DOCSLIB.ORG

National Ubrmy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

National Ubrmy Ulbhotllèqu" na\lonalo c! Cûnncla <Ill CanLlda ••• Acquisilions ûnd Direction (Jas acqlJisitiolls ct BibliographIe Services 8rünctl dcs services bibll09rüpllique:. 395 Wclhnolon St'l'(~l :195. rut! Wclhnglon OllllWtl, Orllano OIl<1wi1 (OnlilllO) K1AON4 KIAON4 ,\_~... M",.. ';0'.... ,.." .. NOTICE AVIS The quality of this microform is La qualité de cette microforme heavily dependent upon the dépend grandement de la qualité quality of the original thesis de la thèse soumise au submitted for microfilming. microfilmage. Nous avons tout Every effort has Deen made to fait pour assurer une qualité ensure the highest quality of supérieure de reproduction. reproduction possible. If pages are missing, contact the S'il manque des pages, veuillez university which granted the communiquer avec l'université degree. qui a conféré lE'! grade. Sorne pages may have indistinct La qualité d'impression de print especially if the original certainas pages peut laisser à pages were typed with a poor désirer, surtout si les pages typewriter ribbon or if the originales ont été university sent us an inferior dactylographiées à J'aide d'un photocopy. ruban usé ou si l'université nous a fait parvenir une photocopie de qualité inférieure. Reproduction in full or in part of La reproduction, même partielle, this microform is governed by de cette microforme est soumise the Canadian Copyright Act, à la Loi canadienne sur le droit R.S.C. 1970, c. C-30, and d'auteur, SRC 1970, c. C-30, et subsequent amendments. ses amendements subséquents. Canada • A Historical and Comparative Study of the First and Second London Baptist Confessions of F~ith with reference to the Westminster and Bavoy Confessions by Barry Howson R61igious Studies Department McGill University, Montreal • January, 1996 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts (c) Barry Howson 1996 .. National Library Bibliotllèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisilions and Direction des acquisitions ct Bibliographie Services Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa, Onlmio Ollawa (Onlario) K1AON4 K1AON4 The author has granted an L'auteur a accordé une licence irrevocable non-exclusive licence irrévocable et non exclusive allowing the National Library of permettant à la Bibliothèque Canada to reproduce, loan, nationale du Canada de distribute or sell copies of reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou his/her thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa thèse in any form or format, making de quelque manière et sous this thesis available to interested quelque forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées. The author retains ownership of L'auteur conserve la propriété du the copyright in his/her thesis. droit d'auteur qui protège sa Neither the thesis nor substantial thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle-ci ne otherwise reproduced without doivent être imprimé, ou his/her permission. autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. ISBN 0-622-12037-6 Canada • ;\BSTR;\CT The l'articular Baplists of I:ngland emerged in the middle of the sevenleenth century around the lime of the Revolution. The lirst hall' of this thesis looks al the history of the first two London l'articulaI' Baptist Confessions of Faith wrilten in 1644 and 1689. Il examines the hislory behind the making of bolh Confessions as weil as the sourccs Irom which they drew Iheir material. The second hall' or the thesis is a comparison study. Firstly, the two 13aptist Conlessions are comparcd with cach othcr in the areas of thc atoncmcnt, baptism, the Church, and rcligious liberty, to see if l'articular 13aptist beliefs had changed. Sccondly, the 1689 Baptist Confession is comparcd with thc two leading English Calvinistic Conlessions or the scventcenth century, the Prcsbyterian Westmills/er CIJI!/essioll and thc Congrcgationalist ,,",'a voy /)ec:/Uf(//ioll, in order to see thcir similaritics and difTerenccs in the samc four areas. • Lcs l'articular Baptists d'Angleterrc sont apparus vcrs Ic milicu du dix-scptièmc siècle au temps dc la Révolution. La premièrc partie dc celte thèse conceme l'histoire des deux premières Confessions de Foi des l',,rticular Baptists de Londres, écrites en 1644 et 1689. Elle examine l'histoire derrière la rédaction des deux Confessions ainsi que les sources desquelles ils ont puisé leur materiel. La deuxième partie de la thèse est une comparaison. Premièrement, les deux Confessions Baptistes sont comparées entre elles dans les domaines de l'expiation, le baptême, l'Eglise, et la liberté religieuse, afin de découvrir si les croyances des Particular Baptists avaient changé. Deuxièmcment, la Confession Baptiste de 1689 est comparée au deux principales Confessions Calvinistes Anglaises du dix-septième siècle, la lVe.