How did the gospel survive in an age fraught with rationalism and High Calvinist theology that frowned upon preaching salvation to all? What shifts in preaching were evident that could have signaled that the preaching of the day was straying from the heritage of the past? Who was Benjamin Wallin and why should this once-famous but now-forgotten preacher be studied yet again? Benjamin Wallin seeks to answer these questions as it reintroduces the modern reader to this remarkable Particular Baptist preacher who remained steadfast in his insistence that the gospel be preached to all.

This book is concerned with English Calvinistic Baptist churches from the later 1600s until the early 1800s, arguing that there was then no connection between restricted communion and hyper- or high Calvinism. A minimal definition of restricted communion would be the reception at the Baptist communion of those alone who had been immersed in water upon a profession of faith. A sketch of English Calvinistic Baptists in the years preceding and following the 1689 Act of Toleration stresses that they were a denomination other than that of the General Baptists, and that most Baptists, irrespective of party lines, were de facto Strict Baptists. Historical arguments for and against restricted communion will demonstrate that during that period there was no definitive link between the Particular Baptists' communion discipline and their interpretations of Calvinism. Attention is given to John Gill's and Andrew Fuller's interpretations of the relation between the atonement and evangelism.