Fuller Andrew

Fuller, Andrew, the son of a small farmer, was born at Wicken, Cambridgeshire, in 1754. Whilst helping in the work of the farm, he began to preach to the Baptist congregation at Soham, and in 1775 was ordained as pastor there. In 1782 he was transferred to Kettering, where he had the advantage of meeting with some of the leading Nonconformist thinkers. His views now broadened, so as to lead him away from hyper-Calvinism, though he never swerved from the cardinal doctrine of salvation by grace. To advance his opinions he published The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, and after twenty years of controversy secured something like a triumph. The Gospel Its Own Witness is a more purely theological treatise directed against Socinianism, whilst several other volumes and pamphlets give proof of his earnest purpose and active mind. His greatest achievement was the establishment, in 1792, of the Baptist Missionary Society, over which he exercised unremitting watchfulness till his death in 1815.