Editor's Note:
Adfontes is happy to announce that Dr. Michael Haykin has agreed to serve as a regular contributor to this website. Dr. Haykin serves as the Professor of Church History at Southern Seminary and is also on the faculty of Toronto Baptist Seminary here in Ontario. I have asked him to contribute articles on several topics specific to our concerns here at CLRA. We are privileged to have Canada's foremost Baptist historian providing regular fuel for the fire of our ongoing conversation. I encourage you to read and pray through these articles as they appear and to engage the conversation thread that follows.
The English Particular Baptists and the search for corporate revival & personal renewal in the “long” eighteenth century
Michael A.G. Haykin
In the seventeenth century one of the most spiritually alive denominations in the British Isles were the Calvinistic Baptists. From the early 1640s, when there were only seven churches in England, they grew to the point, where, by 1689, there were close to three hundred congregations.
The seventeenth-century background
This rapid growth owed much to the zeal and spiritual maturity of pastors like John Bunyan (1628-1688), best known for his Pilgrim’s Progress.[1] Converted in the early 1650s Bunyan was soon bearing witness to his faith in small villages and hamlets tucked away in rural Bedfordshire, his home county. In his own account of his conversion and early Christian experience, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), he tells us of his evangelistic zeal.
My great desire in fulfilling my Ministry, was, to get into the darkest places in the Countrey, even amongst those people that were furthest off of profession; yet not because I could not endure the light (for I feared not to shew my Gospel to any) but because I found my spirit leaned most after awakening and converting Work, and the Word that I carried did lean itself most that way; Yes, so have I strived to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another mans foundation, Rom. 15.20.
In my preaching I have really been in pain, and have as it were traveled[2] to bring forth Children to God; neither could I be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work: if I were fruitless it matterd’d not who commended me; but if I were fruitful, I cared not who did condemn. …It pleased me nothing to see people drink in Opinions if they seemed ignorant of Jesus Christ, and the worth of their own Salvation, sound conviction for Sin, especially for Unbelief, and an heart set on fire to be saved by Christ, with strong breathings after a truly sanctified Soul: that was it that delighted me; those were the souls I counted blessed.[3]
Given Bunyan’s passion to reach sinners for Christ, it comes as no surprise to learn that when Bunyan preached on occasion in London, twelve hundred or so would regularly turn out to hear him on a weekday morning and no less than three thousand if he were there on a Sunday![4]
It is important to remember that Baptist growth during this period came in the midst of persecution. In the 1660s and early 1670s a series of laws were passed which made it illegal to worship in any other setting but that of the Established Church and which basically reduced any but Church of England members to second-class citizens. Between 1660 and 1688 Baptists who refused to go along with these laws often ended up paying substantial fines or experiencing life-threatening imprisonment.
Bunyan was one of the first arrested for what the state regarded as illegal preaching. When he was put on trial he was accused of having “devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to Church [i.e. the Church of England] to hear Divine Service” and of being “a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of the kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign lord the king.” In the eyes of the authorities Bunyan was an uneducated, unordained, common “mechanic.” It was made clear to Bunyan that if he promised to desist from preaching, he would be released.
Bunyan, though, had a higher loyalty than obedience to an earthly king—obedience to King Jesus. Like the majority of his fellow Baptists, Bunyan definitely believed in obedience to the laws of the state and he emphasized that he looked upon it as his duty to be obedient to the king’s government. But for Bunyan, the ultimate authority in religious matters was not human tradition or human laws, but the divine Scriptures and their author, God. Bunyan had to obey his God, otherwise on the day of judgment he would be considered a traitor to the cause of Christ. And because Bunyan would not waver in these convictions he spent roughly twelve years in prison, from 1660 to 1672.
Religious toleration and decline
Religious toleration finally came in 1689. The Baptists were now free to plant and build congregations, though it was still illegal for them to evangelize outside of their church buildings. Yet, despite the advent of toleration, the denomination as a whole began to plateau in its growth and, in some parts of England, it actually went into decline. In 1715 there were around 220 Calvinistic Baptist churches in England and Wales; by 1750 that number had dwindled to about 150.
