual figures are understood to stand for a group of people in covenant. For more on this, see chapter seven. 3 By “paedobaptists” I am referring to those who baptized infants, i.e., the Church of England, Presbyterians, and Independents. 4 This analysis of the “two traditions” thesis and its critics relies heavily on the summaries of recent dissertations, namely, Won Taek Lim, “The Covenant Theology of Francis Roberts,” (PhD Dissertation, Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin Theological Seminary, 2000), 3-28; Brandon C. Jones, “Baptist Sacramental Theology: A Covenantal Framework for Believer Baptism,” (PhD Dissertation, Calvin Theological Seminary, 2010), 128-140. The same material is presented in Brandon C. Jones, Waters of Promise: Finding Meaning in Believer Baptism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2012), 73-81. 2 accordingly.5 Typically, a Genevan and Rhenish tradition were identified, represented by Calvin on the first part and Zwingli and Bullinger on the other. Calvin’s tradition was characterized by predestination and unconditionality, emphasizing God’s initiative in the covenant. Zwingli and Bullinger’s covenant theology was characterized by mutuality and the response of the recipient of the covenant. Later theologians were assigned to one of the two traditions based on their supposed connection to the one or the other’s central dogmas. Richard Muller, Lyle Bierma, and Peter Lillback, among others, reexamined the sources and criticized the methodology of the previous scholarship.6 They argued that Reformed theology in general, as well as covenant theology in particular, was not built on central dogmas nor should it be analyzed as such. Rather, a single Reformed theology developed diversely in a broad community of orthodoxy defined by confessions of faith. Andrew Woolsey’s work is the most important and comprehensive in drawing the lines of “unity and continuity” in Reformed covenant theology from its inception to its later and more developed models.7 The result is a clearing and resetting of the field for fresh scholarship directed at individual theologians and groups of theologians that can be studied and described in relation to their own influences.
Recommended publications
  • EDITORIAL HE 55Th Annual Meeting of the Society Was Held at Westi:Hn?Sji

