by Jesse Owens and Jake Stone
In the fall of 2021, I (Jesse) had the pleasure of teaching a master’s level seminar on Baptist ecclesiology at Welch College. The course consisted primarily of reading and discussing Baptist texts in ecclesiology, many of which were from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We read texts from General Baptists and Particular Baptists on issues such as the nature of the church, believer’s baptism, regenerate church membership, and even associationalism. It was a fruitful experience for the students, and I trust it will also be helpful for HSF readers. I have enlisted the help of my good friend Jake Stone who is well-versed in Baptist history to write brief notes on many of the Particular Baptist texts.
Before going further, I will consider why we should care about these texts. In many ways, Baptists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have moved towards a sort of nebulous evangelicalism influenced in large part by various strains of the church growth movement. In the process, we lost not only a distinguishable Baptist identity but also a general awareness of the Baptist tradition. This tendency is probably most evident in the areas of confessionalism and ecclesiology—areas that early Baptists gave considerable thought to and believed to be weighty matters.
The reason that seventeenth-century Baptists cared about confessionalism and ecclesiology is because their very existence centered upon ecclesiological differences with the Church of England, Puritans, and even Separatists. All three groups practiced infant baptism, and the Church of England sought to govern Christ’s church with the magistrate’s sword. The early Baptists rejected infant baptism since they believed that baptism is reserved for believers. They further believed that infant baptism undermines regenerate church membership and, therefore, the purity of the church. They also rejected the notion of an established church since it puts the magistrate in the seat of Christ, ruling and judging not only a human kingdom but also Christ’s kingdom, when Christ alone is fit to judge in matters of ecclesial doctrine and practice.
Seventeenth-century Baptists set forth their views on these matters (and a host of others) in their confessions, which guided their faith and practice. The role of the confession was to set forth their beliefs publicly to maintain the purity and harmony of their churches. These confessions often demonstrated their continuity with other Protestants in doctrinal matters and their desire for continuity with the teachings of the Reformation and the Christian tradition. But on issues such as ecclesiology and baptism, the confessions demonstrated their radical break with those Protestants who affirmed infant baptism. Quite often, these beliefs cost seventeenth-century Baptists dearly through various forms of punishment, including fines and imprisonment.
These Baptists had a sort of “theological nerve” that we would do well to emulate. They had a more robust understanding of theology and biblical ecclesiology than we do but with far fewer resources and often little-to-no formal education. Yet we can enlist their help in recovering a thoughtful Baptist ecclesiology by carefully reading their works.
Below you will find a list of eleven texts, some long and some short, from General and Particular Baptists dealing with various aspects of Baptist ecclesiology. For those texts that are available in the public domain, we have hyperlinked the text. On some occasions, posting hyperlinks is not possible since the text appears only in a published work or database requiring a subscription. By no means is this list exhaustive or the top eleven Baptist ecclesiology texts. It is simply the first installment of many similar lists that we envision posting on the HSF in the future.
1. John Smyth, The Character of the Beast (1609).
John Smyth is a rather complex historical and theological figure since he moved from being a member of the Church of England, to a Puritan, then Separatist, then a Baptist, and finally an Anabaptist. His later theological views were problematic, as Thomas Helwys rightly noted after their separation in Holland. However, this work is one of the earliest defenses of believer’s baptism and has much to admire from a Baptist perspective. In it, Smyth lays out one of the earliest cases for believer’s baptism and a case against infant baptism. For Smyth, the issue of believer’s baptism was directly related to the right constitution of a church. According to Smyth, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England were falsely constituted since they practiced infant baptism. Maybe somewhat surprisingly, Smyth said the same of the English Separatists who, even though they too had separated from the Church of England, had retained infant baptism. Smyth’s argument can be summarized in this brief statement, “[A] true constitution [i.e. a rightly constituted church] and a true baptism are one and the same.”
2. Thomas Helwys, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612).
Helwys’s Mystery of Iniquity considers partly the role religious persecution and infant baptism play in undermining the purity of the church. The work is apocalyptic as Helwys believed portions of the Book of Revelation were unfolding in England in his own day and that some of John’s prophecy could be applied to the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England. The book is divided into four parts. In part one, Helwys criticizes the hierarchies of the Roman Catholic Church and Church of England. In part two, he critiques the magistrates’ use of temporal authority in the realm of Christ and His church, arguing instead for universal religious toleration: “Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever, it does not appertain to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.” In part three, he condemns the Puritans for remaining within the Church of England. In part four, he takes issue with the Separatists for retaining infant baptism. Helwys’s work is most well known for his advocacy of religious toleration, but ecclesiology seems to be his primary concern.
3. Thomas Patient, The Doctrine of Baptism and the Distinction of Covenants (1654).
Patient argued for believer’s baptism on the basis of his belief that the new covenant is the covenant of grace. Arguing against paedobaptist interpretations of the covenant of grace, Patient expounded on how faith is required before baptism. Admission into the covenant of grace is by way of faith in Christ and not by the external sign of infant sprinkling.