Various reasons for this decline can be cited. For example, since it was illegal for Baptists to engage in mass evangelism outside of their meeting-houses,[5] their money and effort was poured into the erection of church buildings instead of evangelistic outreach. Moreover, prior to the erection of a church building, meetings might be held at a variety of geographical locations and thus a congregation could have an impact over a wide area. But once the building was up, members who lived at a distance were encouraged to attend the meetings at the church building and thus in time some of them were neglected. So, while the monetary value of the property of the denomination increased, its membership decreased.[6]
Then there was the development of the theological position known as High Calvinism. Genuinely fearful of interfering with the Holy Spirit’s work in saving sinners, a good number of Calvinistic Baptist pastors refused to urge the lost to come to Christ from the pulpit. Moreover, they were convinced that since salvation is God’s work from start to finish, sinners cannot be urged to come to Christ, since that would be urging them to do something that they are unable to do.
Seeking revival by means
The Baptists did not emerge from their spiritual “winter” until the last two or three decades of the century. Again, there were a variety of reasons for what amounts to a profound revival among their ranks. There was theological reformation, in which the High Calvinism of the past was largely rejected in favour of a truly evangelical Calvinism. The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, written by Andrew Fuller (1754–1815)[7] and published in 1785, was the book that crystallized this movement of theological renewal. Fuller was a farmer by occupation, a big, broad-shouldered man who looked, to some at least, the very image of a village blacksmith. Yet, in the words of the British Baptist historian A. C. Underwood, Fuller was “the soundest and most creatively useful theologian” the Baptists had in the 18th century.[8] It was during his first pastorate in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire, from 1775 to 1782 that he wrote the substance of the above-mentioned book. In it he convincingly demonstrated on the basis of the Scriptures that it is the duty of all who hear the gospel to put their faith in Christ and the corresponding duty of pastors to preach the gospel clearly and plainly to all, using “free and solemn addresses, invitations, calls, and warnings…to bring them to Christ.”[9]
Then there were calls for repentance. For instance, Andrew Fuller, in his Causes of Declension in Religion, and Means of Revival (1785), outlined the spiritual apathy then reigning among many Baptists of his day.
It is to be feared the old puritanical way of devoting ourselves wholly to be the Lord’s, resigning up our bodies, souls, gifts, time, property, with all we have and are to serve him, and frequently renewing these covenants before him, is now awfully neglected. This was to make a business of religion, a life’s work, and not merely an accidental affair, occurring but now and then, and what must be attended to only when we can spare time from other arrangements. Few seem to aim, pray, and strive after eminent love to God and one other. Many appear to be contented if they can but remember the time when they had such love in exercise, and then, tacking to it the notion of perseverance without the thing, they go on and on, satisfied, it seems, if they do but make shift just to get to heaven at last, without much caring how. If we were in a proper spirit, the question with us would not so much be What must I do for God? as, What can I do for God? A servant that heartily loves his master counts it a privilege to be employed by him, yea, an honour to be entrusted with any of his concerns.[10]
Many, Fuller noted, were merely content to get to “heaven without concerning themselves overly about how they get there.” The practice of giving oneself wholly to God that had been common among the seventeenth-century Puritans had generally ceased to be part of late eighteenth-century Baptist piety. This apathy was well revealed in the question, “What I must do for God?” In other words, they were asking, “What is the minimum I must do to get to heaven?”
Seeking to change this dire situation, Fuller suggested:
If it is required “What then is to be done? Wherein in particular can we glorify God more than we have done?”, we answer by asking: Is there no room for amendment? Have we been sufficiently earnest and constant in private prayer? Are there none of us that have opportunities to set apart particular times to pray for the effusion of the Holy Spirit? Can we do more than we have done in instructing our families? Are there none of our dependents, workmen, or neighbours that we might speak to, at least so far as to ask them to go and hear the gospel? Can we rectify nothing in our tempers and behaviour in the world so as better to recommend religion? Cannot we watch more? Cannot we save a little more of our substance to give to the poor? In a word, is there no room or possibility left for our being more meek, loving, and resembling the blessed Jesus than we have been?[11]
Here, Fuller listed five ways in which his fellow Baptists could prepare themselves for renewal. At the top of the list is (1) prayer; then (2) the cultivation of Christianity in the home; (3) witnessing to unbelievers; (4) honest examination of what needs to be changed in one’s character and purposefully seeking to change it; and finally, (5) the development of a spirit of generosity to those in need.
However, Fuller went on to stress, one’s heart attitude was also important. “Think it not sufficient that we lament and mourn over our departures from God. We must return to him with full purpose of heart.” As Fuller reflected on this matter of heart-renewal, he urged his readers to “cherish a greater love to the truths of God; pay an invariable regard to the discipline of his house; cultivate love to one another, frequently mingle souls by frequently assembling yourselves together; encourage a meek, humble, and savoury spirit.”[12]
Above all, Fuller emphasizes, there must be prayer.
