USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 24
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These convictions were to bear fruit in his after life. The missionaries had been visited on board their vessel by Tomo- chichi, the Indian chief who had visited England, and who bade him welcome. Jolin and Charles Wesley rowed by Savannah to pay their "first visit in America to the poor Indians," but were disappointed at finding them absent, which was but a prelude to the disappointment which they met with in this their main object in coming to America. Wesley's first public exercises were well attended in Savannah, and he entered on his duties with great enthusiasm ; but his ministry was attended with small success. He soon estranged the people from him by severity. He would baptize children only by immersion ; he denied the sacrament to one of the most pious men of the colony, because he had not received baptism by Episcopal hands. He estranged a numerous and influ- ential family by an unfortunate courtship, from which he retired under the advice of the elders of the Moravian church, whom he consulted. His congregation became thin, and but little interested in him. His brother Charles, who was secre- tary for Indian affairs, and chaplain of Oglethorpe at Fred- erica, wore out the people with his four public services a day ; persecution was raised against him; every kind of indignity was offered him; Oglethorpe's affections were for a time with- drawn from him, and he was threatened witli assassination. He left the colony, returning by the way of Boston. John Wesley, about fifteen months afterwards, followed him, leaving privately to avoid a vexatious detention .- (Journal of Wm. Stephens, Sec. of the Trustees, vol. i., p. 45.)
His place was supplied by that paragon of successful pulpit eloquence, George Whitefield, who, though disowned by his own church, had no small share in introducing that epochi which is the starting-point of our modern religious history. He had
224
WHITEFIELD.
[1730-1740.
passed through the same experience of spiritual agony with Wesley, and sought deliverance from sin and guilt in ascetic inflictions. He did penance in good earnest for the relief of his soul. "I always chose," says he, "the worst sort of food ; my apparel was mean. I thought it unbecoming a penitent to have my hair powdered. I wore woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes. I went to Christ Church walk, near our college, and continued in silent prayer nearly two hours- sometimes lying flat on my face, sometimes kneeling upon my knees." Under these self-inflicted torments his "memory failed," his power of meditating was taken from him; he "could fancy himself like nothing so much as a man locked up in iron armor." A serious illness of many weeks was the result. This illness he regarded as "a glorious visitation." As he was convalescing, he was accustomed to spend two hours over his Greek Testament, with wrestling prayer. He was delivered from his burden. "The spirit of mourning was taken from me, and I knew what it was truly to rejoice in God my Saviour. For some time I could not avoid singing psalms wherever I was." " The star which I had seen in the distance before began to appear again,-the day-star arose in my heart." He passed through the same experience with Luther, in the cloister at Erfurth, and was another illustration of the old maxim that there are three things which make the minister of Christ : Tentatio, Meditatio, Precatio,-Temptation, Meditation, and Prayer. At twenty-one years of age, con- trary to the resolution of the diocesans, he was ordained, by Bishop Benson, to the office of deacon in the Church of England. He had often "prayed against entering into the
service of the church so soon." He had frequently said : " Lord, I am a youth of uncircumcised lips ; Lord, send me not into thy vineyard yet." Yet he yielded, fearing he should fight against God. "I can call heaven and earth to witness," said he, " that when the bishop laid his hand upon me, I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the cross for me." His first sermon in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, where he was baptized, gave proof of his future success. The sight of the large congregation at first awed him, but, as lie proceeded, "he perceived the fire kindled." "Gloriou's Jesus," he writes,
"' Unloose my stammering tongue, to tell Thy love immense, unsearchable !'"
While engaged in London and Oxford he had received letters from the Wesleys and Ingham, then in Georgia, inviting him
225
SAILS FOR GEORGIA.
1730-1740.]
