Particular Pilgrims

"Arriving at a definition of hyper-Calvinism is challenging for several reasons. First, it is a subject that can evoke a strong emotional response, which works against objective historical and biblical study. Second, there is a spectrum of groups given this name, who, in some things, differ widely from each other. Third, there exists a range of modern scholarly definitions that have significa...

"The historical roots of Baptist itinerancy are found in the Interregnum, especially the period when Cromwell ruled. There was enough freedom for Baptists such as William Kiffen and Thomas Collier to travel widely, preach, baptize, and form churches."

Last time I introduced you to William Crabtree, the first pastor of the Baptist Church in Bradford, who was followed in the ministry by William Steadman. Crabtree’s life is worthy of being told and contains several noteworthy lessons.

"Steadman’s second great labor in Bradford was raising up a Baptist ministerial academy. Some at the time still opposed ministerial training and even those who saw its value were often unable to agree upon a shared vision or raise the resources to implement it. The local Baptist Association had formed the Northern Education Society to do this. And Steadman was their man for the next 30 years,...

"William Steadman arrived in Plymouth on June 6, 1798 as a pastoral partner to Isaiah Birt. This left the Broughton church without a pastor, a situation that was to continue for eleven years. But in God’s strange providence, the church finally began to grow during this time. The surrounding Baptist pastors cared for the church until 1809 when a graduate of the Bristol Academy, Hugh Russell, w...

"During this time, William constantly studied his Bible and read a wide range of evangelical authors. These included Calvinistic Anglicans like William Romaine and James Hervey and many volumes of John Gill and John Brine, the high Calvinistic Baptists. This appreciation for and experience of the value of other genuine Christians, even of a different mind in some things, was always a part of...

"There is another pastor connected with late 18 th century Plymouth that need to be highlighted. His name is William Steadman and he is an important figure in Particular Baptist history especially for his ministry in the north of England. Much of what we know about his life comes from a biography written by his son, Thomas, shortly after his father’s death in 1837. It is called “Memoir of the...

"Having looked at the life of Isaiah Birt and his friends, let’s return to the Plymouth Baptist Church and Pastor Philip Gibbs. Now that Birt was pastoring the nearby Baptist church in Plymouth Dock, Gibbs needed an assistant. The church was alerted to William Winterbotham of London, and in January of 1790 he supplied the pulpit. His preaching was edifying and the people invited him to become...

"It strikes me as unlikely that a born-poor, persecuted Baptist boy like Isaiah Birt would one day grow up to be friends with a wealthy, high-society, evangelical Anglican named John Broadley Wilson. But that is in fact what happened. At the same time, the story of their friendship illustrates the complementary truth that members of Particular Baptist churches were often a tight knit and even...

"Isaiah Birt’s ministry in Plymouth lasted over 30 years. About 1815, he moved to Birmingham, where his son in the faith and dear friend, Samuel Pearce, had pastored until his death in 1799. For a dozen years, Birt ministered to this body of believers, preaching “only twice on the Lord’s Day” but also on many weekday evenings. Eventually, physical weakness made this impractical. Then he stepp...

"Last time I presented a study of the conversion and 51 year pastoral ministry of Philip Gibbs at the Particular Baptist Church in Plymouth. The man who baptized him was Crispin Curtis, the pastor of the church in Kingsbridge, who also served for about 50 years. One of the ways the Lord blessed both of these men’s long pastorates was in the raising up of other men. Gibbs and Curtis not only r...

"At some point Philip was apprenticed to a tailor in the nearby market town of Kingsbridge. One day around his 15 th birthday, he was at work and a woman member of the Baptist church arrived on horseback. She urged Philip to join her in hearing a minister of the Establishment who had just come to town. His name was George Whitefield. Gibbs agreed and got up on the horse behind her. Now hear h...

'In our last episode I described the non-conformist’s civil disadvantages under toleration that made them English second-class citizens. How did they respond? And specifically, how did the London Particular Baptist pastors attempt to display a proper patriotism and submission to their God-appointed leaders while still appealing for their full civil rights?" For more information about Cove...

