Second London Baptist Confession on Baptism

Believers only, on profession of faith

THE POSITION

Chapter 29 is the confession's headline departure from Westminster and it is made in four short paragraphs. Only those who actually profess repentance, faith and obedience are proper subjects (29.2); immersion is necessary to due administration (29.4); and the new chapter 28 recasts baptism and the Supper as 'ordinances of positive, and soveraign institution' rather than as sacraments. The engine is chapter 7: where WCF 7.5-7.6 makes the covenant of grace one covenant 'differently administered' under law and gospel, 2LBC 7 drops those two paragraphs entirely and grounds the covenant in the eternal transaction between Father and Son 'about the Redemption of the Elect' — removing the premise from which household baptism was argued.

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ABOUT THIS FIGURE

The confessional standard of the Particular Baptists, first printed 1677 and adopted by the London General Assembly of 1689. It takes over the Westminster Confession chapter by chapter and rewrites it at four points that matter: the covenant (ch. 7), the gospel and the extent of its grace (ch. 20, which Westminster has no counterpart to), the church (ch. 26), and baptism (ch. 29). This entry rests on the 1677/1689 printing with its own Scripture proofs, read against the Westminster text clause by clause.