Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) did not believe it was possible for sinners to come to faith in Jesus Christ of their own free will even though they had a duty to

Refuting High Calvinism: The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation

A preliminary draft of the work was written by 1778. In what was roughly its final form it was completed by 1781. Two editions of the work were published in Fuller’s lifetime. The first edition, published in Northampton in 1785, was subtitled The Obligations of Men Fully to Credit, and Cordially to Approve, Whatever God Makes Known, Wherein is Considered the Nature of Faith in Christ, and the Duty of Those where the Gospel Comes in that Matter. The second edition, which appeared in 1801, was more simply subtitled The Duty of Sinners to Believe in Jesus Christ, a subtitle which well expressed the overall theme of the book. There were substantial differences between the two editions, which Fuller freely admitted and which primarily related to the doctrine of particular redemption, but the major theme remained unaltered: “faith in Christ is the duty of all men who hear, or have opportunity to hear, the gospel.” Or as he put it in his preface to the first edition: “God requires the heart, the whole heart, and nothing but the heart;…all the precepts of the Bible are only the different modes in which we are required to express our love to him.”

The Nature of Saving Faith

The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio.

In the first section of the work, Fuller states the theme of the book and spends some time discussing the nature of saving faith. He especially takes to task the popular High Calvinist view of faith as something primarily subjective.

The Scriptures always represent faith as terminating on something without us; namely, on Christ, and the truths concerning him: but if it consist in a persuasion of our being in a state of salvation, it must terminate principally on something within us; namely, the work of grace in our hearts; for to believe myself interested in Christ is the same thing as to believe myself a subject of special grace.

The Nature of Genuine Faith

The Sacrifice of Isaac is the title of two paintings from c. 1598 - 1603 depicting the sacrifice of Isaac. The paintings could be painted by the Italian master Caravaggio (1571–1610) but there is also strong evidence that they may have been the work of Bartolomeo Cavarozzi

As Fuller goes on to point out, genuine faith is fixed on “the glory of Christ, and not the happy condition we are in.” These are two very different things. The former entails “a persuasion of Christ being both able and willing to save all them that come unto God by him,” while the latter is “a persuasion that we are the children of God.” The High-Calvinist schema thus ultimately turns faith into a preoccupation with the one’s spiritual state and security and Christ a means to the latter.

Unconverted sinners are commanded, exhorted, and invited to believe in Christ for salvation

1929 cover of the USSR League of Militant Atheists magazine, showing the gods of the Abrahamic religions being crushed by the Communist 5-year plan

In Part II of the work Fuller adduces six arguments in defence of his position. Let us look at one of these arguments, the first, in which Fuller seeks to show from various Biblical passages that “unconverted sinners are commanded, exhorted, and invited to believe in Christ for salvation.”

Jesus says to unbelievers, "Believe in the Light."

Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus' feet with nard and wiping them with her hair by DANIEL F. GERHARTZ

John 12:36, for instance, contains an exhortation of the Lord Jesus to a crowd of men and women to “believe in the light” that they might be the children of light. Working from the context, Fuller argues that Jesus was urging his hearers to put their faith in him. He is the “light” in whom faith is to be placed, that faith which issues in salvation (John 12:46). Those whom Christ commanded to exercise such faith, however, were rank unbelievers, of whom it is said earlier “they believed not on him” (John 12:37).

Jesus says to unbelievers, "The work of God is that you believe on Him whom God has sent."

Resurrection of Christ by Hendrick van den Broeck

Or consider John 6:29 where Jesus declares to sinners that “this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Fuller first points out that this statement is made to men who in the context are described as following Christ simply because he gave them food to eat (verse 26). They are unbelievers (verse 36). Christ rebukes them for their mercenary motives and urges them to “labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (verse 27). Their response as recorded in John 6:28 is to ask Christ “what shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” His answer is to urge them to put their faith in him (verse 29). Or, as Fuller puts it, faith in Christ is “the first and greatest of all duties, and without it no other duty can be acceptable.”

Honour the Son as your Honour the Father

Pages of Honour carrying the train of Queen Alexandra during her anointing at the Coronation of Edward VII depicted in a painting by Laurits Tuxen  (1853–1927).

