![](\"\/missiology\/files\/2013\/04\/fuller-g3-228x300.jpg\" "\\"fuller-g\\"")
<\/a>Fuller was born in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, where in 1775 he was ordained pastor of the Baptist church. Originally schooled in the hyper-Calvinist theology then prevalent in parts of the Particular Baptist denomination, he became convinced in 1775 that the hyper-Calvinist position was not scriptural. In 1785 he published The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation<\/em>, which did much to prepare his denomination for accepting this missionary obligation. As pastor in Kettering, Northamptonshire, from 1783, Fuller became firm friends with John Sutcliff of Olney, John Ryland of Northampton, and later the young William Carey<\/a>. The strengthening missionary vision of this group bore fruit on October 2, 1792, when the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen (later known as the Baptist Missionary Society) was formed in the home of one of Fuller\u2019s deacons in Kettering. Fuller was appointed secretary. Until his death he combined the demands of a busy pastorate with managing the affairs of the BMS. He traveled extensively to raise funds for the society, especially in Scotland, which he visited five times.<\/p>\nBrian Stanley, \u201cFuller, Andrew,\u201d in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions<\/em>, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 230-231.<\/p>\n This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions<\/em>, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright \u00a9 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n Though not university trained, Andrew Fuller was recognized by his contemporaries as the preeminent Baptist theologian of their day and was awarded honorary doctor of divinity degrees by both Princeton (1798) and Yale (1805). Fuller\u2019s published works, preaching ministry and churchmanship was, perhaps, the primary mediating agency between the transatlantic evangelical revival and the English Particular (or \u201cCalvinist\u201d) Baptists who had distanced themselves from what was largely at the start an Anglican renewal movement. Fuller was also well known as a co-founder of the Baptist Missionary Society (or, the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen<\/em> [est. 1792]), on whose behalf he itinerated regularly in the British Isles, lobbied the East India Company, and wrote numerous letters and magazine articles during his twenty-two year tenure as its first general secretary. He was an opponent of the British slave trade and, though a dissenting non-Anglican, an acquaintance of William Wilberforce and other members of the Clapham sect, who were key allies in Parliament. He was a pastors\u2019 pastor who exerted no small influence for evangelical doctrine and a missionary vision through the many ordination sermons he preached. From 1782 until his death in 1815 he served as pastor of the Kettering Baptist Church and was frequent chairman of the Northamptonshire Association, a consortium which included the likes of William Carey, Samuel Pearce, John Sutcliffe, and John Ryland, Jr.<\/p>\n Fuller was born in 1754 at Wicken, Cambridgeshire, to non-conformist parents who worked a dairy farm. In 1775, six years after his own conversion experience, he was inducted as pastor of the forty-seven member church in Soham, where he had received his baptism and was a member. In 1776 he married his first wife, Sarah Gardiner, with whom he had eleven children, only three surviving beyond early childhood. Sarah would die in 1792, less than two months before the founding of the British Missionary Society (BMS). During this seven year pastorate, Fuller immersed himself in the literary culture of Anglo-American evangelical Calvinism. He cultivated his theological perspective and ministry philosophy by ardently studying the Scriptures alongside the works of the Reformers, seventeenth-century Puritans (especially John Owen), early English Baptists like John Bunyan and John Gill, as well as the writings of American Congregationalist philosopher-theologian and pastor, Jonathan Edwards<\/a>. Fuller also acknowledged in his most popular book, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation<\/em> (1781), the influence of the lives of John Eliot<\/a> and David Brainerd<\/a>, both late missionaries to the native Americans. The Gospel Worthy<\/em> was Fuller\u2019s remonstration against the hyper-Calvinism that negated the propriety of evangelistic appeals. By the 1790s, evangelical (or \u201cstrict\u201d) Calvinism was known in England as \u201cFullerism\u201d (vs. \u201cHigh\u201d or hyper-Calvinism). The Gospel its Own Witness<\/em> (1800) was Fuller\u2019s refutation of Deism. Fuller gained a reputation by these two books, especially, for publically, clearly and systematically opposing in print whatever widely held doctrines he believed were undermining the church and its mission.