This Confession was drawn up by the Rev. John Newton Brown, D. D., of New Hampshire about 1833, and was adopted by the New Hampshire Convention, and widely accepted by Baptists, especially in the Northern and Western States, as a clear and concise statement of their faith, in harmony with the doctrines of older confessions, but expressed in milder form. The text is taken from the Baptist Church Manual, published by the American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published by a committee of the Baptist Convention in that state, the New Hampshire Confession is one of the most widely used Baptist statements of faith in America. The confession was reissued with minor changes in 1853 by J. Newton Brown of the American Baptist Publication Society, and in this form attracted greater attention among Baptists in America. The confession has influenced many Baptist confessions since, including the influential Statement of Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925.

The confession is relatively brief, containing sixteen short articles ranging from “the Scriptures” to “the World to Come.” Much of it recapitulates the faith of orthodox Protestants generally. Its article on Scripture, “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried,” contains this often repeated statement: “It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.” Similarly evangelical are the articles on God (“the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth”) and salvation (“wholly by grace; through the Mediatorial Offices of the Son of God”).