    EDITORIAL HE 55Th Annual Meeting of the Society Was Held at Westi:Hn?Sji

    EDITORIAL HE 55th Annual Meeting of the Society was held at Westi:hn?sJI.. Chapel on 12 May, 1954, at 5.30 p.m. There were present T some 65 members and non-members. The resignation of the General Secretary, the Rev. H. Sellers, on his leaving Ilford for Redditch, was accepted with regret; members were glad to hear that the Rev. E.W. Dawe was willing to serve in this capacity, and elected him to the office. The meeting also accepted with regret the resignation of Dr. R. S. Paul, Associate Editor of these Transactions, and expressed its best wishes for his future work as he goes to represent Congre­ gationalism in a wider sphere at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey. The other officers were re-elected, with thanks for their continued services, together with those of Mr. Sellers and Dr. Paul. Congregationalists in this country, and especially those interested in our history, have welcomed the return from Grahamstown to this country of Dr. Horton Davies, now Senior Lecturer in Church History at Mansfield and Regent's Park Colleges, Oxford. Those who know his book, The Worship of the English Puritans, will be interested to learn that Dr. Davies is at work on a continuation of this subject. A foretaste of it was enjoyed by the members of our Society in the paper on" Liturgical Reform in Nineteenth-Century English Congre­ gationalism", which Dr. Davies read at our Annual Meeting, and which is printed within. It was delivered with much charm, vigour and sly humour. It is a thousand pities that the pressure of other, and supposedly more important, meetings always prevents us from following the lecture with a period of questions and discussion.
  • Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/22159 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation Author: Pederson, Randall James Title: Unity in diversity : English puritans and the puritan reformation, 1603-1689 Issue Date: 2013-11-07 Chapter 3 John Downame (1571-1652) 3.1 Introduction John Downame (or Downham) was one of the greatest exponents of the precisianist strain within Puritanism during the pre-revolutionary years of the seventeenth century, a prominent member of London Puritanism, and renowned casuist.1 His fame rests chiefly in his nineteen published works, most of which were works of practical divinity, such as his four-part magnum opus, The Christian Warfare (1604-18), and his A Guide to Godlynesse (1622), a shorter, though still copious, manual for Christian living. Downame was also known for his role in publishing two of the most popular theological manuals: Sir Henry Finch’s The Summe of Sacred Divinitie (1620), which consisted of a much more expanded version of Finch’s earlier Sacred Doctrine (1613), and Archbishop James Ussher’s A Body of Divinitie (1645), which was published from rough manuscripts and without Ussher’s consent, having been intended for private use.2 Downame also had a role in codifying the Westminster annotations on the Bible, being one of a few city ministers to work on the project, though he never sat at the Westminster Assembly.3 Downame’s older brother, 1 Various historians from the seventeenth century to the present have spelled Downame’s name differently (either Downame or Downham). The majority of seventeenth century printed works, however, use “Downame.” I here follow that practice.
  • Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/22159 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation Author: Pederson, Randall James Title: Unity in diversity : English puritans and the puritan reformation, 1603-1689 Issue Date: 2013-11-07 Chapter 5 Tobias Crisp (1600-1642/3) 5.1 Introduction In this chapter, we will assess the “radical” Puritan Tobias Crisp, whose life and thought illustrates both unitas and diversitas within Puritanism.1 As a representative of the antinomian strain, his teachings and emphasis on non-introspective piety illuminate internal tendencies within Puritanism to come up with an alternative to the precisianist strain.2 Within the literature, Crisp has been called “an antecedent of the Ranters,” “the great champion of antinomianism,” the “arch-Antinomian” and “a stimulator of religious controversy.”3 In his own time, Crisp was accused of both “Antinomianisme” and “Libertinisme,” the latter title of which he fully embraced because, for Crisp, at the heart of the theological debate that characterized his ministry was one’s freedom (libertas fidelium) in Christ,4 and the attainment of assurance.5 Crisp remains one of the most 1 As we saw in Chapter 1, identifying a Puritan as either “orthodox” or “radical” is not always easy, nor are the terms always mutually exclusive. As with Rous, Crisp typifies elements of Reformed orthodoxy and more “radical” notions associated with antinomianism. 2 David Como, “Crisp, Tobias (1600-1643),” in Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia, ed. Francis J. Bremer and Tom Webster (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006), 1:64; Victor L.
  • The Life of Dr. George Bull, Lord Bishop of St

    The Life of Dr. George Bull, Lord Bishop of St

    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com i NIVERSSTY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES jw: V "\ THE LIFE OF DR. GEORGE BULL, LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVIDS. THE LIFE OF DR. GEORGE BULL, LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S; WITH THE HISTORY OF THOSE CONTROVERSIES IN WHICH HE WAS ENGAGED : AND AN ABSTRACT OF THOSE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES Which he maintained and defended in the Latin tongue. BY OBERT NELSON, Esq. A NEW EDITION. OXFORD, PRINTED BY W. BAXTER ; FOR J. PARKER : AND LAW AND WHITTAKER J AND OGLES, DUNCAN, AND COCHRAN, LONDON. 1816. 5'< /<?<? » .»**> I Bib l&stte-fio CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. -I HE occasion of writing the Life, p. 1. An apology for attempting it, ibid. His own reputation secured by his works, 2. Why it may be acceptable to learned and good men, 3. Reasons for the length of it, 4. I. When and where Mr. Bull was born, 5. His family and parentage, ibid. Early dedicated to the service of the church, 6. II. Educated at Tiverton school in Devonshire, 7. An ac count and character of his master, 8. His great and early progress in classic learning, ibid. III. Removed to Exeter college in Oxford, 9. Taken notice of by two great men, 10. Acquainted with Mr. Clifford, afterwards Lord High Treasurer, 11. IV. He retires from Oxford, upon refusing the Engagement, 12. He goes with his tutor, Mr. Ackland, to North- Cadbury, 13.
  • Calvin Theological Seminary Covenant In

