Nehemiah Coxe was a Particular Baptist.[1] Coxe is an important figure for contemporary, confessional Reformed Baptists for at least three reasons: (1) he was the co-editor (and most likely the “senior” editor) of the Particular Baptist Second London Confession of Faith (2nd LCF);[2] (2) he agreed with John Owen and other seventeenth-century Reformed orthodox theologians on the function of the covenant of works in redemptive history as it related to the Mosaic covenant;[3] and (3) he authored A Discourse of the Covenants that God made with men before the Law…, which is structured after the federal model, utilizes Reformed orthodox theological nomenclature, concepts, and sources, and is semantically Reformed orthodox, except portions of his exposition of the Abrahamic covenant(s).[4] These reasons for Coxe’s importance should force contemporary, confessional Reformed Baptists to ask themselves if Coxe’s theology is their theology. Since Coxe played a major role in the formulation of the 2nd LCF and since his federalism is clear and in substantial agreement with the federal theology of his day, then, if contemporary, confessional Reformed Baptists confess the things most surely believed among us, then shouldn’t they confess Coxe’s federalism?
[1] For a brief biography cf. James M. Renihan, “An Excellent and Judicious Divine: Nehemiah Coxe” in Nehemiah Coxe and John Owen, edited by Ronald D. Miller, James M. Renihan, and Francisco Orozco, Covenant Theology From Adam to Christ (Owensboro, KY: Reformed Baptist Academic Press, 2005), 7-24; James M. Renihan, “Confessing the Faith in 1644 and 1689” in RBTR, III:1 (July 2006): 33ff.; and Michael A. G. Haykin, Kiffin, Knollys and Keach (Leeds, England: Reformation Today Trust, 1996) for an introduction to three key Particular Baptists of the seventeenth century.
[2] Cf. Renihan, “An Excellent and Judicious Divine: Nehemiah Coxe,” 19-21 and Renihan, “Confessing the Faith in 1644 and 1689,” 33ff.
[3] Cf. Richard C. Barcellos, “John Owen and New Covenant Theology…” in Coxe and Owen, Covenant Theology, 353-54. Coxe himself defers to Owen in Coxe and Owen, Covenant Theology, 30.
[4] Cf. Coxe and Owen, Covenant Theology, 71-140.
Dr. Richard Barcellos is associate professor of New Testament Studies. He received a B.S. from California State University, Fresno, an M.Div. from The Master’s Seminary, and a Th.M. and Ph.D. from Whitefield Theological Seminary. Dr. Barcellos is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA. He is author of Trinity & Creation, The Covenant of Works, and Getting the Garden Right. He has contributed articles to various journals and is a member of ETS.
Courses taught for CBTS: New Testament Introduction, Biblical Hermeneutics, Biblical Theology I, Biblical Theology II.