Again, in John 5:23 we read that all men and women are to “honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” Giving honour to the Son entails, Fuller rightly reasons, “holy, hearty love to him” and adoration of every aspect of his person. It “necessarily supposes faith in him.” Christ has shown himself to be an infallible teacher, a holy advocate who pleads the case of his erring people, a physician who offers health to the spiritually sick, and a supreme monarch. Honouring him in these various aspects of his ministry requires faith and trust. “To honour an infallible teacher is to place an implicit and unbounded confidence in all he says; to honour an advocate is to commit our cause to him; to honour a physician is to trust our lives in his hands; and to honour a king is to bow to his sceptre, and cheerfully obey his laws.”

Simon Magus was directed to believe in Jesus

Benozzo Gozzoli, Fall of Simon Magus (1461-1462).

Fuller can also point to the incident with Simon Magus in Acts 8, where the magician is urged by Peter to “repent” and “pray” for forgiveness of his sinful thinking (Acts 8:22). Forgiveness, though, can be found only in Christ. So, Fuller reasons, “he was, in effect, directed to believe in Jesus.” 
 

Sinners are reproved for not believing

Belief by Fred Szabries

Another argument that Fuller brings forward is the fact that lack of faith in Christ is considered a “heinous sin” in the Scriptures, Fuller reasoned that trust in Christ is required of all that sit under the preaching of the Word. Men and women are never reproved for their not being among the elect, for election is solely God’s work. But “sinners are reproved for not believing,” as in passages John 5:40, where Jesus rebukes his hearers for being unwilling to come to him to receive eternal life.
 

Sinful men and women are utterly powerless to turn to God except through the regenerative work of God’s Holy Spirit, yet this powerlessness is the result of their own sinful hearts

POWERLESS Painting by Gregor Ziolkowski

One very important question that Fuller ha to wrestle with had to do with human inability and the Spirit’s help. High-Calvinists argued that sinners are unable to do anything spiritually good, and thus are under no obligation to exercise faith in Christ. They supported their argument by reference to such texts as John 6:44 (“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him”) and 1 Corinthians 2:14 (“the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”). The inability of which these passages speak, Fuller contended in response, is a moral inability, which is rooted in the sinful disposition of the heart. Men and women refuse to come to Christ because of their aversion to him. They fail to understand the gospel and the things of the Spirit because they lack the means by which such matters are understood, namely, the presence of the indwelling Spirit. And they lack the Spirit because their hearts are closed to God. These verses are not speaking of a physical inability—such as insanity or mental deficiency— which excuses its subject of blame. In making this distinction between physical and moral inability, which Fuller derived from Jonathan Edwards, Fuller was seeking to affirm a scriptural paradox: sinful men and women are utterly powerless to turn to God except through the regenerative work of God’s Holy Spirit, yet this powerlessness is the result of their own sinful hearts.

We need the influence of the Holy Spirit

to enable us to do our duty

Depiction of the Christian Holy Spirit as a dove, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica

This led Fuller to address the role of the Spirit’s work in conversion. High-Calvinists argued that if repentance and faith are ascribed by the Scriptures to the work of the Spirit, then “they cannot be duties required of sinners.” As Fuller points out, though, the force of this objection is dependent upon the supposition that “we do not stand in need of the Holy Spirit to enable us to comply with our duty.” What is amazing about this supposition is that Arminianism assumes the same. For the Arminian, because faith is commanded of sinners by God, then they must be able to believe without the irresistible drawing of the Spirit. Similarly, the High-Calvinist reasons that since faith is wrought by the Spirit it cannot be an act of obedience. The truth of the matter, however, is that “we need the influence of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do our duty” and that “repentance and faith, therefore, may be duties, notwithstanding their being the gifts of God.”


There were two main practical conclusions to Fuller’s arguments.

1. Sinners have every encouragement to trust in the Lord Jesus for the salvation of their souls

François Boucher Cathédrale Saint-Louis (1766) Versailles

First, sinners have every encouragement to trust in the Lord Jesus for the salvation of their souls. They do not need to spend time dallying to see if they are among God’s elect or if God is at work in their hearts by his Spirit. Moreover, they can no longer sit at ease under the sound of the gospel and excuse their unbelief by asserting that faith is the gift of God.