    Calvin Theological Seminary Covenant In

    CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY COVENANT IN CONFLICT: THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE CHURCH COVENANT BETWEEN SAMUEL RUTHERFORD AND THOMAS HOOKER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY SANG HYUCK AHN GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN MAY 2011 CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 3233 Burton SE • Grand Rapids, Michigan. 49546-4301 800388-6034 Jax: 616957-8621 [email protected] www.calvinserninary.edu This dissertation entitled COVENANT IN CONFLICT: THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE CHURCH COVENANT BETWEEN SAMUEL RUTHERFORD AND THOMAS HOOKER written by SANG HYUCK AHN and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been accepted by the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary upon the recommendation ofthe undersigned readers: Carl R Trueman, Ph.D. David M. Rylaarsda h.D. Date Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs Copyright © 2011 by Sang Hyuck Ahn All rights reserved To my Lord, the Head of the Church Soli Deo Gloria! CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 I. Statement of the Thesis 1 II. Statement of the Problem 2 III. Survey of Scholarship 6 IV. Sources and Outline 10 CHAPTER 2. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE RUTHERFORD-HOOKER DISPUTE ABOUT CHURCH COVENANT 15 I. The Church Covenant in New England 15 1. Definitions 15 1) Church Covenant as a Document 15 2) Church Covenant as a Ceremony 20 3) Church Covenant as a Doctrine 22 2. Secondary Scholarship on the Church Covenant 24 II. Thomas Hooker and New England Congregationalism 31 1. A Short Biography 31 2. Thomas Hooker’s Life and His Congregationalism 33 1) The England Period, 1586-1630 33 2) The Holland Period, 1630-1633: Paget, Forbes, and Ames 34 3) The New England Period, 1633-1647 37 III.
  • Why Are We Baptists

    Why Are We Baptists

    Why Are We Particular Baptists? An Historical Overview INTRODUCTION: Our church is a Particular Baptist Church. That means we believe that God saves people with a particular intention, through a particular sovereign plan, and that only those particular elect people were purchased by Jesus on the cross and only they are to be immersed in water as a public profession of their faith in Jesus Christ. Since we believe that those doctrines are clearly taught in the Scriptures, why do we still refer to ourselves as Baptistic Christians? Why not merely refer to ourselves as mere Christians as the title from C.S. Lewis’ classic work suggests? Is it only to distinguish ourselves from other so-called denominations, or is there something more to it? Well, there is something more to it. The elders of our church are Baptist by conviction. That means that we believe that the Bible clearly teaches core Baptist doctrines and that the historic Baptist confessions of faith (esp. the Reformed variety) correctly represent the teaching of the Bible as far as it goes. This brings us to a brief but much needed mention about the ecumenical creeds of the Christian Church. The Ecumenical1 Creeds Before we look at the historical background of the 1646 London Confession of Faith, it is important to note that Particular Baptists are in essential agreement with the great ecumenical creeds of church history; namely, the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed and the lesser known Definition of Chalcedon. Now, a mention of the word “ecumenical” in some Baptist circles can cause otherwise peaceful men to load a shell in their shotguns, point the barrel at you and scream in unison “ready, aim, fire!” This is because too many Baptists are ignorant of their own doctrinal roots.
  • The Percival J. Baldwin Puritan Collection

