Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

are the only proper subjects of baptism; and that 'immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance.'

The New Hampshire Confession, which dates from 1833, is acknowledged by most of the Baptists of the Northern and Western States of America. Its phraseology is dignified and subdued, and the article which treats of baptism goes no further than the expression of a belief that 'Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer, into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost.'

The Confession of the Free Will Baptists of America was issued in 1834, and revised in 1848, 1865, and 1868. It consists of twenty-one chapters, and is a large-hearted declaration of the ordinary evangelical belief. ‘Christian baptism' is simply and piously defined as 'the immersion of believers in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in which are represented the burial and resurrection of Christ, the death of Christians to the world, the washing of their souls from the pollution of sin, their rising to newness of life, their engagement to serve God, and their resurrection at the last day.'

The Confession of the Seven Congregations was drawn up in London in 1646, but is now quite obsolete. It speaks of baptism as 'an ordinance of the New Testament, given by Christ, to be dispensed upon persons professing faith, or that are made disciples.' 'The way and manner of dispensing this ordinance is by dipping or plunging the body under water.'

2. The oldest standard of the Independents is the Savoy Declaration of the Congregational Churches, which

dates from 1658. It is to a large extent a reproduction or the Westminster Confession adapted by various omissions and additions to the polity of the Congregationalists. It lays down very distinctly the doctrine of separate congregations, and declares that 'besides these particular churches there is not instituted by Christ any church more extensive or catholic, entrusted with power for the administration of His ordinances, or the execution of any authority in His name.' It holds that the manner of the call of 'a pastor, teacher, or elder unto office consists in the election of the church, together with his acceptance of it, and separation by fasting and prayer.'

In 1833, two years after its foundation, the Congregational Union adopted a Declaration of the Faith, Church Order, and Discipline of the Congregational or Independent Dissenters, which was not, however, put forth authoritatively or as a standard demanding assent. 'Disallowing the utility of creeds and articles of religion as a bond of union, and protesting against subscription to any human formularies as a term of communion, Congregationalists are yet willing to declare, for general information, what is commonly believed among them, reserving to every one the most perfect liberty of conscience.' It is further stated that they 'wish it to be observed that, notwithstanding their jealousy of subscription to creeds and articles, and their disapproval of the imposition of any human standard, whether of faith or discipline, they are far more agreed in their doctrines and practices than any church which enjoins subscription and enforces a human standard of orthodoxy.' The fourteenth article expresses a belief that all who will be saved were the

objects of God's eternal and electing love, and were given by an act of Divine Sovereignty to the Son of God: which in no way interferes with the system of means, nor with the grounds of human responsibility: being wholly unrevealed as to its objects, and not a rule of human duty.' On the subject of baptism it is said that Congregationalists 'believe in its perpetual obligation . . . to be administered to all converts to Christianity and their children, by the application of water to the subject, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' The doctrine of separate churches is stated as explicitly as in the Savoy Declaration, the words being that 'the Congregational churches hold it to be the will of Christ that true believers should voluntarily assemble together to observe religious ordinances, to promote mutual edification and holiness, to perpetuate and propagate the Gospel in the world, and to advance the glory and worship of God, through Jesus Christ; and that each society of believers, having these objects in view in its formation, is properly a Christian church.'

In June 1865 a simple Declaration of Faith of the National Council of Congregationalists was adopted at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the spot where the first meeting-house of the Pilgrim Fathers stood, the elders and managers of the Congregational churches of the United States' standing,' as the document touchingly says, 'by the rock where the Pilgrims set foot upon these shores, upon the spot where they worshipped God, and among the graves of the early generations.'

As recently as November 17, 1871, a declaration of

I

the National Congregational Council was made at Oberlin, Ohio; it enunciated no new doctrines or principles.

3. The chart of all Presbyterianism is still the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was drawn up by the Assembly of Divines in 1643, and published four years later. It consists of 33 chapters divided into 172 sections. It discusses elaborately every question of religious belief and various points of spiritual discipline. The Scriptures are insisted upon as the one and only rule of faith, 'those former ways-i.e. the light of nature and the works of creation and providence of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.'. 'The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one) it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.'

[ocr errors]

The famous third chapter of the Confession treats 'Of God's eternal decree,' and is the most merciless statement of uncompromising Calvinism which has ever been made. The first section states that God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangea bly ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.' It may be well to quote the third, fourth, and seventh seetions as they stand :— III. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined unto

everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.

'IV. These angels and men, thus predestined and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished.'

'VII. The rest of mankind'—that is, 'those who are not predestinated to life'—' God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extendeth or withholdeth mercy as He pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by, or to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, to the praise of His glorious justice.'

The tenth chapter, 'Of effectual calling,' declares that 'elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit;' but that 'others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved; much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any way whatsoever.'

4. The most authoritative Quaker confession, though it has never received official endorsement, is contained in the fifteen propositions put forth in 1675 by Robert Barclay. He styles them Theses and Theologicæ, and they are addressed 'to the clergy, of what sort soever,

but more particularly to the Doctors, Professors, and Students of Divinity in the universities and schools of Great Britain, whether Prelatical, Presbyterian, or any other.' They are put forward as expressive of 'that

« ПредишнаНапред »