Copyright © 2018 Dustin Blaine Bruce All Rights Reserved. the Southern
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Copyright © 2018 Dustin Blaine Bruce All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. “THE GRAND ENCOURAGEMENT”: ANDREW FULLER’S PNEUMATOLOGY AS A RECEPTION OF AND ADVANCEMENT ON ORTHODOX, PURITAN, AND EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HOLY SPIRIT __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by Dustin Blaine Bruce May 2018 APPROVAL SHEET “THE GRAND ENCOURAGEMENT”: ANDREW FULLER’S PNEUMATOLOGY AS A RECEPTION OF AND ADVANCEMENT ON ORTHODOX, PURITAN, AND EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HOLY SPIRIT Dustin Blaine Bruce Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Michael A. G. Haykin (Chair) __________________________________________ Thomas J. Nettles __________________________________________ Gregory A. Wills Date______________________________ To Whitney, my wife, friend, and encourager; and to our two daughters, Marlie and Isabella, who bring my life untold measures of joy. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE .................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Thesis ............................................................................................................. 1 The Life and Ministry of Andrew Fuller ......................................................... 2 Status Quaestionis in Fuller Scholarship ......................................................... 7 Methodology ................................................................................................. 13 Chapter Overviews ................................................................................ 14 2. PURITAN PNEUMATOLOGY: ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT ..................... 17 Puritanism in Historical Context ................................................................... 17 Elizabethan Puritanism .......................................................................... 18 Stuart Puritanism ................................................................................... 21 The Emergence of Particular Baptists .................................................... 29 Overview of Puritan Pneumatology .............................................................. 32 Dependence upon John Calvin ............................................................. 33 Key Puritans ................................................................................................. 38 John Bunyan ........................................................................................ 38 John Owen ........................................................................................... 41 Thomas Goodwin ................................................................................. 45 1689 London Baptist Confession .......................................................... 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 51 iv Chapter Page 3. PURITAN PNEUMATOLOGY: ITS THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT ............... 52 Key Issues in Puritan Pneumatology ............................................................. 52 Word and Spirit ..................................................................................... 52 Orthodox Trinitarianism ........................................................................ 55 The Challenge of Socinianism ............................................................... 56 The Challenge of Quakerism ................................................................. 60 Christological Context........................................................................... 64 The Spirit in Conversion within Puritanism .................................................. 67 Regeneration ......................................................................................... 68 Faith...................................................................................................... 70 The Spirit in Mission within Puritanism ....................................................... 74 Puritan Missionary Activity .................................................................. 75 Theology of Mission ............................................................................. 78 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 84 4. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EVANGELICALISM: ITS HISTORY ................. 85 The Evangelical Revivals and the Baptist Response ...................................... 85 The Revivals in Historical Context ........................................................ 86 Particular Baptist Responses to the Revivals ......................................... 95 Edwards as Theological Interpreter of Revival ...................................... 98 Key Eighteenth-Century Influences ..................................................... 102 Key Issues in the Eighteenth Century .......................................................... 113 The Influence of German Pietism ....................................................... 113 The Holy Spirit and Evangelical Historiography ................................ 117 Sandemanianism ................................................................................ 120 High Calvinism .................................................................................. 124 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 130 v Chapter Page 5. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EVANGELICALISM: ITS PNEUMATOLOGY ............................................................................... 131 The Spirit in Conversion ............................................................................ 132 Regeneration ...................................................................................... 135 Faith ................................................................................................... 144 Revival ............................................................................................... 155 Means of Conversion ......................................................................... 158 The Spirit in Mission .................................................................................. 164 Evangelical Missionary Activity ........................................................ 166 Edwards’s Theology of Mission ......................................................... 174 Gill and Mission ................................................................................. 182 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 187 6. ANDREW FULLER’S PNEUMATOLOGICAL WRITINGS: PERSONAL, PASTORICAL, AND POLEMICAL CONTEXT .......................................... 188 Conversion to Evangelical Calvinism ......................................................... 190 Fuller’s Conversion within its High Calvinist Context ........................ 190 Controversy ....................................................................................... 196 Fuller as High Calvinist Pastor ........................................................... 200 Thoughts on the Power of Men to Do the Will of God (1777/1778) ..... 205 From Soham to Kettering ................................................................... 209 Drafting The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation .................................. 212 Installation at Kettering and the Prayer Call of 1784 ........................... 213 The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, 1st ed. (1785) .......................... 219 Missionary Theologian ............................................................................... 237 Formation of the BMS (1792) ............................................................ 238 The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, 2nd ed. (1801) ......................... 248 Polemical Theologian ................................................................................. 249 vi Chapter Page Fuller Encounters Sandemanianism .................................................... 250 Strictures on Sandemanianism (1810) ................................................ 252 “The Promise of the Spirit” ........................................................................ 254 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 256 7. “AN ALMIGHTY WORK OF THE SPIRIT”: FULLER’S PNEUMATOLOGY IN CONVERSION AND MISSION .............................. 257 The Being of the Spirit ............................................................................... 258 Divinely Revealed Truth .................................................................... 258 The Person of the Holy Spirit ............................................................. 259 The Spirit in Conversion ............................................................................ 264 Theological Issues Related to Conversion .......................................... 265 Regeneration ...................................................................................... 271 Faith ..................................................................................................