<\/p>\n In the Northamptonshire Assocation Fuller was a member of a thriving intellectual community most influenced by Edwards. In 1784 John Sutcliff initiated a \u201cconcerts of prayer\u201d movement similar to the program suggested by Edwards in An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God\u2019s People in Extraordinary Prayer<\/em> (1748). Baptist congregations prayed monthly for the spread of the gospel and the kingdom of Christ to the ends of the earth through all denominations. In 1791, Sutcliff, Fuller and Samuel Pearce each preached at significant events (Sutcliff and Fuller at the association meeting of pastors, Pearce at William Carey\u2019s ordination) on the duty of the church to evangelize the whole inhabitable globe. Fuller based his appeal on the eternal truth of the gospel, the eternal relevance of the gospel, the eternal power of the gospel, and the circumstances of the age that made missionary endeavors possible and obligatory.(1) Carey\u2019s much touted association sermon from Isaiah 54:2-3 in May of 1792 did not arise in a vacuum. The influence was mutual between Carey and Fuller, both being influenced by Robert Hall, Sr. and Samuel Pearce (who had been inspired by the Methodist Thomas Coke<\/a> in Birmingham).<\/p>\n On October 2, 1792, the BMS was formed with Fuller its first secretary and the assumption that its support would come largely from the churches of the Northamptonshire Association. When the society sent Carey and John Thomas to India the following year, Fuller preached their commissioning service from John 20:21 (\u201cAs the Father has sent me, even so I [Christ] am sending you.\u201d). Fuller believed the mission\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em> was the uniqueness of Christ and Christian responsibility to proclaim him. Bible translation and evangelism should take priority. Hindus were not desiring or seeking the Christian Scriptures. But to ignore and neglect anyone in an unconverted state is inconsistent with the love of God and man. In addition, God had promised the messiah the inheritance of the nations (An Apology for the Late Christian Missions to India<\/em>, 1808). The church is obligated to employ means and make an effort as the means God uses<\/em> to fulfill that promise to Christ. Obstacles are merely a test to sincerity of faith.<\/p>\n Fuller spent up to ten hours per day in correspondence and reporting for the BMS. He contributed articles to Evangelical Magazine, Missionary Magazine, Quarterly Magazine, Protestant Dissenters\u2019 Magazine, Biblical Magazine, <\/em>and Theological Miscellany<\/em>. He sought financial support via letters and by an average of three months of vigorous itineration each year among various evangelical churches in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. John Ryland, Jr. wrote of Fuller\u2019s style, that he, \u201c\u2026always disliked violent pressing for contributions, and attempting to outvie other societies: he chose rather to tell a plain, unvarnished tale; and he generally told it with good effect.\u201d(2) Through written correspondence he \u201cpastored\u201d the missionaries in the field while maintaining a decentralized approach to mission administration. He believed the missionaries were more capable of governing themselves and that the time required for correspondence made central control impractical anyway.<\/p>\n The security of the unlicensed<\/em> Baptist missionary society\u2019s place in the British Empire was frequently tenuous up to 1813. Fuller occasionally had to petition Parliament or the Board of Control for continued tolerance of the BMS. Muslim irritation at the Christian missionary presence and the conversion of some Indians from Islam had been blamed for the Vellore Mutiny of 1806. Thomas Twining had openly claimed efforts at conversion were contradictory to \u201cthe mild and tolerant spirit of Christianity.\u201d Fuller responded to Twining and other English defenders of Hinduism with his three-part Apology for the Late Christian Missions to India<\/em> (1808) in which he argued for a toleration of religion that allows all religious views as well as efforts to persuade through reasonable means. He attributed several social ills, like ritual infanticide and sati<\/em>, to Hinduism, and commended the missionaries for trying to put an end to such practices. Fuller was also a critic of the \u201cdetestable traffic\u201d of the African slave trade, asserting it made England deserving of ruin at the hands of the French (from whose invasion he urged prayer that God would mercifully protect England). The prosperity of the empire should not come at the expense of other human beings. Patriotism must \u201charmonize\u201d with \u201cgood will toward [other] men.