J.M. Pendleton, A “Landmarker” writing about the 1689 Confession:
Having indicated who should not baptize, I shall attempt to show who should baptize. Before I refer to the scriptural argument, I will presentwhat has been, as I think, the general views of Baptists, I go back to the Confession of Faith, put forth in London in the year 1689, by the“ministers and messengers of, and concerned for, upwards of one hundred baptized congregations in England and Wales,” etc. There was a previous Confession in 1643, but as only “seven congregations” were concerned in it, I make no special reference to it. The moral influence of the Confession of 1689, in the making of which such men as Hansard Knollys, William Kiffin, Benjamin Keach, Andrews Gifford and others took part, is far greater than that of the Confession of 1643. But the supreme reason for referring to the Confession of 1689 is, it was adopted by the first Baptist Association in America, and is in this country called the “Philadelphia Confession of Faith.” I suppose it maybe said that all the Baptist Associations of the United States have a historical connection with the Philadelphia Association. One thing is certain, namely, that while the utterance of the Philadelphia Confession in the quotation I am about to make, is not authoritative, it may be regarded as the best exponent of the Baptist view of the matter referred to….. The extracts I make from the Confession of 1689, now the Philadelphia Confession, are these: “A particular church gathered and completely organized, according to the mind of Christ, consists of officers and members: —and the officers appointed by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church (so-called and gathered) for the peculiar administration of ordinances, and execution of power, or duty, which he entrusts them with, or calls them to, to be continued to the end of the world, are bishops or elders, and deacons. “The way appointed by Christ for the calling of any person, fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit, unto the office of bishop, or elder, in the church, is that he be chosen there untoby the common suffrage of the church itself; and solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer, with imposition of the hands of the eldership of the church, if there be any before constituted therein; and of a deacon that he be chosen by the like suffrage, and set apart by prayer, and the like imposition of hands.”“Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution, appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in His church to the end of the world.“ These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified, and thereunto called according to the commission of Christ.”
– “Who Should Baptize?” Republished by the Berea Baptist Banner April 2003