YES, there are major and important differences between the First and Second London Confessions of Baptists. For instance, the following important points -
There is NO mention of the Ten Commandments, Old Covenant or the Sabbath in the 1644/1646 Confession.
Also, importantly, In the 1644/1646 Confession, faith is the "manifestation" of justification, not the means or instrument thereof.
*This involves the timing of justification: is it at God's decree along with election, prior to the creation; or, at the resurrection of Jesus Christ; or is it at the time when a believer first believes? I can see justification from all 3 perspectives, but that is a topic for another thread.
The First London Confession of Baptists is clearly a "New Covenant" Confession, not a modified copy of the Presbyterian Westminster Confession, as is the 1689 Second London Confession of Baptists.
Statements from the 1644/1646 Baptist Confessions:
XXV "The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners, is absolutely free; no way requiring as absolutely necessary, any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, or preceding ministry of the law, but only and alone the naked soul, a sinner and ungodly"
XLVIII 1646 " Surely it is our wisdom, duty, and privilege, to observe Christ's laws only," **NOT the Ten Commandments
X 1644 "Jesus Christ only is made the Mediator of the New Covenant, even the everlasting covenant of grace between God and man"
XXIX - "All believers are a holy and sanctified people, and that sanctification is a spiritual grace of the New Covenant, and an effect of the love of God manifested in the soul, whereby the believer presses after a heavenly and evangelical obedience to all the commands, which Christ as head and king in His new covenant hath prescribed to them"
XXVIII - "...justification is a gracious and full acquittance of a guilty sinner from all sin, by God, through the satisfaction that Christ hath made by His death for all their sins, and this applied (in manifestation of it) through faith."
I do hold to the 1644/1646 Confession of Baptists. In it there is no debate about a sabbath or what day of the week are we to worship, etc. Christians are not under the Ten Commandments, the Old Covenant. We are under Christ's law, not Mosaic Law!
There is NO mention of the Ten Commandments, Old Covenant or the Sabbath in the 1644/1646 Confession.
Also, importantly, In the 1644/1646 Confession, faith is the "manifestation" of justification, not the means or instrument thereof.
*This involves the timing of justification: is it at God's decree along with election, prior to the creation; or, at the resurrection of Jesus Christ; or is it at the time when a believer first believes? I can see justification from all 3 perspectives, but that is a topic for another thread.
The First London Confession of Baptists is clearly a "New Covenant" Confession, not a modified copy of the Presbyterian Westminster Confession, as is the 1689 Second London Confession of Baptists.
Statements from the 1644/1646 Baptist Confessions:
XXV "The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners, is absolutely free; no way requiring as absolutely necessary, any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, or preceding ministry of the law, but only and alone the naked soul, a sinner and ungodly"
XLVIII 1646 " Surely it is our wisdom, duty, and privilege, to observe Christ's laws only," **NOT the Ten Commandments
X 1644 "Jesus Christ only is made the Mediator of the New Covenant, even the everlasting covenant of grace between God and man"
XXIX - "All believers are a holy and sanctified people, and that sanctification is a spiritual grace of the New Covenant, and an effect of the love of God manifested in the soul, whereby the believer presses after a heavenly and evangelical obedience to all the commands, which Christ as head and king in His new covenant hath prescribed to them"
XXVIII - "...justification is a gracious and full acquittance of a guilty sinner from all sin, by God, through the satisfaction that Christ hath made by His death for all their sins, and this applied (in manifestation of it) through faith."
I do hold to the 1644/1646 Confession of Baptists. In it there is no debate about a sabbath or what day of the week are we to worship, etc. Christians are not under the Ten Commandments, the Old Covenant. We are under Christ's law, not Mosaic Law!
