Our Articles of Faith
These are the articles of faith as entered in the church book in 1763 when the church was formed.
In the original they contain many scriptural references as proof for statement. These have been omitted here for ease of reading.
A DECLARATION OF THE FAITH AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST READ AND ASSENTED TO, AT THE ADMISSION OF MEMBERS.
Having been enabled through Divine Grace to give up ourselves to the Lord, and likewise to one another by the will of God; we account it a duty incumbent upon us to make a Declaration of our faith and Practice to the honour of Christ, and the glory of his name: knowing, that as with the heart man believes unto righteousness, so with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation which Declaration is as follows, viz:
1. THE BIBLE: We believe, that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice.
2. THE TRIUNE GOD: We believe, that there is but one only living and true God: that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are equal in nature, power, and Glory; and that the Son and the Holy Ghost are as truly and properly God as the Father.
3. THE COVENANT OF GRACE: We believe, that before the world began, God did elect a certain number of men unto everlasting salvation; whom he did predestinate to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ of his own free grace, and according to the good pleasure of his will; and that in persuance of this gracious design he did contrive and make a Covenant of Grace and peace with his Son Jesus Christ, on behalf of the persons; wherein a saviour was appointed and all spiritual blessings provided for them; as also that their persons, with all their grace and glory, were put into the hands of Christ, and made his care and charge.
4. THE FALL OF MAN: We believe, that God created the first man Adam after his own image, and in his likeness, an upright, holy and innocent creature, capable of serving and glorifying him; but he sinned, and in sinning all his posterity sinned in him, and came short of the glory of God the guilt of whose sin is imputed and a corrupt nature derived to all his offspring descending from him by ordinary and natural generation that they are by their first birth carnal and unclean; averse to all that is good, incapable of doing any, and prone to every sin, and are also by nature children of wrath and under a sentence of condemnation; and so are subject not only to corporal death and involved in a moral one, commonly called spiritual, but are also liable to an eternal death from all which there is no deliverance but by Christ, the second Adam.
5. THE WORK OF CHRIST: We believe, that the Lord Jesus Christ being set up from everlasting as the mediator of the covenant, and he having engaged to be the surety of his people did in the fulness of time really assume human nature in which nature he really suffered and died as their substitute, in their room and stead, whereby he made all that satisfaction for their sins which the law and justice of God could require; as well as made way for all those blessings which are needful for them both for time and eternity, rising from the dead and returning bodily to the right hand of the Father in Heaven.
6. PARTICULAR REDEMPTION: We believe, that eternal redemption which Christ has obtained by the shedding of his blood is special and particular: that is to say, that it was only intentionally designed for the elect of God and sheep of Christ, who only share the special peculiar blessings of it.
7. FREE GRACE: We believe, that the justification of God's elect is only by the righteousness of Christ as the material cause of it, and that neither faith itself nor the act of believing nor any evangelical obedience of theirs nor any of their imperfect sincere obedience nor any works or inherent qualifications in them or done by them is either the whole or any part of the righteousness by which they are justified, and as to the efficient cause of justification it is by an act of Jehovah the Father's will, he having chosen his elect in Christ before the foundation of the world willed not to impute their iniquities to them but to impute them to his Son their surety, and to impute the righteousness of Christ to them as their justification and acceptance before him, and as this was by an act of God the Father's will it must be an eternal act and there being now no new acts arising in the mind and will of God in time, and that consequently the elect of God as such are eternally justified and also that the full and free pardon of all the sins and transgressions of the elect past, present and to come is only by and through the blood of Jesus Christ according to the riches of sovereign grace.
8. IRRESISTIBLE GRACE: We believe, that the work of regeneration, conversion, sanctification, and faith, is not an act of man's free will and power, but of the mighty efficacious and irresistible grace of God.
9. THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS: We believe, that all those, who are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son and sanctified by the Spirit, shall certainly and finally persevere so that not one of them shall ever perish, but shall have everlasting life.
10. THE SECOND COMING: We believe, that there will be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust; and that Christ will come a second time to judge both the quick and the dead; when he will take vengeance on the wicked, and introduce his own people into his kingdom and glory, where they shall be for ever with him.
11. THE TWO ORDINANCES: We believe, that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of Christ, to be continued until his second coming; and that the former is absolutely requisite to the latter; that is to say, that those only are to be admitted into the communion of the church, and to participate of all ordinances in it who upon profession of their faith, have been baptised by immersion in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
12. WORSHIP: We also believe, that the singing of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs vocally is an ordinance of the Gospel to be performed by believers, and that every one ought to be left to their liberty in using of it.
Now all, and each of these doctrines and ordinances we look upon ourselves under the greatest obligation to embrace, maintain, and defend; believing it to be our duty to stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel.
Strict and Particular Baptist?
Strict and Particular BAPTIST is the PROTESTANT tradition of Christianity to which we subscribe. it refers to what we BELIEVE AND PRACTICE, not TO how we are.
The Baptist movement of churches came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century, although the central premise - baptism of believers by complete immersion in water - has been a practice of many Christians since the time of Christ.
Particular Baptists are Baptists who believe that Jesus Christ died to save a particular group of people who are thus destined to trust in Him, a concept known as Particular Redemption. These days Particular Baptists are often known as Grace Baptists or Reformed Baptists.
Strict and Particular Baptists are those Particular Baptists who are strict about admittance to the Lord's Supper; they restrict the receiving of it to baptised Christians in membership with their Church or a similar church.