1827 FREE WILL BAPTISTS. The Life of Elder Benjamin Randal, Founder of Randall Free Will Baptists.

An exceptionally scarce first edition of the only early biography of the founder of the Free Will Baptists Benjamin Randal [1749-1808]. 

Religiously sensitive and pious from his youth, he first served as a cabin boy aboard his father's ship, then was apprenticed at 17 to a sailmaker in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and from there he became an independent tent-maker.

Deeply committed to Christ since his youth, in September of 1770, George Whitefield paid a visit to Portsmouth as part of his last speaking tour of the country, arriving barely a week before his death. Randall heard Whitefield's sermons several times and was deeply shaken when news of his death was received. A period of serious religious meditation followed. During this time, Randall sensed himself called to the work of an Evangelist. He struggled in the local church, finding himself possessed of a zealous religious passion and determination to evangelize that was not reciprocated in his fellow Christians.

In the spring of 1774 Randall began  conducting open meetings to be attended by a broader public, who could then be drawn into the church through the reading of printed sermons, public prayer, and singing. These early attempts were interrupted by the Revolutionary War.

An ardent American patriot, Randal joined the Army at the outbreak of armed hostilities. He served in the Massachusetts militia in the company of Captain John Parsons at New Castle. After the early scuffles temporarily ceased, his company was mustered out. He almost immediately reenlisted in September 1776 as a sergeant in a regiment headed by Colonel Pierce Lang, ultimately serving as a militia soldier for a year and a half. Randall remained devout in his Christianity during his military stint, later declaring that he "never lived nearer to God than during that campaign experience.”

During his military tenure Randall made a point of regularly visiting the sick and performing the duties of a chaplain in offering religious consolation. Randall was mocked by some within the ranks for his religious exuberance, but his actions were ultimately backed by the unit's commanding officer, who threatened severe punishment to any who continued to deride Randall's heartfelt efforts, thereby easing the situation.

After his service, he immediately began again holding open-air meetings, preaching an average of four times a week, with many converted in the meetings. But local churches disapproved. He was not George Whitefield. Randall later recalled that "persecution grew very hot, and such threatening language was used that I really felt my life in danger." He was nearly struck in the head with a thrown piece of a brick when walking down the street one day, narrowly escaping death or serious injury when the shard grazed his hair.

By 1780, Randall was committed to believer’s baptism by immersion, but also a committed Arminian. With no theological home, in June 1780 he drew up new Articles of Faith and Church Covenant in New Durham and the first Free Baptist church was established — although for the first two decades after this date no prefix to the Baptist name was used. Randall and his followers were dismissed by many contemporaries as adherents of a fanatical sect and were pejoratively called a variety of names, including "Randallites," "General Provisioners," "New-Lights," and "Freewillers.”

Buzzell, John. The Life of Elder Benjamin Randal. Principally Taken from Documents Written by Himself. Limerick. Published by Hobbs, Woodman & Co. 1827. 308pp.

A good + copy, bound in leather, generally solid, with light foxing that is heavier on the prelims and rears.