LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Brackney, William

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

Theology

Acadia Divinity College

Morgan Edwards was an important Calvinistic Baptist pastor, theologian, and historian of the eighteenth century. This thesis presents Edwards’s ecclesiology, with special reference to his understanding of Baptist church polity. This is achieved by setting Edwards within the theological flow of Calvinistic Baptist understandings of the church and church polity. The first chapter sets the stage by introducing Edwards, his place in Baptist history, and an overview of the task at hand. Chapter two looks at several Calvinistic Baptist works on the church and church polity published before, during, and after Edwards’s life. Chapters three and four present Edwards’s ecclesiology and Baptist church polity through a close examination of his The Customs of the Primiti ve Churches (1768), which is probably the first Baptist manual on polity and practice. This thesis argues that Edwards stands within the Calvinistic Baptist tradition in his understanding of the church and Baptist church polity, while at the same time pushing beyond the views expressed in similar works of his day, most notably in his understanding of the officers of the church and the number of church rites. This thesis will also pay close attention to some of the sources that Edwards made use of to formulate his polity and practice, such as various Congregationalist authors and The Book of Common Prayer (1662) in some of his liturgical work. The primary source for Edwards, however, was the Bible. He sought to ground his views on the church and church polity in God’s Word as he understood it, which is perhaps the greatest lesson that Edwards offers to modern-day Christians.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3633