Thesis on Wallin by J H Cook

A PhD thesis on Wallin by J H Cook appeared at the end of 2021. It can be accessed here - *****. Title

BENJAMIN WALLIN: A RESPECTABLE MINISTER’S PROCLAMATION

OF THE GOSPEL IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON

The contents are as follows

PREFACE vii

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION 1

Thesis...................................................................................................................3

Methodology .......................................................................................................3

Summary of Research .........................................................................................4

Biography ............................................................................................................5

Hymnody ............................................................................................................ 7

Doctrinal Stances................................................................................................. 9

Eighteenth-Century Particular Baptist Preaching.............................................. 10

Significance.........................................................................................................13

2. A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF A MOST RESPECTABLE MAN 14

Maze Pond ......................................................................................................... 16

Edward Wallin.................................................................................................... 19

Benjamin Wallin................................................................................................. 26

Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 35

3. BENJAMIN WALLIN’S TEACHING 36

Confessional Subscriptions................................................................................ 37

The Trinity.......................................................................................................... 39

Covenant of Grace ............................................................................................. 41

Particular Redemption ....................................................................................... 43

Original Sin and Actual Sin.................................................................................45

Conversion.......................................................................................................... 47

Justification........................................................................................................  50

The Law..............................................................................................................  54

The Gospel.......................................................................................................... 58

Sanctification ....................................................................................................... 61

Perseverance of the Saints.................................................................................... 64

The Ordinances..................................................................................................... 67

Preaching .............................................................................................................. 73

The Pastoral Office ............................................................................................... 76

Church Membership and the Communion of Saints.............................................. 81

Prayer..................................................................................................................... 87

4. BENJAMIN WALLIN’S PREACHING 92

Form Criticism....................................................................................................... 94

Defining the Genre ................................................................................................ 95

Structure............................................................................................................... 119

Generic Fidelity ................................................................................................... 121

Final Analysis....................................................................................................... 129

5. WALLIN’S POSITION ON THE MODERN QUESTION: PREACHING THE GOSPEL 133

Preaching the Gospel in Southwark, London, England .........................................133

Benjamin Wallin and “Hyper-Calvinism”.............................................................. 138

The “Modern Question” ........................................................................................ 142

Benjamin Wallin’s Position.................................................................................... 151

6. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................158

APPENDIX 1. ANNOTATED LIST OF REFERENCES AND LETTERS REGARDING BENJAMIN WALLIN FOUND IN GUILD’S EARLY HISTORY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY 163

2. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN WALLIN’S PUBLISHED WORKS ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY 166

3. JOHN BRINE’S AND BENJAMIN WALLIN’S SERMON OUTLINES OF 2 COR 5:1 187

4. LETTER OF FEB 4, 1748, FROM WALLIN TO MR. THOMAS PRATTEN  191

BIBLIOGRAPHY 193

Letter to John Davis 1781

Benjamin Wallin to John Davis [1731-1795]

Mazepond, April 18. 1781

The following is an Extract of My Papers lately Received from the Revd. Mr Bacchus of Middlburgh New England and dated Boston April 13. 1780.

"Very Dear Sir For several years past our hostilities have Engrossed the peoples attention in general thro' the whole Country, and but little appearance of Religion, a few places only Excepted, till lately, a great and glorious work has opened before us. In August 1778. I perceived a little beginning of Conviction on a few Minds in our own Society which gradually increased so that 22 very agreeable Members were added to our Church and Many More are soon expected. Brother Enhanan Winchester83 who was born seven miles west of Boston 1751 is Now owned of God in an astonishing Manner. He began to Preach 14. Days after Mr Whitefields death and after Labouring a few years in those parts he went to South Carolina. A year ago he had Concluded to return to his Native Country; but a revival of Religion at Welch Neck, on Pedee River, where he was preaching, prevented it; from May 30th to august 29th inclusive he Baptized 239 persons, 100 of whom were Negro Slaves, who before were in a State of Heathenism, and averse to attend Christian Worship; but before he came away it was usual to see 4. or 500 of these poor Creatures at Meeting, and the work prevailed when he came away in September. On November 16 he called to see Me in his way to his Fathers house Expressing a strong faith of seeing glorious things in those parts where he has Preached about as many Sermons as there has been days Notwithstanding a severe Winter. Our Ministers have been greatly quickened, and the Effects have been such that about 100. persons have been Baptized at Rehoboth 70. at Swansey 40. in Taunton and Raynham adjacent to Me, and Many in Neighbouring Towns .... A remarkable work also is begin in Newtown and Brookline by Means of Mr Winchester among his own kindred and acquaintance .. I Preached there last week, and was delighted with what I saw. Besides a glorious work begun last summer in the Western parts of our Government. Elder Peter Worden of NewProvidence and Elder Nathan Mason of Lanesborough Baptized 300 betwixt May and January. In the same space Elder Cooling at Brinfeild Baptized about 80. and thro' New-England there is Now the greatest prospect of a general thorough reformation that has appeared within 35. years and in some respects greater than I ever saw before. Notwithstanding the Torrent of Corruption seemed likely as if it would have drowned the Land. 0 help us to praise and pray." So far from thence.

