PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., Vol. 4 (of 6) : Containing all his sermons and tracts, etc.
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770 · 165,962 words · 259 reading sections
Part 1
Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Transcriber’s Notes │ │ │ │ …
187 wordsSECTION 2THE WORKS OF THE REVEREND GEORGE WHITEFIELD, M.A.
Late of PEMBROKE-COLLEGE, OXFORD, And Chaplain to the Right Honourable, the Countess of HUNTINGDON.…
14 wordsSECTION 3CONTAINING
All his SERMONS and TRACTS Which have been already published:…
10 wordsSECTION 4WITH
A SELECT COLLECTION of LETTERS, Written to his most intimate Friends, and Persons of Distinction, in _England_, _Scotland_, _Ireland_, and _America_, from the Year 1734, to 1770, including the whole Period of his Ministry.…
34 wordsSECTION 5ALSO
Some other PIECES on IMPORTANT SUBJECTS, never before printed; prepared by Himself for the Press. To which is prefixed, An ACCOUNT of his LIFE, Compiled from his Original PAPERS and LETTERS.…
31 wordsSECTION 6LONDON:
Printed for EDWARD and CHARLES DILLY, in the Poultry; and Messrs. KINCAID and CREECH, at Edinburgh.…
16 wordsSECTION 7MDCCLXXI.
ANSWER TO THE BISHOP of LONDON’s LAST PASTORAL LETTER. ANSWER TO THE BISHOP of LONDON’s LAST PASTORAL LETTER. _My Lord_, I NEED make no apology for troubling your Lordship with this. As your Lordship was pleased to make me the chief subject matter of your _last Pastoral Letter_, I think it my duty to answer in the b…
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Another thing, my Lord, to me seems darkly expressed, in page 18. (let not your Lordship be angry, for indeed I will endeavour to speak with all gentleness and humility): your Lordship’s words are these: “Nor need they any other evidence besides those _good dispositions_ they find in their hearts, that the Holy Spirit …
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But indeed your Lordship’s definition of _enthusiasm_, when examined, does not convey any ill idea at all. “Enthusiasm, is a strong persuasion on the mind, that they are guided in an extraordinary manner, by immediate impulses and impressions of the Spirit of GOD.” Had your Lordship said, a strong but _groundless persu…
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In the following paragraph, your Lordship has the same insinuation, as though I wanted to introduce _extempore prayer_, and to lay aside the public liturgy of our church. For after your Lordship had been speaking against praying by the Spirit, and affirming that the scripture no where tells us, that prayer is the singl…
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But, my Lord, what reasonable evidence does your Lordship require? Did I not receive letters dimissory from your Lordship’s own hands to be ordained a priest? Did I not, when ordained deacon, affirm, “that I was inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, to take upon me that office and ministration?” Did not my Lord of _Glouces…
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If I am not to speak in an apostolical language, why did my Lord of _Gloucester_ give me an apostolical commission, “whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained?” And I hope, my Lord, using the words which JESUS CHRIST used, is not taking upon me the character of …
725 wordsSECTION 13_G. W._
Blendon, Monday, August 13, 1739. The letter above mentioned, as sent to the Bishop of _Gloucester_, was occasioned by the Bishop’s acquainting Mr. _Whitefield_, in a letter, “That he ought to preach only in that congregation to which he was lawfully appointed.” This produced the following answer. _My Lord_,…
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I THANK your Lordship for your Lordship’s kind letter. My frequent removes from place to place prevented my answering it sooner. I am greatly obliged to your Lordship, in that you are pleased to watch over my soul, and to caution me against acting contrary to the commission given me at ordination. But if the commission…
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Your Lordship’s obedient Son, and obliged servant,…
7 wordsSECTION 16A LETTER TO THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES OF _ENGLAND_.
