1689 London Baptist Confession
1. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart,
and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil; by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and
perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the
breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.
( Genesis
1:27; Ecclesiastes
7:29; Romans
10:5; Galatians
3:10, 12 )
2. The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule
of righteousness after the fall, and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten
commandments, and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God,
and the other six, our duty to man.
( Romans
2:14, 15; Deuteronomy
10:4 )
3. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of
Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship,
prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly holding
forth divers instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only
to the time of reformation, are, by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only law-giver, who
was furnished with power from the Father for that end abrogated and taken away.
( Hebrews
10:1; Colossians
2:17; 1
Corinthians 5:7; Colossians
2:14, 16, 17; Ephesians
2:14, 16 )
4. To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of
that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution; their general equity only
being of moral use.
( 1
Corinthians 9:8-10 )
5. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the
obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in
respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it; neither doth Christ in the
Gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.
( Romans
13:8-10; James
2:8, 10-12; James
2:10, 11; Matthew
5:17-19; Romans
3:31 )
6. Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby
justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them as well as to others, in that as a
rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them
to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures, hearts, and
lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of,
humiliation for, and hatred against, sin; together with a clearer sight of the need they
have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience; it is likewise of use to the
regenerate to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the threatenings of
it serve to shew what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may
expect for them, although freed from the curse and unallayed rigour thereof. The promises
of it likewise shew them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may
expect upon the performance thereof, though not as due to them by the law as a covenant of
works; so as man's doing good and refraining from evil, because the law encourageth to the
one and deterreth from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law and not under
grace.
( Romans
6:14; Galatians
2:16; Romans
8:1; Romans
10:4; Romans
3:20; Romans
7:7, etc; Romans
6:12-14; 1
Peter 3:8-13 )
7. Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but
do sweetly comply with it, the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to
do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God, revealed in the law, requireth to be
done.
( Galatians
3:21; Ezekiel
36:27 )
For further study:
"Baptist Roots in America: The Historical Background of Reformed Baptists in America", Samuel E. Waldron, Simpson Publishing Co. (1991)
"A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith", Samuel E. Waldron, Evangelical Press, 1989
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