4. Francis Stanley, Christianity Indeed, Or, The Well-disciplin’d Christian the Delight of Christ (1667).
Stanley’s work addresses the necessity of biblical church government and discipline, which he believed was lacking among dissenting churches in the mid-to-late seventeenth century. He argued that Christ, in matters of governance and discipline, has bequeathed to the church “a subordinate power to his People an Congregation; committing to them a great trust, and conferring upon them a great honor.” Stanley defined church governance as, “A People truly called, and rightly gathered, Officers fitly qualifi’d, and orderly Ordained, Chirst’s Laws exactly minded, and carefully preserved, every man’s Cause timely heard, and Justice duly executed.” He went on to describe the true constitution of a church this way, “Where the People are really converted. 2 Where they are legally and wholly separated. 3. Who for Truths sake suffer, if persecuted. 4. Where the Word is truly preached. 5. Where the People are truly formed, and Duties Orderly observed. 5. Where the Ordinances and Sacraments are purely administered. 7. And true Discipline duly ordered.” Stanley’s work is thoughtful and exceedingly practical.
5. Nehemiah Coxe, Biblical Elders and Deacons (1681).
Coxe preached Titus 1:5 at a pastoral ordination service outlining the manner that deacons and elders are appointed in the church. Coxe then laid out what the pastor’s duty to the people and the vice versa. Coxe was co-editor of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, and this sermon provides a glimpse into confessional polity among seventeenth-century Baptists.
6. Benjamin Keach, The Glory of a True Church (1697).
Benjamin Keach provided a short manual of instruction concerning the duties of the officers of a church and the membership of a church. The manner in which church discipline was to be carried out also forms an important part of this work. Keach emphasized the primacy of the gathering for public worship over private worship in the believer’s life. A church covenant for use was included at the end of the book.
7. Joseph Hooke, A Necessary Apology for the Baptized Believers (1701).
Hooke’s Necessary Apology was written in reply to attacks from a Church of England clergyman by the name of William Errat. In his reply, Hooke attempts to set out and defend believer’s baptism and Baptist ecclesiology, but he also writes against the Church of England and religious persecution. Chapter one contains a lengthy discussion attempting to separate English Baptists from the Anabaptists at Munster (some readers might prefer to skip this section). Hooke also offers, in chapter two, a brief consideration of the “three Publick Confessions” of the “Baptized Christians” in England at that time (Standard Confession, Second London Baptist Confession, An Orthodox Creed). One point that appears several times in the work, and was common among the General Baptists, is the office of Messenger, which General Baptists believed was a continuation of the work of the apostles (primarily organizational).
8. Benjamin Griffith, The Power and Duty of an Association (1749).
An essay on this subject was approved by the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1744 but was not produced and adopted until 1749. Griffith laid out the rights and duties and limits that an association had. This essay highlights the historic understanding that Baptists have had regarding associations and how they should be organized. Griffith made clear the distinctions between the authority of a local church and the authority that a voluntary association of churches. Griffith’s essay stresses the balance found in healthy Baptist associationalism.
9. Dan Taylor, An Humble Essay on Christian Baptism (1777).
Taylor’s shorter work is a classic defense of believer’s baptism. Like many before him, Taylor argues for the doctrine from history and Scripture, highlighting key passages in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the practices of the early church and the church fathers. Of particular value, however, is that, since Taylor is writing near the end of the eighteenth century, he engages many of the classic works on both sides of the debate. Taylor draws from Baptists such as Henry Danvers, John Gale, Joseph Stennett, David Rees, and John Gill.
10. Abraham Booth, An Essay on the Kingdom of Christ (1788).
In this essay, Booth dove into the ecclesiological differences between the Baptists and paedobaptists as he showed why their concept of a state church was lacking. Booth gave particular focus on how Baptists rightfully understood the difference between the Old Testament people of God and the New Testament church. Booth demonstrated the consistent manner in which Baptists used typology in helping readers understand the biblical form of the church and where Baptists differed from paedobaptists regarding the nature of the church and the recipients of the ordinances.
11. Andrew Fuller, The Practical Uses of Baptism (1802).
Fuller wrote this work as the circular letter in 1802 for the Northamptonshire Association. Knowing his audience already held to the Baptist understanding of baptism, Fuller sought to remind the churches of ways in which baptism is practically important in aiding believers’ sanctification. Fuller connects the way that baptism both aids in the understanding of Christian doctrine (like baptism and the Trinity) and spiritual growth (walking in newness of life).
About the author: Jake Stone is originally from Gulfport, Mississippi. He is an M.Div. student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a 2018 graduate from William Carey University in 2018 (B.S., pastoral ministry). He served in pastoral ministry in Mississippi for twelve years and helped organize the Carey-Fuller Conference which focused on the local church and Baptist history. He resides in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a member at the Reformed Baptist Church of Louisville.
Recent Comments