Copyright © 2017 Christopher Ryan Griffith 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. “PROMOTING PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION”: JOHN RYLAND, JR. (1753–1825) AND EDWARDSEAN EVANGELICAL BIOGRAPHY __________________ 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 Christopher Ryan Griffith December 2017 APPROVAL SHEET “PROMOTING PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION”: JOHN RYLAND, JR. (1753–1825) AND EDWARDSEAN EVANGELICAL BIOGRAPHY Christopher Ryan Griffith Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Michael A. G. Haykin (Chair) __________________________________________ Donald S. Whitney __________________________________________ Gregory A. Wills Date______________________________ For Chris McGarvey, mentor and friend, who first introduced me to Jonathan Edwards and the sanctifying power of Christian biography (Heb 13:7) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... viii PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 Introduction .........................................................................................................1 Thesis ..................................................................................................................3 Personal Interest ..................................................................................................5 History of Research .............................................................................................6 Method ..............................................................................................................15 2. PIETY WAS HIS DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERISTIC: THE SPIRITUAL FORMATION OF JOHN RYLAND .....................................17 Introduction .......................................................................................................17 Family and Early Life .............................................................................. 19 Conversion ............................................................................................... 25 The Intellectual and Spiritual Formation of John Ryland .................................30 John Ryland at School ............................................................................. 31 Christian Community and The Prayer Society ........................................ 33 Study of Divinity and High Calvinism .................................................... 35 John Newton (1705–1807): Wise and Faithful Counselor ...................... 41 Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758): “The Greatest, Wisest, Humblest, and Holyest of Uninspired Men” ................................... 45 3. CERTAIN INCREASE: THE MINISTRY OF JOHN RYLAND .......................61 iv Chapter Page Marriage to the Glory of God ...........................................................................61 “Closely and Cordially United”: Ministry at College Lane ..............................67 “Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things”: Ryland and the Founding of The Baptist Missionary Society .....................................72 Ministry in Bristol and Beyond .........................................................................80 The Theology of John Ryland ...........................................................................85 4. BY INSTANCE AND EXAMPLE: EDWARDSEAN EVANGELICAL BIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................92 Introduction .......................................................................................................92 “Not Histories, but Lives”: Historical Precursors to Eighteenth-Century Biography .................................................................93 Greek Lives .............................................................................................. 94 Roman Lives ............................................................................................ 97 Lives in the Church ................................................................................ 100 The Renaissance of Lives ...................................................................... 104 English Lives ......................................................................................... 106 Lives in the Eighteenth Century ......................................................................112 Samuel Johnson (1709–1784): Life of Richard Savage (1744) ............. 117 James Boswell (1740–1795): Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) ............... 121 Eighteenth-Century Evangelical Biography ...................................................127 Jonathan Edwards and Evangelical Biography ...............................................132 Edwards’s Catalogue ............................................................................. 133 Edwards’s Faithful Narrative ................................................................ 136 Edwards’s Life of David Brainerd ......................................................... 137 Edwardsean Evangelical Biography? ..............................................................145 Hopkins’s The Life and character of the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards (1765) ...................................... 145 Hopkins’s The Life and Character of Mrs. Susanna Anthony (1796) ....................................................... 150 v Chapter Page Hopkins’s Memoirs of the Life of Sarah Osborn (1799) ....................... 152 Conclusion ......................................................................................................154 5. THE WORK OF FAITH, THE LABOR OF LOVE, AND THE PATIENCE OF HOPE: RYLAND’S FULLER BIOGRAPHIES ................................................156 Introduction .....................................................................................................156 Ryland as Biographer ......................................................................................157 Remembering Andrew Fuller: Ryland’s 1816 Biography ..............................161 Purpose and Form .................................................................................. 166 Selectivity and Structure ........................................................................ 173 Content and Theological Emphases ....................................................... 175 Ryland’s 1818 Edition ....................................................................................200 Formatting .............................................................................................. 200 Omissions .............................................................................................. 200 Additions ................................................................................................ 207 6. A JUSTER IDEA OF CHARACTER: J. W. MORRIS AND JOHN RYLAND’S COMPETING BIOGRAPHIES OF ANDREW FULLER ............212 Introduction .....................................................................................................212 J. W. Morris and the Fuller Circle ..................................................................213 A Tale of Two Biographies .............................................................................220 Purpose and Form .................................................................................. 221 Selectivity and Structure ........................................................................ 226 Content and Theological Emphasis ....................................................... 227 The Character of Andrew Fuller ............................................................ 234 Reception ............................................................................................... 241 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 247 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................249 vi Chapter Page Edwardsean Evangelical Biography ...............................................................249 The Legacy of John Ryland ............................................................................256 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 261 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. 1885–1887. 10 vols. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. NPNF1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1. Edited by Philip Schaff. 14 vols. Reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1989. NPNF2 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2. Edited by Philip Schaff. 14 vols. Reprint. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994. WAF The Works of Andrew Fuller. Edited by J. Gunton Fuller. 8 vols. New Haven, CT: S. Converse, 1824–1825. WJE The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Edited by Harry Stout. 26 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957–2009. WRH Works of Robert Hall, A.M. 4th ed. Edited by Olinthus Gregory and John Foster. 4 vols. New York: Harper, 1835–1836.