\'/lIIills/er Cunfession des Presbytériens et la Savuy Dedara/ion des Congrégationalistes, afin de voir leurs similarités et leurs différences dans les • quatre domaines précités. i • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several people l would like to acknowledge for their help on this project. Firstly, l am grateful to the people of Dalesvillc Baptist Church who allowed me the time to pursue my Master's degree while l was their pastor. l want to thank Noreen Bider for her encouragement to pursue graduate studies at McGi11 and for the same during those studies. l thank also the Religious Studies librarians, Jennifer Wheeler, Norma Johnson and Mary Klempa, for their kind help in finding material for me th~ough inter-library loan. And l am grateful to Roy and Marion Vanderlip who read over the thesis at various times, making grammatical corrections. l am also grateful to my friend Dr Michael Haykin who has been a great help and support through this project, reading over and correctino • the manuscript. And l want to thank my supervisor, Dr Edward Furcha, for his guidance and help, k~eping me on the right path in this thesis. Finally, l am so gratef~l to God for my family. My children, Natalie and Shawna, are a continuous encouragement to me. And my wife Sharon has always been my companion, supporting me in the pastorate and in my studies. This thesis is as much hers as it is mine. SOLI DEO GLORIA • • TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknow1edgements ••....•.••••••.••••••••••••.•..•••••.••••••••••••••.•••••••••.•. i Intraduction.••••••.•.•••.•.•..••••...•..•••••••.••••••.•••..•..••••••••.••••••• 1 Chapter 1. Hiutory of the First London Baptiut Confession of Faith 1644•..•••••. 9 A. History of Particu1ar Baptists Beginnings in England••••••••••. 9 B. H!story of the 1644 Confession 13 C. Sources of the 1644 Confession ••••••••••.••••••••••••••••••••• 18 Chapter 2. History of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689••••••• 30 A. History of the particu1ar Baptists from 1640-1689•••••••••••.• 30 B. History of the 1689 Particu1ar Baptiat Confession of Faith••.•38 Chapter 3. Comparison of the Two particu1ar Baptist Confesaions ••••••••••.••••• 65 Atonement ••••••.•••.•.•..•••••.••••••..•••.••..•••••••...••••• 68 Baptism•.••••.••••.••••••••••.••••••.•••••••.•••••••••••••••••71 Church 73 Religious Liberty••.•••••••••••••.••••.••••••.••••••••••••••••77 Chepter 4. Comparison of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 with the Westminster and Savoy Confessions ••••••••••••••••••••••••.• 87 Atonement 93 • Baptism•••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••100 Church 107 Religions Liberty.••••••.••••••.•.••.•••••••.•••••••••••••••• 115 Conclusion 131 Appendix AI Table Comparison of the Westmdnster, Savay and Second London Baptist Confessions on the Sacraments 134 Appendix BI Table Comparison of the Westminster, Savay, and Second London Baptist Confessions On Baptism••••••••••••.••••.•••••••••••••••••• 136 Appendix Cl Table Comparison of the Westminster, Bavey Bnd Second London Baptist Confessions on the Church•••••••.•••••••••••••.••••••••••• 138 Appendix DI Table Comparison of the Westminster, Savay and Second London Baptist Confessions On Christian Liberty & the Civil Magistrate••• 146 Appendix El Savoy's P1atform of Church PolitY •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 152 Bibliography••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• , •• 157 • • 1 INTRODUCTION Confessions of faith among Baptists have not been as popular as they have been with some other denominations. Nevertheless, they have played an important role in Baptist history.' In this thesis we will look at two of the first and most important Baptist confessions that played a foundational role in the early history of English Particular Baptists. They are the First London Confession of Faith of 1644 and the Second London Confession of Faith of 1689. We will, firstly, study their respective histories, and then compare them with each other to • see their differences and similarities. Thirdly, we will compare the 1689 Confession, the most influential of aIl Baptist Confessions, with the two m03t important confessions of its time, the Presbyterian Westminster Confession and Congregationalist Savoy Declaration. Particular attention will be given to their doctrines of the atonement, baptism, the church, and religious liberty. In order to place the Particular Baptists and their confessions in context, we need to look briefly at the historical beginnings of Baptists in England. In this century there has been an ongoing debate concerning the roots of English Baptist history. Scholars differ
Recommended publications
  • In the Mid-1630S, a Teenager of Welsh Descent by the Name of William Kiffin

