The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689

Chapter 1

1689. We need a banner because of the truth; it may be that this small

volume may aid the cause of the glorious gospel by tesfying plainly what are its leading doctrines . . . May the Lord soon restore unto His Zion a pure language, and may her watchmen see eye to eye.’ So wrote the young

Chapter 2

1677. It was based upon, and drew its inspiraon from the Confession

-- 4 of 73 -- drawn up by the Westminster Assembly of Divines a generaon earlier, and indeed differs only from it in its teaching upon those maers, such as bapsm, the Lord's Supper, and church government, upon which

Chapter 3

1646. Congregaonalists adopted virtually the same arcles of faith in the

Savoy Confession of 1658. Feeling their substanal unity with paedobapsts suffering under the same cruel injusce, Calvinisc Bapsts met to publish their substanal harmony with them in doctrine. A circular leer was s

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 1; OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Paragraph 1. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience,1 although the light of nature, and the works of creaon and providence do so far manifes

Chapter 5

Deuteronomy

Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel Ezra Nehemiah Ester Job Psalms Proverbs Jeremiah Lamentaons Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: Mahew Mark Luke John Ac

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 2; OF GOD AND OF THE HOLY TRINITY

Paragraph 1. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God;1 whose subsistence is in and of Himself,2 infinite in being and perfecon; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself;3 a most pure spirit,4

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 3; OF GOD’S DECREE

Paragraph 1. God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass;1 yet so as thereby is God neither the author

Chapter 8

CHAPTER 4; OF CREATION

Paragraph 1. In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,1 for the manifestaon of the glory of His eternal power,2 wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 5; OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Paragraph 1. God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things,1 from the greatest even to the least,2 by His most wise and holy provid

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 6; OF THE FALL OF MAN, OF SIN, AND OF THE PUNISHMENT

THEREOF -- 18 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof,1 yet he did not lon

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 7; OF GOD’S COVENANT

Paragraph 1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have aained the reward of life but by some voluntary

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 8; OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR

Paragraph 1. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begoen Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man;1 the prophet,2 pri

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 9; OF FREE WILL

-- 24 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. God has endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acng upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.1 1 Ma. 17:12

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 10; OF EFFECTUAL CALLING

-- 25 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. Those whom God hath predesnated unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted me, effectually to call,1 by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they ar

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 11; OF JUSTIFICATION

Paragraph 1. Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely jusfies,1 not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounng and accepng their persons as righteous;2 not for anything w

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 12; OF ADOPTION

Paragraph 1. All those that are jusfied, God conferred, in and for the sake of his only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adopon,1 -- 28 of 73 -- by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy t

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 13; OF SANCTIFICATION

Paragraph 1. They who are united to Christ, effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrecon, are also farther sancfied, reall

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 14; OF SAVING FAITH

Paragraph 1. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts,1 and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word;2 by whi

Chapter 19

CHAPTER 15; OF REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE AND SALVATION

-- 31 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. Such of the elect that are converted at riper years, having someme lived in the state of nature, and therein served divers pleasures, God in their effectual calling gives them repentance to

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 16; OF GOOD WORKS

Paragraph 1. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his Holy Word,1 and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intenons.2 1 Mic. 6:8; Heb. 13

Chapter 21

CHAPTER 17; OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

Paragraph 1. Those whom God has accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sancfied by his Spirit, and given the precious faith of his elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but s

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 18; OF THE ASSURANCE OF GRACE AND SALVATION

Paragraph 1. Although temporary believers and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumpons of being in the favor of God and in a state of salvaon, which hope of theirs sh

Chapter 23

CHAPTER 19; OF THE LAW OF GOD

Paragraph 1. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience wrien in his heart, and a parcular precept of not eang the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil;1 by which he bound him and all his posterity to pe

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 20; OF THE GOSPEL AND OF THE EXTENT OF THE GRACE

THEREOF Paragraph 1. The covenant of works being broken by sin, and made unprofitable unto life, God was pleased to give forth the promise of Christ, the seed of the woman, as the means of calling the elect, and begeng

Chapter 25

CHAPTER 21; OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE

Paragraph 1. The liberty which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the severity and curse of the law,1 and in their being del

Chapter 26

CHAPTER 22; OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AND THE SABBATH DAY

-- 42 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all; is just, good and does good to all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trust

Chapter 27

CHAPTER 23; OF LAWFUL OATHS AND VOWS

Paragraph 1. A lawful oath is a part of religious worship, wherein the person swearing in truth, righteousness, and judgment, solemnly calls God to witness what he swears,1 and to judge him according to the truth or fals

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 24; OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE

Paragraph 1. God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, has ordained civil magistrates to be under him, over the people, for his own glory and the public good; and to this end has armed them with the power of the s

Chapter 29

CHAPTER 25; OF MARRIAGE

Paragraph 1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman; neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same me.1 1 Gen. 2:24; Mal. 2:15; Ma. 19

Chapter 30

CHAPTER 26; OF THE CHURCH

-- 48 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. The catholic or universal church, which (with respect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace) may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been

Chapter 31

CHAPTER 27; OF THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS

-- 52 of 73 -- Paragraph 1. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ, their head, by his Spirit, and faith, although they are not made thereby one person with him, have fellowship in his graces, sufferings, death, res

Chapter 32

CHAPTER 28; OF BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER

Paragraph 1. Bapsm and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of posive and sovereign instuon, appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be connued in his church to the end of the world.1 1 Ma. 28:19,20; 1 Cor.

Chapter 33

CHAPTER 29; OF BAPTISM

Paragraph 1. Bapsm is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party bapzed, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrecon; of his being engraed into him;3 of remis

Chapter 34

CHAPTER 30; OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Paragraph 1. The supper of the Lord Jesus was instuted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in his churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing to all the worl

Chapter 35

CHAPTER 31; OF THE STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH, AND OF THE

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD Paragraph 1. The bodies of men aer death return to dust, and see corrupon;1 but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them

Chapter 36

CHAPTER 32; OF THE LAST JUDGMENT

Paragraph 1. God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ;1 to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged,2

Chapter 37

1. As to those Chrisans who consent with us, That Repentance from dead

works, and Faith towards God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, is required in persons to be Bapzed; and do therefore supply the defect of the (infant being uncapable of making confession of either) by others who do undertake

Chapter 38

2. As for those our Chrisan brethren who do ground their arguments for

Infants bapsm, upon a presumed faederal Holiness, or Church- Membership, we conceive they are deficient in this, that albeit this Covenant-Holiness and Membership should be as is supposed, in reference unto the Infants

Chapter 39

3. Of whatsoever nature the holiness of the children menoned, 1 Cor. 7.

12. be, yet they who do conclude that all such children (whether Infants or of riper years) have from hence an immediate right to bapsm, do as we conceive put more into the conclusion, then will be found in the premisse

Chapter 40

4. The arguments and inferences that are usually brought for, or against

Infant bapsm from those few instances which the Scriptures afford us of whole families being bapsed; are only conjectural; and therefore cannot of themselves, be conclusive on either hand: yet in regard most that treat