[♣] “undestanding” replaced with “understanding”
O my reverend brethren, my heart is in pain for you: indeed I could weep over you. Surely you are not all of his Lordship’s mind. And yet the title-page of this Charge seems at least to imply, that it was printed at the request of the generality of you. O be not angry if I entreat you, if there be any consolation in Christ, or fellowship of the Spirit, to think of these things, and lay them to heart. Remember, I beseech you, remember the good confession you made before many witnesses, when you professed that you were inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you the administration of the church. And consider with yourselves, what a horrid prevarication it must be in the sight of God and man, to subscribe to articles in the literal and grammatical sense, which you do not believe? Reflect on what is spoken by the Prophet, “They have run, and I have not sent them, therefore shall they not profit this people at all.” Think what a dreadful thing it is to preach an unknown, an unfelt Christ; and how awful it will be to have the blood of thousands required at your hands at the great day? As you have received an apostolical commission, labour after an apostolical spirit. And do not set yourselves to oppose or run down his blessed operations in others, because you do not feel them in yourselves. Beware of thus doing despite to the Spirit of grace: and be not like the Pharisees, who “neither entered into the kingdom of God themselves, and those that were entering in they hindered.” Seek you after a righteousness which exceeds theirs. Call to mind, I beseech you, that ye are the lights of the world. If therefore that light which is in you be darkness, how great must that darkness be? “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.” God seems now about to rise to shake terribly the earth. We hear of wars and rumours of wars. O let your loins be girt, your lamps trimmed, and be ye like unto servants that are waiting for the bridegroom: that if he should come at the second or third watch, he may find you so doing. Smite not your fellow-servants; but rather take ye Gamaliel’s advice: “Refrain from these men, and let them alone. For if this counsel or work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found to fight against God.” The harvest is great, very great, and souls are every where perishing for lack of knowledge. Why should the labourers be so few? Think of that awful saying of the angel of the Lord, “Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Shew that you love Christ above all things, by feeding his lambs and his sheep; by being instant in season and out of season. That so when the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls shall appear, you may give up your accounts with joy, and not with grief.
Suffer me also (as undoubtedly you requested his Lordship to publish this charge for their instruction) to give a word of exhortation to your Parishioners. You see, Sirs, that I have used great plainness of speech in my remarks upon this charge of your Right Reverend Diocesan. Do not without examination contradict and blaspheme, but be noble, as the Bereans were, and “search the scriptures whether these things be so or not: to the law, and to the testimony.” Let that determine who are the seducers, who are the enthusiasts, and the enemies to the Church; those who preach up the doctrine of justification by faith alone in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling and witnessing of the Spirit; or those who tell you, that they were the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, and not to be expected in these last days. Say not within yourselves, “We have Jesus for our saviour, we have been born again in baptism, we are members of the Church of England, we do nobody any harm, we will do what we can, and Jesus Christ will do the rest;” but seek ye after a better righteousness than your own, even that “righteousness which is by faith;” and earnestly press after that indwelling of the Spirit, and that true inward holiness and purity of heart, without which no man living shall see the Lord. Get acquainted with the collects, homilies, articles and old writers of that Church whereof you profess yourselves members, and let not ignorance be the mother of your devotion. Remember that “God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” See that your zeal be according to knowledge: and count not those to be troublers of Israel, nor like the misguided Jews, irritated thereto by the high priests, raise mobs against them, as turners of the world upside down, who out of love to your souls, have put their lives in God’s hands, and shew unto you the true way of eternal salvation. Place not holiness in outward buildings, nor reject the gospel because preached to you in the fields, in the streets and lanes of the city. See, hear, and judge for yourselves, and beware lest that come upon you which is spoken by a Prophet: “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish: for I work a work in your days, which a man shall not believe, though one declare it unto him.”