    In the Mid-1630S, a Teenager of Welsh Descent by the Name of William Kiffin

    P a g e | 1 “AN HONOURABLE ESTEEME OF THE HOLY WORDS OF GOD”: PARTICULAR BAPTIST WORSHIP IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY “I value not the Practice of all Mankind in any thing in God’s Worship, if the Word of God doth not bear witness to it” Benjamin Keach 1 In the mid-1630s, a teenager of Welsh descent by the name of William Kiffin (1616-1701), who had been orphaned as a young boy and subsequently apprenticed to a glover in London, became so depressed about his future prospects that he decided to run away from his master. It was a Sunday when he made good his escape, and in the providence of God, he happened to pass by St. Antholin’s Church, a hotbed of Puritan radicalism, where the Puritan preacher Thomas Foxley was speaking that day on “the duty of servants to masters.” Seeing a crowd of people going into the church, Kiffin decided to join them. Never having heard the plain preaching of a Puritan before, he was deeply convicted by what he heard and was convinced that Foxley’s sermon was intentionally aimed at him. Kiffin decided to go back to his master with the resolve to hear regularly “some of them they called Puritan Ministers.”2 1 The Breach Repaired in God’s Worship: or, Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, proved to be an Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ (London, 1691), p.69. 2 William Orme, Remarkable Passages in the Life of William Kiffin (London: Burton and Smith, 1823), p.3. In the words of one writer, St.
  • Henry J Essey a Pastor in Politics

    Henry J Essey a Pastor in Politics

    Henry Jessey A Pastor in Politics HAVE decided to speak* about Henry Jessey's politics because I of my suspicion that the time is perhaps once more approaching when, while a service of ordination may become optional for the making of a minister of Christ, a prison sentence may yet become obligatory. So I want to uncover for you the motives which took Jessey into politics and the ambiguities and troubles which attended his commitment. Nevertheless, I do not want you to think that I have deluded myself into believing that I have discovered either a seventeenth century English Martin Luther King or yet one more lily-livered liberal mouthing platitudes about 'involvement' from a safe suburban pulpit. Henry Jessey was a man of his time and not ours. His spiritual and political context was not our context, his arguments were not our arguments, his crises were not our crises, but the question remains whether his deepest concern ought to be ours. Jessey, apart, perhaps, from being an Oxbridge man, was nearly everything a Baptist minister ought to be. He had the grace of perseverance and served one congregation for about a quarter of a century. He was friendly to other Christians, at least within decent limits, for neither papists nor unitarians were invited to the ministers' fraternal to which he belonged. He was good with children, though a bachelor, and had even written a book for them. He was an en­ thusiastic expositor of Scripture and shared, during the 1650's, in a scheme for replacing the King James Version with a new and more accurate one.
  • How Did William Kiffin Join the Baptists?

    How Did William Kiffin Join the Baptists?

    How did William Kiffin join the Baptists? HE history of the English Particular Baptists before 1644 is a T great deal more difficult to reconstruct in detail than the authors of Baptist textbooks have normally been prepared explicitly to acknowledge. The documents are few, their interpretation is often uncertain and, in addition, some of the very scanty evidence which does exist appears to be in open conflict with the rest. Some of these problems have to be faced in any attempt to disCQver exactly how William Kiffin (1616-1701) came to be, by 1644, the leader of a Baptist congregation. There are two opposing versions of this process. The earlier is Kiffin's own which leaves the clear impression that he joined a congregation of Independent Puritans about 1638 which gradually evolved, under his leadership, into the Baptist church of which he remained pastor until his death. The second account, given by Thomas Crosby in his History of the English Baptists/ suggests that Kiffin first joined an Independent church (per­ haps that led by Henry Jessey), then joined John Spilsbery's Particular Baptist congregation and eventually, after a disagreement with Spils­ bery, left that also, presumably to gather his own. It must at once be admitted that there is nothing intrinsically unlikely about either ver­ sion in a period as turbulent spiritually as politically. Whilst it might at first sight seem that Kiffin's own account is far more likely to be trustworthy both the fact that he wrote at least a quarter of a century after these early events took place and his motive for writing forbid the rejection of Crosby's record without careful discussion.
  • Baptist History