Finally, brethren, let us not forget to intermingle prayer with all we do. Our need of God’s Holy Spirit to enable us to do any thing, and every thing, truly good should excite us to this. Without his blessing all means are without efficacy and every effort for revival will be in vain. Constantly and earnestly, therefore, let us approach his throne. Take all occasions especially for closet prayer; here, if anywhere, we shall get fresh strength and maintain a life of communion with God. Our Lord Jesus used frequently to retire into a mountain alone for prayer, he, therefore, that is a follower of Christ, must follow him in this important duty.[13]
The year before Fuller wrote these words there had actually begun regular meetings for prayer, which met for one specific object: to pray for biblical revival.
The Prayer Call of 1784
The origin of these prayer meetings can be traced back to the year 1784, to a town called Nottingham in the heart of England, where in June of that year, the pastors of the Baptist churches belonging to the Northamptonshire Association were meeting. Earlier that year a treatise on corporate prayer for revival by Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the New England divine, had come into the hands of John Sutcliff (1752–1814), the Baptist pastor of Olney, Buckinghamshire. Deeply impressed and moved by this treatise, Sutcliff proposed to his fellow pastors that a monthly prayer meeting be established to pray for the outpouring of God’s Spirit not only upon the Baptist churches of England, but also upon all those churches that loved the Lord Jesus. This proposal ran as follows:
Upon a motion being made to the ministers and messengers of the associate Baptist churches assembled at Nottingham, respecting meetings for prayer, to bewail the low estate of religion, and earnestly implore a revival of our churches, and of the general cause of our Redeemer, and for that end to wrestle with God for the effusion of his Holy Spirit, which alone can produce the blessed effect, it was unanimously RESOLVED, to recommend to all our churches and congregations, the spending of one hour in this important exercise, on the first Monday in every calendar month.
We hereby solemnly exhort all the churches in our connection, to engage heartily and perseveringly in the prosecution of this plan. And as it may be well to endeavour to keep the same hour, as a token of our unity herein, it is supposed the following scheme may suit many congregations, viz. to meet on the first Monday evening in May, June, and July, from 8 to 9. In Aug. from 7 to 8. Sept. and Oct. from 6 to 7. Nov. Dec. Jan. and Feb. from 5 to 6. March, from 6 to 7; and April, from 7 to 8. Nevertheless if this hour, or even the particular evening, should not suit in particular places, we wish our brethren to fix on one more convenient to themselves.
We hope also, that as many of our brethren who live at a distance from our places of worship may not be able to attend there, that as many as are conveniently situated in a village or neighbourhood, will unite in small societies at the same time. And if any single individual should be so situated as not to be able to attend to this duty in society with others, let him retire at the appointed hour, to unite the breath of prayer in private with those who are thus engaged in a more public manner.
The grand object of prayer is to be that the Holy Spirit may be poured down on our ministers and churches, that sinners may be converted, the saints edified, the interest of religion revived, and the name of God glorified. At the same time, remember, we trust you will not confine your requests to your own societies [i.e. churches]; or to your own immediate connection [i.e. denomination]; let the whole interest of the Redeemer be affectionately remembered, and the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe be the object of your most fervent requests. We shall rejoice if any other Christian societies of our own or other denominations will unite with us, and do now invite them most cordially to join heart and hand in the attempt.
Who can tell what the consequences of such an united effort in prayer may be! Let us plead with God the many gracious promises of His Word, which relate to the future success of His gospel. He has said, “I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them, I will increase them with men like a flock.” Ezek. xxxvi.37. Surely we have love enough for Zion to set apart one hour at a time, twelve times in a year, to seek her welfare.[14]
The focus of this momentous call to prayer was the “revival of our churches, and of the general cause of our Redeemer.” How was this to be achieved? By “the effusion of [God’s] Holy Spirit, which alone can produce [this] blessed effect.” There is, in these words, a distinct recognition that the revival of the denomination lay ultimately in the hands of God the Holy Spirit, and all of their labours without his blessing would come to nought. Yet, those who issued this statement were not High Calvinists who expected results without the use of means. And thus they encouraged their congregations to gather for prayer once a month for one hour on the first Monday of the month.