2. Ministers of the Word must earnestly exhort their hearers to commit themselves to Christ and that without delay

Martin Luther preaching Attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger  (1515–1586)

Second, ministers of the Word must earnestly exhort their hearers to commit themselves to Christ and that without delay. In so doing they will be faithful imitators of Christ and his Apostles, who “warned, admonished, and entreated” sinners to repent, to believe, and to be reconciled to God. Many High-Calvinist ministers of Fuller’s day, though, were too much like John Eve and had next to nothing to say to the unconverted in their congregations, because they believed that these men and women were “poor, impotent…creatures.” Faith was beyond such men and women, and could not be pressed upon them as an immediate, present duty. Fuller was convinced that this way of conducting a pulpit ministry was unbiblical and simply helped the unconverted to remain in their sin. Fuller put his position well in an article of the statement of faith he made at his induction into the Kettering pastorate in 1783: “I believe it is the duty of every minister of Christ plainly and faithfully to preach the gospel to all who will hear it; …and that it is their [i.e. the hearers’] duty to love the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him for salvation… I therefore believe free and solemn addresses, invitations, calls, and warnings to them to be not only consistent, but directly adapted, as means, in the hand of the Spirit of God, to bring them to Christ. I consider it as a part of my duty which I could not omit without being guilty of the blood of souls.”


Source: Haykin, Michael A.G. "LECTURES 7–8: “FULLERISM” & THE CASE AGAINST HIGH CALVINISM." Pages 6-14.

Romanian Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001) warns children at his church that they must be ready for suffering and endures 14 years of imprisonment and torture.

Preparing for Suffering -- Now!

Richard Wurmbrand endured fourteen years of imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania between 1948 and 1964. He had been leading a secret underground ministry when the Communists seized Romania and tried to control the church for their purposes. Wurmbrand, like the apostle Peter, stressed the tremendous need to get spiritually ready to suffer.

Richard Wurmbrand in prison during the 1950s.

"What shall we do about these tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I do not bear them I put in prison another fifty or sixty men whom I know, because that is what the Communists wish from me, to betray those around me. And here comes the great need for the role of preparation for suffering which must start now. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for it when the Communists have you in prison.

Your forefathers in faith were thrown before such wild beasts for their faith

“The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1883

I remember my last Confirmation class before I left Romania. I took a group of ten to fifteen boys and girls on a Sunday morning, not to a church, but to the zoo. Before the cage of lions I told them, "Your forefathers in faith were thrown before such wild beasts for their faith. Know that you also will have to suffer. You will not be thrown before lions, but you will have to do with men who would be much worse than lions. Decide here and now if you wish to pledge allegiance to Christ." They had tears in their eyes when they said yes.

Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand

Richard Wurmbrand, circa 1948.

We have to make the preparation now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nice carpets, or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand."

Source: Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003, page 101.  

Christianity is the secret to happiness, argues Andrew Fuller (1754-1815).

Does happiness lie in having one's inclinations gratified or in self-denial or in peace of mind?

Mr. Hume, in one of his Essays, very properly called The Sceptic, seems to think that happiness lies in having one's inclinations gratified; and as different men have different inclinations, and even the same men at different times, that may be happiness in one case which is misery in another. This sceptical writer, however, would hardly deny that in happiness, as in other things, there is a false and a true, an imaginary and a real; or that a studied indulgence of the appetites and passions, though it should promote the one, would destroy the other. The light of nature, as acknowledged even by deists, teaches that self-denial, in many cases, is necessary to self-preservation; and that to act a contrary part would be to ruin our peace and destroy our health. I presume it will be granted that no definition of happiness can be complete which includes not peace of mind, which admits not of perpetuity, or which meets not the necessities and miseries of human life.

Could a life of unchastity, intrigue, dishonour, and disappointed pride be a happy life?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.

