Annotated Bibliography of Wallin's Works 1-5

From Cook's Appendix

1 Wallin, Benjamin. The Redeemer’s charge against his declining churches, exemplified in the case of the Church of Ephesus. London: Aaron Ward, 1743. In this discourse Wallin regrets that it has fallen out of fashion to be zealous for the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel. He notes that there are not many who are willing to engage in the necessary work of defending the gospel, both in the pulpit and in the press. Wallin also notes that the society-wide declension of religion is symptomatic of the neglect of religious duties exercised in the home. A lack of confidence in preaching has come from the false notion that because man cannot personally effect the salvation of his hearers, his proclamation is unnecessary. Wallin sounds the alarm for his nation and for all Christian denominations and urges a return to vital experimental religion. Using the text of Rev 2:4, Wallin uses the Puritan Plain Style to open and apply the passage about the church at Ephesus having lost its first love.*

2 ________. The compassion of the dying Saviour to those that crucified him, considered and improved. London: Aaron Ward, 1746. Sermon by Wallin on Luke 23:34. He discusses the implications of Jesus’ words from the cross “Father, forgive them…” and defends an understanding of the text in view of the doctrine of the Limited Atonement. Wallin distinguishes between the prayer as uttered from Jesus’ divine and human natures and suggest that Jesus was praying according to his human nature to witness to his willingness to forgive all who were responsible for his crucifixion and death. Jesus’ prayer did not indicate that the people’s sins must be forgiven, but that they might (i.e. be able to be forgiven according to his human will) be forgiven if the perpetrators repented. Wallin does not stress the fruitlessness of the non-elect attempting to come to Christ, but rather points to the words of Jesus that stand as a admonition and encouragement for sinners to repent. He also applies the text to the Christian and infers that the believer will have the Christ-like attitude of desiring his persecutor’s good. Ignorance is no excuse or shield from judgment if one is outside of Christ, yet even the gravest of sins should not discourage a man from seeking the forgiveness of Christ. Wallin passionately admonishes the trembling sinner to go to Jesus who promises that he will not cast out anyone who comes to him. Finally, Wallin applies the gospel to those who are backslidden and assures them as well that God will forgive them their iniquities and heal their backslidings as they go to Christ.

3 ________. The Christian life, in divers of its branches, described and recommended. London: Aaron Ward, 1746. Large discourse in four parts based on Philippians 4:4-7. Wallin stresses the importance of living within church fellowship as well as not deceiving oneself as to the state of his salvation based simply upon the regular attendance of public worship. He requests that no offence be taken from the various denominations as he urges godliness in all his readers regardless of the denomination to which they belong. Part I discusses the Christian’s joy and its cause. Part II is a discussion of moderation and its role in the Christian life. Part III takes up the topic of anxieties and cares and observes that the church would be well served with more practical theology and less wrangling about doctrines, handled in an argumentative way. Throughout he stresses experimental religion and the benefit of constant prayer. He speaks to the efficacy of God’s grace and the manner in which the Holy Spirit uses God’s various graces to call, gather, and keep his people. He makes a point to insist that there is no room to engage in speculation about the mystery of God’s election, while affirming that God has elected. The first sermon speaks primarily to the peace of God. It highlights the importance of a saving interest in Jesus Christ and pleads with unbelievers to commit their souls into his hands. Two sermons from 1 Thess 5:17 are appended, which again stress the importance of continual prayer, and how that even the natural man is to be stirred up to this duty, demonstrating Wallin’s opinion that there is a duty to obey the gospel. Wallin emphasizes the need for prayer in the closet, family, and church. The second sermon outlines and refutes some of the excuses used to cease praying.

4 ________. An exhortation against quenching the Spirit. London: John Ward, 1748. A sermon preached to a society of young men at Maze Pond on 2 Thess 5:19. In it Wallin discusses what it is to quench the spirit and how Christians should be on their guard against declinations of vital religion. He asserts the irresistibility of the Spirit’s operation, yet also warns against despising the Spirit’s work lest he should withdraw his gracious operations. He warns that all who disobey the gospel will be found to be quenchers of the spirit, as well as those who indulge known sin. The neglect of church assemblies is equally admonished against, while membership in religious societies that engage in partiality and disputes are to be avoided. He also suggests that Christians far too frequently engage in vain and trifling conversations immediately following their assemblies which has a quenching aspect to the work that the Spirit has just done. He concludes with a strict law exhortation but then a gospel hymn is adjoined to provide the gospel motivation for obedience.

5 ________. A humble address to the Churches of Christ. London: John Ward, 1750.

This address was published to exhort Christians not to forsake assembling together and to maintain their responsibilities within their respective churches. It warns of the serious injuries that are inflicted on communities when professed Christians do not take seriously their duties toward one another in the local congregation to which they are members. It also addresses the need of ministers to preach not just Systems of Doctrine, but to accommodate themselves to the circumstances and condition of the people and to preach sermons for their warning and comfort. He also likens prayer to the breath of the body and says that a church without prayer will become a breathless corpse. He addresses antinomian error that exalts God’s goodness but forgets duty to the Lord. Wallin also points out that the purpose for assembling together does not rest in the self’s edification, but that the Christian is also led by the Spirit to desire the edification of his fellow believers which require his presence for the maintenance of the church-state. He also criticizes the neglect of listening to the Word in the church that the member belongs to being excused as long as the Word is heard elsewhere.

*The church in Ephesus, of course, forsook its first love rather than losing it

Cook Thesis Abstract

ABSTRACT BENJAMIN WALLIN: A RESPECTABLE MINISTER’S PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON Joshua Hawkins Cook

PhD The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2021

Chairs: Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin & Dr. Hershael W. York

This dissertation introduces the work of the eighteenth-century Particular Baptist London minister Benjamin Wallin. After providing an overview of Wallin’s life and ministry, the dissertation turns to an examination of his teaching and preaching. Benjamin Wallin was a known close associate of John Gill and John Brine, who have traditionally been associated with the “high” Calvinist movement of the eighteenth century. Accordingly, Benjamin Wallin has also been linked to the movement by association. This dissertation examines the textual evidence of Wallin’s sermons to argue that Benjamin Wallin was not a “high” Calvinist. Furthermore, upon review of the sermons, the dissertation also establishes Benjamin Wallin as one who would affirm the thesis of the “modern question” and would readily preach the “offer” of the gospel to unbelievers. Through the use of form criticism, specifically genre criticism, Wallin’s sermons are compared to those of John Brine to identify the homiletical fidelity of each man’s sermons with the established sermonic genres of the Protestant church.

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.”