Written during the Voyage to _Philadelphia_, 1739; and particularly recommended to those who had then lately formed themselves into RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES in _Scotland_. A LETTER, &c. _My dear Brethren in Christ_, THE Apostle in his epistle to the _Hebrews_, chapter x. 23. exhorts them to hold fast the profession of th…
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In this respect, a private prelate has no more authority than a private presbyter. If it be lawful for more than five to meet in a private vestry, it is equally lawful for more than five to meet in a private house; as is the practice of some of the societies who are under the government of those called the Twelve Stewa…
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Next to your care about admitting others, I think it highly concerns you, whenever you assemble, to _remember the end_ of meeting, yourselves; and then (to use the words of the wise son of _Sirach_ on another occasion) “you will never do amiss.” Now, the end of your meeting, brethren, is not that you may think yourselv…
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We must not expect to be saved, or any way recommend ourselves to GOD, by any or all the works of righteousness which we have done, or shall, or can do. The LORD CHRIST is our righteousness,――our whole righteousness: imputed to us, instead of our own. “We are compleat in him,” says the scripture. “We are accounted righ…
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You see, my brethren, this is a topic which I love to dwell upon. A divine fire kindles in my heart, whilst I am musing on, and writing to you about it: and I should here enlarge, but I must hasten to recommend to you another thing of unspeakable importance to the well-being of christian society, a _spirit of universal…
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Further, my brethren, content not yourselves with reading, singing and praying together; but set some time apart to confess your faults and communicate your experiences one to another. For want of this (which I take to be one chief design of private meetings) most of the old ♦societies in _London_, I fear, are sunk int…
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You see, my brethren, I have confined myself to such particulars as relate to the improving your societies, and making them truly christian. I hope you will in like manner take heed to your ways in common life, and never give the adversary room justly, to speak reproachfully of your conduct. My brethren, the eyes of al…
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’Tis true, I hope, there are but few such monsters of barbarity suffered to subsist amongst you: some, I hear, have been lately executed in _Virginia_ for killing slaves; and the laws are very severe against such who at any time murder them. And perhaps it might be better for the poor creatures themselves, to be hurri…
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When passing along, whilst I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptuously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to eat, nor proper raiment to put on, notw…
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Most of you are without any teaching priest. And whatever quantity of rum there may be, yet I fear but very few bibles are annually imported into your different provinces. GOD has already begun to visit for this, as well as for other wicked things. For near two years last past, he has been in a remarkable manner conten…
276 wordsSECTION 26_G. W._
A LETTER TO SOME CHURCH-MEMBERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN Persuasion, IN ANSWER TO Certain SCRUPLES lately proposed, in proper QUERIES raised on each REMARK. A LETTER, &c. _New-York, November 1, 1740._ _My dear Friends_, LAST night and this morning I read your queries and scruples. Whether they were compiled by church-me…
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I see no reason to alter my explanation of the words, “Baptizing them into the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;” and, “CHRIST spiritually conceived in the heart of _Eve_:” I mean no more by these expressions than the Apostle, when he says, “Know ye not that CHRIST is in you, unless you be reprobates?” And aga…
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Some of the latter part of your queries, for your own, and not my own sake, I shall not mention. I hope I can say with more sincerity than _Hazael_, “Is your servant a dog, that he should do” what you suggest! But I pray GOD to forgive you. He knows my heart. My one design is to bring poor souls to JESUS CHRIST. I desi…
228 wordsSECTION 29GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
A LETTER To the REVEREND MR. JOHN WESLEY: In ANSWER to his SERMON, ENTITULED _FREE-GRACE_. _But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the Face, because he was to be blamed._ GALATIANS ii. 11. A LETTER TO THE Rev. Mr. JOHN WESLEY.…
46 wordsSECTION 30PREFACE.
_I AM very well aware, what different effects the publishing this Letter against the dear Mr. |Wesley|’s Sermon will produce. Many of my friends, that are strenuous advocates for |universal Redemption|, will immediately be offended. Many that are zealous on the other side, will be much rejoiced. They that are luke-warm…
328 wordsSECTION 31J. WESLEY.
