Baptistic Theologies, 2009

the Monday thanksgiving service at the end of a communion season. 9 The Presbyterian tradition of revival fell into decay, however, as the communion season itself faded away during the later nineteenth century. Because the Presbyterian style of awakening was so closely bound up with 6 Leigh Eric Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 3. This book, an exemplary account of the Presbyterian tradition of revival, is the chief source for its analysis here. 7 Ibid., p. 21. 8 Arthur Fawcett, The Cambuslang Revival: The Scottish Evangelical Revival of the Eighteenth Century (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1971). 9 Daniel McGilvary to editor. North Carolina Presbyterian, 8 January 1858, p. 1. 4 Baptistic Theologies the communion season, which Baptists did not observe, its distinctive characteristics exerted little influence over Baptists. When Baptists experienced revival, it rarely followed the Presbyterian formula. A further type of awakening, and one with greater repercussions on the Baptists, was the Congregational model. It was similar to the Presbyterian pattern: the minister was in charge, there was tight discipline, the theology was Calvinist and originally the expectation was gradual conversion. The Congregationalists, however, did not hold communion seasons, and so their revivals were normally stimulated by other preaching services. Revival among Congregationalists developed not in England, where they first appeared, but in New England, to which they migrated in the seventeenth century to escape the ecclesiastical tyranny of Charles I. There they established gathered churches, congregations that were supposed to consist of converted believers only. Yet the Congregational churches, supported by the taxes of the inhabitants, were the only places of worship in their respective townships. After a short while a problem therefore arose. Members of the second generation of immigrants were not necessarily converted, but wanted to participate in church life, especially by having their infants baptised. From the 1650s a solution was found in the ‘half-way covenant’. Parents could have their babies baptised if, without professing faith, they ‘owned the covenant’. Such individuals were sometimes, as at Northampton, Massachusetts, under the ministry of Solomon Stoddard, permitted to receive communion. Consequently the churches became peopled by many unconverted characters, forming a natural mission field. Preaching for conversions of a stirring kind became customary, and it led to awakenings. There were many movements of this kind in New England during the 1710s and 1720s. 10 The greatest exponent of this Congregational approach was Jonathan Edwards, the grandson and successor of Solomon Stoddard at Northampton. In 1734 Edwards preached a powerful sermon on justification to his parishioners that prec