\u201d(3) On the other hand, Fuller often counseled BMS missionaries not to become \u201centangled\u201d in political concerns which were \u201conly affairs of this life\u201d and endangered colonial toleration of the mission.(4) Because Jesus accomplished \u201cmoral revolution\u201d in the heart, loyalty to the British government, rather than republicanism, should be encouraged as far as it is compatible with Christian commitments.(5)<\/p>\n Fuller, the pastor of families in England and abroad, counseled missionary families to nurture a deep spirituality for the sake of attaining the character commensurate with the nature of the gospel and their mission. Fuller knew the vicissitudes of even the Christian heart, and the \u201cspiritual advantage\u201d of engaging in mission. Reflecting in his diary on July 18, 1794, he wrote:<\/p>\n Within the last year or two, we have formed a missionary society; and have been enabled to send out two of our brethren to the East Indies. My heart has been greatly interested in this work. Surely I never felt more genuine love to God and to his cause in my life. I bless God that his work has been a means of reviving my soul. If nothing comes of it, I and many others have obtained a spiritual advantage.(6)<\/p>\n Fuller died in 1815. The epitaph stone for Fuller in the Kettering meeting house says he devoted his life for the prosperity of the BMS.(7) One biographer has said Fuller \u201clived and died a martyr to the mission.\u201d(8) After December, 1794, he was assisted in life by his second wife, Ann Coles. Fuller also spent himself itinerating for the British and Foreign Bible Society after it was founded in 1804. His many occasional writings and sermon manuscripts reveal a love for the gospel message itself and the life-orienting impact of Bible texts such as Matthew 28:16-20 and Mark 16:15-16; John 12:36 and 20:21; and Romans 10:9, 14-17. Fuller is noted today for making a significant contribution to the revitalization of Particular (Calvinist) Baptist life in late eighteenth century England as well as for being a key figure in the historic turn toward a proliferation of free Protestant missionary societies at the beginning of the Great Century.<\/p>\n (1) \u201cInstances, Evil and Tendency of Delay in the Concerns of Religion,\u201d 27 April 1791.<\/p>\n (2) The Works of Faith, the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, illustrated; in the Life and Death of the Reverend Andrew Fuller<\/em> [1816], 343.<\/p>\n (3) \u201cChristian Patriotism,\u201d a sermon of 27 March 1802.<\/p>\n (4) Letter to John Fountain in India, 25 March 1796, [alluding to 2 Tim 2:3-4].<\/p>\n (5) Letter to Carey in India, 18 January, 1797.<\/p>\n (6) Peter Morden, Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller [1754-1815] and the Revival of Eighteenth Century Particular Baptist Life<\/em>, 167.<\/p>\n (7) \u201cEpitaph on the Late Rev. Andrew Fuller,\u201d in The Baptist Magazine<\/em> for 1817. Vol. IX, p. 160. London: J. Barfield, 1817.<\/p>\n (8) J.W. Morris, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller<\/em> [1826, 2nd<\/sup> edn.], 49.<\/p>\n by Travis Myers<\/p>\n Fuller, Andrew. <\/em>The Gospel of Christ Worthy of All Acceptation: or, The Duty of Sinners to Believe in Jesus Christ<\/em><\/a>. Boston: American Doctrinal Tract Society, 1837.<\/p>\n _____. <\/em>The Gospel its Own Witness: Or, the Divine Harmony of the Christian Religion, Contrasted with the Immorality and Absurdity of Deism<\/em><\/a><\/em>. New Haven: William M. Morse, 1801.<\/p>\n _____. <\/em>Memoirs of the Late Rev. Samuel Pearce, A.M. Minister of the Gospel in Birmingham;<\/em> With Extracts from Some of His Most Interesting Letters<\/em>. <\/a>Fifth American edition. Boston: Lincoln & Edmands, 1828.<\/p>\n _____. Memoirs of Rev. Samuel Pearce, A.M., Who was United with Carey and Others in Establishing Missions in India, 1793\u2026with additions from his correspondence with Dr. Carey, &c. by his son, Rev. W.H. Pearce, missionary at Calcutta<\/em><\/a>. New York: American Tract Society, 1830.<\/p>\n Fuller, Andrew Gunton. <\/em>Andrew Fuller<\/em>.<\/a> London: Houghton and Stoddard, 1882.<\/p>\n Morris, J. W. <\/em>Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, Late Pastor of the Baptist Church at Kettering, and First Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society<\/em>, First American, from the last London edition, ed. Rufus Babcock<\/a>. Boston: Lincoln and Edmonds, 1830.