The Andrew Fuller Center Review – EDIT - Word of Truth

discourse was a mark of evangelicalism
and the wider movement of the “religion
of the heart.” 46 Isabel Rivers, who has
made a penetrating study of “a ectionate
religion,” notes the complementary
concerns for orthodox doctrine, personal
experience, and a ectionate language:
e evangelical tendency emphasizes
the traditional Reformation doctrines
of grace, atonement, justi cation by
faith (o en covered by the label “orthodoxy”),
the importance of experimental
knowledge, meaning both the
believer’s own experience of religion,
and acquaintance with the variety of
the experience of others, and the central
function of the heart and a ections
in religion in relation to the will
and understanding. 47
e heart and the a ections were emphasized
in concert with orthodox doctrine,
re ecting a concern for a lively
and heartfelt response to the gospel,
for a voluntary, sincere, and personal
Christianity, as opposed to rationalism,
nominalism, or cold orthodoxy. Fuller
condensed the thought thus: “ e union
of genuine orthodoxy and a ection constitutes
true religion.” 48
Fuller’s understanding of the a ections
bears the particular in uence of
Jonathan Edwards’s A Treatise Concerning
Religious A ections (1746). 49 S
haring Edwards’s concept of a “sense
of the heart,” he wrote that spiritual
truths cannot be known by “mere intellect
any more than the sweetness of
honey … can be ascertained by the sight
of the eye.” Rather, spiritual truths can
be known only as God imparts a “holy
susceptibility and relish for the truth,”
by which one can have a “sense of their
Divine excellency.” 50
So, how did Fuller use the language
of the a ections to express his evangelicalism?
With regard to preaching,
his a ectionate vocabulary generally
incorporated three main elements: 1)
the gospel must be felt and experienced
by preachers in their own lives in order
for them to communicate it to others, 2)
preachers must have spiritual concern
for the conversion of their hearers, and
3) preachers must integrate the head and
heart, or doctrine and a ectionate experience.
A ections and Evangelical experience
Fuller employed the language of the affections
in order to denote faith that was
practical and experimental, personal
and sincere. A ectionate preaching had
the deeply felt faith of two subjects in
view—both preacher and hearer—and
the heart-to-heart manner of the sermon’s
delivery. Rivers has noted that
evangelicalism was characterized by orthodox
doctrine and personal, “experi
mental” faith, which meant, she writes,
“both the believer’s own experience of
religion, and acquaintance with the variety
of experience of others.” 51 It was an
a ectionate faith that joined doctrine
and experience, and that allowed one
person to communicate that experience
to another, particularly in preaching.
Fuller poignantly summarized: “If you
would a ect others, you must feel.” 52
Fuller emphasized, rst, the preacher’s
own spirituality or experience of godly
a ections, and then the expression of
that experience through preaching to affect
the hearers.
e personal experience of faith, and
contending with us: Let us all Banish
and Expel the Achan out of our Hearts,
out of our Churches, and shew our selves
Zealous against Sin.” 70 en, Collins
asked God that his dear Son’s kingdom
might come. “We should be willing to
be Footstools, so Christ thereby might
get upon his rone.” 71 ird, Collins
prayed for “a universal spreading of the
Gospel” in order that “a greater degree of
Knowledge and Holiness will be in the
World then ever.” 72 is is a fascinating
request, as it is o en said that the seventeenth-century
Puritans and Baptists
were not missions-minded. Clearly, Collins
was not devoid of a missionary passion.
Finally, Collins prayed for deliverance
from the persecution. “We have
no might, but our Eyes are upon thee…
Appear in thy strength, that the Kingdoms
of the World may know that thou
art God; and that there is none besides
thee.” 73 But till then, Collins concluded,
“let our Faith and Patience be lengthned
out, to the coming of the Lord; till Time
swallowed up in Eternity; Finite, in In -
nite, Hope, in Vision; and Faith in Fruition;
when God shall be the matter of
our Happiness; when Fulness shall be
the measure of our Happiness, and Eternity
the Duration.” 74
Conclusion
e prison writings of Hercules Collins
provide a window for better understanding
both seventeenth-century English
Baptist spirituality and a Baptist theology
of persecution. e furnace of a iction
revealed a deep and vibrant spirituality
which was like pure gold. ese
golden writings are characterized by a
con dence in the sovereign providence
of God, a thankfulness for both physical
and spiritual blessings, re ection upon
the su ciency of Christ, and a certain
expectation of a future deliverance and
reward. It is hoped that a similar spirituality
would become prominent among
Baptists once again in order that they
might be enabled to persevere through
the persecution that increasingly seems
certain to come.
is the pastor of Farmdale
Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY, and is currently
nishing up his Ph.D. dissertation on
“Hercules Collins: Orthodox, Puritan, Baptist”
as a student in Baptist Studies at e
Southern Baptist eological Seminary.
_____________________
1 B. R. White, e English Baptists of the Seventeenth Century
(Didcot: e Baptist Historical Society, 1996), 95–133.
2 For an excellent study of this era, see Gerald R. Cragg,
Puritanism in the Period of the Great Persecution 1660–1688
(Cambridge: University Press, 1957). See also Michael R.
Watts, e Dissenters. Volume 1: From the Reformation to
the French Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978),
221–262.
3 For a fuller description of these Acts and their impact
upon Baptists, see Ernest A. Payne and Norman S. Moon,
Baptists and 1662 (London: e Carey Kingsgate Press Limited,
1962).
4 For details on the life of Hercules Collins see Michael
A.G. Haykin “ e Piety of Hercules Collins (1646/7–1702)”
in Devoted to the Service of the Temple: Piety, Persecution,
and Ministry in the Writings of Hercules Collins, eds. Michael
A.G. Haykin and Steve Weaver (Grand Rapids: Reformation
Heritage Books, 2007), 1–30. See also Haykin’s
entry “Collins, Hercules (d. 1702)” in the Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography, eds. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian
Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), s.v. and
his article “Hercules Collins and the Art of Preaching” in A
Cloud of Witnesses: Calvinistic Baptists in the 18th Century
(Darlington, England: Evangelical Times, 2006), 21–26.
5 See Ernest F. Kevan, London’s Oldest Baptist Church
(London: e Kingsgate Press, 1933) for the remarkable
rst three hundred years of history of this congregation.
e church is still in existence and is now called Church
Hill Baptist Church, Walthamstow. eir website is: http://
www.chbc.org.uk/.
6 For a discussion of the evidence, please see Geo rey F.
Nuttall, “Another Baptist Ejection (1662): e Case of John
Norcott” in Pilgrim Pathways: Essays in Baptist History in
Honour of B. R. White, eds. William H. Brackney and Paul
S. Fiddes with John H. Y. Briggs (Macon, GA: Mercer University
Press, 1999), 185–188.
7 Sessions of the Peace Rolls for 27 June 1670 – MJ/
SR/1389 ( le numbers P1010140–P1010150, London Metropolitan
Archives). is document lists the names of Hercules
Collins and the thirteen others who were arrested and
sent to Newgate prison on June 29, 1670. e key text reads
“Peter Sabbs for refusing to tell their m[eeting?] they being
taken at a conventicle & other misdemeanours.” Collins and
his fellow conventiclers must not have been in prison long,
for there is no record of them in prison at the next court
record for August 29, 1670.
8 Norcott died on March 24, 1675/6 and Collins became
pastor on March 23, 1676/7.