“Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life.” (28:1) “Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits and to confirm our interest in Him: as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word” (27:1) A survey of the Westminster Confession, the Savoy Declaration of the Congregationalists, and the 1677 Baptist Confession, reveals a surprisingly unanimous opinion as to its meaning:ĭirectory for the Publick Worship of God (1645) Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists insisted that baptism was necessary because the natural man inherits original sin and is constitutionally totally depraved. Given this vitriolic engagement, it might come as a surprise to find that seventeenth century Calvinists were of the same mind as to the need for, and meaning of Christian baptism. Less intemperate titles (if not content) included Thomas Wall’s A Necessary treatise for this age, or A Plain discovery of that great error of denying baptism with water to the children of believers. Richard Carpenter, The Anabaptist Washed and Washed and Shrunk in the Washing, and the (Baptist) Ranter, Samuel Fisher, Baby-baptism mere Babism. Keith and the pseudonymous Malleus spared little in tempering their language as they publicly debated the demerits of each other’s position on baptism.Įqually intemperate offerings came from the pens of a Presbyterian, Rev. George Keith, with some remarks on my former epistles to him, especially that against plunging in Baptism. Among some of the more colourful titles to appear in the wake of stormy debates was one by an anonymous (Baptist) author, Trepidantium Malleus, A Snake in the Grass Caught and Crush’t, or a Third and Last Epistle to a now furious deacon in the Church of England, the Reverend Mr. The doctrine of baptism raised temperatures in the mid-seventeenth century as much as it seems to do in our own time. The paper concludes that there is evidence for a different understanding of the nature and scope of the covenant of grace as well as issues relating to the mode of baptism. A comparative/contrasting consideration of the doctrine and practice of baptism in the Westminster, Savoy and Baptist Confessions of the seventeenth century. The gathering left behind an extraordinary testimony of its reforming activities, and the manuscript minutes constitute one of the most important unpublished religious texts of seventeenth-century Britain. Printers and booksellers promoted the works of the synod's theologians and members were paraded down London streets and feasted at banquets.The story of the Westminster assembly's accomplishments, as well as its failures, are told in the texts of this edition. Visitors made their way to the abbey, from an unknown Muslim to the elector palatine of the Rhine. Christians wrote from Europe to ask the assembly for advice. At home and abroad, people perceived the assembly to be a powerful patron. Members of the assembly were involved in every significant political debate of the decade, and the public blamed or blessed the think-tank for radical changes in the church. Download Or Read PDF The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1653 (5 Volume Set) Free Full Pages Online With Audiobook.įor more than ten years the Westminster assembly was one of the major institutions of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
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