But if nothing deserves the name of happiness which does not include peace of mind, all criminal pleasure is at once excluded. Could a life of unchastity, intrigue, dishonour, and disappointed pride, like that of Rousseau, be a happy life? No; amidst the brilliancy of his talents, remorse, shame, conscious meanness, and the dread of an hereafter, must corrode his heart, and render him a stranger to peace. Contrast with the life of this man that of Howard. Pious, temperate, just, and benevolent, he lived for the good of mankind. His happiness consisted in "serving his generation by the will of God." If all men were like Rousseau, the world would be abundantly more miserable than it is; if all were like Howard, it would be abundantly more happy. Rousseau, governed by the love of fame, is fretful and peevish, and never satisfied with the treatment he receives: Howard, governed by the love of mercy, shrinks from applause, with this modest and just reflection, "Alas! our best performances have such a mixture of sin and folly, that praise is vanity, and presumption, and pain to a thinking mind." Rousseau, after a life of debauchery and shame, confesses it to the world, and makes a merit of his confession, and even presumptuously supposes that it will avail him before the Judge of all: Howard, after a life of singular devotedness to God, and benevolence to men, accounted himself an unprofitable servant, leaving this for his motto, his last testimony, "Christ is my hope." Can there be any doubt which of the two was the happier man?

All natural pleasure, when weighed against the hopes and joys of the gospel, will be found wanting. Who but Christians can contemplate the loss of all present enjoyments with satisfaction? Who else can view death, judgment, and eternity with desire?



A flower, a skull and an hourglass stand for life, death and time in this 17th-century painting by Philippe de Champaigne

Further, If nothing amounts to real happiness which admits not of perpetuity, all natural pleasure, when weighed against the hopes and joys of the gospel, will be found wanting. It is an expressive characteristic of the good things of this life, that "they all perish with the using." The charms of youth and beauty quickly fade. The power of relishing natural enjoyments is soon gone. The pleasures of active life, of building, planting, forming schemes, and achieving enterprises, soon follow. In old age none of them will flourish, and in death they are exterminated. "The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator," all descend in one undistinguished mass into oblivion. And as this is a truth which no man can dispute, those who have no prospects of a higher nature must often feel themselves unhappy. Contrast with this the joys of the gospel. These, instead of being diminished by time, are often increased. To them the son of age is friendly. While nature has been fading and perishing by slow degrees, how often have we seen faith, hope, love, patience, and resignation to God in full bloom! Who but Christians can contemplate the loss of all present enjoyments with satisfaction? Who else can view death, judgment, and eternity with desire? I appeal to the hearts of libertines and unbelievers, whether they have not many misgivings and revoltings within them; and whether, in the hour of solitary reflection, they have not sighed the wish of Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"

The dreadful vacancy and wretchedness of a mind left to itself in the decline of life

Romans during the Decadence, by Thomas Couture

The following extract from a letter of a late nobleman, of loose principles, well known in the gay world, and published as authentic by a respectable prelate, deceased, will show the dreadful vacancy and wretchedness of a mind left to itself in the decline of life, and unsupported by Christian principle.- "I have seen the silly round of business and pleasure, and have done with it all. I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss. I appraise them at their real value, which in truth is very low; whereas those who have not experienced always overrate them. They only see their gay outside, and are dazzled with their glare; but I have been behind the scenes. I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which exhibit and move the gaudy machine; and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decoration, to the astonishment and admiration of the ignorant audience. When I reflect on what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done, I cannot persuade myself that all that frivolous hurry of bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality; but I look on all that is past as one of those romantic dreams which opium commonly occasions, and I do by no means wish to repeat the nauseous close for the sake of the fugitive dream. Shall I tell you that I bear this melancholy situation with that meritorious constancy and resignation that most men boast? No, sir, I really cannot help it. I bear it because I must bear it, whether I will or no. I think of nothing but killing time the best way I can, now that time is become my enemy. It is my resolution to sleep in the carriage during the remainder of the journey."