The heart of the “Prayer Call” is to be found in the fourth and fifth paragraphs. There the conviction that reversing the downward trend of Calvinistic Baptists could not be accomplished by mere human zeal is mentioned again. It must be effected by an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit: “the grand object of prayer is to be that the Holy Spirit may be poured down on our ministers and churches, that sinners may be converted, the interest of religion revived, and the name of God glorified.” Without the Spirit all of the church’s best efforts to bring men and women to Christ will fail, all of her noblest attempts to edify God’s people and bring glory to God’s name fall short of success. The Spirit is the true agent of renewal and revival. Thus, there was a desperate need for prayer.
Then, there is the “inclusive” nature of the praying. As the Calvinistic Baptists of this Association came together for prayer, they were urged not to pray solely for their own churches or even for their own denomination, but to embrace in prayer other Baptist churches throughout the length and breadth of England, and even churches of other denominational bodies.
Third, there is a definite missionary focus: the readers of this call to prayer are encouraged to pray that there would be a spread of the gospel “to the most distant parts of the habitable globe.” It is important to note that it was out of this group of praying Baptists that William Carey (1761-1834) came, the so-called father of the modern missionary movement. All great missionary ventures are born in the cradle of prayer.
Fourth, there is the Scriptural foundation for the call to pray for revival. Only one text is cited—Ezekiel 36:37—but those who drew up this document were well aware that there are other biblical texts that could be cited. One of Sutcliff’s friends, Thomas Blundel, has this to say with regard to this verse from Ezekiel: “It is chiefly in answer to prayer that God has carried on his cause in the world: he could work without such means; but he does not, neither will he. … He loves that his people should feel interested in his cause, and labour to promote it, though he himself worketh all in all.”[15]
The record of revival
There is little doubt from the record of history that God heard the prayers of Sutcliff and his fellow Baptists. As they prayed, the Calvinistic Baptists in England began to experience the blessing of revival, though, it should be noted, great change was not immediately evident. For instance, in 1785, Sutcliff’s close friend Andrew Fuller reported about their meetings for prayer:
It affords us no little satisfaction to hear in what manner the monthly prayer meetings which were proposed in our letter of last year have been carried on, and how God has been evidently present in those meetings, stirring up the hearts of his people to wrestle hard with him for the revival of his blessed cause. Though as to the number of members there is no increase this year, but something of the contrary; yet a spirit of prayer in some measure being poured out more than balances in our account for this defect. We cannot but hope, wherever we see a spirit of earnest prayer generally and perseveringly prevail, that God has some good in reserve, which in his own time he will graciously bestow.[16]
The stirring up of many to wrestle in prayer for revival was considered by Fuller as more than balancing the failure to increase the membership of the churches. And so it was resolved “without any hesitation, to continue the meetings of prayer on the first Monday evening in every calendar month.”[17]
By 1798 there were close to 361 Calvinistic Baptist churches in England and Wales. This number had risen to 532 by 1812, and in 1851 it stood at over 1,370. From a more personal angle, one can observe the revival that was taking place in the following extracts from the letters of Andrew Fuller.[18]
In the year 1810 Fuller noted in a letter to William Carey: “I preached a sermon to the youth last Lord’s Day from 1 Thess 2:19. I think we must have had nearly one thousand. They came from all quarters. My heart’s desire and prayer for them is that they may be saved.” Fuller was still rejoicing when he wrote to his fellow Baptist pastor, John Ryland, on December 28: “I hope the Lord is at work among our young people. Our Monday and Friday night meetings are much thronged.” A couple of months later he told Ryland: “The Friday evening discourses are now, and have been for nearly a year, much thronged, because they have been mostly addressed to persons under some concern about their salvation.” And what was happening in Fuller’s church was happening in Baptist causes throughout the length and breadth of England and Wales.
A second fruit of the revival was the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 with Andrew Fuller as the first Secretary. The following year William Carey was sent out as the Society’s first missionary. Carey had been converted in the late 1770s and had eventually become a member of the church that John Sutcliff pastored in Olney. Not long after his conversion Carey was gripped by the responsibility that the church had been given by the risen Christ in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) to spread the good news to the ends of the earth. It needs to be recalled that part of the Prayer Call of 1784 had urged prayer for “the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe.” The formation of this society was a direct result of prayer for revival.