_Thus my honoured friend, I heartily pray God to hasten the time, for his being clearly enlightened into all the doctrines of divine revelation, that we may thus be closely united in principle and judgment, as well as heart and affection. And then if the Lord should call us to it, I care not if I go with him to prison,…
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I shall only make a few remarks upon your sermon, entitled _Free-Grace_. And before I enter upon the discourse itself, give me leave to take a little notice of what, in your preface, you term an indispensible obligation, to make it public to all the world. I must own, that I always thought you were quite mistaken upon …
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I must next observe, that as you have been unhappy in printing at all, upon such an _imaginary warrant_, so you have been as unhappy in the choice of your text. Honoured Sir, how could it enter into your heart, to chuse a text to disprove the doctrine of election, out of the 8th of the _Romans_, where this doctrine is …
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O dear Sir, what kind of reasoning, or rather sophistry is this! Hath not GOD, who hath appointed salvation for a certain number, appointed also the preaching of the word, as a means to bring them to it? Does any one hold election in any other sense? And if so, how is preaching needless to them that are elected; when t…
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“As directly,” say you paragraph 11, “does the doctrine tend to destroy several particular branches of holiness, such as meekness, love, &c.” I shall say little, dear Sir, in answer to this paragraph. Dear Mr. _Wesley_ perhaps has been disputing with some warm narrow spirited men that held election, and then infers, th…
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In answer to this, let me observe, that none living, especially none who are desirous of salvation, can know that they are not of the number of GOD’s elect. None, but the unconverted, can have any just reason, so much as to fear it. And would dear Mr. _Wesley_ give comfort, or dare you apply the precious promises of th…
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Your 13th, 14th, and 15th paragraphs come next to be considered. “The witness of the Spirit, (you say, paragraph 14, page 14.) experience shews to be much obstructed by this doctrine.” But, dear Sir, whose experience? Not your own; for in your Journal, from your embarking for _Georgia_, to your return to _London_, page…
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This, dear Sir, is the triumphant language of every soul that has attained a full assurance of faith. And this assurance can only arise from a belief of GOD’s electing everlasting love. That many have an assurance they are in CHRIST to-day, but take no thought for, or are not assured they shall be in him to-morrow, nay…
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Fourthly, I shall now proceed to another head. Says the dear Mr. _Wesley_, page 15, paragraph 16, “How uncomfortable a thought is this, that thousands and millions of men, without any preceding offence or fault of theirs, were unchangeably doomed to everlasting burnings?” But who ever asserted, that thousands and mill…
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Further, you say, page 18, paragraph 19, “This doctrine makes revelation contradict itself.” For instance, say you, “The assertors of this doctrine interpret that text of scripture, _Jacob_ have I loved, but _Esau_ have I hated, as implying that GOD, in a literal sense, hated _Esau_ and all the reprobates from eternity…
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I would hint farther, that you unjustly charge the doctrine of reprobation with blasphemy, whereas the doctrine of universal redemption, as you set it forth, is really the highest reproach upon the dignity of the Son of GOD, and the merit of his blood. Consider whether it be not rather blasphemy to say as you do, page …
856 wordsSECTION 42GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
A VINDICATION AND CONFIRMATION OF THE Remarkable WORK of GOD IN _NEW-ENGLAND_.…
12 wordsSECTION 43BEING
Some REMARKS on a late Pamphlet, entitled, “_The State of Religion in |New-England|, since the Reverend Mr. |George Whitefield|’s Arrival there._” In a LETTER to a MINISTER of the CHURCH of SCOTLAND. A VINDICATION, &c. _Cambuslang, August 31, 1742._ _Reverend and dear Sir_, I HAVE read the pamphlet entitled, “_The…
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He says in the beginning of his letter, page the 3d, “I am sorry you have had such accounts of persons, and things, transmitted you from this country, as you mention in your letter; they are far from being true, and must come from men of narrow minds, and great bigotry, or from such as basely affect popularity, or from…
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I think I am much obliged to the writer, for what he says concerning me in this respect. But I wish he had not made so free with the character of my honoured friends. He cries out against slander in others, and at the same time, through the whole letter, he is guilty of the most palpable slander himself. He is pretty f…
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Again, “His sermons were sometimes as confused and senseless as you can imagine.” It is well they were not always so. “He seemed to have a particular quarrel with reason, learning and morality; for he seldom finished a sermon without saying something against them.” Never I believe, but when these things are magnified t…
