Pedocommunion - The Bible Knows No Such Custom

A selection from a letter by Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary's Baptist Church, Norwich, England, to his parents, with whom he had extensive correspondence. He asked his parents a series of penetrating questions about a pedobaptist's proposal to bring infants to the Lord's Table, that are relevant for the 21st Century. Some today, who baptize infants, also receive them for communion. Thankfully, the PCA recently took a strong stand against pedocommunion. Kinghorn speaks to this matter as it relates to the baptism of children. The letter was written April 2, 1792.

One of our Independents, Mr. Newton [not John Newton], has publicly proposed to his people to bring all their children to the Lord's Supper, as baptized persons, thinking they have as much right to one ordinance as to another. Now this is consistent.

But does it not make the absurdity of infant baptism appear greater? Can those have any right to church privileges, who cannot be supposed to make a credible profession of religion? Is not the tendency of this practice contrary to that inquiry and sober decision which ought to distinguish a man's actions, when he takes a part as a professor of Christianity? Is he who has always been in the church, he knows not why or when, likely to make, or has he the opportunity of making, his religious conduct so much his own, as if he had first believed, and then acted upon that belief? Is not this the strongest chain ever yet forged to connect the church and the world together, and to make the connection so intimate as to destroy the very essence of a Christian church? Is it not contrary to the tenor of the New Testament, where an attention to the Lord's Supper is described as not only the effect of professed faith, but also consequent on that examination which must necessarily be personal? And is not the best thing we can say of it, this—the Bible knows no such custom?

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 208.

Something Surprising

A portion of a letter from David Kinghorn to his son, Joseph Kinghorn, who was studying for the ministry and would later become the pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England. He commented on an associational letter written by Robert Hall, Sr., dealing with the Trinity. He said that Mr. Hall gave “the Arians the smartest whip I ever read” and then offered a warning to his son. The letter was written October 29, 1791:

There is something surprising, that man, who cannot comprehend himself, should think to comprehend deity, and equally so that contradictory things should be pretended to be proved from the sacred Scriptures concerning deity, as if the Scriptures were like a well-tuned fiddle, to play anything.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 197.

The Heart Wants a Companion

A portion of a letter from Joseph Kinghorn to his father about marriage. A quick P.S. was added to his father’s last letter, “This day thirty-two years ago we were married.” Joseph, pastor of a leading Baptist church in the county of Norfolk, England, was single. He once was engaged but things didn’t work out so he remained unmarried all his days. But he understood the bliss of married life and expressed it in his letter, which was written, probably in early May of 1797.

Terry Wolever, book editor for Particular Baptist Press, pointed out this letter to me in a phone conversation yesterday. Terry, who wrote the forward to the book that contains this letter, is scheduled to give a paper on Joseph Kinghorn at the Baptist Spirituality Conference, which is being held August 24-25 at the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, Louisville, Kentucky (see http://www.andrewfullercenter.org/ for more information).

I was struck with your relation of the anniversary of thirty-two years marriage. May that day often find you both in health and happiness. There is a solitariness in single life; the heart wants a companion, a friend to whom all can be told is not to be met with in our common intercourse. I dare say if I had a wife I loved, and who loved me, I should tell what now lies buried till it is forgotten.

What are generally called friends are very valuable. I own it, and I have many I esteem, yet there is an intercourse of sentiment of a higher kind, and which it seems impossible to enjoy but where the interest and happiness of two are completely made one. You will be this time suspect that I am at least half in love, perhaps courting, etc. No; but I could not help saying what I have, from the circumstance you mention.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 270.

Close Thinking Men, Not Deceived by Appearances

A portion of a letter from Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, to his father and mother. He shared with them the profit he had received from two books that he had recently read. The letter was written May 1, 1798.

I have lately met with two singular books, viz., Jonathan Edward’s account of the revival of religion in New England in his time; and the life of Thos. Halyburton; and their accounts have the greater weight with me, because they were both very close thinking men, who were not to be deceived by appearances, but searched ideas to the very bottom.

May the grace they each described be felt by us, and by many more who yet are strangers to it! Then the world would be much happier than at present.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 285.

The Apostles Were Baptists

A portion of a letter from Rev. Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, written to his father, David Kinghorn. He spoke of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in this letter. He said that “the piety of many pedobaptists” and “their path to heaven is as straight as our own,” but he could not own that infant baptism was Biblical. The letter was written in 1794.