    Baptist History

    180 Baptist History Periodicals Tennessee Baptist History . Vol. 7. Fall 2005. No. 1. (Published annually by TN Baptist Historical Society, 8072 Sunrise Baptist History Circle, Tn 37067). Thomas. Both Sides. New York Independent. Four Editorials. Published as a tract. 1897. Sermons of the 27th Annual Sovereign Grace Conference August 5-7, 2008 Web Sites Gameo—http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/ H8358.html Haemestede. Dutch Martyrology— 1559. http:// gracewood0.tripod.com/foxefreeman.html [Mcusa] Mantz.—http://www.mcusa-archives.org/ events/news_release_Anabaptist Library. Edited by —http://www.apostolicchristianchurch.org/ Pages/Library-Anabaptist%20History,% Laurence and Lyndy Justice 20Rise.htm Pilgrim Publications—http://members.aol.com/pilgrimpub/ spurgeon.htm Whitsitt—http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/bio/whitsitt/ index.htm —http://geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8297/diss/dis- c31.htm#N_101_#N-101 Victory Baptist Church 9601 Blue Ridge Extension Kansas City, Missouri 64134 816-761-7184 www.victorybaptist.us Printer’s logo And/or info Bibliography 179 Shackelford, J. A. Compendium of Baptist History . Louisville: Baptist Book Concern, 1892. Spurgeon, C.H. and Susannah, and J.W. Harrald. C.H. Spurgeon: The Early Years and The Full Harvest (2 vols.). Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1967. Thomas, Joshua. The American Baptist Heritage in Wales . La- fayette, TN: Church History Research and Archives, 1976. Torbet, Robert G. A History of the Baptists. 1950. Tull. Shapers of Baptist Thought . 1972. —Study of Southern Baptist Landmarkism in the Light of Historical Baptist Ecclesiology . Arno Press, 1980. Verduin, Leonard. The Reformers and Their Stepchildren . Sarasota, Florida: The Christian Hymnary Publishers Reprint, 1997 (First Published in 1964).
  • How English Baptists Changed the Early Modern Toleration Debate

    How English Baptists Changed the Early Modern Toleration Debate

    RADICALLY [IN]TOLERANT: HOW ENGLISH BAPTISTS CHANGED THE EARLY MODERN TOLERATION DEBATE Caleb Morell Dr. Amy Leonard Dr. Jo Ann Moran Cruz This research was undertaken under the auspices of Georgetown University and was submitted in partial fulfillment for Honors in History at Georgetown University. MAY 2016 I give permission to Lauinger Library to make this thesis available to the public. ABSTRACT The argument of this thesis is that the contrasting visions of church, state, and religious toleration among the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists in seventeenth-century England, can best be explained only in terms of their differences over Covenant Theology. That is, their disagreements on the ecclesiological and political levels were rooted in more fundamental disagreements over the nature of and relationship between the biblical covenants. The Baptists developed a Covenant Theology that diverged from the dominant Reformed model of the time in order to justify their practice of believer’s baptism. This precluded the possibility of a national church by making baptism, upon profession of faith, the chief pre- requisite for inclusion in the covenant community of the church. Church membership would be conferred not upon birth but re-birth, thereby severing the links between infant baptism, church membership, and the nation. Furthermore, Baptist Covenant Theology undermined the dominating arguments for state-sponsored religious persecution, which relied upon Old Testament precedents and the laws given to kings of Israel. These practices, the Baptists argued, solely applied to Israel in the Old Testament in a unique way that was not applicable to any other nation. Rather in the New Testament age, Christ has willed for his kingdom to go forth not by the power of the sword but through the preaching of the Word.
  • 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.
  • Journal of Baptist Studies