Differing death bed confessions

Voltaire's tomb in the Paris Panthéon

"You see," reflects the worthy prelate, "in how poor, abject, and unpitied a condition, at a time when he most wanted help and comfort, the world left him, and he left the world. Compare these words with those of another person, who took his leave in a very different manner: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also who love his appearing." It is observable that even Rousseau himself, though the language certainly did not become his lips, affected in advanced life to derive consolation from Christian principles. In a letter to Voltaire he says, "I cannot help remarking, sir, a very singular contrast between you and me. Sated with glory, and undeceived with the inanity of worldly grandeur, you live at freedom, in the midst of plenty, certain of immortality; you peaceably philosophize on the nature of the soul; and if the body or the heart be indisposed, you have Tronchin for your physician and friend. Yet with all this you find nothing but evil on the face of the earth. I, on the other hand, obscure, indigent, tormented with an incurable disorder, meditate with pleasure in my solitude, and find every thing to be good. Whence arise these apparent contradictions? You have yourself explained them. You live in a state of enjoyment, I in a state of hope; and hope gives charms to every thing."

Happiness should meet necessities and relieve the miseries of human life

Tragic Comic Masks Hadrian's Villa mosaic

Finally, If nothing deserves the name of happiness which meets not the necessities nor relieves the miseries of human life, Christianity alone can claim it. Every one who looks into his own heart, and makes proper observations on the dispositions of others, will perceive that man is possessed of a desire after something which is not to be found under the sun - after a good which has no limits. We may imagine our desires are moderate, and set boundaries, beyond which we may flatter ourselves we should never wish to pass; but this is self-deception. He that sets his heart on an estate, if he gain it, will wish for something more. It would be the same if it were a kingdom, or even if all the kingdoms of the world were united in one. Nor is this desire to be attributed merely to human depravity, for it is the same with regard to knowledge the mind is never satisfied with its present acquisitions. It is depravity that directs us to seek satisfaction in something short of God; but it is owing to the nature of the soul that we are never able to find it. It is not possible that a being created immortal, and with a mind capable of continual enlargement, should obtain satisfaction in a limited good. Men may spend their time and strength, and even sacrifice their souls, in striving to grasp it, but it will elude their pursuit. It is only from an uncreated source that the mind can drink its fill. Here it is that the gospel meets our necessities. Its language is, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." "He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." How this language has been verified, all who have made the trial can testify. To them, as to the only competent witnesses, I appeal.

What must I do to be saved?

It is not merely the nature of the soul however, but its depravity, whence our necessities arise. We are sinners. Every man who believes there is a God, and a future state, or even only admits the possibility of them, feels the want of mercy. The first inquiries of a mind awakened to reflection will be how he may escape the wrath to come - how he shall get over his everlasting ruin. A heathen, previously to any Christian instruction, exclaimed, in the moment of alarm, "What must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30. And several Mahometans, being lately warned by a Christian minister of their sinful state, came the next morning to him with this very serious question - Keman par hoibo? - "How shall we get over?" To answer these inquiries is beyond the power of any principles but those of the gospel. Philosophy may conjecture, superstition may deceive, and even a false system of Christianity may be aiding and abetting; each may labour to lull the conscience to sleep, but none of them can yield it satisfaction. It is only by believing in Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice that taketh away the sin of the world, that the sinner obtains a relief which will bear reflection - a relief which, at the same time, gives peace to the mind and purity to the heart. For the truth of this also I appeal to all who have made the trial.

Consider Jesus who endured persecution and reproach and death itself to cheer your heart and tolerate your afflictions and run with patience the race which is set before you

Pietro Perugino's depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482

Where, but in the gospel, will you find relief under the innumerable ills of the present state? This is the well-known refuge of Christians. Are they poor, afflicted, persecuted, or reproached? They are led to consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners, who lived a life of poverty and ignominy, who endured persecution and reproach, and death itself, for them; and to realize a blessed immortality in prospect. By a view of such things their hearts are cheered, and their afflictions become tolerable. Looking to Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God, they run with patience the race which is set before them. - But what is the comfort of unbelievers? Life being short, and having no ground to hope for any thing beyond it, if they be crossed here, they become inconsolable. Hence it is not uncommon for persons of this description, after the example of the philosophers and statesmen of Greece and Rome, when they find themselves depressed by adversity, and have no prospect of recovering their fortunes, to put a period to their lives! Unhappy men! Is this the felicity to which ye would introduce us! Is it in guilt, shame, remorse, and desperation that ye descry such charms! Admitting that our hope of immortality is visionary, where is the injury? If it be a dream, is it not a pleasant one? To say the least, it beguiles many a melancholy hour, and can do no mischief; but if it be a reality, what will become of you?

