John Spilsbury (Baptist Minister)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. John Spilsbury was an English cobbler and Particular Baptist minister who set up a Calvinist Baptist church in London in 1638. Spilsbury was a member of a London Separatist church, which he left in 1633. It was around five years later that William Kiffin joined Spilsbury in his new congregation. In 1638, "Mr. Tho. Wilson, Mr. Pen,& H. Pen, & more being convenced that Baptism was not for Infants, but professed Believers joyned wth Mr. Jo. Spilsbury ye Churches favour being desired therein." From Spilsbury's pastoral doctrine, two issues, expansively developed, received forceful treatment: the constitution of a Christian congregation and the "invincible efficacy" of Christ's work for His people. In 1643, Spilsbury published A Treatise Concerning the Lawfull Subject of Baptisme, which he reissued in a second edition in 1652, "Corrected and enlarged by the Author."