‘A City Set on a Hill,’ Congregational Discipline Among Early Particular Baptists

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the middle of the seventeenth century English Calvinistic Baptists emerged as an identifiable group within the broader Puritan movement seeking further reform in the Protestant Church of England, firstly by gathering, and subsequently conforming congregations to the will of Christ the King. Every area of church life was scrutinised in the light of scripture to bring church polity, worship and congregational life into harmony with the primitive church described in the New Testament. One significant area of reform was the correction and discipline of church members to secure their personal submission to the rule of Christ and promote the collective purity of the church. It is my purpose to show that the gathered believers in Baptist congregations attended to the purity of their communal life akin to the biblical simile ‘a city set on a hill, a light to the world.’ This paper examines the records of the early Calvinistic Baptists to understand their policies, procedures and theology of congregational discipline.