Sermons of a Seceder, by William Tiptaft, published by Gospel Standard Trust Publications, hardback, 222 pages, £9.00, obtainable from the F P Bookroom. Tiptaft was born in 1803 and, after university studies in Cambridge, he was ordained to the Church of England ministry in 1826. Yet only in the following year was he awakened to a sense of his need as a sinner. “How gradually”, he wrote, “did the scales fall from my blind eyes and how gradually have I been led to know the blessed doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, and also the doctrines of predestination and election” (p 5). In 1829 he met J C Philpot, a leading Gospel Standard pastor; the two were to become close friends, perhaps especially after Tiptaft seceded (hence the title of the book) from the Church of England in 1831. He built a chapel in Abingdon, where he preached for the rest of his life. He died in 1864.
The book begins with a biographical note, abridged from Philpot’s biography of his friend; it is followed by a few pages of “reminiscences”. One notes the kindly touch to a petition Tiptaft almost always used in asking a blessing on a meal: “Make us very mindful of the wants of others” (p 34).
This book contains all 17 of Tiptaft’s sermons that are known to have survived. The final sermon in the book was preached in 1829 before leaving his Somerset parish. Philpot alleges that “it is sadly leavened with the Arminian views which he then entertained and strongly advocated” (p 211). Perhaps the following quotation from Tiptaft (p 213) illustrates Philpot’s difficulties: “Now real repentance is such a sorrow for past sins that causes us to forsake them, and afterwards to abhor them, and this by the assistance of the Holy Spirit leads to holiness of life. For a strong conviction of sin will alarm us on
3Durham, Treatise on Scandal, p xxvi.
account of the dreadful threatenings denounced against it in Holy Writ, and cause us to ask like the gaoler in Philippi, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ And God be praised! There is the same delightful answer for us, as there was for him: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’.”
Now, if by “assistance” Tiptaft meant something different from the use of the word “help” in God’s words through Hosea, “In Me is thine help” (13:9), and if he was accordingly leaving room for human merit, he was wrong. But no doubt exception is being taken also to Tiptaft’s use of the gospel call – what he was later, mistakenly, to condemn as “duty faith” (p 86).
The first 16 sermons focus very much on spiritual experience. For instance, in the first sermon, on Psalm 5:12, he asks, “But now, who among you have been panting after the knowledge of the pardon of your sins? Who is there that has been crying to God for deliverance from their iniquities and that He would give them some tokens and evidences that He had mercy on their never-dying souls?” Immediately he gives his answer: “Now, if you can appeal to God for a witness, and say this is the inmost desire of your heart, I have a good hope of your religion. . . . You shall have the desire of your souls.” It is a pity that these sermons have much less structure than the final one. But there is much in them to help those who wish to follow Christ.