The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., Vol. 4 (of 6)

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THE

WORKS

OF THE REVEREND

GEORGE WHITEFIELD, M.A.

Late of Pembroke-College, Oxford,
And Chaplain to the Right Honourable, the Countess of Huntingdon.

CONTAINING

All his SERMONS and TRACTS

Which have been already published:

WITH

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.

ALSO

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.

VOLUME IV.

LONDON:

Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry;
and Messrs. Kincaid and Creech, at Edinburgh.

MDCCLXXI.

ANSWER
TO THE
BISHOP of LONDON’s
LAST
PASTORAL LETTER.

My Lord,

INEED 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 best manner I can.

Your Lordship is highly to be commended, for the care you have taken in watching over the souls of those, who are committed to your Lordship’s charge. Lukewarmness and enthusiasm, are the two rocks against which even well-meaning people are in danger of splitting. All ought to be thankful to that pilot, who will teach them to steer a safe and middle course. I would gladly hope, that “a zeal for God in the discharge of your duty, and a hearty concern for the safety of souls,” moved your Lordship to write. These are the principles, I trust, which now excite me, to direct this answer to your Lordship. And, blessed be God, that I can write with somewhat of that love and meekness, which becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ, and with all that humility and reverence, which is due from a presbyter to a bishop of the church of God.

Lukewarmness and enthusiasm, my Lord, are certainly the bane of true christianity. I thank your Lordship again for your kind cautions against them. The only query is, “Whether there was any occasion for your Lordship’s warning the people of your diocese, against running into either of these extremes, upon account of any thing, I have either spoken or written?” Your Lordship thinks there was, and quotes passages out of my Journal to prove it; if it can be proved, I will ask public pardon, both of your Lordship and them, with all my heart.

As for your Lordship’s cautions against lukewarmness, I am not much concerned in them. You do not seem to point at me in particular; unless it is, where your Lordship (page 10.) informs your people, “That a diligent attendance on the duties of the station wherein Providence has placed them, is, in the strictest sense, the serving of God.” None but those, who condemn me unheard, can justly charge me with affirming to the contrary.

However, I beg leave to observe, that your Lordship, (page 8.) calls that a very imperfect state of christianity, which is no state of christianity at all. St.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter xiii.
verse 5, says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves.” And that they might have a certain rule, whereby to judge whether they were in the faith, truly so called, or not; he immediately adds, “Know ye not your ownselves, how that Christ Jesus
is in you, except ye be reprobates?” So that, according to St.
Paul’s rule, “He that finds, he has hitherto contented himself with a bare bodily attendance upon the public worship of God,
and with following his daily employment on other days, and with abstaining from the more gross and notorious acts of sin, and from doing any hurt or injury to his neighbour, and has rested finally upon these, as the whole of what christianity requires of him;” is so far from being in a very imperfect state, as your Lordship is pleased to affirm, page 8. that he is in no state of christianity at all. No, my Lord, he is a reprobate, or, one who at present is out of a state of salvation, nor can he ever have any assurance that he is in a state of salvation, till he knows that Jesus Christ
is in him, by the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. If
I have mistaken your Lordship’s expression, I will freely beg your Lordship’s pardon.

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 of God co-operates with their honest endeavours to subdue sin and grow in goodness.” If by good dispositions, your Lordship only means good inclinations or desires, I deny that to be a sufficient evidence, that the Spirit of God co-operates with their honest endeavours to subdue sin and grow in goodness. For there is a great difference between good desires and good habits: many have one, who never attain the other. Many have good desires to subdue sin, and yet, resting in those good desires, sin has always had dominion over them. A person sick of a fever may desire to be in health, but that desire is not health itself. In like manner, many have good dispositions, or desires to be good, but that is not goodness itself. And consequently men need more evidence than good dispositions, to prove to themselves or others, “that the Holy Spirit of God co-operates with their honest endeavours to subdue sin.” If by good dispositions, your Lordship means good habits wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God, such as peace, love, joy, long-suffering, goodness, truth, &c. I then agree a man needs no other evidence: for these are the proper and genuine fruits of the Spirit itself.

Your Lordship immediately adds, “Nor that, persevering in their course, and praying to God for his assistance, and relying upon the merits of Christ for the pardon of all such sins, failings, and imperfections, as are more or less unavoidable in this mortal state.” I beg leave to ask your Lordship, whether this does not savour too much of the common divinity, That we are to do something for ourselves: or, in other words, that we have partly a righteousness of our own, and that Jesus Christ is to make up the deficiencies of that righteousness? What else can your Lordship mean, by saying, That we must rely on the merits of Christ for the pardon of “all such sins as are more or less unavoidable in this mortal state?” Did Jesus Christ come into the world, my Lord, only to save us from the guilt of such sins, as are more or less unavoidable in this mortal state? The scriptures every where affirm, that man hath no righteousness of his own, “That there is none righteous, no not one; — that all our righteousness is as filthy rags;” and that Jesus Christ died, not only to save us from the guilt of all such sins, failings, and infirmities, as are more or less unavoidable in this mortal state, but from all wilful sins, and also from that original corruption, which every man naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, brings into the world with him. I hope I have not misunderstood, or overstrained your Lordship’s expression.

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