As for those among you, who in derision are termed Methodists, be you thankful to that God, who I trust has made you wise unto everlasting salvation, and given you not only to believe on the Lord Jesus, but also to suffer for his name. You have lately been enabled joyfully to bear the spoiling of your goods[¹]. Think it not strange, if you should hereafter be called to resist unto blood. Fear not the faces of men, neither be afraid of their revilings. Having believed on the Lord Jesus, with your hearts, in spite of all opposition from men and devils, make confession of him with your mouths unto eternal salvation. Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and sealed by the blood of your martyrs: at the same time, “be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but the Lord Jesus hath chosen and redeemed you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Follow him therefore chearfully without the camp, bearing his reproach. The more you are afflicted, the more you shall multiply and grow. For verily no man hath lost houses or lands for Christ’s sake, and the gospel, who shall not receive a hundred-fold in this life with persecution, and in the world to come life everlasting. Persecution is your privilege: it is a badge of your discipleship: it is every christians lot in some degree or other. Only be ye careful to give no just offence, either to Jew or Gentile, or the church of God. And as you profess to have received the Holy Ghost in his sanctifying gifts and graces, and to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, be ye studious to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in your lives; that all who are acquainted with you may take knowledge that you have been with Jesus. Call no man master but Christ. Follow others only as they are followers of him. Be fond of no name but that of Christian. Beware of making parties, or calling down fire from heaven to consume your adversaries. “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.” Labour to shine in common life, by a due conscientious discharge of all relative duties, and study to adorn the gospel of our Lord in all things. If you are good christians, you will fear God, and for his sake honour the King. Be thankful for the many blessings you enjoy under the government of his present Majesty King George, and continue to pray to Him, by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice, to keep a popish Pretender from ever sitting on the English throne. Be cloathed with humility: and always count yourselves beginners in religion. Let it be your meat and drink to do and suffer the will of your Master, and forgetting the things which are behind, reach forward to the things which are before, and never cease striving, till you are filled with all the fulness of God. Determine to know nothing but Jesus, and him crucified. Remember his agony and bloody sweat, his shameful cross and passion. Chearfully pledge him in his bitter cup, and as he was, so be ye in this world. Think of his last and new commandment, and “love one another with a pure heart fervently;” looking and preparing for that blessed hour, when he shall come and call you to sit down with him at the marriage-feast in the realms of light and love, where the wicked shall cease from troubling, and where your weary souls shall be at rest.
[¹] N. B. The Methodists in Staffordshire were mobbed the Shrove-Tuesday before, and plundered of their substance to the amount of seven hundred pounds sterling.
Finally, I would drop a word to YOU, who have been lately called out into the highways and hedges, and have been honoured as instruments to compel many poor sinners to come in. Against you, my brethren, his Lordship’s charge seems to be particularly levelled. But I am persuaded you will be nothing terrified thereby, since you know, I believe, by happy experience, what it is to have the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of God opened to your souls, and to have the Comforter come and abide with you. You have often felt his blessed influences, whilst you have been praying to that God whom you serve, dealing out the bread of life in his name to the people. Ye are highly favoured. Having believed, ye speak, and in your degree can say with our Saviour, “We speak the things that we know.” God, who hath commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone into your hearts with the light of the glorious gospel. Put not therefore this light under a bushel, but preach the word; “Be ye instant in season and out of season; rebuke, reprove, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Do the office of evangelists, and make full proof of your ministry.” And whilst others are calling for miracles from you, to prove that you are sealed and sent by the Spirit, do you labour after the conversion of precious souls as seals of your mission, who shall be your joy and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus. Whilst others are approving themselves ministers of Christ, by dignities and great preferments, do you approve yourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, &c. See 2 Corinthians vi. 4–8. Set the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, and the noble army of martyrs always before you. O think how [♦]abundant they were in labours, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft, and how they rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus Christ’s sake. Above all, look ye unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith; consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. Are you esteemed mad? So was he. Are you termed deceivers of the people? So was he. Are ye looked upon as actuated by an evil spirit? He was called Beelzebub, the very chief of the devils. Are ye thrust out of the synagogues? So was he. Do men hunt for your precious lives? So they did for his. The Jews sought often to kill him, but they could not, because his hour was not yet come: and so it shall be with you. You are immortal till your work is done. The witnesses shall not be slain till their testimony is finished. Set your faces therefore as flints: let your brows be harder than adamant: fear not the faces of men, lest God confound you before them. Give not place to those who oppose the operations of the Spirit, no not for an hour. Go ye forth in the strength of the Lord, making mention of his righteousness, and his only. Remember that blessed promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Jesus is the same now as he was yesterday. And if you are really thrust out into the harvest by Jesus, he will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist. You see how dreadfully the scriptures are interpreted. Give yourselves therefore to reading. Search the scriptures. But above all things, pray that ye may be taught of God: without which, notwithstanding all critical and human learning, you will never be scribes well instructed to the kingdom of heaven. Continue to go out into the highways and hedges. Consider what multitudes there are around you every where, ready to perish for lack of knowledge. And though your enemies, for want of arguments, should so far prevail, as to bring you before governors for so doing, fear not, for it shall be given you, as well as unto the first preachers of the everlasting gospel, what ye shall speak. O men, greatly beloved, my heart is enlarged towards you. Give me leave to say unto you, as the angel did to Daniel, “Be strong,” yea be strong: quit yourselves like men: put on the whole armour of God. And then, though you should be cast into a den of lions, that God whom you serve, is able, and will deliver you. Though afflicted, destitute, tormented here on earth, verily great shall be your reward in heaven.
[♦] “abundandant” replaced with “abundant”
And now, my reverend brethren, to whom this letter is particularly inscribed, what shall I say more? I commend it, and you, to the great God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. I have written to you out of the fulness of my heart; and praying that God may give us a right judgment in all things, I beg leave to subscribe myself, (though the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints),
Your affectionate younger brother, and fellow-servant in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,
George Whitefield.