Hymns for the sacraments

Mr Pickles points out, interestingly, that whereas Beddome's hymn book contains 38 hymns on baptism, there are only four on the Lord's Supper. I wonder if that is because of the way the hymns were prepared - as accompaniments to the sermon. Baptisms would part of the service ending with an appropriate hymn. When the Lord's Supper was celebrated once a month it usually took place after the main service and normally included no singing. (This is a guess).

Beddome on communion

The late Peter Naylor says in his book on Baptists and communion

That Beddome in earlier days had upheld restricted communion is shown by his exposition of the Baptist catechism, 'the proper subjects' of the ordinance of communion being 'they who have been baptized upon a personal Profession of their Faith in Jesus Christ and Repentance from Dead Works'. He asks: 'Are Baptized Believers proper subjects of this Ordinance? YES They that were baptized. But in later years Beddome shifted his position, his assistant, William Wilkins, appointed in 1777, introducing to the Lord's Table some who had been sprinkled in infancy. Furthermore, with John Collett Ryland (1723-92) at Northampton, Daniel Turner [1710-1798] at Abingdon and Robert Robinson [1735-1790] at Cambridge, Beddome tended to favour open membership.