    The Percival J. Baldwin Puritan Collection

    The Percival J. Baldwin Puritan Collection Accessing the Collection: 1. Anyone wishing to use this collection for research purposes should complete a “Request for Restricted Materials” form which is available at the Circulation desk in the Library. 2. The materials may not be taken from the Library. 3. Only pencils and paper may be used while consulting the collection. 4. Photocopying and tracing of the materials are not permitted. Classification Books are arranged by author, then title. There will usually be four elements in the call number: the name of the collection, a cutter number for the author, a cutter number for the title, and the date. Where there is no author, the cutter will be A0 to indicate this, to keep filing in order. Other irregularities are demonstrated in examples which follow. BldwnA <-- name of collection H683 <-- cutter for author O976 <-- cutter for title 1835 <-- date of publication Example. A book by the author Thomas Boston, 1677-1732, entitled, Human nature in its fourfold state, published in 1812. BldwnA B677 <-- cutter for author H852 <-- cutter for title 1812 <-- date of publication Variations in classification scheme for Baldwin Puritan collection Anonymous works: BldwnA A0 <---- Indicates no author G363 <---- Indicates title 1576 <---- Date Bibles: BldwnA B524 <---- Bible G363 <---- Geneva 1576 <---- Date Biographies: BldwnA H683 <---- cuttered on subject's name Z5 <---- Z5 indicates biography R633Li <---- cuttered on author's name, 1863 then first two letters of title Letters: BldwnA H683 <----- cuttered
  • Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Title Page R.J. Pederson

    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/22159 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation Author: Pederson, Randall James Title: Unity in diversity : English puritans and the puritan reformation, 1603-1689 Issue Date: 2013-11-07 UNITY IN DIVERSITY: ENGLISH PURITANS AND THE PURITAN REFORMATION 1603-1689 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. Carel Stolker volgens besluit van het College voor promoties te verdedigen op 7 November 2013 klokke 15:00 uur door Randall James Pederson geboren te Everett, Washington, USA in 1975 Promotiecommissie Promotores: Prof. dr. Gijsbert van den Brink Prof. dr. Richard Alfred Muller, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA Leden: Prof. dr. Ernestine van der Wall Dr. Jan Wim Buisman Prof. dr. Henk van den Belt Prof. dr. Willem op’t Hof Dr. Willem van Vlastuin Contents Part I: Historical Method and Background Chapter One: Historiographical Introduction, Methodology, Hypothesis, and Structure ............. 1 1.1 Another Book on English Puritanism? Historiographical Justification .................. 1 1.2 Methodology, Hypothesis, and Structure ...................................................................... 20 1.2.1 Narrative and Metanarrative .............................................................................. 25 1.2.2 Structure ................................................................................................................... 31 1.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................
  • Letter of Henry Jessey and John Tombes to the Churches of New

    Letter of Henry Jessey and John Tombes to the Churches of New

    Letters of Henry J essey and John Tombes to the Churches of New England, 1645 1 N 22nd June 1645, seven days before his baptism by Hanserd O Knollys, Henry Jessey wrote to the churches of New England urging the reverend elders to be more tolerant of those persons within their congregations who dissented from the practice of infant baptism, and encouraging the New England divines to keep an open mind to what he believed was the truth of the antipedobaptist position. Toadd weight to 'his argument J essey requested the assistance of John Tombes, who was by the late 1640s, according to Richard Baxter, "reputed the most Learned and able Anabaptist in England". 2 J essey obtained and sent to New England a transcript of Tombes' as then unpublished response to Stephen Marshall's sermon of 1644 defending infant baptism, delivered in Westminster Abbey as the morning lecture to the House of Commons.s Tombes also contributed a prefatory letter, dated 25th May 1645, addressed to John Cotton and Jop.n Wilson of Boston.4 Henry Jessey (1601-1663) became pastor of the Independent Jacob­ Lathrop congregation, meeting in Southwark, London, in 1637,5 Gathered in 1616 by Henry Jacob, the church, over the years, had had some contact with the New World; Jacob had emigrated to Virginia in 1622, and Jessey's other predecessor, John Lathrop, had emigrated with some members of his congregation to Massachusetts Bay in 1634. In November 1624, Jessey became chaplain to Brampton Gurdon at Assington, Suffolk, and there came to know the family of John Win­ cllrop; Winthrop (1588-1649) was elected governor of the new Massa­ chusetts Bay corporation on 20th October 162~, while still in England, and sailed from Southampton on 8th April 1630.
  • Puritan Responses to Antinomianism in the Context Of