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Page the 11th, he falls foul of Mr. _Moorhead_, and speaks almost as freely of him as of Mr. _Tennent_. I cannot say I was very intimate with Mr. _Moorhead_ when at _Boston_: but the letters that have lately come from him, and from others concerning him, bespeak him to be a man of a good spirit, and one whom GOD has bl…
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One would imagine, by this, Mr. _A. M._ is a church of _England_ man, and it should seem a bigoted one too: and then no wonder he speaks against the new-light. Their ministers I believe do preach against what I fear he terms enthusiasm, “The powerful feeling operations of the Holy Ghost.” But I cannot think they preach…
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The compilers, indeed, in order to make the world believe they had been impartial, have published a sentence or two, wherein Dr. _Colman_ has written favourably of the Orphan-house in _Georgia_, and says, “the order of it is admirable, &c.” but this is only a disguise. For they have been far from acting fair in this re…
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What opinion Mr. _Turell_ had of persons of this gentleman’s spirit, is evident from the fourth page of the same preface, which the compilers of the pamphlet could not but see. His words are these, “As for the profane triumphs of the opposers, (of such I mean) who attribute the whole of this glorious scene to the devil…
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When I consider how Mr. _A. M._ so quarrels with it, and endeavours to represent it in so ridiculous a light, I cannot but wish he may consider _Romans_ viii. 7. _1 Corinthians_ ii. 14. “The carnal mind is enmity against GOD; and the natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit of GOD, because they are spiritual…
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Thus speaks this great and good man: my heart warmed, dear Sir, whilst I was reading his discourse; it is close, succinct and powerful: how could the publishers, after reading such a dreadful warning, print any thing out of his sermon, to prove the work in _New-England_, to be enthusiasm? I would heartily join with him…
338 wordsSECTION 53_G. W._
By way of P. S. to this letter, give me leave to send you a copy of the preface to Mr. _M‘Gregor_’s sermon, to which I have referred in my letter, and which is signed by three eminent ministers of _Boston_. Dated, _Boston_, _January 12, 1742_. This will give you a clear insight into what body of doctrines is professed …
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And to see other gentlemen of the like knowledge, parts and principles, and of sober, just and religious lives, as far as their meer reason with outward revelation are able to carry them, and prepossessed against this work as imagined enthusiasm, yet at once surprizingly to find themselves intirely destitute of that in…
846 wordsSECTION 55THOMAS PRINCE, JOHN WEBB, WILLIAM COOPER.
_Boston, January 12, 1742._ A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Occasion, Process, _and_ Issue, Of a Late TRIAL AT THE ASSIZE held at GLOUCESTER, _March 3, 1743_ BETWEEN Some of the People called METHODISTS, Plaintiffs, AND Certain Persons of the Town of MINCHIN-HAMPTON, in the said County, Defendants. IN A LETTER to a FRIEND. _A…
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ON _Thursday_ evening I came hither from the _Gloucester_ assizes, where I have been engaged in a trial between some of those who are called Methodists, and some violent rioters. Perhaps this news may a little startle you, and put you upon enquiry (as it hath done some others) “How we came to go to law with our adversa…
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――――Hic murus aheneus esto, Nil conscire sibi, nullâ pallescere culpâ. _Tertullus_’s accusing _Paul_ came also to my mind, and I looked upon myself as highly honoured in having such things spoken against me ♦falsely for CHRIST’s great name’s sake. To prove what the Defendants council had insinuated, they called up a y…
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Upon this the jury were desired to consider of their verdict. There seemed to be some little demur amongst them. His Lordship perceiving it, informed them, “They had nothing to do with the damages, (that was to be referred to the _King’s-Bench_) they were only to consider whether the Defendants were guilty or not.” Whe…
318 wordsSECTION 59GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
⁂ For more particulars of this affair, see Volume II. Letters 526, 527, 529, 545, 549, and 550. A LETTER TO THE Revᵈ. THOMAS CHURCH, M.A. Vicar of BATTERSEA, and Prebendary of ST. PAUL’S; IN ANSWER TO HIS Serious and Expostulatory LETTER TO THE Revᵈ. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, On Occasion of his late LETTER to the Bishop of L…
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Here lies the point, Rev. Sir: the generality of the clergy are offended in their hearts, that his majesty is so mild towards his harmless and loyal people the Methodists. They have denied the Methodist preachers the use of their churches, and think, if field-preaching was put a stop to, Methodism, as they term it, wou…
492 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.