to the infant colony. "Only Mr. Delamotte," says John Wesley, "is with me, until God shall stir up the hearts of some of his servants to come over and help us. What if thou art the man, Mr. Whitefield? Do you ask me what you shall have ?- Food to eat, and raiment to put on ; a house to lay your head in, such as your master had not; and a crown of glory that fadeth not away." A profitable curacy was offered him in London, but he heeded it not. "My heart leaped within me," says he, "and, as it were, echoed to the call." He was accepted by the trustees as a missionary to Georgia, Dec. 21st, 1737, when he had just completed his twenty-second year. During the interval before his embarkation, the churches were thronged where he preached. It was difficult for him to make his way through the crowds to the pulpit. At Bristol "some climbed upon the roof of the church, others hung upon the rails of the organ-loft, and the mass within made the air so hot with their breath that the steam fell from the pillars like drops of rain." "The nearer the time of my embarkation, the more affectionate and eager the people grew. Thousands and thousands of prayers were put up for me. The people would run and stop me in the alleys of the churches, hug me in their arms, and follow me with wishful looks. Such a sacrament I never saw before as at St. Duns- tan's. The tears of the communicants mingled with the cup ; and had not Jesus given us some of his 'new wine,' our part- ings would have been insupportable." At length, "having preached in a good part of the London churches, collected about a thousand pounds for the charity schools, and got upwards of three hundred pounds for the poor in Georgia, I left London on Dec. 28th, 1737, in the twenty-third year of my age, and went, in the strength of God, as a poor pilgrim, on board the Whitaker." One "dear friend," James Habersham, accompanied him, who, in opposition to the views of his friends, resolved to cast in his lot with him. They landed in Savannah in the month of May, 1738; and Whitefield, though much reduced by fever, met with a kind reception from Dela- motte, the catechist who accompanied Wesley, and by the authorities of the town.
. William Stephens, who afterwards showed himself an enemy to his doctrines and a severe " critick" of his conduct, testifies on all occasions, during Whitefield's first visit, to the " engaging" character of his services, to his " eloquence," to the numbers and attention of the audiences who assembled to hear him, to his "assiduity in the performance of divine offices," to " his
15
226
VISITS CHARLESTON.
[1730-1740.
open and easy deportment," and to the "indefatigable exercise of his ministry through the whole week in the adjacent villages as well as in the town." Soon after his arrival he was struck with the forlorn condition of the children whom he met with, and resolved to carry into effect the project of an Orphan House, which, he says, was not an original suggestion of his own, but "was proposed by his dear friend, Rev. Charles Wes- ley, who, with his excellency, Governor Oglethorpe, had con- certed such a scheme before he, Whitefield, had any thought of going abroad." He "settled little schools in and about Savannah to breed the rising generation in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,"-(Whitefield's Letters, vol. i., p. 44, vol. iii., p. 463,)-and employed Mr. Habersham, who entered into his schemes with warm enthusiasm, to gather around him the youth in preparation for the great enterprise. He then set out for Charlestown in South Carolina, paid his first visit to Commissary Garden, and at his entreaty preached the next Sunday morning and evening in a grand church resembling one of the new churches in London. The inhabitants seemed at his first coming up to despise his youth, but their counte- nances were altered before worship was over. Mr. Garden thanked him most cordially, and apprised him of the ill treat- ment Mr. Wesley had met with in Georgia, and assured him that were the same arbitrary proceedings to commence against him, he would defend him with his life and fortune. He also said something about the colony of Georgia that much encour- aged him, as if he thought its flourishing was not far off, and that Charlestown was fifteen times bigger now, than when he (Mr. Garden) first came there .- (Gillies' Life of White- field, p.29). "The Bishop of London's commissary," says he in his journal, " the Rev. Mr. G., received me very courteously, and offered me. a lodging. How does God raise up friends wherever I go !"
On the 6th of September, 1738, Mr. Whitefield embarked in a ship bound from Charlestown to London.
227
SERVILE INSURRECTION.
1740-1750.]
BOOK EIGHTH.
A. D. 1740-1750.
CHAPTER I.
THE year 1740 is signalized in the history of South Carolina by a servile insurrection, which, though limited in its extent, is yet the only one during the one hundred and ninety-nine years since negro slaves were first introduced by Governor Yeamans till this present moment, which ever came to a head and was fairly commenced. The relations of both Carolina and Georgia towards the Spaniards of Florida were far from being easy. The garrison at St. Augustine had been largely re-enforced, and representations having been made by Gov- ernor Bull of the threatening aspect of affairs, General Oglethorpe was sent out with a regiment of soldiers, and at the same time was made major-general of all the forces of Georgia and Carolina. The Spaniards attempted to seduce the Creek Indians and turn them against the Georgians. The Spanish government demanded of the British crown that Oglethorpe should be recalled. This being indignantly re- fused, an attempt was set on foot for his assassination, which was frustrated. Another attempt was now made to initiate a servile insurrection. There were at this time about forty thousand negroes in the province, who had not yet lost the fierceness of their savage state. Liberty and protection had been repeatedly promised them at St. Augustine, and Spanish emissaries had more than once been found tampering with them, and persuading them too successfully to escape to that settlement. The governor of Florida had formed a regiment of these refugees, allowing them the same pay, and clothing them in the same uniform, with the Spanish soldiers. Of these things many of the negroes in Carolina were aware. Five negro servants, who were cattle-hunters, some of whom be- longed to Captain McPherson, after wounding his son and kill- ing another man, made, their escape. The people of Carolina were now thoroughly alarmed. In the midst of this agitation, a number of negroes having assembled at Stono, first sur- prised and killed two young men in a warehouse, and then took possession of the guns and ammunition with which it was supplied. Provided thus with arms, they elected one of their
228
SERVILE INSURRECTION.
