Baptism and the Supper

Baptism and the Supper | Savoy and London Compared with Westminster - Westminster Standards

Westminster, chapter XXVIII:
I. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. […]
III. Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person.
IV. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents are to be baptized.

Savoy, chapter XXIX:
I. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptised a sign and seal of the covenant of grace […].
III. (As in Westminster.)
IV. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents are to be baptised, and those only.

London, chapter XXIX:
I. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.
II. Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
IV. Immersion, or dipping of the person in water, is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance.

Savoy. It keeps the baptism of Westminster, and even narrows it: to the sentence on the children of believers it adds "and those only". But it removes from the first paragraph that baptism is "for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church". This is consistent with its chapter on the church: one does not enter a particular church by baptism, but by consent. There remains thus a baptism of infants which no longer makes them members of any church.

London. It changes all three things: the name, the subjects and the mode.
The name: no longer "sacrament", but "ordinance". The chapter of Westminster on the sacraments in general, which defines them as "holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace", is replaced by two short paragraphs which use none of those words: baptism and the Supper are "ordinances of positive and sovereign institution". In baptism "seal" disappears; "sign" remains.
The subjects: only those who profess. The paragraphs of Westminster on the efficacy of baptism, which is not tied to the moment of time wherein it is administered, are deleted.
The mode: what Westminster declares not necessary, London declares necessary.

The Supper. Here there is almost no difference. The three confessions reject the mass and transubstantiation in the same words and teach that believers feed upon Christ really, yet spiritually, by faith. London again changes "sacrament" to "ordinance", and adds that the Supper is for "confirmation of the faith of believers".

What this shows. That the chapter on baptism is the conclusion, not the beginning. London comes to it with three decisions already taken: the covenant of grace was not administered in circumcision (chapter VII), the church consists only of professors (chapter XXVI) and the ordinances are not seals of the covenant (chapter XXVIII). With those premises, the baptism of infants has nothing to rest upon. And conversely: he who would dispute with a confessional Baptist must do so in chapter VII. Westminster rests the baptism of the children of believers on Genesis 17:7-9, Galatians 3:9,14, Colossians 2:11,12 and Acts 2:38,39: all of them texts on the continuity of the covenant, not on baptism itself.
As to the mode, the difference is of another kind. Westminster does not forbid immersion: it says that it is not necessary. London says that it is, and thereby declares the baptism of all the other churches of the Reformation to be wrongly administered. It is the only point in the whole comparison at which the daughter confession is narrower than the mother.