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John Rippon (1751-1836) pastored the church at Carter Lane for 63 years (1773 to 1836). In 1833, the church moved to New Park Street.

This was during the reigns of George III (1760-1811), George IV (1820-1830), and William IV (1830-1837). The American War of Independence was fought (1776-1783). The French Revolution lasted from 1787-1799. The modern missionary movement was launched, with William Carey becoming England’s first missionary in 1792 and Adoniram Judson America’s first foreign missionary in 1816. In 1800, the United Kingdom was created by the merger of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1803, America made the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, the 828,000 square miles nearly doubling the size of the new nation. In 1804, the British & Foreign Bible Society launched the global Bible society movement. In 1806, Meriweather Lewis and William Clark completed their survey of the American West. The first steam locomotive was invented in 1814; the world’s first railway line opened in 1825; photography was invented in 1827; the telegraph in 1838.

Rippon graduated from Bristol Baptist College at age 20 and was called to the pastorate at Carter Lane two years later. He was first called to candidate while still a student, but there was some resistance by older members who were accustomed to John Gill’s super sober ministry.

“Mr. John Rippon was sent to them. He was a youth of some twenty summers, of a vivacious temperament, quick and bold. The older members judged him to be too young, and too flighty; they even accused him of having gone up the pulpit stairs two steps at a time on some occasion when he was hurried--a grave offence for which the condemnation could hardly be too severe” (Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work).

Rippon rejected his predecessor’s “high Calvinism,” believed in the universal offer of the gospel, saw spiritual revival in his own church and beyond, and was at the forefront of a great revival of hymn singing among Baptists. All of these things were interconnected. A revival of strong theology--with Christ’s eternal Sonship, incarnation, vicarious atonement, bodily resurrection, and ascension at its heart--prayer, gospel preaching, holiness, and missionary vision, go hand-in-hand with effectual hymn singing. These are products of an unrestricted move of the Spirit.

“Leading a notable London congregation in the midst of the spiritual renewal of his denomination, Rippon offered two novel contributions to the reviving of the Particular Baptist community: a denominational hymnbook that supplemented Watts to ‘provide a comprehensive resource for the homiletical bias of Baptist worship.’ and the publication of his Baptist Annual Register (1790-1802), which ‘not only provided a unique expression of the denomination’s new maturity and confidence but also promoted a deeper mutual awareness among Baptists.’ During the five decades following these two ventures by Rippon, the Particular Baptist denomination grew from about 17,000 members in 1790 to 86,000 by 1838, an increase exceeding population growth” (Joseph Carmichael, The Sung Theology of the English Particular Baptist Revival).

The Baptist Annual Register was “a periodical containing an account of the most important events in the history of the Baptist Denomination in Great Britain and America during that period.” It is immensely important for Baptist research.

Under Rippon’s ministry, the church experienced spiritual revival. It was fruitful in salvations and in raising up preachers.

“Many souls were won to Jesus by his teaching, and out of these a remarkable number became themselves ministers of the gospel. The church-book abounds with records of brethren preaching before the church, as the custom was in those days” (Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work).

Rippon was the first president of the Baptist Union (1812), the same Union from which Charles Spurgeon withdrew 75 years later.

In 1792, the Baptist College of Providence, Rhode Island, bestowed upon Rippon a Doctor of Divinity degree.

As we have seen, Rippon was a graduate of the Bristol Baptist Academy, which was a powerful force for “evangelical Calvinist revival.” The Academy was the vision of Edward Terrill, who deeded a large gift to be used “for the support of a minister at Broadmead who was skilled in the Biblical languages and whose task would be to prepare young men for ministry among Baptist churches” (Hayden, Continuity and Change, p. 21).

Baptist preachers associated with this academy included John Ash, John and Benjamin Beddome, Benjamin Francis, Andrew Gifford, John Sutcliff, John Fawcett, Joshua Thomas, Robert Hall (author of Help to Zion’s Travellers, 1781), Hugh Evans, and Caleb Evans. Many of these men engaged in a monthly prayer for revival.

These men’s “devotional hymnology, passion for associating, and evangelistic initiatives helped divert many churches from high Calvinism and introduced them to these influences which were powerfully at work in the Evangelical Revival” (Raymond Brown, The English Baptists of the Eighteenth Century).

