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
that are necessary for us to know concerning God and our Duty unto him and also unto all Men. That all Persons ought to read hear and understand the holy Scriptures That the Light of Nature and Works of Providence tho they declare plainly there is a God yet not so effectually as the holy Scriptures nor can we know without them how and in what space of time God created all things Neither came we any other ways but by the holy Scriptures to the Knowledg of Christ the blessed Mediator which indeed none can savingly know but by the Word and Spirit of God Of Original Sin VII WE do believe that God having created Man he entered into a Covenant of Life with him upon the condition of perfect Obedience making the first Adam a common Head to all his Seed and that our first Parents being left to the freedom of their own Will fell from the Estate wherein they were created by eating of the forbidden Fruit and that Adam being set up as a publick Person we all sinned in him and fell with him into a state of Sin of Wrath and Misery the Sinfulness of which state consists in the guilt of Adam's first Sin the want of Original Righteousness and the Corruption of our whole Nature from whence all actual Sins proceed as Water out of a filthy and an unclean Fountain So that not only by Imputation all Men became Sinners in the first Adam but also as the same corrupt Nature is conveyed to all his Posterity who descend from him in ordinary Generation By this Sin all Mankind lost the Image of God and Communion with him being liable to all the Miseries of this Life and to Death it self and also are dead in Sins and Trespasses and obnoxious to the Wrath of God and the eternal Pains of Hell for ever Hence we say that all are conceiv'd and born in Sin and are the Children of Wrath even the Elect as well as others being wholly defiled in all the Faculties and Parts of Soul and Body and utterly indisposed and disabled to do any thing that is spiritually good and wholly inclined with a strong propensity to all things that are evil Of Man's Free-will VIII WE believe Man in his state of Innocency had freedom of Will to do good but by the Fall he hath utterly lost all that Power and Ability being wofully depraved in all the Faculties of his Soul there being in the Will and Mind of all naturally much Enmity against God and a total aversion to him and to every thing that is spiritually good loving Darkness and rebelling against the Light But when a Man is renewed by Divine Grace tho there is no force put upon the Will yet it is made willing and acts freely in the day of God's Power tho the Work is not perfect in any Faculty in the Regenerate nor will be in this Life Of Christ the Mediator IX WE believe that God having out of his own meer good Pleasure and infinite Love elected some Persons of the lost Seed of the first Adam unto everlasting Life from all Eternity did enter into a Covenant of Grace with the second Person of the Trinity who was set up as the common Head of all the Elect to deliver them out of the state of Sin and Misery and to bring them into a state of Salvation and eternal Happiness That the second Person in the Godhead being the eternal Son of God Coessential and Coequal with the Father according to that holy Covenant and Compact that was between them both became Man or assumed our Nature and so was and continueth to be God and Man in two distinct Natures in one Person for ever And that he the Son of God by his becoming Man did take unto him a True Body and Reasonable Soul being conceived by the holy Spirit in the Womb of the Virgin and was born of her yet without Sin Of the Offices of Christ X. WE believe that the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Redeemer and the one blessed Mediator between God and Man executeth a threefold Office both the Office of a Priest the Office of a King and the Office of a Prophet First That he executeth the Office of a Priest 1. In his once offering up himself a Sacrifice to satisfy Divine Justice and to reconcile God to us and us to God 2. And in making continual Intercession for us that the Merits of his Blood may be made effectual unto us Secondly That he executeth the Office of a King in subduing us unto himself and in giving us Laws and holy Precepts by which we ought to walk and also in his restraining and conquering all his and our Enemies Thirdly That he executeth the Office of a Prophet in revealing to us by his Word and Spirit the whole Will of God concerning all things that appertain to Faith and Practice Of Christ's Humiliation and Exaltation XI WE believe that Christ's Humiliation consisted in that great Condescension of his in assuming our Nature and being born in a low condition made under the Law undergoing the many Miseries of this Life the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law and the ignominious Death of the Cross continuing under Death for a time And that his Exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead the third day and in his ascending up into Heaven in sitting at the Right-hand of God Angels Powers and Principalities being made subject unto him and in his being made Judg of the quick and dead Of effectual Calling XII WE do believe that we are made Partakers of the Redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual Application of his Merits c. unto us by the Holy Spirit thereby uniting us to Christ in effectual Calling And that effectual Calling is the Work of God's Free Grace who by his Spirit works Faith in us who are altogether passive therein and convincing us of Sin and Misery enlightning our Minds in the Knowledg of Christ and renewing our Wills and changing our whole Hearts he doth perswade and enable us to imbrace Jesus Christ freely as he is offered in the Gospel Of Justification XIII WE do believe Justification is a free Act of God's Grace through that Redemption which is in Christ who as our Head was acquitted justified and discharged and we in him when he rose from the Dead and when applied to us we in our own Persons are actually justified in being made and pronounced righteous through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and all our Sins past present and to come for ever pardon'd which is receiv'd by Faith alone And that our Sanctification nor Faith it self is any part of our Justification before God it not being either the Habit or Act of Believing or any Act of Evangelical Obedience imputed to us but Christ and his active and