The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, Volume 1 (of 2)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
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The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, Volume 1 (of 2)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770
"REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--By God's providence, we are not yet
embarked for Georgia, so I have had the pleasure of receiving
your kind and well-meant answer. I knew my letter would surprise
you. I should have been surprised myself, had I been in your
circumstances. Before long, I hope we shall all be of one mind.
My brother Benjamin once opposed, as you do; but, blessed be
God, he is now become a fool for Christ's sake.
"On my own behalf, I cannot sufficiently praise God for
bringing me out of that darkness in which you left me, into His
marvellous light. I know you imagined me to be a true Christian
before you embarked, and so I thought myself. But I was almost a
stranger to the doctrines of the Spirit of God, of regeneration,
and of justification by faith only; nor do I remember to have
heard any of them preached or explained by our clergy. I prayed,
went to church, and gave alms; but why and wherefore I knew not.
I knew little or nothing of a _vital faith in Jesus Christ_.
I obeyed God and Christ in part, but not universally. I hated
sin, but had not dominion over it. You say, my dear brother,
that 'if a man who believes in Christ, and obeys God, is not a
Christian, what is Christianity?' But the question is, what this
_belief_ may be? Not a bare _historical_ assent to the truths
and facts recorded in the Scripture, (for this is _only the
faith of devils_,) but a _vital faith_ wrought in the heart by
the blessed Spirit of God, and productive of good works. This is
a _faith_ I never fully felt before Mr. Charles Wesley expounded
the seventh of Romans, and I cannot but always honour him as an
instrument in God's hand of shewing me the true way of salvation
by Jesus Christ. You may call this _Quakerism_, or what you
please; but I know it is the faith which Christ and His apostles
preached.
"You pray, my dear brother, that we may return to the Church
of England. We are not _dissenting_ from it; neither are
the Methodists, as the world, in derision, calls them. They
constantly preach up the articles, collects, homilies, and
liturgies of our own Church. But here lies the truth of the
matter. The doctrines of the _Reformation_ have lain a long
while dormant. The generality of our English clergy have sadly
fallen from them. God has raised up some to preach the truth as
it is in Jesus, and as held by our Church. He has set His seal
to their ministry. They have made abundantly more converts
than those zealous atheists you mentioned. The pleasure,
preferment-loving clergy envy their success, and, therefore,
are confederate against them. Perhaps you may think this
uncharitable; but I think I speak the truth in Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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