I believe with all my heart that the apostles were Baptists, both in principle and practice; that the primitive church was baptist throughout; that infant sprinkling and transubstantiation are pretty much alike, the one being as well supported as the other. I think the Baptists are the preservers of one institution of Christ, which has been neglected and despised, and that they ought to consider it lies on them to endeavour to preserve it, for they seem left to defend it.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 236.

Do Not Forget Things Better

A portion of a letter from Rev. Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, written to R. S. Foster, student at the University of Edinburgh. Mr. Foster had sent Rev. Kinghorn a letter about hearing Dr. Thomas Chalmers for the first time. After speaking highly of Dr. Chalmers in his reply, Kinghorn exhorted Foster not to forget the better things. The letter was written February 10, 1829.

And now, I hope you do not forget things better than any of the studies in which you are engaged at College. You know such things there are. Be all that attention and study can make you; but be the Christian, the man of God also. God grant us all more of that holy science, by which we may know Christ, and him crucified!

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 426.

Family Worship

A portion of a letter from Rev. Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, written to Rev. William Newman, who had just become the president of Stepney Academy on March 25, 1811. The letter was filled with spiritual counsel on many practical subjects, including the importance of maintaining family worship.

You will do well, also, to pay a particular attention to your family worship; not so much that it be long as that it be regular, and conducted in a manner likely to support a devotional feeling, and a sense of its importance. Let it not be broken upon, or treated as a matter of mere conveniency.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 338.

Leave Wrangling

A selection from a letter by David Kinghorn to his son Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England. He always wrote his son with helpful spiritual advice. This letter was written on August 23, 1794.

Controversy, except on a few subjects, if pursued, cats out the vitals of religion; happy they who steadily pursue the path of duty marked out to them by Divine providence, and leave wrangling, as not worthy of their attention.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 238.

Read the Life of Joseph Kinghorn

The following is a letter I wrote to a friend commending The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn. My favorite biography is the two volumes by Iain Murray on the life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, but next to it is this volume about Joseph Kinghorn. If you have not read it, I hope you will obtain a copy and learn about one of the great Baptist lights of the 19th Century.

November 11, 1996

Dear ______:

I am writing you in order to encourage you to read The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, recently republished by the Particular Baptist Press of Springfield, Missouri. I found it to be a most instructive and heart-warming read.

My interest in Kinghorn, in part, is due to the fact that he ministered in the city of Norwich, England, as pastor of the St. Mary's Baptist Church. I lived just outside Norwich for three years as pastor of a Strict and Particular Baptist Church. My acquaintance with Kinghorn in those days was limited, but I knew of his ministry in Norwich and throughout the county of Norfolk in the 19th Century was tremendous. It was a spiritual treat to discover that the biography of Kinghorn, written by Martin Hood Wilkin, was back in print. Also included in this edition is the funeral sermon for Kinghorn by John Alexander and a tribute sermon about him by John Bane.

Kinghorn was born in 1766 and died in 1832. That period for Baptist is immensely important, as you well know. Kinghorn is not as well known among us as Fuller, Sutcliff, Carey, Hall, Pearce, etc., but he deserves to be.

Some of the highlights of the book for me are the following:

1. Kinghorn attended the Baptist Academy at Bristol. Much information is found in this volume about the school, its teachers, and the struggles the brethren overcame to offer young men preparing for the ministry a good theological education.

2. Kinghorn had a wonderful relationship with his father, who also was a Baptist preacher. The correspondence between the two is worth twice the price of the book. His father offered him much good council and advice. I will give you one example of admonition that David Kinghorn passed along to his 16 year old son when arguments about the deity of Christ and the trinity led many into Unitarianism.

"I advise thee my son to beware of the vain jangling of such persons as are forward to dispute about the Deity, seeing we can know no more of him than what is revealed in Scripture; what its says, and not what man says, is to be our rule. But the great things in religion are to be most attended to; holiness in heart and life, without which no man shall see the Lord… I intreat thee to be swift to hear, slow to speak, especially about the sacred trinity. Sherlock says, 'One fool may start many queries, which a hundred wise men cannot answer, and that not only about religious, but natural or philosophical things'" (p. 31).

3. Kinghorn pastored one church his entire life. From 1789 until his death 43 years later in 1832, he labored in Norwich. He also was responsible for starting churches in villages and towns in the county of Norfolk.

4. Kinghorn was a scholar and theologian as well as pastor. He was learned in the original languages of Scripture, especially Hebrew. He sets a great example for pastors to be learned men, and not just professors at the Seminary.

