The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, Volume 2 (of 2)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, Volume 2 (of 2)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770
“I see you are like to have hot work, for I find you have begun
to batter Satan’s strongest hold――I mean the self-righteousness
of man. Here, sir, you must expect the strongest opposition. It
is the _Diana_ of every age. It is the golden image, which man
continually sets up; and the not falling down to worship it,
much more to speak, write, or preach against it, exposes one
to the fury of its blind votaries, and we are thrown directly
into a den of lions. But fear not, Mr. Baddiley; the God whom
we serve is able to deliver us. If any one need give way, it
must be the poor creature who is writing to you; for, I believe,
there is not a person living more timorous by nature than I
am. But, in a degree, Jesus has delivered me from worldly hopes
and worldly fears, and often makes me as bold as a lion. But,
my dear sir, at first, I did not care to part with this pretty
character of mine. It was death to be despised, and worse than
death to think of being laughed at. Blessed be God! now contempt
and I are pretty intimate, and have been so for above twice
seven years. The love of Jesus makes it an agreeable companion,
and I no longer wonder that Moses made such a blessed choice.
There is no doing good without enduring the scourge of the
tongue; and take this for a certain rule――‘The more successful
you are, the more you will be hated by Satan, and despised by
those who know not God.’ What has the honoured lady suffered
under whose roof you dwell! Above all, what did your blessed
Master suffer! O let us follow Him, though it be through a sea
of blood.”
On the same day that Whitefield wrote to her domestic chaplain,
he wrote to the Countess herself. Perhaps it ought to be premised
that, at this time, Wesley had, besides the “Old Foundery,” two other
London chapels――one in West Street, Seven Dials, built by the French
Protestants; the other in Snowfields, Bermondsey, built by a Unitarian.
The “Mr. Gifford,” whom Whitefield mentions, was a man of some
importance. Besides being the respected minister of the Baptist
Church, in Eagle Street, London, he was chaplain to Sir Richard Ellys,
the learned author of “Fortuita Sacra.” He had a private collection
of coins, said to have been one of the most curious in Great Britain,
and which George II. purchased as an addition to his own. Through Sir
Richard Ellys, he became a personal friend of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke,
Archbishop Herring, Sir Arthur Onslow, the Speaker of the House of
Commons, and other persons of high social rank. He was also ultimately
appointed librarian of the British Museum, and was made a doctor by the
University of Aberdeen.
“LONDON, _January 12, 1750_.
“HONOURED MADAM,――Every day we have new hearers, and persons are
almost continually brought under convictions, or are edified, at
the Tabernacle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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