    Journal of Baptist Studies

    JOURNAL OF BAPTIST STUDIES Volume 9 October 2018 THE JOURNAL OF BAPTIST STUDIES VOLUME 9 (2018) The Journal of Baptist Studies California Baptist University 8432 Magnolia Avenue Riverside, CA 92504 THE JOURNAL OF BAPTIST STUDIES Editors: Anthony Chute and Matthew Y. Emerson Book Review Editor: John Gill Board of Editors: John Crowley, Nathan Finn, Michael Haykin, James Patterson, Mark Rogers, Earl Waggoner, Doug Weaver The Journal of Baptist Studies is an electronic, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of Baptist history and thought. The journal is produced under the oversight of a Board of Editors representing numerous Baptist denominations and both religious and secular institutions. JBS does not advocate a particular theological or denominational agenda, but rather reflects the scholarship of individuals who identify with a number of positions and affiliations. The journal is available online for free and is independent of any institution. For submission policies and other information related to the Journal of Baptist Studies, please visit http://www.baptiststudiesonline.com. Please direct all correspondence related to the journal to Anthony Chute ([email protected]). Baptist Studies Online (BSO) is a website dedicated to the study of Baptist history and thought, with special emphasis on Baptists in North America. The purpose of BSO is to facilitate the scholarly study of Baptists by making available to researchers and students an online journal, a primary source library, a comprehensive collection of Baptist history- related links, and a periodically updated list of dissertation abstracts from SBC seminaries. BSO is a collaborative effort by Baptist scholars from a variety of traditions, with technical support provided by California Baptist University in Riverside, California.
  • Justification by Faith Alone: the Perspectives of William Kiffen and John Owen Shawn D

    Justification by Faith Alone: the Perspectives of William Kiffen and John Owen Shawn D

    Justification by Faith Alone: The Perspectives of William Kiffen and John Owen Shawn D. Wright Shawn D. Wright is the Associate Professor of Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also earned his PhD in Church History. Dr. Wright is the author of numerous articles and of Theodore Beza: The Man and the Myth (Christian Focus, 2015). In addition to his responsibilities at Southern Seminary, he is also the Pastor of Leadership Development at Clifton Baptist Church, Louisville, KY. Introduction All theology is historical theology. That is to say, all human attempts to make sense of God and his revelation of himself and his ways in Scripture are done, as one of my teachers put it, by particular people who lived in particular times and who thought in particular ways. That simple (but not simplistic) observation opens up vistas as we study various aspects of the church’s past. It allows us to see how brothers and sisters in the past struggled both to make sense of the Bible and also to apply it in their contexts. As we observe them doing this—seeing both their victories and their defeats—we can better learn what it means to be faithful to the Lord in our day. On the eve of the 500th celebration of the start of the Protestant Reforma- tion, it is very appropriate that we think together about the great bedrock of the Protestant faith—the doctrine of justification by faith alone—sola fide. Sinners are declared to be in a right standing before God, the holy Judge, not on the basis of anything they have done or ever would accomplish.
  • Baptism As Worship: Revisiting the Kiffin/Bunyan Open-Communion Debate Matthew Ward1

    Baptism As Worship: Revisiting the Kiffin/Bunyan Open-Communion Debate Matthew Ward1

    Artistic Theologian 4 (2016): 17–31 Baptism as Worship: Revisiting the Kiffin/Bunyan Open-Communion Debate Matthew Ward1 Baptists in America have very strong feelings about the conditions for church mem- bership. In this article, I want to focus on one: believer’s baptism by immersion. My current church constitution lists as a requirement for church membership baptism by immersion on repentance of sin and profession of faith. The same qualification appears in both the Phila- delphia and New Hampshire confessions of faith, in Pendleton’s Baptist Church Manual, and in the Baptist Faith and Message. Indeed, many Baptists in America consider believer’s bap- tism by immersion to be a non-negotiable prerequisite for local church membership—but perhaps not as many as did a generation ago. Some significant Baptist churches have begun accepting members without that requirement, and that trend will certainly continue. Indeed, I broached this subject with some colleagues in Britain, and they were confused by my inten- tion because they have nearly unanimously removed that condition from their constitutions. It is no longer a debate for them. This development raises the question: Should this matter simply go by the wayside, another casualty of the inexorable march toward uniformity (or perhaps pastor fatigue)? I know that my pastor has been through several weeks of this discussion with an individual from a Church of Christ background who is presenting herself for membership. Both my wife and I were confronted (blindsided?) with this matter when, as new Christians, we desired to join a Baptist church for the first time.