5. Many of the controversies of Baptist life in the 19th Century are evident in the book. Calvinism and HyperCalvinism, strict and open communion, church and state, missions and anti-missions, the mode and subjects for baptism, the extent of the atonement, etc., are issues with which Kinghorn interacted.

These are just some of the things that stand out in this wonderful biography. I hope you will buy or borrow a copy and read it for your own spiritual edification.

Copies can be obtained through Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service or directly from the publisher, Particular Baptist Press, 2766 W. Weaver Road, Springfield, MO 65810.

Sincerely in Christ,

Dean Olive

The Atonement in Point of Power and Design

A letter in full by Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, to a friend who had criticized his understanding of the gospel. He wrote an earlier letter to her (April 29 and May 1) and then followed it up with this letter, explaining his understanding of the extent of the atonement of Christ.

Norwich
May 11th, 1826

I am not sure that my remarks in my last went to the bottom of the subject, but as far as they went consider them. Perhaps you are afraid that such a plan of reasoning will run across the redemption by Jesus Christ and make it of that general kind that will lead to Arminianism. Our best Calvinistic writers have not thought so. This, you will say, is mere authority—granted. I would then ask, do either the scriptures or reason applied to the principles of the scriptures lead us to conclude, that suppose the number of the elect was greater than it is, the atonement made by the death of Christ would be insufficient for their salvation?

Should you say, as some have done, that there was so much atonement made for sinners precisely, and no more, I would ask you to pause a moment, and say, how can you prove it? Since it was the character of the sufferer that gave weight to both his obedience and suffering, how are we to throw a line round infinity and measure that which is beyond measure? What then, you may ask, limits the redemption of sinners and draws the line of distinction between that general idea of redemption, which, by taking in everybody, makes it especially applicable to nobody; and the opinion of the highest Calvinists, viz.—so much atonement and no more?

I reply, the election of grace; so that the Lord came to fulfil a plan; making an atonement, which in point of power would have saved more, had more been included in the plan, but in point of design, and ultimately in point of application, was made for those who were given him.

This is a very brief sketch, and I cannot conceive it new to you; but I direct your attention to it, to show that the limits of the Calvinistic system go further than they are sometimes supposed, and that we need not be afraid of going to the extent, if only we know where to stop. If you purchase an estate you know you have a right to cultivate it, up to the last inch. Some good people are so afraid of being Arminians, that they leave a large piece of their territorial inheritance to the briars and thorns of the wilderness.

J.K.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 416.

God and Joy

A selection from a letter by David Kinghorn to his son Joseph Kinghorn, February 23, 1782:

May the love of God be shed abroad in your heart and ours; I’ve oft thought on those words of Dr. Young, a deity believed is joy begun, a deity adored is joy advanced, a deity beloved is joy matured.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p38.

The Influence of Jonathan Edwards

A selection from a letter by Joseph Kinghorn, while a student at the Baptist College in Bristol, England, to his father, writing of the influence of Jonathan Edwards on his life. The letter was written on March 7, 1785:

There are many of Jonathan Edwards’ Treatises, Sermons, &c. [in a pastor’s library he had access to], which I never saw before, but intend to read as much as may be. I have read his Life and some sermons—such a life did I never read, he seemed to live a heaven on earth, and in abilities he was unrivalled, although his learning was not very extensive. But might I be any man I ever heard of or saw it should be Jonathan Edwards.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 84.

Doctrinal Sermons

From the pen of David Kinghorn to his son, Joseph Kinghorn, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, Norwich, England, who was preaching a series of sermons on doctrinal topics. The letter was written on July 25, 1795:

I quite approve of your plan of preaching a few doctrinal sermons, as it keeps up in the minds of the people a view of those truths on which Christianity is founded, in all its practical effects on the heart and life. For without the doctrinal part, religion sinks into dead formality, and without the practical part, it dashes on the rocks of speculation, and beats itself to pieces in idle disputation…

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 254.

Fill Your Heart With Christ

Wise counsel from a father, David Kinghorn, to his son, Joseph Kinghorn, who was preparing for the ministry, April, 1791:

Though customs not enjoined by the great lawgiver are not binding on conscience [he was writing about Lent], yet we should be careful not to give offence to those who are bound by them. You have, for the present, got your head full of Moses. I wish your heart may be filled with Christ.

The Life and Works of Joseph Kinghorn, by Martin Hood Wilkin, reprinted by Particular Baptist Press, 1995, p. 191.