Dan Taylor (1738–1816), Baptist Leader and Pioneering Evangelical

Pollard

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781532636202
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Dan Taylor was a leading English eighteenth-century General Baptist minister and founder of the New Connexion of General Baptists--a revival movement. This book provides considerable new light on the theological thinking of this important evangelical figure. The major themes examined are Taylor's spiritual formation; soteriology; understanding of the atonement; beliefs regarding the means and process of conversion; ecclesiology; approach to baptism, the Lord's Supper, and worship; and missiology. The nature of Taylor's evangelicalism--its central characteristics, underlying tendencies, evidence of the shaping influence of certain Enlightenment values, and ways that it was outworked--reflect that which was distinct about evangelicalism as a movement emerging from the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. It is thus especially relevant to recent debates regarding the origins of evangelicalism.Taylor's evangelicalism was particularly marked by its pioneering nature. His propensity for innovation serves as a unifying theme throughout the book, with many of its accompanying patterns of thinking and practical expressions demonstrating that which was distinct about evangelicalism in the eighteenth century.

1

Emergent Evangelical

Dan Taylor first encountered the Evangelical Revival at William Grimshaw’s parish church in Haworth, West Riding. Through the preaching of Grimshaw and other evangelicals, he gained an understanding of the gospel that differed from that which he had acquired during his earlier years. All that Taylor found to be new, both within the preached message and how the gospel was communicated, will be considered. Attention will be given to his nine-year involvement in the structures of Methodism as he participated in society, class, and band meetings at the Methodist society in Halifax. The commitment with which he embraced much of what was distinctive about eighteenth-century evangelicalism will be examined and how this became evident in his later practical embodiment of evangelical values, his structural initiatives and teaching. The extent to which his evangelicalism was manifest in the dynamics of his personal spirituality and how this highlights something of the discontinuity between evangelicalism and earlier movements such as Puritanism, will be explored. Lastly, consideration will be given to certain reasons and influences that contributed to his decision to leave Methodism.

Taylor’s Introduction to the Evangelical Revival

“meat and drink”

During the mid-1750s Taylor traveled many miles with his younger brother John to hear evangelical preachers. In particular, they made frequent visits to Haworth to listen to the preaching of William Grimshaw.119 John Walsh, in his examination of eighteenth-century evangelical clergy in Yorkshire, describes Grimshaw as “the dominating figure of the period.”120 He became perpetual curate at Haworth Parish Church in 1742, previously serving eleven years as a curate at Todmorden where, he spent his first seven years enjoying a lifestyle of carefree indulgence.121 A turning point came in 1738 when (among other factors) he read a sermon on justification by faith by the prominent evangelical Robert Seagrave.122 Grimshaw then decided “to embrace Christ only for my all in all,” abandoned his loose living, renounced his merit based understanding of salvation and dedicated himself to preaching faith in Christ crucified and risen as the only means of salvation from sin.123 The twelve regular communicants at Haworth in 1742 soon grew to a gathering of over a thousand people during the summer months.124 As John Laycock described, Grimshaw became “one of the greatest evangelists in the North of England.”125 At the time when Taylor traveled to hear Grimshaw, growth in numbers was still taking place. This was reflected in a 1754 letter from Grimshaw who wrote, “I bless the Lord. His work still spreads and flourishes on all sides of us.”126 Three years later, he similarly wrote “Our congregations . . . are larger,” “several souls are added” and “some are seemingly just now awakening.”127 The Taylors’ visits to Haworth, between 1753–62, also saw them introduced to the preaching of other leading evangelicals who were provided the “best hospitality” by Grimshaw.128 These included John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield whose ministries further contributed to how “the revival was expanding and consolidating in Yorkshire.”129 Taylor was both a witness of this revival and willing participant.

The preached message of the need to place faith in Christ as the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world and for each person individually, was “instrumental” in helping Taylor gain “clearer views of the plan of mercy through a redeemer.”130 Taylor experienced that which David Hempton draws attention to as a characteristic of Methodist preaching during the Evangelical Revival. Hempton states that while the message was “neither uniform nor completely formulaic . . . it spoke of the possibility of salvation and a new start, not at the dictates of authoritarian divinity, but as the result of divine love inspiring a willing human response.”131 Having been exposed to this, Taylor considered his inherited understanding of the gospel as deficient. A typical example of the criticism he expressed regarding his earlier experience of faith was how he had “often been heard to say, that if the gospel had been preached as it ought to have been, he should have obtained liberty much sooner.”132 Neither his attendance of worship at Halifax Parish Church,133 nor his parents’ Bible teaching gave him the clarity of gospel understanding that he gained from evangelical preachers. This was despite his parents’ best efforts. John Taylor noted that their mother had diligently sought to instruct her children in the truths of Scripture and that their father possessed “much more knowledge of the holy Scriptures than working men...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Emergent Evangelical
• Chapter 2: Innovative Apologist
• Chapter 3: Novel Advocate
• Chapter 4: Enlightened Critic
• Chapter 5: The Baptist Wesley
• Chapter 6: Creative Proponent
• Chapter 7: Religious Entrepreneur
• Conclusion
• Bibliography