  • The Resurrection of John Lilburne, Quaker

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Goldsmiths Research Online The resurrection of John Lilburne, Quaker The resurrection of John Lilburne, Quaker Ariel Hessayon Goldsmiths, University of London ‘A contentious, disloyal, commonplace man; little distinguished save by his ill nature, his blindness to superior worth, and the dark internal fermentation of his own poor angry limited mind, does not seem to me an apt hero’ Thomas Carlyle to Thomas Wise (Chelsea, 21 February 1848)1 On Saturday, 29 August 1657 John Lilburne, being ‘very sicke and weake in bed’, passed away while on parole at Eltham, Kent. His heavily pregnant wife Elizabeth, perhaps with their three surviving children, was with him during his final moments in a house he had recently rented so that she might be near her friends when she gave birth.2 A Quaker source lamenting that he had died a prisoner, ‘Beareing a Testimony for Truth’, identified Lilburne’s place of death as the ‘Kings house’.3 If so, then this was the royal palace at Eltham then in the possession of Colonel Nathaniel Rich, a Parliamentarian army officer who had also purchased the royal parks and keeper’s lodge at Eltham.4 Lilburne had once railed against Rich, calling him a ‘juggling paltry, base fellow’, although by this time Rich – who had attended a Quaker meeting in Cheapside – had likewise been imprisoned by Cromwell for associating with Fifth Monarchist opponents of the Protectorate.5 1 Friends House Library, London, Portfolio 40/109, printed in Journal of Friends Historical Society, 27 (1930), pp.
  • Baptist Historiography

    Baptist Historiography

    BRTIRBT, 7, No. 1-2 (SpringlFaIl1997), 27-47 HENRY DANVERS' A Treatise of Baptism: A STUDY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BAPTIST HISTORIOGRAPHY James M. Renihan INTRODUCTION Baptist historiography is a knotty subject. Several difficu1t questions confront anyone seeking to describe and delineate the lineage of Baptists. How do Baptists fit into Church History? Where, and at what point in history, do their origins lie? How do they relate to the long line of non­ Baptists present in Church History? How do they relate to the various Baptistic groups present in North Africa and Europe during the centuries from the Apostolic Era to the modern era? These and other questions have vexed and divided Baptist historians for many years. While there are many nuanced positions, it would seem fair to say that there are basically three different views with regard to Baptist history. Richard Weeks, in a Foreword to the recent reprint of Thomas Armitage's A History a/the Baptists, delineates these three views as the Successionist, Anabaptist Spiritual Kinship, and English Separatist theories of origins. 1 The first theory is most famous for the so-called "Trail of Blood," a name coined in the booklet of the same name by J.M. CarrolP This theory argues that "according to History ... Baptists have an unbroken line of churches since Christ . Baptists are not Protestants since they did not come out of the Catholic Church."3 Positing an unbroken succession of churches since the days of Christ, the advocates of this theory have appealed to many of the lesser known sects throughout the ages as illustrations of the existence of 1 Richard C.
  • Download a Pdf File of This Issue for Free Download

    Download a Pdf File of This Issue for Free Download

    Issue 6: The Baptists A People Called Baptist The Baptist movement was born in the midst of the ferment and evolution of the English Church in the seventeenth century. Originally a collection of hole-in-the wall dissenters who were easily confused with Seekers, Ranters, Quakers, and political anarchists, Baptists rose to positions of prominence and respectability by 1700 in England and Wales. Along the way their leaders made major contributions to the theory and practice of religious liberty and the theology of the believers’ church. The principle ordinance of their faith, adult baptism by immersion, became the symbol for a people who dared to take the Bible seriously and specifically. The Baptist faith soon spread to other lands by individuals and entire congregations. In America Baptists at first encountered persecution and yet thrived in an unusual way. In fulfillment of their legacy, 25 million Baptists live in the United States, as of 1985, of the 45 million Baptists worldwide. There are important reasons for this success. Baptist principles were especially well adapted to the American experience. In a frontier society, qualities such as individualism and self-government were important. Baptist preachers stressed individual accountability before God and the responsibility of congregations of believers to Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Church decisions were made by group consent, and churches could be organized wherever a small band of believers agreed to meet regularly. In a society where there were few educational opportunities for a learned ministry, Baptists placed high value upon a personal call to the ministry and evidence of the gifts of preaching and teaching.