Baptists, like the Puritans, desired pure scriptural worship. Early Baptist worship sought to maintain radically biblical worship that the Spirit was free to direct. Later, however, in response to what they considered to be excesses in other movements, Baptists came to place more emphasis on worship according to biblical form and order.
As Baptists developed out of the Puritan movement in seventeenth-century England, they were of two types: General Baptists and Particular Baptists. The General Baptists, who arose earlier, were given their name because of their belief that Christ’s atonement was “general,” sufficient for all persons. The Particular Baptists espoused the view that Christ’s atonement was “particular,” for God’s elect only. Both groups, however, exhibited some of the Puritan concerns for purifying worship. They sought to eliminate the human forms of the established church and to base worship purely on the simple patterns provided by Scripture. But they also sought to involve the congregation in worship and to provide openness for the movement of God’s Spirit.
The first Baptist congregation was composed of a group of Puritans who moved to Amsterdam to escape persecution. In 1609 John Smyth, their pastor, led them to the position that the church should be composed only of regenerate persons and that to attain a regenerate church, baptism should be for believers only. Smyth, who had been schooled at Cambridge but had rejected his former Anglican views, then led the congregation in developing the earliest Baptist patterns of worship. True worship had to be scriptural and involve no books which would inhibit the movement of the Spirit. Not only did these earliest Baptists reject The Book of Common Prayer, but even the Bible also had to be laid aside after the text had been read.
The minister began the worship with an extemporaneous prayer and then preached on the text which he had already read. Then as many as three or four laypeople preached or exhorted on the same text, as long as time permitted. Finally, the minister prayed, an offering was taken for the poor, and a benediction concluded the morning service. A similar service followed in the afternoon, and on occasion, it was concluded with the Lord’s Supper. Any singing in these services was done extemporaneously by an individual; no fixed liturgical psalms or hymns were allowed to impede the movement of the Spirit. The General Baptists, who eventually moved back to England, followed the worship practices initiated by Smyth, including the use of more than one preacher. However, they did read the Bible more freely during worship.
Later, in the 1630s, the Particular Baptist movement emerged. These Baptists followed the same principles in worship as the General Baptists. They stressed the necessity of following Scripture in worship, and they rejected all prepared elements or forms because these tended to take the place of the Holy Spirit. Yet, many of them gave a greater role to the congregation by singing psalms in worship, and they often had only one preacher. Still, the loss of preachers did not inhibit the movement of the Spirit; anyone called forth by God and approved by the church could preach or administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Events during the mid-seventeenth century, however, caused both Baptist groups to change their emphases. During this time the Quakers and other more radical Protestant groups arose. Some of these placed greater stress on the Spirit than on Scripture. In the eyes of Baptists, their worship was often chaotic, with little order or form. Not wishing to be associated with these groups, but rather desiring to align themselves more closely with the more respectable Congregationalist and Presbyterian dissenters, Baptists began to place less emphasis on the movement of the Spirit in worship and more on following Scripture. They also stressed that only those officially set apart as ministers by the church could lead in worship.
Although it varied, worship during the rest of the seventeenth century tended to follow a similar pattern among both General and Particular Baptists. The morning worship began with an appointed layman reading a psalm and leading in a time of prayer. Then he read additional Scripture until it was time for the sermon. The minister entered the elevated pulpit in the plain meeting house and preached, concluding the sermon with prayer. The service was concluded with the singing of a psalm, sometimes preceded by an offering. The afternoon service followed the same pattern; once a month, however, the Lord’s Supper was observed before singing the closing psalm.
The Lord’s Supper was celebrated in a manner that became quite common among Baptists. After the sermon and prayer, the minister went to the table (in front of the pulpit) where bread and wine had been placed. He spoke of the deep meaning of the supper and encouraged the members to receive it properly. Then, taking the bread in his hands, he gave thanks and broke it, repeating the words of Christ, “This is my body, which is broken for you”(1 Cor. 11:24, KJV). After partaking of the loaf, he gave it to the deacons to partake and to distribute to the seated congregation. He urged the people to receive the bread as an expression of their feeding on Christ the true bread. In the same manner, he took the wine, gave thanks, and poured it into the cup, repeating the words of Christ, “This cup is the new testament in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:25, KJV). He then partook, gave it to the deacons to distribute, and invited the people to partake. Finally, after a brief meditation on the great blessing Christians have in Christ, the service was concluded with the singing of a psalm.
Baptists had begun with a desire to purify the worship of the church by basing it on what they saw as the simple patterns of Scripture. They also emphasized the role of the congregation and the spontaneous movement of the Spirit in worship. But as Baptists moved through the seventeenth century they had to locate these liturgical emphases between the two poles of the formless worship of the radicals on the one hand and the formal worship of the established church on the other. In the process, they set the course for Baptist worship for future generations.