‘I believe it is the duty of every minister of Christ plainly and faithfully to preach the gospel to all who will hear it; and as I believe the inability of men to spiritual things to be wholly of the moral, and therefore of the criminal kind, and that it is their duty to love the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him for salvation though they do not; I therefore believe free and solemn addresses, invitations, calls, and warnings to them to be not only consistent but directly adapted, as means, in the hand of the Spirit of God, to bring them to Christ.’

These words, part of a statement of religious convictions drawn up by Andrew Fuller prior to taking up the pastorate in Kettering, are the themes he develops in this important book. Not naturally given to controversy, he agonised over its publication but, persuaded of its vital importance, published it in 1785, four years after writing it.

Persuasive gospel preaching has been largely lost today just as it had been in Fuller’s day. This is a book to rekindle that passion on a clear doctrinal basis.