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A47606
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A short confession of faith containing the substance of all the fundamental articles in the larger confession put forth by the elders of the Baptist churches, owning personal election and final perserverance.
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Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing K86; ESTC R24038
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16,842
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52
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Confession of FAITH Containing the Substance Of all the Fundamental ARTICLES IN THE Larger Confession put for t 〈…〉 the Elders of the Bapti 〈…〉 Churches Owning Personal Electio 〈…〉 Final Perseverance Acts 24. 14. After the way 〈…〉 Heresy so worship we the Go 〈…〉 ther 's believing all things wh 〈…〉 in the Law and the Prophets 〈…〉 LONDON Printed in the 〈…〉 THE ARTICLES OF THE FAITH OF THE. CHURCH of CHRIST OR Congregation meeting at Horsley-down BENJAMIN KEACH Pastor As asserted this 10th of the 6th Month 1697. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. To the Congregation with whom I am a Member and the unworthy Overseer who are in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplied Most Dear and Beloved in Christ I Hope I can say with the holy Apostle that you are by me dearly beloved my Joy and my Crown yea you are my Honour and in you I would rejoice being the Ornament of my poor Ministry by which the most of you have through the Blessing of God been converted to Jesus Christ and if you stand fast in the Faith in one Spirit striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and do adorn your Profession living in Love and endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace you will cause my latter days to be most sweet and comfortable to me after all those Troubles Sorrows and Reproaches I have met with both from within and from without Evident it is God hath most eminently appeared to strengthen your hands tho the Archers have sorely grieved you and shot at you yet your Bow abideth in strength and that the Arms of your Hands may still abide strong by the Arm of the mighty God of Jacob shall be my continual Prayers My Brethren I here present you with that which you have so long waited for and desired me to endeavour to do viz. to state an account of the most concerning Articles of your Faith which you have heard read and have approved of and which I thought good no longer to delay the doing of 1. Not knowing how soon I may put off this Tabernacle and therefore would leave behind me an account of that holy Doctrine and Order in which through Grace you are established for at your desire also I have drawn up the whole Rules of your holy Discipline which you may have added unto this and bound up together 2. And the rather I have done this because the General and more Large Confession of the Faith of our Churches is now out of Print but that is not all for that being 12 d. price some cannot well purchase it 3. And also that all Men may see what our Faith is and that we differ not from our Brethren who bear other Names in any Fundamental Point or Article of Faith and that they may discern the difference between you and some that bear the same Name with you 4. Tho you agree in the general with all other Churches of the same Faith in all those Articles there inserted yet therein your whole Faith is not comprehended viz. that of Imposition of Hands upon baptized Believers as such and singing of God's Praise c. because some of our Churches dissent from us therein yet my desire is you would nevertheless shew all Tenderness Charity and Moderation to such as differ from you in those Cases and not refuse Communion with them and indeed your late sweet Temper appears to be such that I need not press you to this All that I shall say more is to entreat you to labour after Holiness and to awake out of sleep that you may adorn your sacred Profession and prepare to meet the Lord that as you have a good Doctrine you may also have a holy and good Conversation and then we need not fear who can harm us whilst we are followers of that which is good O let us bear one with another and if in any thing we differ let us avoid all Animosities Brethren great things are near watch and pray look out and be ready But at present I shall conclude with the words of the Apostle Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one Mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you So prays your unworthy Brother Pastor Overseer and Servant who earnestly desires your Prayers also From my House in Freemans-lane by Horsley-down Southwark Aug. 16. 1697. B. Keach That the following Articles contain what the foresaid Church believes concerning those Truths asserted therein we whose Names are hereunto subscribed do testify in the Name and by the Appointment of the whole Congregation the 10th day of the 6th Month commonly called August 1697. BEnjamin Keach Pastor Benjamin Stinton Teacher John Roberts Edward Foley Joshua Farrow Tho. Stinton John Valley Isaac Ballard Deacons John Hoar sen Edward Newbury Tho. Turner John Seamor Ephraim Wilcocks James Wilmott Daniel Dines Richard Thoubals John Weston John Clark Tho. Ayers John York George Starkey sen Benj. Harris George Starkey jun. John Beavis Tho. Hill Joseph Berry William Farmworth Joseph Jennings John Fowle sen Tho. Fowle John Fowle jun. Henry Skeer John Greensmith Jeremiah Lions William Putman Nath. Holden William Cattrel Tho. Harvey Tho. Richford Joseph Worley Peter Carter William Forister Sam. Cox John Sparke James King William Deale Simon Agars John Hoar jun. Tho. Gunning William Mais The Articles of Faith of the Church of Christ meeting at Horsley-Down Of God and of the Holy Trinity I. WE do believe declare and testify that there is but One Only Living and True God who is a Spirit Infinite Eternal Immense and Unchangeable in his Being Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness Truth and Faithfulness II. That there are three Persons in the Godhead the Father the Son and Holy Spirit and that these three are One God the same in Essence equal in Power and Glory Of the Decrees of God III. THat the Decrees of God are his Eternal Purpose according to the Counsel of his Will whereby for his own Glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass even those Evils that his Wisdom and Justice permits for the manifestation of the Glory of those his Attributes And that God executes his Decrees in the Works of Creation and Providence Of Creation IV. THat the Works of Creation are God's creating all things of nothing by his Word of Power in six days and all very good That God created Man Male and Female after his own Image in Knowledg Righteousness and Holiness with Power and Dominion over the Creatures Of God's Providence V. WE believe that God's Works of Providence are his most holy wise and powerful preserving and governing all his Creatures and their Actions Of the holy Scriptures VI. WE believe the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God and are the only Rule of Faith and Practice all things being contained therein
