The Second London Confession (1689)
London, 1677 (drafted); 1689 (published under toleration)
The Particular Baptist adaptation of the Westminster Confession, drafted in 1677 by Nehemiah Coxe and William Collins and published in 1689 after the Toleration Act. The 1689 Confession adopted Westminster's language de novo on virtually every doctrinal locus — the decree, justification, sanctification, the law, the last things — but departed sharply on baptism (believers only, by immersion), polity (congregational, not presbyterian), the covenant (denying the covenantal-continuity argument for paedobaptism), and the magistrate (disestablishment). The 1689 remains the confessional standard of Reformed Baptist churches worldwide.
Departures from the Westminster baseline
The Second London Confession (1689) departs from the Westminster baseline on 4 of the 35 attributes.
III · Covenant · Mosaic Covenant
Subservient-Covenant override vs WCF: Administration-Of-Grace
III · Covenant · Children of Believers
Credo-Baptist override vs WCF: Federal-Inclusion-Paedobaptist
VII · Ecclesiology & Worship · Polity
Independent-Congregational override vs WCF: Presbyterian-Jure-Divino
VIII · Civil & Last Things · Magistrate's Role
Protective-Not-Directive (1788) override vs WCF: Custos-Utriusque-Tabulae (1646)
Connected cruxes 3
Cruxes where this school's anchor personas were active parties, or where this tradition is mentioned in the legacy narrative.