    Puritan Responses to Antinomianism in the Context Of

    Puritan Responses to Antinomianism in the Context of Reformed Covenant Theology: 1630 – 1696 Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Christopher Earl Caughey 1 Summary This thesis analyzes the way in which six seventeenth-century puritans from both sides of the Atlantic responded to antinomians—those accused of rejecting divine law—and the methods these six puritans used in their responses. In his book Blown by the Spirit (2004), David Como has divided seventeenth-century antinomians into two camps: “inherentists/perfectionists” and “imputationists.” The former were mystical and held esoteric beliefs, while the latter were more theological—even citing Martin Luther in their support. While this thesis does not focus on either group of antinomians, the six puritans whose microhistories are studied tended to focus their response on the imputationists. T.D. Bozeman has argued in The Precisianist Strain (2004) that a strict moralism and rigorous pietism permeated the puritan community and provoked the imputationists to an “antinomian backlash.” This thesis will employ the microhistories of John Cotton, Edward Fisher, John Owen, John Bunyan, Samuel Petto and Herman Witsius in an analysis of the controversy surrounding the antinomian backlash. Part of what makes these six figures so helpful in this analysis is their liminal status within the puritan community. Cotton, Owen and Petto were Independents and Bunyan was a Baptist—all outside the communions which tended to be in powerful positions like the Presbyterians and the Anglicans. Fisher probably held membership, but not office, in a Presbyterian church. Finally, Witsius was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church and became an outside voice in the controversy only because a group of English puritans asked him to mediate their own conflict over antinomianism.
  • Provides the First Clear Example of Intercongregational Co-Operation Between the London Calvinistic Baptists

    Provides the First Clear Example of Intercongregational Co-Operation Between the London Calvinistic Baptists

    34 THE LONDON CALVINISTIC BAPTIST LEADERSHIP 1644 - 1660 The 1644 Confession provides the first clear example of intercongregational co-operation between the London Calvinistic Baptists. In its revised edition of 1646 it also provided the doctrinal standard for the first period of their expansion which closed with the restoration of Charles II in 1660. The two editions also introduced as signatories some of their earliest influential leaders. Since the 1596 Separatist Confession provided the source which was used virtually verbatim by the 1644 Confession for matters ecclesiological the differences between them concerning both the ministry and church-state relationships are the more noteworthy. These were areas, among others, where the London Baptist leaders first established positions which were to be important for the future. In 1596 the Separatist Confession had emphasized that every congregation of believers had power to elect, ordain and even, if necessary, to dismiss their ministers. ( 1) Further, they claimed, that Christ had instituted and ratified to continue unto the world's end only this public ordinary Ministry of Pastors, Teachers, Elders, Deacons, Helpers to the instruction, government, and service of his Church. (2) The Baptists took this over but omitted 'Helpers' in 1644 and 'Pastors' and 'Teachers' from 1646 onwards. (3) Furthermore, the men of 1644, unlike those in 1596, did not prohibit the administration of sacraments 'until the Pastors or Teachers be chosen and ordained into their office'. (4) Equally, both statements agreed that they should be prepared to practise their form of churchmanship whether the secular authorities allowed them freedom to do so or not, and that they should be prepared to suffer any consequent penalties without resistance.
  • The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-1649

    The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-1649

    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The British Baptists and politics, 1603-1649 Wright, Stephen The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-49 2007_ Stephen John Wright King's College, London - ILC 1L' The British Baptists and Politics, 1603-44 The thesis is concerned to challenge the long-standing orthodoxy in which the Baptists appear as two separate and separately originating denominations called 'Particular' and 'General' defined on the basis of attitude to predestination and the atonement.