Union and Communion (2)
In the last article, I noted four points regarding a puritan doctrine of union and communion with Christ. Continuing that discussion, a fifth point is that communion is communion in…
Patrick Ramsey
Union and Communion
The puritan doctrine of union and communion with Christ is not only a biblical doctrine, it is quite beneficial pastorally and theologically. Eventually, I would like to consider some uses…
Covenant Conditions
Continuing our series on the covenant theology of the Westminster Standards (see parts #1, #2), the third element of a covenant, namely conditions, may be the most controversial and perhaps…
Covenant Promises
In my last article, I noted that a covenant has three basic elements: parties, promises, and conditions. The parties of the covenant of grace vary depending upon which perspective of…
Covenant Parties
Generally speaking, a covenant, according to Reformed theology, is a legal relationship between two parties that involves promises and conditions. A covenant, therefore, has three basic elements: parties, promises and…
Don’t Be Silly
Stephen Marshall (1594-1655) argued that infants of believers should be baptized because 1) they are within the covenant of grace and belong to the kingdom of Christ, 2) they are…
Parental Comfort
In the previous two articles (see 1, 2), we have considered one argument for and one objection to infant baptism from the writings of Stephen Marshall (1594-1655). We are now…
Apples & Oranges
In my previous article, I discussed one of Stephen Marshall’s arguments for infant baptism: infants of believers (covenant children) should be baptized because they partake of the spiritual realities signified…
Membership Has Its Privileges
If you were to travel back in time and ask the members of the Westminster Assembly for some helpful resources on the subject of infant baptism they would probably have…
Controversies & Confessions
What do you do when two sides are unable to reconcile their theological differences? We have been looking at how the English Dissenters at the end of the seventeenth century…
Broaden Your Horizons
What do you do when two parties within the same Reformed tradition approach the issues from such different perspectives that they end up seeing one another as the devil? In…
Appeal for Help
The Presbyterians and the Congregationalists had an extremely difficult time working through their theological differences in the 1690s (see parts 1, 2, 3, 4). There are a number of reasons…