passive Obedience only apprehended by Faith and that Faith in no sense tends to make Christ's Merits more satisfactory unto God but that he was as fully reconciled and satisfied for his Elect in Christ by his Death before Faith as after otherwise it would render God only reconcileable not reconciled and make Faith part of the Payment or Satisfaction unto God and so lessen the Merits of Christ as if they were defective or insufficient Yet we say it is by Faith that we receive the Atonement or by which means as an Instrument we come to apprehend and receive him and to have personal Interest in him and to have our free Justification evidenced to our own Consciences Of Adoption XIV WE believe Adoption is an Act of God's Free Grace whereby such who were the Children of Wrath by Nature are received into the Number and have Right to all the Privileges of the Sons of God and that such who are adopted are also by the Spirit regenerated and hence said to be born of God Of Sanctification XV. THAT Sanctification is the Work of God's Free Grace also whereby we are renewed in the whole Man after the Image of God and are inabled more and more to die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness And that the Benefits we receive and which flow from or accompany Justification are Adoption Sanctification Peace of Conscience Manifestations of God's Love Joy in the Holy Ghost an Increase of Grace an Assurance of eternal Life and final Perseverance unto the end Of the Souls of Men at Death XVI WE believe that at Death the Souls of Believers are made perfect in Holiness and do immediately pass into Glory and their Bodies dying in Union with Christ or dying in the Lord do rest in their Graves till the Resurrection when they shall be raised up in Glory And that their Souls being reunited to their Bodies they shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted and made compleatly blessed both in Soul and Body and shall have the full Injoyment of God to all Eternity And that the Souls of the Wicked at their Death are cast into Hell or are in Torment and that their Bodies lie in the Grave under Wrath and shall by virtue of the Power of Christ be raised from the Dead and their Souls being re-united to their Bodies shall be judged and condemned and cast into a Furnace of Fire or into unspeakable Torment with the Devil and his Angels for ever and ever Of the Law XVII WE believe God requires Obedience of Man and that the Rule of that Obedience is the moral Law as it is in the Hands of Christ which teacheth all Persons their Duty to God and to Man the Sum of all being this to love the Lord our God with all our Hearts with all our Souls and with all our Strength and our Neighbours as our selves And that tho the Law is abolished as a Covenant of Works and as so considered we are dead to it and that dead to us yet it remains as a Rule of Life and Righteousness for ever XVIII We believe no mere Man since the Fall is able in this Life perfectly to keep the Holy Law of God and that every Offence against the Law deserves eternal Death tho some Sins are more heinous in God's Sight than others And that God as a simple Act of Mercy will not doth not pardon any Man neither doth it seem consistent with his Holiness and Justice so to do without a full Satisfaction wherefore he substituted Christ in our room and stead perfectly to keep the whole Law and to die or bear that Wrath which we deserved for our breaking of it he being pleased in his infinite Love and Grace to transfer our Sins Guilt and Punishment upon his own Son who took our Nature upon him as our blessed Head and Representative that his active Obedience and Righteousness might be our just Title unto eternal Life and his Death who bore our Hell-Torments be our full Discharge from the Wrath of God and eternal Condemnation And that all who would receive this Title and have this Discharge so as to escape God's Wrath and the Curse of the Law must fly to Christ and lay hold on him by Faith which Faith is known by its Fruits having lively Sin-killing Soul-humbling Self-abasing Christ-exalting and Heart-purifying Operations always attending it Of Faith and Repentance XIX WE believe that Faith is a saving Grace or the most precious Gift of God and that it is an Instrument whereby we receive take hold of and wholly rest upon Jesus Christ as offered to us in the Gospel That Repentance unto Life is also a saving Grace whereby a Sinner out of a true Sense of Sin and Apprehension of God's Mercy in Christ doth with Grief and Hatred of his Sins turn from them And that tho Repentance is in order of Nature called the first Principle of the Doctrine of Christ yet we believe no Man can savingly repent unless he believes in Jesus Christ and apprehends the Free Pardon and Forgiveness of all his Sins through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant and the Sight and Sense of God's Love in a bleeding Saviour being that only thing that melts and breaks the stony Heart of a poor Sinner as the Sight of a free Pardon from a Prince humbles the stout Heart of a rebellious Malefactor Of the Means of Grace XX. WE believe that the outward and more ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the Benefits of Redemption are his Holy Ordinances as Prayer the Word of God and Preaching with Baptism and the Lord's Supper c. and yet notwithstanding it is the Spirit of God that maketh Prayer Reading c. and specially the Preaching of the Word effectual to the convincing converting building up and comforting through Faith all the Elect of God unto Salvation And that it is the Duty of all that the Word may become effectual to their Salvation to attend upon it with all Diligence Preparation and Prayer that they may receive it with Faith and Love and lay it up in their Hearts and practise it in their Lives Of Baptism XXI WE believe that Baptism is a Holy Ordinance of Christ or a pure Gospel-Institution and to be unto the Party baptized a sign of his Fellowship with Christ in his Death Burial and Resurrection and of his being grafted into him and of Remission of Sins and of his giving himself up to God through Jesus Christ to walk in Newness of Life We also believe that Baptism ought not to be administred to any but to those who actually profess Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ That the Infants of Believers ought not to be baptized because there is neither Precept or Example or any certain Consequence in the Holy Scripture for any such Practice And we