<\/p>\n Ryland, John Jr., <\/em>The Work of Faith, the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, illustrated; In the Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, Late Pastor of the Baptist Church at Kettering, and Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society, From its Commencement, in 1792<\/em><\/a><\/em>. Charlestown, MA: Samuel Etheridge, 1818.<\/p>\n Fuller, Andrew. The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, With a Memoir of his Life<\/em> by the Rev. Andrew Gunton Fuller. 3 vol. Ed. Joseph Belcher. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1845. Reprint Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988.<\/p>\n _____. Apology for the Late Christian Missions to India: comprising an address to the chairman of the East India Company, in answer to Mr. Twining, and strictures on the preface of a pamphlet by Major Scott Waring<\/em>. London: Button and Son, 1808. Also in The Complete Works. Ed. J. Belcher, vol. II: 763-836.<\/p>\n _____. Periodical Accounts Relative to the Baptist Missionary Society<\/em>. 5 vols. London: J. Morris, 1800-1815.<\/p>\n _____. The last remains of the Rev. Andrew Fuller: sermons, essays, letters, and other miscellaneous papers, not included in his published works<\/em>. Microform. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1856.<\/p>\n _____. The Armies of the Lamb: The spirituality of Andrew Fuller<\/em>. Select letters of Fuller. Ed. Michael A.G. Haykin. Dundas, Ont.: Joshua Press, Inc., 2001.<\/p>\n Aleaz, K. P. and Dhirendra K. Sahu. “Mission and Vision: Bicentennial of William Carey’s Arrival in India, 1793-1993.” Indian Journal of Theology<\/em> 35 (1994): 1-74.<\/p>\n Amey, Basil. The Unfinished Story<\/em>. n.p.: n.p., 1991.<\/p>\n Ascol, Thomas Kennedy. \u201cThe Doctrine of Grace: A Critical Analysis of Federalism in the Theologies of John Gill and Andrew Fuller.\u201d Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989.<\/p>\n Belcher, Joseph. William Carey: A Biography<\/em>. Philadelphia: n.p., 1853.<\/p>\n Brackney, William H. \u201cFuller, Andrew (1754-1815).\u201d In Historical Dictionary of the Baptists<\/em>. Ed. William H. Brackney, 171. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cThe Baptist Missionary Society in Proper Context: Some Reflections on the Larger Voluntary Religious Tradition.\u201d In Baptist Quarterly<\/em> 34.8 (October, 1992):<\/p>\n Brown, Raymond. The English Baptists of the Eighteenth Century<\/em>. London: Baptist Historical Society, 1986.<\/p>\n Carey, Eustace. Memoir of William Carey<\/em>. Hartford: Robins and Smith, 1844.<\/p>\n Carey, S.P. William Carey, D.D.<\/em> London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923.<\/p>\n Clipsham, E.F. \u201cAndrew Fuller and Fullerism: a study in Evangelical Calvinism.\u201d In Baptist Quarterly<\/em> 20 (1963-4): 99-114, 146-54, 214-25, 268-76.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cAndrew Fuller and the Baptist Mission.\u201d In Foundations<\/em> 10.1 (Jan 1967): 4-18.<\/p>\n Cox, F. A. History of the Baptist Missionary Society from 1792 to 1842<\/em>. 2 vols. London: T. Ward and Co., 1842.<\/p>\n Davis, R.E. \u201cThe Great Commission from Christ to Carey.\u201d In Evangel<\/em> 14.2 (Summer, 1996): 44-49.<\/p>\n Ella, George M. Law and Gospel in the theology of Andrew Fuller<\/em>. Durham: Go Publications, 1996.<\/p>\n Elwyn, T.S.H. The Northamptonshire Baptist Association<\/em>. London: n.p., 1964.<\/p>\n _____. The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: With a Memoir of His Life<\/em>. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1882 [orgin. edn. 1841]. Reprinted. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007.<\/p>\n George, Timothy. Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey<\/em>. Birmingham: New Hope, 1991.<\/p>\n Greenall, R.L. ed. The Kettering Connection: Northamptonshire Baptists and Overseas Missions<\/em>. Leicester: Department of Adult Education, University of Leicester, 1993<\/p>\n Hayden, R. \u201cEvangelical Calvinism Among Eighteenth Century Particular Baptists with Particular Reference to Bernard Foskett, Hugh and Caleb Evans and the Bristol Baptist Academy 1690-1791.\u201d Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Keele University, 1991.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cKettering 1792 and Philadelphia 1814.\u201d Baptist Quarterly<\/em> 21 (1965-6): 3-20, 64-72.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cThe Life and Influence of Andrew Fuller.