"The

Associations, as their brethren of the Atlantic States had become united, were made without success. Separates were afraid of being bound and hampered by Articles and Confessions, and the Regulars were unwilling to unite with them, without something of the kind." In 1801 the union was effected by mutual concessions, the fruit, it is said, of brotherly kindness and charity induced by the Great Revival of that period, and of the discovery that their doctrinal differences were less than they had supposed. The basis of union was a brief series of creedstatements, imperfect, certainly, in form, but undoubtedly intended to set forth the substance of orthodoxy. This union effected, the appellation "Separate Baptists," which had distinguished a portion of the Baptist family for half a century, passed finally away.1

It is manifest, from the testimony adduced in this note, that the Baptist denomination, with very rare exceptional instances, has been from the first accustomed to the utterance of its doctrinal convictions in the form of Confessions or Articles of Faith, and that these have exerted a powerful reflex influence. Even the Separates of Virginia, by their own spontaneous act, adopted conditionally the Philadelphia Confession, and their successors in the Mississippi Valley, when uniting with the Regulars, did not hesitate to set forth creed-statements of briefer form. I am not particularly informed in regard to later usages of the Baptists of the South and South West. My limited information coincides with what might be supposed the natural results of the causes here narrated. I think

1 See Benedict's History of the Baptists, ed. 1813, Vol. II. pp. 216, 217, 225, 237, 238, 239, 243. See also an interesting and valuable article on the Baptists of the Mississippi Valley, written by the late Rev. John M. Peck, D. D., and published in the Christian Review of October 1852.

1

the Philadelphia Confession entire, Mr. Keach's, and perhaps other abridgments of it, preserving its language and spirit, and briefer creed-statements, like those already referred to, will be found variously intermixed. Of these last I have a recent illustration, in the "Abstract of Principles" set forth by the Carey Baptist Association, Alabama, at its formation in 1855, which preserves almost the exact words of the "Abstract of Principles" set forth by the Associations of West Tennessee at an early period in their history. Few things are more tenacious of life than creed-statements in religion.

In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the states lying northwest. of them, we may, in like manner, look for institutions and habits kindred to those of the eastern sections from which the first Baptist settlers proceeded, sometimes modified by later and influential intermixtures from other sections. Where the eastern Baptist element was from Virginia, ordination will be by a Presbytery; where it was from New England, it will be by a Council. In reference to Confessions, the same rule will undoubtedly prevail. The East reproduces itself in the West. Whoever will accumulate facts bearing upon this point, will make a most important contribution to our doctrinal history.

This sketch would be imperfect without a reference to the Declaration of Faith, known at the present time as the New Hampshire Confession, which was issued a quarter of a century since by the Baptist Convention of that The work of the Rev. John Newton Brown, D. D.,

state.

1 For which I am indebted to the politeness of the Hon. Jabez L. M. Curry, Member of Congress from Alabama.

2 The same is true of the "Articles of Faith" of the Coosa River Association, for the Minutes of which I am indebted likewise to the Hon. Mr. Curry.

it was written by him when a pastor in New Hampshire, with a view to pending controversies with the Free Will Baptists, who there are numerous. It has been sometimes

criticized as aiming at the difficult task of preserving the stern orthodoxy of the fathers of the denomination, while at the same time it softens the terms in which that orthodoxy is expressed, in order to remove the objections of neighboring opponents. Published in the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, of which its author was editor, it has been circulated in many editions of that work, published too by booksellers, in small pamphlet form, convenient for distribution in churches, it has been still more widely diffused, and in churches of late origin it has been extensively adopted in the Northern and Western States.

In Appendix II. will be found at length the Confessions. to which reference has been made in this work. The Confession of 1643 is reprinted from the Appendix to the Second Volume of Choules' edition of Neal's History of the Puritans, corrected, however, by collation with the Hanserd Knollys Society's copy in their volume of Confessions. The Confession of 1689, corrected in the same manner, is reprinted from the Pittsburg edition of 1831, in the form known in this country as the Philadelphia Confession, except that the two articles added by that body, on Laying on of Hands and on Singing, are inserted separately at the end. The Confession has been compared with the London (fifth) edition of 1720, for a copy of which I am indebted to the Rev. Wm. R. Williams, D. D., LL. D., of New York. The New Hampshire Declaration of Faith is reprinted from the edition of the American

1 See Christian Review for April 1859.

Baptist Publication Society, revised by the author himself, and including two new articles, one on Repentance and Faith, and the other on Sanctification.

The Confessions here given are not to be understood as all which have been issued by churches, or other bodies, connected with the Baptist denomination. There were other Confessions issued in England' in the period between 1643 and 1689; and in this country Confessions have been published by Associations, churches and individuals in the denomination, variously modified, indeed, but preserving a substantial unity. Those which are here given, have had a historical character as acknowledged formularies. The laxity in respect to the ministerial office, indicated in the Confession of 1643, it will be observed, disappears in the Confession of 1689. On the question of laying on of hands, there has never been unanimous consent in the denomination, and the article on that subject in the Philadelphia Confession would be accepted now by a very limited number of our people.

1 Some of these Confessions may be found in a volume issued by the Hanserd Knollys Society, under the title, "Confessions of Faith, and other Public Documents, illustrative of the History of the Baptist Churches of England in the seventeenth century. Edited by Edward Bean Underhill." London, 1854.

D.

"BAPTISTS."

THE name "Baptists" is both a protest against the misnomer “Anabaptists," aud a euphemism for "Baptized." It was very natural that those who believed in the validity of infant baptism, should regard as "anabaptists" those who renounced that baptism, and were baptized again on personal profession of their faith. It was equally natural, too, that these last should repel the epithet as in nowise significant of their belief and practice. As matter of fact, we find the epithet so applied and so repelled. This was true on the Continent, and true in Great Britain. “On account of your baptism of infants," said the martyr Jan Gerrits, "you cause us to be called Anabaptists, though we baptize once, not twice, nor allow baptism more than once, and that according to the truth, and agreeably to the command and practice of the apostles."1 "It is commanded, and will be found throughout the New Testament,” said another martyr, Hans Schlaffer, answering under torture, "that men should first teach the Word of God, and they alone that hear, understand, believe and receive it, should be baptized. This is the true Christian baptism, and no rebaptism."2 "Commonly, but most falsely, called Ana

1 Baptist Martyrology, Vol. II. p. 386.

2 Ib., Vol. I. p. 50.