Bristol Academy-associated men were at the forefront of a great missionary enterprise, chiefly John Sutcliff of Olney, the preacher/scholar Andrew Fuller, and the autodidact cobbler William Carey. In 1785, Fuller published The Gospel of Christ Worthy of All Acceptation. This has been called “the shot that provoked the army onto the field of battle.” In 1792, Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christian, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. This has been called “the manifesto of the modern missionary movement.” Fuller, Carey, Sutcliff, John Ryland, and others formed the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, and Carey was the society’s first missionary, departing for India in 1793.

In 1769, the Bristol Baptist Academy published A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship which contained 412 hymns, including many by Isaac Watts. This was a ground-breaking Baptist hymnal. It was called the Bristol Collection for its association with the Academy. It was edited by John Ash (1724-1779) and Caleb Evans (1737-1791), who were influential in the Baptist awakening.

John Rippon published a hymnal in 1787 popularly called Rippon’s Selection. (The full title was A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, intended as an Appendix to Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns.) It contained 588 psalms and hymns, This hymnal eventually replaced the Bristol Collection. Spurgeon called it “the first really good selection of hymns for dissenting congregations.”

Rippon’s Selection was designed to facilitate the ministry of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. All of the selections were doctrinally solid and spiritually challenging. There was no mindless fluff! The tunes were designed to be easily sung by an ordinary congregation of redeemed saints.

Rippon authored some of the hymns, but since he didn’t identify himself as author, only a few can be ascribed to him with any certainty. Among these are “The Day Has Dawned, Jehovah Comes,” “Amid the Splendours of Thy State,” and “There is Joy in Heaven, and Joy on Earth.” Rippon added three stanzas to “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” originally written by Edward Perronet in 1780.

Rippon wrote hymns to be sung after his Sunday sermon to reinforce the preaching and to further educate the congregation on theology. He said, “Singing is not only sweet and raising to the Spirit, but also full of instruction.” These old Baptists paid far more attention to the use of hymns for theological education than the vast majority of modern Baptists do.

Rippon’s Selection included Isaac Watts’ psalms. Rippon was considered the foremost authority on Watts’ hymns. In 1801, he published a comprehensive edition of Watts entitled An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. The 718 Watts’ hymns were arranged by subject. This is online at https://archive.org/details/hymnsr00watt

Rippon’s Selection went through 11 editions in Rippon’s lifetime, 30 editions altogether. An edition was published in America in 1820. It was so popular that it was called the “unofficial hymnbook for Baptist Churches.” By 1827, over 200,000 copies had already been distributed in England and more than 100,000 in America.

An expanded edition published in 1844 was entitled The Comprehensive Edition, popularly called The Comprehensive Rippon. It contained more than 1,170 hymns.

This hymnal was loaded with great treasures. Not only did it include hymns by Isaac Watts (40), but also by Anne Steele (53), Samuel Stennett (39), Benjamin Beddome (36), William Cowper (8), John Needham (19), Philip Doddridge (91), John Fawcett (23), Augustus Toplady (15), John Newton (25), Thomas Gibbons (27), Charles Wesley (21), and many others. (For this tabulation, we used the 1804 edition.)

Rippon also published hymn tunes collected from a wide variety of sources. The first was A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes from the Best Authors, 1791. It contained “in a greater variety than any other volume extant, the most approved compositions which are used in London, and in the different congregations throughout England” and “many original tunes never before printed.” There were more than 300 tunes. Rippon’s tune book included the most extensive use of marks of music expression and tempo that had yet appeared in hymnals, such as p. (piano, soft), f. (forte, loud), ff. (fortississimo, extremely loud), cres. (crescendo, gradual increase in volume), dim. (diminuendo, a gradual decrease in volume), grave, lively, solemn, brisk, etc. Rippon is said to be “the first person to compile, on an extensive scale, a book of tunes with a comprehensive hymn book suitable for the devotional exercises of religious worship” (Herbert Skeats, History of the Free Churches). Rippon’s Selection of Hymn Tunes can be obtained in a reprint from Amazon.com.

Rippon pastored the church for 63 years, but like his predecessor he kept control of the pastorate well beyond when he was effectual. Though he was not able to preach the last three years of his pastorate, he did not retire. As a result the church suffered.

“He outlived his usefulness, and it was a wonderful instance of divine care over the church that the old gentleman did not do it serious injury. He retained the will to govern after the capacity was gone, and he held his power over the pulpit though unable to occupy it to profit. Supplies who came to preach for him were not always allowed to officiate, and when they did, the old minister’s remarks from his pew were frequently more quaint than agreeable” (Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle: Its History and Work).

This type of thing has happened too many times. The church was without a permanent pastor for 17 years after Rippon’s death and declined much in membership and spiritual zeal. The revival would come under young Spurgeon’s ministry.