Carey would labour in India until his death in 1834. The impact of his missionary labours can be well seen in the following extract from a letter by an Anglican evangelical named Thomas Scott, who had known Carey in his early years. Writing on December 3, 1814, to John Ryland, Jr. (1753-1825), a close friend of both Carey and Fuller, Scott stated:
I do most heartily rejoice in what your missionaries are doing in India. Their’s is the most regular and best conducted plan against the kingdom of darkness that modern times have shewn; and I augur the most extensive success. More genuine Christian wisdom, fortitude, and disinterested assiduity, perseverance, and patience appear, than I elsewhere read of. May God protect and prosper! May all India be peopled with true Christians!—even though they be all baptists… The Lord is doing great things, and answering prayer every where.[19]
Coda
When Sutcliff was dying in 1814, amongst the things which he said one statement in particular stuck in the minds of his family and friends: “I wish I had prayed more.” It was an amazing statement for Sutcliff to make, for he had been a key figure in a movement of prayer, which was definitely owned by God to bring revival to the English Calvinistic Baptists. When Andrew Fuller heard what his dear friend Sutcliff had said, he reflected on it thus:
I wish that I had prayed more. I do not suppose that brother Sutcliff meant that he wished he had prayed more frequently, but more spiritually. I wish I had prayed more for the influences of the Holy Spirit, I might have enjoyed more of the power of vital godliness. I wish I had prayed more for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in studying and preaching my sermons: I might have seen more of the blessing of God attending my ministry. I wish I had prayed more for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to attend the labours of our friends in India; I might have witnessed more of the effects of their efforts in the conversion of the heathen.[20]
Sutcliff’s dying statement was used here by Fuller as a test of his own prayer life and in the process, he found it wanting. Yet, seen in the light of all that we have looked at, Sutcliff’s statement as he lay dying and Fuller’s reflection on it also reveals something else: a profound awareness that the Spirit’s blessing and empowerment in personal and corporate revival is the most important aspect of the believer’s life and the Church’s life. As their mutual friend John Ryland put it:
Surely the state both of the world, and of church, calls loudly upon us all to persist in wrestling instantly with God, for greater effusions of his Holy Spirit. … Let us not cease crying mightily unto the Lord, “until the Spirit be poured upon us from on High” [Isaiah 32:15]; then the wilderness shall become as a fruitful field, and the desert like the garden of God. Yes, beloved, the Scriptures cannot be broken. Jesus must reign universally. All nations shall own him. All people shall serve him. His kingdom shall be extended, not by human might, or power, but by the effusion of his Holy Spirit [see Zechariah 4:6].[21]
Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin
Professor Of Church History
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
[1] The author is aware of the fact that there has been an ongoing debate for well over a hundred years as to whether or not Bunyan was a Baptist. While Bunyan did not like to own denominational labels, nonetheless, he can be rightly described as an open-membership, open-communion Baptist.
[2] I.e. travailed.
[3] Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners 289–291 (John Bunyan: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, ed. Roger Sharrock [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962], 89).
[4] T. L. Underwood, “John Bunyan: A Tercentenary”, American Baptist Quarterly, 7 (1988), 439.
[5] Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 257.
[6] W.T. Whitley, A History of British Baptists (2nd. ed.; London: The Kingsgate Press, 1932), 215–216.
[7] For a good study of Fuller as a theologian, see Phil Roberts, “Andrew Fuller” in Timothy George and David S. Dockery, eds., Baptist Theologians (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 121–139.
[8] A History of the English Baptists (London: Carey Kingsgate Press Ltd., 1956), 166.
[9] History of the English Baptists, 163–164. This quote is taken from the confession of faith that Fuller made when inducted into his second pastorate at Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1783.
[10] The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, ed. Joseph Belcher (Repr. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), III, 320.
[11] Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, III, 320.
[12] Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, III, 324.
[13] Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, III, 324.
[14] The Prayer Call of 1784 in John Ryland, Jr., The Nature, Evidences, and Advantages, of Humility (Circular Letter of the Northamptonshire Association, 1784), 12. For a detailed discussion of this call to prayer and its historical context, see Michael A. G. Haykin, One heart and one soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, his friends and his times (Darlington, Co. Durham: Evangelical Press, 1994), 153–171.
[15] The River of Life Impeded in his Sermons on Various Subjects (London, 1806), 183, 184.
[16] Causes of Declension in Religion, and Means of Revival (Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, III, 318).
[17] Cited Arthur Fawcett, The Cambuslang Revival (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), 230.
[18] The following extracts from the letters of Andrew Fuller are all cited by Doyle L. Young, “The Place of Andrew Fuller in the Developing Modern Missions Movement” (Ph. D. Thesis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1981), 232.
[19] John Scott, Letters and Papers of the Rev. Thomas Scott (London: L. B. Seeley and Son, 1824), 254.
[20] Cited John W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev Andrew Fuller (London, 1816), 443.
[21] John Ryland, Jr., Godly Zeal, Described and Recommended (Nottingham, 1792), 1–2, 15.