Reason may convince us of the being of a God, and conscience bear witness that we are exposed to his displeasure -- we shall of course either rest in some delusive hope, or sink into despair

Marie Bashkirtseff's Despair

I may be told that, if many put a period to their lives through unbelief, there is an equal number who fall sacrifices to religious melancholy. But, to render this objection of force, it should be proved that the religion of Jesus Christ is the cause of this melancholy. Reason may convince us of the being of a God, and conscience bear witness that we are exposed to his displeasure. Now if in this state of mind the heart refuse to acquiesce in the gospel way of salvation, we shall of course either rest in some delusive hope, or sink into despair. But here it is not religion, but the want of it, that produces the evil; it is unbelief, and not faith, that sinks the sinner into despondency. Christianity disowns such characters. It records some few examples, such as Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas; but they are all branded as apostates from God and true religion. On the contrary, the writings of unbelievers, both ancient and modern, are known to plead for suicide, as an expedient in extremity. Rousseau, Hume, and others have written in defense of it. The principles of such men both produce and require it. It is the natural offspring of unbelief, and the last resort of disappointed pride.

The poor are either Christians unaccompanied with discontent or non-Christians inclined to despair and wretchedness of mind

St. Francis of Assisi renounces his worldly goods in a painting attributed to Giotto di Bondone.

Whether Christianity or the want of it be best adapted to relieve the heart, under its various pressures, let those testify who have been in the habit of visiting the afflicted poor. On this subject the writer of these sheets can speak from his own knowledge. In this situation characters of very opposite descriptions are found. Some are serious and sincere Christians; others, even among those who have attended the preaching of the gospel, appear neither to understand nor to feel it. The tale of woe is told perhaps by both; but the one is unaccompanied with that discontent, that wretchedness of mind, and that inclination to despair, which is manifest in the other. Often have I seen the cheerful smile of contentment under circumstances the most abject and afflictive. Amidst tears of sorrow, which a full heart has rendered it impossible to suppress, a mixture of hope and joy has glistened. "The cup which my Father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink it?" Such have been their feelings, and such their expressions; and where this has been the case, death has generally been embraced as the messenger of peace. Here, I have said, participating of their sensations, - "here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. - Who is he that overcometh the world, but be that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Source: Fuller, Andrew. The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller with a Memoir of His Life by Andrew Gunton Fuller. London, UK: G. And J. Dyer, Paternoster Row, 1846, pages 24-26.

English missionary Henry Martyn (1781-1812) goes to India, is rejected by his girlfriend, and dies among strangers in Turkey

Christian herald and signs of our times (1886)

Henry Martyn Submits to God

Henry Martyn (1781 – 1812) was an Anglican priest and missionary to the peoples of India and Persia.

Martyn was born in England on February 18, 1781.  His father was well-to-do and sent his son to a fine grammar school, as they called them in those days, and then to Cambridge in 1791, when he was sixteen.  Four years later Martyn took highest honors in mathematics, and the year after that first prize in Latin prose composition.

David Brainerd (1718 – 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans who had a particularly fruitful ministry among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey.

He had turned his back on God as a youth, but during these days of academic achievement he became disillusioned with his dream. “I obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to find that I had grasped only a shadow.” The treasure of the world rusted in his hands. The death of his father, the prayers of his sister, the counsel of a godly minister and the Life and Diary of David Brainerd brought him to his knees in submission to God. And in 1802, at the age of 21, he resolved to forsake a life of academic prestige and become a missionary.

Fort William, Calcutta, 1735

He became the assistant of Charles Simeon, the great evangelical preacher at Trinity Church in Cambridge, until his departure to India on July 17, 1805. His ministry was to be a chaplain with the East India Company. He arrived in Calcutta May 16, 1806 and the first day ashore found William Carey.

William Carey (17 August 1761 – 9 June 1834) was a British Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree awarding University in India.

Martyn was an evangelical Anglican; Carey was a Baptist. And there was some tension over the use of liturgy. But Carey wrote that year, “A young clergyman, Mr. Martyn, is lately arrived, who is possessed of a truly missionary spirit…We take sweet counsel together, and go to the house of God as friends.”

