Evil Andrew Fuller

There are times in the history of the church where God has been pleased to bind together a band of saints whom he particularly uses to accomplish mighty things for the kingdom. Many of these ‘bands’ may come to your mind just now. The late 18th and early 19th century was possessor of one of the mightiest collections of men who gave their all for Christ and were blessed by God. Not because of anything in themselves were their labours blessed, but because God wanted to magnify his grace and power in the weakness and sinfulness of these men.

This group is, of course, composed of William Carey, Andrew Fuller, John Ryland, Samuel Pearce, and John Sutcliffe among others. The unfathomable reach of the Baptist Missionary Society in its earliest years displayed the power of God and his word. While Carey, Marshman, and Ward were toiling in India, Fuller was ‘ropeholding’ in Britain. Much of his role, somewhat reluctantly, was to be the theologian and apologist for the BMS and a revival among the particular Baptist churches. It seems Fuller is now receiving the attention he deserves as much is being written on him and a critical edition of his works is upcoming.



If one were to sit down and read the journal entries found in Ryland’s account of Fuller’s Life and Death, he would be struck by the repeated and strong despising of Andrew Fuller by himself. Fuller’s sense of his sin and depravity was great. The reader almost finds himself saying “Take it easy on yourself, it can’t be that bad. Look at all that you have done and are doing.” Yet, maybe it was precisely because Fuller refused to be soft on himself and his sin that he was the choice instrument the Lord used so significantly. When considering God’s preservation of his people and the completion of his commenced work in them, it was the fact that Fuller himself would be kept and would one day see conformity to Christ that amazed him.

“How great a matter is Christian perseverance, to hold out to the end and be saved! I have sometimes wondered at the grace in that astonishing gradation, Jude 24. What “Him” must that be that is able to keep me from falling—and to present me—to present me faultless—faultless before the presence of his glory—and that with joy—yea, with exceeding joy!”

“Aug. 16, 1781.—In reading Dr. Owen, to-day, the end of predestination seemed sweet to me; namely, conformity to the image of God’s dear Son.”

It wasn’t the backslider in his congregation that put him in awe of the mighty work of God to save and sanctify someone, but himself who experienced God’s saving and sanctifying that put him in wonder of the sovereign unbreakable work of his Saviour. May our wonder and awe be renewed this day that God would keep me from falling. It is in this place that God will find men and women who are ready to be used by him.