formally adopted by the Philadelphia Association, I am unable to determine. The common impression that this adoption occurred in 1742, is manifestly a mistake. The following extracts from the minutes will indicate its earlier adoption, and the extent and character of its authority:

1724. “In the year 1724, a query, concerning the fourth commandment, whether changed, altered, or diminished.

"We refer to the Confession of Faith, set forth by the elders and brethren, met in London, 1689, and owned by us, chap. 22, sects. 7 and 8."

1727. “In answer to a query from the Great Valley, viz. How far the liberty of marriage may be between a member and one that is not a member? Answered, by referring to our Confession of Faith, chapter 26th, in our last edition."

1729. "Query from the church at Philadelphia: Suppose a gifted brother, who is esteemed an orderly minister by or among those that are against the laying on of hands in any respect, should happen to come among our churches; whether we may allow such a one to administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, or no?

"Answered in the negative; because it is contrary to See Acts xiii. 2, 3, xiv. 23, com

the rule of God's word.

Tim. iv. 14,- from which pre

pared with Titus i. 5, 1 scribed rules we dare not swerve. We also refer to the Confession of Faith, chap. 27, sect. 9."

would suggest the inquiry, whether Keach's abridgment cannot be found in extensive use at the present time, in the older churches in New England, and more generally in the Southern States.

1 Of the original edition, the twenty-fifth chapter is the one which treats Of Marriage," and the numbering was not changed till 1742. The Minutes were revised in 1749, and "in our last edition was doubtless added

to explain the change in the reference from the twenty-fifth to the twentysixth chapter.

1742. "A motion was made in the Association for reprinting the Confession of Faith, set forth by the elders of baptized Congregations, met in London, A. D. 1689, with a short treatise of Church Discipline to be annexed to the Confession of Faith. Agreed that the thing was needful, and likely to be very useful; and in order to carry it on, it is ordered to send it to the several churches belonging to this Association, to make a trial of what sums of money can be raised, and to send an account to Mr. Jenkin Jones, to the intent, that when the several collections are completed, if it be found sufficient to defray the charges of the work, that then it shall go on; if not, then to drop it for this year; and if it be carried on, that then an addition of two articles be therein inserted; that is to say, Concerning Singing of Psalms in the Worship of God, and Laying on of Hands upon Baptized Believers. Ordered, also, that the said Mr. Jones and Benj. Griffith do prepare a short Treatise of Discipline, to be annexed to the said Confession of Faith."

1743. "Tuesday, the house met according to appointment, at eight o'clock A. M., to consider further the affair begun yesterday, touching the differences at Montgomery. After some time spent in debate thereon, brother Joseph Eaton stood up, and freely, to our apprehension, recanted, renounced and condemned all expressions which he heretofore had used, whereby his brethren at Montgomery, or any persons elsewhere, were made to believe that he departed from the literal sense and meaning of that fundamental article in our Confession of Faith, concerning the eternal generation and Sonship of Jesus Christ our Lord; he acknowledged with grief his misconduct therein, whether by word or deed. We desire that all our churches would take notice thereof, and have a tender regard for him in

his weak and aged years, and in particular, of that great truth upon which the Christian religion depends; without which it must not only totter, but fall to the ground; which he confesses he was sometimes doubtful of. Our brother Butler gave his acknowledgment, written in hist own hand, in the following words: "I freely confess that I have given too much cause for others to judge that I contradicted our Confession of Faith, concerning the eternal generation of the Son of God, in some expressions contained in my paper, which I now with freedom condemn, and am sorry for my so doing, and for every other misconduct that I have been guilty of, from first to last, touching the said article or any other matter.'

"We had a copy of Discipline designed to be annexed to our Confession of Faith, by an order of a former Association, read and considered at this meeting, and approved by the whole house."

1752. In answer to a query from the church in Kingwood, the Association having referred to our ruin in Adam and our recovery in Christ, by the Sovereign election and grace of God, adds: "Upon which fundamental doctrines of Christianity, next to the belief of an eternal God, our faith must rest; and we adopt, and would that all the churches belonging to the Baptist Association, be well grounded in accordance to our Confession of Faith, and Catechism, and cannot allow that any are true members of our churches who deny the said principles, be their conversation outward what it will."

1761. The Association, writing to the Board of Particular Baptist Ministers, London, say: "Our numbers in these parts multiply; for when we had the pleasure of writing to you in 1734, there were but nine churches in

our Association, yet now there are twenty-eight, all owning the Confession of Faith put forth in London in 1689.”

It is not necessary to multiply these citations. The cordial reception, and the authoritative character of the creed-statements embraced in the Confession, are beyond question. From a period a little later than this to the end of the century, nearly every year a chapter of the Confession was made the subject of a Pastoral Address to the churches. This venerable formulary never indeed usurped the place of the Word of God; but distinctly, cordially, and always, it was a declaration to the world of the doctrines which the Association regarded as taught in the Bible.

By reference to the extract from the Minutes of 1742, above given, it will be seen that the action of the Association was not an adoption of the Confession, but only a "reprinting," and that that which made it from that period specially a Philadelphia Confession, was the insertion of two new articles, and provision for the elaborate treatise on Discipline, the work of the Rev. Benjamin Griffith,1 which was formally adopted in 1743. The new articles inserted were written, many years before, by the Rev. Abel Morgan, a native of Wales, born in 1637, who had been a minister of the gospel in his own country, and who had translated the whole Confession into the Welsh language.

1

I have not the materials at hand for tracing, so particularly as I could desire, the course of doctrinal history in the churches of other sections which sprung more or less directly from the Philadelphia Association. The New York Association, formed in 1791, was distinctly an off

1 Mr. Griffith acknowledges the aid derived from the writings of the Rev. Elias Keach, the Rev. Abel Morgan, and Drs. Goodwin, and Owen.

shoot from the Philadelphia, and the inheritor of its doctrines; and the Hudson River Association, next in descent, was accustomed to publish annually, on its title-page, a summary of its faith, in harmony with the venerablé formulary of 1689.

In Virginia the Baptists had a double origin, — partly from zealous Separates from New England, who bore with them to the South the spirit of the Great Awakening, and partly from sources in connection with the Philadelphia Association. They were accordingly known as Separate Baptists, and Regular Baptists, each having a distinct organization. The Regular Baptists seem to have been the more intelligent and better organized, the Separates the more zealous, perhaps, and more efficient. Attempts at union between these bodies were for some time unsuccessful, the chief obstacle being the rigid adherence of the Regulars to the Philadelphia Confession. Some particulars of the history of their attempts at union are found in Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists (1810), and in the original edition (1813) of Benedict's History of the Baptists, the latter following chiefly the accounts given in the former.

The General Association of the Separate Baptists had become so large in 1783, that it was deemed advisable to dissolve it, and form distinct Associations, with a General Committee to be composed of delegates from the several district Associations, this committee to meet annually "to consider matters that may be for the good of the whole society." This action having been taken, the doctrinal unity of these brethren was guarded as follows:

"A motion was made by John Williams: That as they were now about to divide into sections, they ought to

9