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English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Michael A

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English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Michael A “Draw Nigh unto My Soul”: English Baptist Piety and the Means of Grace in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Michael A. G. Haykin Michael A. G. Haykin is Principal Among the foremost examples of vital ily men and women intensely passionate of Toronto Baptist Seminary in Toronto, Christianity found in the history of the about piety and Christian experience, Ontario, Canada, and a Senior Fellow of church are the Puritans, those godly so spirituality lies at the very core of the The Andrew Fuller Centre for Reformed Christians who lived in Great Britain and English Baptist movement during the Evangelicalism. He also serves as Visit- New England between the 1560s and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ing Professor of Church History at The end of the seventeenth century. Skilled For example, Baptists in this era were Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. navigators on the ocean of Christian liv- adamant that keeping in step with the Dr. Haykin is the author of One Heart ing, the Puritans rightly discerned that, in Spirit was the vital matter when it came and One Soul (Evangelical Press, 1994), the words of Elizabethan Puritan Richard to the nourishment of the soul of the Spirit of God: The Exegesis of 1 and 2 Greenham (1540-1594), “we drawe neere believer or the sustenance of the inner life Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian to God by meanes.”1 By this Greenham, of a congregation. As the late eighteenth- Controversy of the Fourth Century (Brill, speaking for his fellow Puritans, meant century English Baptist John Sutcliff 1994), and Jonathan Edwards: The that there are various “means of godli- (1752-1814) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, Holy Spirit and Revival (Evangelical ness” or spiritual disciplines by which rightly observed, Press, 2005). God enables Christians to grow in Christ [T]he outpouring of the divine till they reach the haven of heaven. The Spirit…is the grand promise of the Puritans could refer to a number of such new testament… . His infl uences are means of piety, but there were three that the soul, the great animating soul of all religion. These withheld, divine were especially regarded as central by ordinances are empty cisterns, and this tradition of piety: prayer, the Scrip- spiritual graces are withering fl ow- ers. These suspended, the greatest tures, and the sacraments or ordinances human abilities labour in vain, and of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Thus the noblest efforts fail of success.3 Richard Greenham could state, “The fi rst meanes [of grace] is prayer… . The second Yet, these Baptists were also certain that meanes is hearing of his word… . The to seek the Spirit’s strength apart from third meanes whereby we draw neere, is various means through which the Spirit by the Sacraments.”2 worked was both unbiblical and foolish. Now Baptists are the children of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), the most Puritanism, and the family connection signifi cant Baptist theologian of the late between the two is nowhere seen more seventeenth century, put it this way in clearly than in Baptist thinking about 1681 when, in a direct allusion to the piety. Just as the Puritans were primar- Quakers, who dispensed with the ordi- 54 nances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, been characterized by a spirituality of he declared, the Word. To use a description coined by Alister McGrath, Baptists have been Many are confi dent they have the 6 Spirit, Light, and Power, when ’tis “Word-centred evangelicals.” This spiri- all meer [sic] Delusion. …Some Men tuality was based on the affi rmation of boast of the Spirit, and conclude they the infallibility of the Scriptures. As a have the Spirit, and none but they, and yet at the same time cry down 1651 Baptist tract against the Quakers and villify his blessed Ordinances has it, the Bible is “the infallible word and Institutions, which he hath left of God…declaring his mind, making in his Word, carefully to be observed and kept, till he comes the second known his counsel, being able to make time without Sin unto Salvation. the people of God wise unto salvation.”7 …The Spirit hath its proper Bounds, and always runs in its spiritual Thus, because this was the nature of the Chanel [sic], viz. The Word and Scriptures, they were to be central to the Ordinances, God’s publick [sic] and piety of the believer. A statement by the private Worship.4 prominent London Baptist William Kiffi n Keach here mentions two central spiritual (1616-1701) well captures this fact when he disciplines or means of piety: the Word states about a fellow Baptist, John Norcott and the ordinances of baptism and the (1621-1676), Lord’s Supper. He steered his whole course by the In the following century, Benjamin compass of the word, making Scrip- Beddome (1717-1795), the pastor of the ture precept or example his constant rule in matters of religion. Other Baptist cause in Bourton-on-the-Water, men’s opinions or interpretations Gloucestershire for fi fty-fi ve years, dis- were not the standard by which he cerned in the phrase “Draw nigh unto my went; but, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, he laboured to fi nd soul” (Ps 69:18) four ways in which God out what the Lord himself had said 8 draws near to his people, the fi rst three in his word. of which are what can be called means Given this prominence of the Scrip- of grace and are identical to the means tures in the life of Baptists, it is not sur- of grace listed by the Puritan Richard prising that hearing the Word preached Greenham and which have been noted was regarded by them as a vital spiritual above. God draws near to us and we to discipline and the pre-eminent aspect of him in prayer, Beddome says, in “hearing worship. For instance, in the association the Word,” in the ordinances and also, records of the Northern Baptist Asso- he added, in “the time of affl iction” and ciation, which was composed of Baptist death.5 While these Baptists knew of other churches in the old English counties of means of grace—for example, Christian Northumberland, Cumberland, West- friendship and the making of personal moreland, and Durham, we read the and corporate covenants—the fi rst three following answer to a question raised in were undoubtedly central. Let us look at 1701 as to who may administer the ordi- each of them in turn. nances of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism: “Those Persons that the Church approves “The Compass of the Word” of to Preach the Gospel we think it safe Shaped by their Reformation and to Approve likewise for ye Administer- Puritan roots, Baptists have historically ing other Ordinances Preaching being the 55 greater work.” In 1703, when a similar ques- Repair’d (1702) that “he doth the best Work tion was asked, it was stated that “those and the most Work, that labours most in whom the Church Approves to preach his Study, with a dependance upon God the Gospel may also Administer the for a Blessing.”14 While Collins was well Ordinances of Baptism and the Lords Sup- aware that ultimately it was the Spirit that per Preaching being the main and principall made men preachers of the gospel—“tho [sic] Work of the Gospel.”9 English Baptist it be granted,” he wrote in the same work, scholar Christopher J. Ellis thus rightly “that human Literature is very useful for speaks of the “dominance of preaching a Minister, yet it is not essentially neces- in Baptist worship.”10 sary; but to have the Spirit of Christ to The architecture of early English Baptist open the Word of Christ is essentially churches also bespoke this emphasis on necessary”15—yet study was still vital. the preached word in worship: the central There were some, he noted, that “think it feature of these simple structures was the unlawful to study to declare God’s Mind, pulpit. In the words of D. Mervyn Him- and will contemptuously speak against it, bury, early Baptist chapels were “meeting as if we were to preach by Inspiration, as houses designed for preaching.”11 These the Prophets and Apostles of old did.” In meeting-houses were generally square response to such reasoning, Collins cited 2 or rectangular structures, some of them Tim 2:15 and asked “What can be a better from the outside even resembling barns.12 Confutation of those Men than [this] Text? Inside the meeting-house the pulpit was which commands Ministers to study to made prominent and was well within the shew themselves good Workmen.”16 sight and sound of the entire congrega- Many of the better preachers of that tion. Sometimes a sounding board was day were, of course, able to preach with placed behind the pulpit so as to help little preparation, if the need arose. Benja- project the preacher’s voice throughout min Beddome was once asked to preach at the building. There was a noticeable lack Fairford in the Coswolds, where a Thomas of adornment in Baptist meeting-houses, Davis was the pastor. Beddome, who was with nothing to distract the attention of a very powerful preacher but naturally the worshippers. During the eighteenth quite timid, completely forgot his sermon century, large clear windows were pro- as it came time to preach. Having no vided so that light was available to all to notes, he understandably became some- read the Scriptures as the Word of God what agitated. Leaning over Davis on was expounded.13 the way to the pulpit from where he had Given the prominence attached to been sitting, he asked anxiously, “Brother preaching by verbal and architectural Davis, what must I preach from?” Davis, statement, it should occasion no surprise thinking that Beddome was not in earnest to fi nd leading English Baptist preachers and actually joking, curtly replied, “Ask of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- no foolish questions.” Davis’ reply gave turies emphasizing that good preaching Beddome great relief.
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