W.T. BRANTLEY (1787-1845) PASTOR FIRST BAPTIST, PHILADELPHIA

 William Theophilus  Brantly (1787-1845) pastored the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, the mother church of the Philadelphia Baptist Association and the Philadelphia Baptist Confession. It seems the mother church of Baptist Calvinism, had a pastor who denied the doctrine of irresistible grace.

The website of FBC Philadelphia says this of Brantly"

 "The years 1816 - 1825 were periods of contention and dispute over such matters as using lamps rather than candles, matters related to the Philadelphia Baptist Association, theological disagreements and the legality of the church’s constitution, but with the coming of DR. WILLIAM BRANTLY as Pastor in 1825 the church saw amazing growth and by 1835 had 635 members.  During his 11-year pastorate he baptized 600 people and led the church in making extensive improvements to the Meeting House.  In 1837 Dr. Brantly helped to convene a meeting of 424 delegates from 24 states to form the AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. " (website quote here)

Brantly came from the Georgia Association, moving to Philadelphia to become pastor in 1825. In ten years he tripled the size of the church. Could it be that Brantly embraced a "whosoever will" gospel, and that brought revival to the church? Read the following from Brantly's sermon  "God's Gracious Purpose" and the text of his sermon " "Who will have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 1:4) Let's look at what Brantly said of irresistible grace.

" But there is a defective link in this chain, which being touched even gently, the whole falls asunder. For what is predestination? Who can define it? Who can describe its powers, its operations, its limits and its bearings? Is it something different from God, or is it something identical with him? Is it fate, necessity, or destiny, as the ancient philosophers maintain? For my own part, I frankly confess, that I know not what it is. (pp. 55-56. All quotes here and henceforth from Brantly are taken from the sermon entitled, "God's Gracious Purpose" found in Themes for Mediation Enlarged, in several sermons, Doctrinal and Practical, William T. Brantly, Philadelphia 1837. pp. 49-83. Longer paragraphs are intentionally broken for greater readability)

 "And my first observation tending to obviate that difficulty, is that the grace of God as put forth and exerted in the salvation of sinners, is not irresistible.* If the salvation of sinners were a matter so decided and so fixed by changeless decree, as to leave them no power of resistance, no liberty, no ability to seek and procure perdition for themselves, then the impenitent who defer all compliance with the mandate of God, are wise and commendable, because they cannot perish. An invincible necessity determines their lot, and places them beyond the possibility of ruin.

But let me not be misunderstood when I affirm that the grace of God is not irresistible. My meaning is this: it offers no violence to the natural dispositions of the human heart. The power which attends it, is not coercive, is not imperative, is not an authoritative driving of the soul into a new condition of being. It does not so arrest, and so oblige the sinner by superior force, as to divest him of all personal liberty, and cast him into the imprisonment of an unwelcome custody.

The power which grace exerts is the power of persuasion, of illumination, or of attraction. The energy which accompanies it is far from the asperities of constraint; the efficiency which it possesses, though approaching towards compulsion, yet stops short of it. It calls the soul effectually, moves it by rational inducements, rouses it from the sleepy torpor of unbelief, and informs it by the teachings of the Holy Spirit; but in all this there is nothing that impairs the freedom of choice, or of action.

      *When I say that grace is not irresistible, I must be understood to mean, that it does not act upon the soul by any coercive necessity, to the exclusion of rational motives and inducements; and that it does not so oblige any to be saved, as that they cannot procure final condemnation for themselves, if they please. [original footnote by Brantly]

 Should it be alleged that the great scriptural doctrine of election confers absolute certainty upon the salvation of some portion of mankind, and that the operations of grace must be irresistible, at least upon the elect—I reply: Be the doctrine of election what it may, it evidently teaches nothing inconsistent with the idea that salvation is so propounded to all men, as to make its acceptance or rejection a possible thing. This acceptance or rejection is also made to depend upon the free arbitration of a power within us, and however that power may be influenced, controlled or impelled in forming its determinations, it is laid under no necessity either of acceptance or rejection, because either is possible, which could not be if compulsion intervened.

What I am now insisting upon, is in full view of the fact, that some are converted and some are not; some regenerated and some not; some are true penitents and others never feel one genuine emotion of the sort; some love God and bear the impress of sanctity, while others remain under the dominion of unbelief and hardness of heart; and all this diversity is witnessed under the same administration of visible means... 

From all which I conclude, that election is of grace and not of necessity; that it effects nothing towards any man's salvation, independently of repentance and faith; and that it therefore makes no provision for irresistible grace. That the Holy Spirit does exert a greater influence upon some minds than upon others within the pale of the same visible administration of means; and that this greater influence must account for the conversion of some, whilst others remain unconverted, is what I fully believe. That salvation too is wholly of the grace of God, and that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, is a position to which my mind fully accords. But I am equally confident in the belief that all this is done without the least interference with the freedom of the human soul."

 So here we can see, that even the MOTHER CHURCH of the Philadelphia Baptists Assn. not only allowed serious disagreement with their own confession, but prospered under a preacher who rejected one its most important tenets, namely "irresistible grace", and we can assume with some certainty, that Brantly rejected limited atonement as well, for if grace is resistible, then Christ most certainly died for those who do not believe!