\u201d In The Kettering Connection: Northamptonshire Baptists and Overseas Missions<\/em>. Ed. R.L. Greenall. Leicester: Department of Adult Education, University of Leicester, 1993<\/p>\n Haykin, Michael A.G. ed. \u201cAt the Pure Fountain of Thy Word\u201d: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist<\/em>. Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2004.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cFuller, Andrew (1754-1815).\u201d In Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals<\/em>. Eds. Timothy Larsen, David Bebbington, Mark A. Noll, 241-244. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cIntroduction and Chronology.\u201d In The Armies of the Lamb: The spirituality of Andrew Fuller<\/em>. Ed. Michael A.G. Haykin, 23-53. Dundas, Ont.: Joshua Press, Inc., 2001.<\/p>\n _____. One heart and one soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, his friends and his times<\/em>. Durham: Evangelical Press, 1994.<\/p>\n _____. \u201c\u2018The Oracles of God\u2019: Andrew Fuller and the Scriptures.\u201d Churchman<\/em> 103 (1989): 60-76.<\/p>\n _____. ed. The Particular Baptists, 1638-1910<\/em>. Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 1998.<\/p>\n Henderson, William John. \u201cHolding the Ropes.\u201d In Centenary of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1892<\/em>. Ed. John Brown Myers, 3-39. Holborn: The Baptist Missionary Society, 1892.<\/p>\n Ivemy, Joseph. A History of the English Baptists<\/em>. 4 vols. London: Burditt, Boxton, Hamilton, Baynes, etc., 1811-1830.<\/p>\n Kirkby, Arthur H. Andrew Fuller (1754-1815).<\/em> London: Independent Press Ltd., 1961.<\/p>\n Laws, Gilbert. Andrew Fuller: Pastor, Theologian, Ropeholder<\/em>. London: Carey Press, 1942.<\/p>\n Lord, F. Townley. Achievement: A Short History1792-1942<\/em>. [1942]<\/p>\n Maring, Norman H. \u201cAndrew Fuller\u2019s Doctrine of the Church.\u201d In Baptist Concepts of the Church<\/em>. Ed. Winthrop Still Hudson, 71-105. Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1959.<\/p>\n Marshman, John C. The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward: Embracing the History of the Serampore Mission<\/em>. 2 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859.<\/p>\n Milner, Jack. \u201cAndrew Fuller.\u201d Reformation Today<\/em> 17 (Jan-Feb 1974): 18-29.<\/p>\n Morden, Peter J. \u201cApologist for Missions.\u201d In \u201cAt the Pure Fountain of Thy Word\u201d: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist<\/em>. Ed. Michael A.G. Haykin, 237-255. Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2004.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cA Biographical Sketch.\u201d In \u201cAt the Pure Fountain of Thy Word\u201d: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist<\/em>. Ed. Michael A.G. Haykin, 1-42. Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2004.<\/p>\n _____. Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) and the Revival of Eighteenth-Century Particular Baptist Life<\/em>. Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2003.<\/p>\n Morris, John Webster. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller<\/em>. London: High Wycombe, 1816.<\/p>\n Murray, Iain H. The Puritan Hope: A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy<\/em>. London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1971.<\/p>\n Myers, John Brown. ed. The Centenary Celebration of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1892<\/em>. Holborn: The Baptist Missionary Society, 1892.<\/p>\n Nettles, Thomas J. \u201cAndrew Fuller (1754-1815).\u201d In The British Particular Baptists, 1638-1910<\/em>. Ed. Michael A.G. Haykin, 96-141. Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2000.<\/p>\n _____. By His Grace and For His Glory: A Historical, Theological and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life<\/em>. Revised and Expanded 20th<\/sup> Anniversary Edition. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2006.<\/p>\n _____. \u201cPreface to the New Edition: Why Andrew Fuller?\u201d In The Complete Works of Reverend Andrew Fuller<\/em>, Vol. 1. Ed. Joseph Belcher. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications 1988.<\/p>\n _____. The Baptists: Key People Involved in Forming a Baptist Identity<\/em>. Volume 1: Beginnings in Britain. Fearn: Christian Focus Publications, 2005.<\/p>\n Nicholls, Bruce J. “The Theology of William Carey.” Evangelical Review of Theology<\/em> 17 (1993): 369-380.<\/p>\n Nuttall, G.F. \u201cContinental pietism and the Evangelical movement in Britain.\u201d In Pietismus und Reveil<\/em>. Eds. J. van den Berg and J.P. van Dooren, 207-36. Leiden: n.p., 1978.<\/p>\nPastor, apologist, and promoter of missions<\/h3>\n
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