Samuel Trott Said

Elder Samuel Trott, a founding father of the Hardshell denomination, wrote:

"Predestination is here represented to be according to the good pleasure of His will, and is a decreeing of the objects of His choice unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world; but determines at that period their being “accepted in the Beloved;” and of course decides with certainty their repenting, believing, and being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise; things necessarily embraced in their experimental acceptance in Christ."

Today's Hardshells do not believe what Trott and the first Hardshells believed!  They do not believe that the elect are predestined to repent and believe, or to accept Christ.

"It is true that believing in the predestination of God, we have no idea of procuring or of being instrumental in producing the salvation of one individual not chosen of God unto salvation; nor that one of the “travail” (Isaiah 53:11) of Christ’s soul will die without experiencing the renewing of the Holy Ghost and thus being prepared for the society of Heaven, whether that individual die in infancy or in old age, whether he was born in New York, in Rome, in Mecca or in Peking. But we as firmly believe that God “has chosen” His people “to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth;” that: “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,” (II Thessalonians 2:13) and that while the “preaching of the cross is unto them that perish, foolishness; unto us who are saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18)."

"But again our belief in the predestination of all things gives us confidence to believe that not an instrument shall be wanting, or a circumstance fail, that God ever designed to employ, or ever would own for bringing an individual of the election of God into the liberty of the gospel, or for establishing him in the hope and consolations thereof. It also leads us to believe that Christ’s people will all “be willing in the day of His power” (Psalm 110:5), according as they are called to believe in Him, to confide in Him, to profess His name, to enter the ministry, and that with just such gifts as He has bestowed on them..."

"In reference to the charge that our belief in the doctrine of predestination occasions our not preaching that men should repent and believe, I would remark in the first place that according to our understanding of the Scriptures, “repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” are essential parts of that salvation to which the elect of God are predestinated. These things therefore we preach."

"Hence Christ, after His resurrection, made known to His disciples that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name” (Luke 24:47), among all nations beginning in Jerusalem. The law was given by Moses, “but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” If therefore there is any meaning in the expression, “In His name,” it must mean something very different from preaching repentance and remission of sin in a legal form. So we understand it as fixed by the predestination of God, and therefore we do not preach repentance as a condition upon which salvation is suspended. But while we preach the manifested obligation of all, both Jews and Gentiles, as the creatures of God to return unto Him by repentance, or as the apostle has it, “but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), and while we preach the absolute necessity of heart repentance as a predestinated part of the salvation of God, we preach that Jesus Christ is “exalted as a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31); and that no repentance short of that which He gives in making His Word as a “fire and a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces” (Jeremiah 23:29), either manifests the person as entitled to, capacitates him for receiving the consolations of the gospel. Hence, that no other is of any avail. Thus far our belief in the predestination of God affects our preaching repentance."

Though Trott did not believe that he would ever be an instrument in the salvation of any who had not been chosen to salvation, he nevertheless believed that he would be such an instrument in those chosen.  Today's Hardshells do not believe this and are therefore not "Primitive."

(Absolute Predestination of All Things, part 1 - See here)