The Anabaptists, instead of
applying the covenant concept to Christian conduct, saw the covenants as
normative in the areas of ecclesiastical organization and membership.
Walker says it this way,
That system (Congregationalism)
recognized as the constitutive act of a church was a covenant
individually entered into between each member, his brethren, and his
God, pledging him to submit himself to all due ordinances and officers
and seek the good of all his associates. In like manner this compact
bound its signers to promote the general good and to yield obedience
to such law as the community would frame.12
Coupled with a democratic tendency and
their firm belief that the sphere of secular politics were only a
necessary evil, this view heavily favored voluntary commitment and a
desire to become pure by means of doing right and avoiding evil.
De Jong summarizes the effect of these
two streams of thought upon American Protestantism by saying,
The early settlers of New England
were indebted to the Anabaptists for their conception of the church
covenant and to the Reformed for their teaching on the Covenant of
Grace and related subjects. The question challenging the
Congregationalists was whether the two conceptions were homogeneous
and if not, which of to be victorious at the expense of the other.13
With this understanding of the tension
between the two traditions over the ways in which the covenants were to
be applied, one can foresee what would happen if there was to be a
strong religious revival, one that would work as a catalyst for these
views. The Second Great Awakening was just that test.
|
