Christian Duties

Christian Duties, originally entitled Plain Christian Duties Recommended, is an address Zenas Trivett gave at the establishment of a new Baptist congregation in 1791, in which he lays out the various responsibilities of a faithful member of a local church. Trivett emphasized that congregational polity was “the alone [only] plan of the New Testament,” though he urged his hearers never to dream that “all true religion [is] confined to your own denomination.” He particularly urged the congregation to often “meet together . . . for prayer and conversation,” for believers who come together “destitute of the spirit of devotion,” Trivett noted, have “their cold affections warmed.”