Dear Sir, I have .scarce time to write the above: have Not been on Horseback since last at Waltham: since which also, Neither Mr Davis, nor any from thence, have called upon Me. I have No great Expectation of paying you another Visit, being in a manner altogether confined, and can preach but little. I wish the confirmation of your health, and increasing comfort and usefullness and with Love to Messrs. Thompson's, Auther's, Carter, and all Christian Friends.

I am Dear Sir your affectionate Brother

Benjamin Wallin

The Christian's duty and confidence in times of public calamity

The Christian's duty and confidence in times of public calamity. Being several discourses occasioned by the late dreadful earthquakes and the apprehensions of a French war.

This work by Wallin can be downloaded here.

The Redeemer's Charge against his Declining Churches

 One of Wallin's works has been republished in e-form and can be accessed through this link.

John Stanford 1754-1834

https://tinyurl.com/thvy4b7v

John Stanford (1754-1834) was an English-born pastor from Wandsworth who, after being ordained in 1781 and serving a church and academy in Hammersmith, went to America in 1786. Beginning as an Anglican he came to Baptist convictions in which he was grounded by Wallin in the Maze Pond church, before leaving these shores. It was in America that he found a calling ministering to society’s outcasts. He became known as “a Son of Consolation” to thousands of the sick and suffering poor, and the victims of vice and crime, to whom he preached the gospel of the grace of God. Credited with originating “perhaps the best penitentiary institution which had ever been devised,” he was eventually visited in one of his ministries by the President of the United States. In addition, governors sought his advice on implementing his institutional reforms. By 1817, Stanford had organised seven schools in the New York State Prison. Education was obviously fundamental to all phases of his ministry and life, yet all was done within the context of sharing the love of Christ and the salvation to be found only in Him. Pastor, teacher, leader and chaplain to New York’s poor and imprisoned, his life might be summed up by the statement, “He lived and died in the noble cause of Christian benevolence.”

Another review of Lectures on Primitive Christianity

Lectures on Primitive Christianity, in Doctrine, Experience, Worship, Discipline and Manners, as it appeared in the Church at Jerusalem, in the Time of the Apostles. Also on the Epistle to the Church at Sardis. And on the Faithful in the Days of Malachi. Interspersed with Notes, Reflections and Addresses: With a View to awake a becoming Zeal for the Communion of Saints, in Order and Love

By Benjamin Wallin. 8vo. 5 s, sewed. Keith, &c.

Mr. Wallin, in his Preface, laments the degeneracy of the times, and the great indifference to religious ordinances, which prevails among numbers who preserve some decency of conduct in other respects. “Under these sad circumstances, he says, shall it be thought unseasonable that we advert to the simplicity and zeal of the first Christians, with whom the Lord dwelt, that following the original pattern of piety and brotherly love, we may in like manner rejoice in his presence and blessing?” To these valuable ends, and for the help of young and ordinary Christians, he tells us, he drew up the following papers, in accomplishing which, he adds, “I have consulted several writers in this and the century past, from whom I have found myself obliged, with due respect, to differ in several instances; nor will it offend the ingenuous, that I have freely declared my thoughts, on every point, as it fell in my way; this liberty is granted when the rules of decency are not transgressed,’ This is Mr. Wallin's own account: his design is undoubtedly good, but his work is rather heavy, his style and manner not the most pleasing or inviting, and his sentiments, perhaps, too much restrained and biased by a regard to system and party; at the same time, it must be acknowledged he appears to write with piety, integrity and benevolence to mankind. It would be happy if by this, or any other means, Christianity and its professors could be recovered to the simplicitv and truth of its primitive institution and spirit, from which, it must be allowed, there has been a great departure!

(From The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged, 1769)

Last Letter to James Manning in America in 1777

Maze Pond, Southwark, Aug. 30, 1777.

Reverend and dear Sir:

I embrace the opportunity of acknowledging your very acceptable favor, which came to hand in January last. Oh the wonders of Omnipotent love! Peace on earth and good-will to men, dispensed by the everlasting gospel in a rebellious world, like the antediluvian, corrupt before God, and filled with violence! It is the Lord's doings, and marvellous in our eyes. Your striking account of the heavenly visitation on the church and college over which you preside filled me with gratitude and joy, as it did my people, and indeed many others, ministers and respectable individuals, from whom I could not conceal the glad tidings. They proved as cold waters to a thirsty soul. Dear sir, if you would have such good news a secret, you must not trust a man with it who wishes to spread abroad the salvation of God, that all who love it may have continual occasion to glorify his name. Many thanksgivings redounded to the King of all grace upon a rehearsal of this glorious display of his mercy, - an evidence this of a genuine love among the saints whose lot is cast in the respective contending countries, originally united, now waging war, to the grief of all who wish well to Great Britain. What stronger proof of this divine grace than a free communication and an unfeigned great joy in each other's prosperity!

