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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