"Baptists considered the Anglican church not to be a true church and so worshiping there, even on an occasional basis was considered an act of disloyalty to Jesus Christ. But social pressures played on members and pastors alike. And so some conformed, that is, they renounced their nonconformity and rejoined the state church. Because these actions always led to some form of church discipline,...

"In this final study of Shortwood Baptist Church, I want to introduce you to some of the deacons of the church and various aspects of their lives and ministry. Albion Urdank has researched a number of what he calls “branches” of Shortwood’s deacons. By branches, he means that many of the church’s deacons came from connected family groups. For example, the Flint family was prominent in the chu...

"One of more surprising facts about Shortwood is that it was for many years the largest Baptist congregation outside of London. Given the region’s rural, lower middle class character, it is natural to wonder how did this come about. In Albion Urdank’s socioeconomic study of Shortwood Baptist, he looks to explain this expansion by the forces at work in the politics, economics, and sectarian re...

"In presenting the life of Benjamin Francis, I previously mentioned that there is not a lot of information about the rural Baptist church he pastored in Horsley. But as I continued to research, I found a modern social study of religion and society for that area of England that is called the Vale of Nailsworth. Horsley is one of the communities in the Vale along with Shortwood, Minchinhampton,...

"When he had been at Horsley about ten years, the great London Baptist pastor, John Gill, considered retiring from his half-century of pastoral labors due to physical problems. He was over 70 years old. While some of his people wanted him to have an assistant in the ministry, Gill was willing to completely step aside if Benjamin Francis would become his successor. It doesn’t appear that Franc...

"One of the highly regarded Particular Baptist pastors in the 18 th century in England and Wales was Benjamin Francis. But there are several challenges to telling his story. The first is that he was preeminently a preacher yet we have no surviving sermons. Second, he was a native Welsh speaker and so most of the hymns he wrote are not in English. Third, he pastored a relatively small and alwa...

Since the last episode on Samuel Wilson, I’ve obtained one of his published sermons. It’s entitled “A Sermon occasion’d by the Death of the Reverend George Braithwiate, A. M. preach’d at Devonshire-Square, on July the 24 th , 1748. Publish’d at the Request of the Congregation.” Before we learn about Braithwaite, let me explain a bit about funeral sermons. Confessional, Affordable, Theological Educ...

Samuel Wilson was a significant Particular Baptist pastor in London during the second quarter of the 18th century. Though almost unknown today, he was a popular preacher and important author, who died young at the age of 47. #CBTSeminary Informed Scholarship, Pastoral Heart Helping the church to prepare men to undertake the full range of pastoral responsibilities in serving Christ and His kingdom.

"David Crosley was not primarily an author; instead he was a preacher who didn’t use notes or a manuscript. And so he only occasionally had anything published. His two most significant pieces of writing were originally sermons that were then written out after-the-fact and published. But he did occasionally produce other things for print." Confessional, Affordable, Theological Education C...

"David Crosley was a traveling evangelist and pastor whose life seems oddly reflective of the Biblical character, Samson in several ways. First, Crosley was reputed to be one of the largest men in the county of Lancashire, England, weighing for many years, it was thought, about 300 pounds. Second, his life though full of godly accomplishments was stained by serious sin. And third, his best-kn...

Samuel Kilpin had a special love for and ministry to poor children and through them to their parents. Not every man’s pastoral ministry looks exactly the same of course. And Samuel’s attention to the physical and spiritual plight of Exeter’s children is noteworthy. He performed the usual ministerial responsibilities to his congregation, but added to it a specific focus on destitute children. I’ll...

Last time we learned a bit about how the widows of Particular Baptist pastors were cared for in western England in the early 1800s by examining a letter in regards to Elizabeth Kilpin. Her husband was Samuel Kilpin. And we will see that his ministry had some special emphases. But before we look at those, let me give you a short biography of him with my attempts at accurate dating. There are severa...