It would be pleasing to return a similar account from the mother country, but the state of religion is not so delightful and promising. Indeed, many preachers go forth, and the number of hearers increases, but it is not so strictly in the way of the Lord as I could wish. It seems to me vainglorious, and in some respects tending to confusion, of which God is not the author. Among the Episcopalians who have any idea of gospel truth (though I think for the most part they are rather superficial), their way is to open a chapel, as they style it, and, having drawn an audience, they arc fixed at a custom-rate for their seats. On this plan many, and some of them sumptuous buildings have been erected, to which, by report, great numbers resort. I would hope by this means some may be led into a saving knowledge of Christ, and so far I rejoice; yet I cannot but lament the tending and the effect of this carnal contrivance and vague kind of social religion to the accommodation of man and the neglect of all gospel order. A becoming zeal for this is now a matter of reproach with many among us, insomuch that the enlightened, who wish to be conformed to the positive institutions of the Redeemer, are under great discouragements, and few join the regular churches of any denomination; so that a godly discipline in particular communion is in a manner out-of-doors. The consequence of all this will, I fear, be a still greater declension from real and practical piety. The Baptists more especially are obnoxious to these popular gentlemen, of which a specimen has lately transpired in an abusive pamphlet, by a warm-spirited young clergyman. Irritated by some altercations on a late baptising in the parish of his vicarage, he has fallen foul on me for my little address.-. to the churches of the Congrcgational order, - the first edition of which you have in a volume of mine. This piece has nothing to do with the point in debate, and, being anonymous, was by many ascribed to a person of the Independent persuasion before the author was discovered. This man holds me up to the public as a masterpiece of bigotry, and an enemy to all Pedobaptist communion, and at the same time pretends to much candor.

This newly-adopted mode has already emboldened some froward men to set up for themselves, under the color of Protestant dissenters; and, among the rest, lately, one Mr. Dawson, a Sabbatarian Baptist, not long since in New England. Alas! these men make a trade of religion! It likewise favors party divisions in church, too frequent, and which now for the most part end in grievous and shameful separations, to the prejudice of brotherly love; it being the taste of the day to follow new societies and teachers. This is a melancholy case; for we know by the disciples at Corinth that in this carnal spirit there is little regard to the power and grace of God in the increase of his church.

As to my congregation, they are in general steady, and our church state gradually advances. Of late we have been favored with some remarkable instances of conversion; among others, last month I baptized four young persons of one family, brothers and sisters in the flesh, the children of a deacon lately deceased, who was the second person that passed under my hands. This was in the year 1741. Their grandfather and grandmother were also valuable members of the church some years after I succeeded my honored father in the pastoral charge. The Lord will not fail, but may exceed the terms of his promise. His grace is not bound. You will not wonder at the joy of the brethren on this singular occasion.

I fear the Papists take advantage of our civil and religious confusion. According to some there are alarming symptoms of their increase in our nation and cities. Indeed, unknown and disorderly societies but too much favor their design, while the political sentiments of many Protestants are a hinderance, at least, to their social prayers. But with our God nothing is impossible. May he pour out the Spirit from on high on both countries, and graciously restore our public tranquillity on an honorable and permanent foundation; and may you, dear sir, enjoy many happy hours in the closet and in the pulpit, and again be employed in a field white for harvest, as in the year 1775.

As for me, my age and infirmities promise little further capacity for usefulness. Infinite are the obligations upon me for the grace by which I have been sustained ihirty-seven years in the arduous work of the ministry. Our great Divine Master doth not cast off his old servants; yet the prayers of my brethren may subserve to a finish with joy; a request, I am persuaded, you will not deny me. Having the honor of a place in your library, it seemed decent to present a copy of another attempt since my last. Parents, you know, sir, oft show their vanity in dressing up their children. Excuse the uniform of the eleventh volume. It comes in expectation of the same kind reception with that of its preceding companions. If any hints concerning parables in general, or that in particular which is the subject in hand, prove pertinent and useful, the author flatters himself that some other pen may improve them to public advantage. For an increase of the church's prosperity and a period to the national trouble,we unite in our prayers to the Most High, with which I conclude. Dear sir.

Your very obliged and affectionate Brother, Benj. Wallin.

P. S. — The copy on The Prodigal presented to the college with my most respectful compliments to the venerable members, if it be needful to mention so trifling a matter to them, was bound in readiness soon after the publication. My notice of this opportunity was short, which it is hoped will apologize for the mourning dress of those directed to you and the other gentlemen, on whose candor in perusing them I rely. If by any means you can inform me of the arrival of these, it will be acceptable. Before the present interruption to our intercourse took place, I was in expectation of soon receiving a digested and authentic account of your college, which, I hope, will survive the civil commotions, and prove a flourishing seminary of learning under your direction. If this design is carried into execution, I hope to be presented with some copies the first opportunity.