Cranmer's 1549 Book of Common Prayer

Alongside his chaplain’s duties Martyn’s main work became translation. Within two years, by March, 1808, he had translated part of the Book of Common Prayer, a commentary on the parables, and the entire New Testament into Hindostanee. He was then assigned to supervise the Persian version of the New Testament. It was not so well received as the other, and his health gave way in the process. So he decided to return to England for recovery, but to go by land through Persia in the hope of revising his translation on the way.


 Joseph Pitton de Tournefort. Relation d’un Voyage du Levant, fait par ordre du Roy (1717).

He became so sick with tuberculosis that he could barely press on. He died among strangers in the city of Tocat in Asiatic Turkey, October 16, 1812. He was 31 years old.

In 1887, the Henry Martyn Trust completed the Henry Martyn Hall on Market Street in Cambridge next door to Holy Trinity Church, as a meeting place to encourage others in the university to be involved in the church overseas

What you can’t see in this overview of Martyn’s life is the inner fights and plunges of spirit that make his achievement so real and so helpful to real people. I’m persuaded that the reason David Brainerd’s Life and Diary and Henry Martyn’s Journal and Letters have had such an abiding and deep power for the cause of missions is that they portray the life of the missionary (which we all look up to) as a life of constant warfare in the soul, not a life of uninterrupted calm.

St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica, Chennai

Listen to him on the boat on the way to India: I found it hard (NOTE the word “hard”—our text is a relevant missionary text!) to realize divine things. I was more tired with desires after the world, than for two years past…The sea-sickness, and the smell of the ship, made me feel very miserable, and the prospect of leaving all the comforts and communion of saints in England, to go forth to an unknown land, to endure such illness and misery with ungodly men for so many months, weighed heavy on my spirits. My heart was almost ready to break. (Journal and Letters, p. 212)

Fact and Fiction: the 19th Century love affair between Henry Martyn, a chaplain of the East India Company, and his 'beloved Persis' in Cornwall, Lydia Grenfell, based on their letters and diaries.

On top of this there is a love story to tell. Martyn loved Lydia Grenfell. He didn’t feel right taking her along to India at first without going before her and proving his own reliance on God alone. But two months after he arrived in India on July 30, 1806 he wrote and proposed and asked her to come.


He waited 15 months for the reply. His journal entry on October 24, 1807 reads:


An unhappy day; received at last a letter from Lydia, in which she refuses to come, because her mother will not consent to it. Grief and disappointment threw my soul into confusion at first; but gradually, as my disorder subsided, my eyes were opened, and reason resumed its office. I could not but agree with her, that it would not be for the glory of God, nor could we expect his blessing, if she acted in disobedience to her mother. (p. 395)

 Lydia Grenfell is best remembered as the reluctant paramour of Cornish missionary, Henry Martyn, and for her diary.

He took up his pen and wrote that same day:


My dear Lydia, Though my heart is bursting with grief and disappointment, I write not to blame you. The rectitude of all your conduct secures you from censure…Alas my rebellious heart—what a tempest agitates me! I knew not that I had made so little progress in a spirit of resignation to the Divine will. (p. 395f).


For five years he held out hope that things might change. A steady stream of letters covered the thousands of miles between India and England. “My dear Lydia” became “My dearest Lydia.” The last known letter written two months before his death (August 28, 1812) was addressed to her. It closed:


Soon we shall have occasion for pen and ink no more; but I trust I shall shortly see thee face to face. Love to all the saints. Believe me to be yours ever, most faithfully and affectionately, H. Martyn (p. 466).

TOMB OF HENRY MARTYN (Henry Martyn Saint and Scholar, by George Smith)

Martyn never saw her again on this earth.  But dying was not what he feared most, nor seeing Lydia what he desired most.  His passion was to make known the supremacy of Christ in all life.  Near the very end he wrote, "Whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me!  If he has work for me to do, I cannot die." Christ's work for Martyn was done.  And he had done it well. His looses and pain made the supremacy of God in his life powerful for all time.

Source: Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003, pages 93-96.