[1740-1750.
number captain, and commenced their march towards the southwest, with colors flying and drums beating, in imitation of their brethren at St. Augustine. Entering the house of Mr. Godfrey, they murdered him, his wife, and children, took all the arms he had, set fire to the house, and marched towards Jacksonborough, plundering and burning every dwelling, kill- ing the whites, and compelling the negroes to join them. Gov- ernor Bull was on his return to Charleston when he met thie band, and seeing them armed, he swiftly rode out of their reach, and crossing over to John's Island, he arrived at Charleston, spreading the alarm. Mr. Golightly also encoun- tered the insurgents, and rode quickly on to the Presbyterian church at Wilton, where Archibald Stobo was preaching to a numerous congregation. By law, the planters were obliged to go armed to church, and in this instance the law proved to be a beneficial regulation. The women were left trembling with fear. Mr. Golightly joined the armed men, who, under the command of Captain Bee, marched in quest of the negroes, now formidable.in numbers. They had advanced fifteen miles, spreading desolation in their path. Having found rum in the houses they plundered, and drank freely of it, they halted in an open field, and began to sing and dance by way of tri- umph. The militia came upon them while they were occupied with these rejoicings. They had just got through their repast and were about moving off, having fired the dwelling-house at a plantation since known as " the Battlefield." The militia stationed themselves around, to prevent escape, and a party advanced into the open field to attack them. The intoxica- tion of several favored the assailants. Their black captain, Cato, was shot, after he had discharged one musket and was stooping to take up another. A few others were killed. Many ran back. to their plantations, in hopes of escaping detection in the absence of their masters. The greater part were taken and tried, the leaders and first insurgents were executed, and those compelled to join were pardoned. Gov- ernor Bull advised General Oglethorpe of the insurrection, desiring him to seize all straggling Spaniards and negroes whom he might find in Georgia, and a company of rangers was employed to patrol the frontiers and to block up all pas- sages by which they might escape to Florida .- (Hewatt, vol. ii., 72-74 ; Ramsay, ii., 110-112.)
In this insurrection twenty whites were murdered, and but for the Presbyterian congregation at Wiltown, matters would have been much worse.
229
BURNING OF CHARLESTON.
1740-1730.]
Rev. Mr. Stobo's long and useful ministry must have ceased soon after this. In a paper, dated October 15th, 1741, found in the archives of the Wilton church, mention is made of his death as a recent occurrence. His ministry'in Carolina had reached through forty years of the eventful history of its early settlement. He had been the founder of several churches, had been the most influential man in forming the first presbytery organized in the province, which was the third in priority of organization of all the presbyteries of the United States. In the same year, November 18th, 1740, the Huguenot church in Charleston was burnt, and their early records perished in the conflagration. This was one item in the many losses which the city of Charleston at that time experienced. One- half of the city was consumed, three hundred of the best houses were reduced to ashes, large quantities of produce and merchandise destroyed, and many families ruined as to their earthly prospects. The occasion was suitably improved by the ministers of the gospel in their public ministrations. The sermon of Josiah Smith, occasioned by this event, entitled " The Burning of Sodom," was printed in Boston in the same year .- (No. 362, Old South Library, Boston.) In another dis- course in commemoration of the same event, he thus describes this scene of terror, and then charges home upon the people the vices which prevailed among them :- " You can none of you have forgot the Triumphs of that flaming Day. Do you not remember how the proud Flames laugh'd at your Engines, your Art, and your Numbers ? Have you forgot, how with winged Speed the Fire flew from House to House? How it seem'd to choose out your fairest Buildings, and burnt them down to their Foundation? Where was then the Beauty of Charlestown-Bay? Where was her Merchandize and Traffick? How did the Gay Gentlemen look? How did you confess your Weakness ? What Confusion sate upon your Faces, and mingled with your Cries? What Screamings, what wringing of Hands among the pitiful Women? Yea, how were the stout-hearted spoiled, and their Hearts ready to fail, as if the flaming Scenes of Nature, which are to close the World, were already set open, as if the Elements were indeed in a Flame ?" -(Sermons by Josiah Smith, A. M., Minister of the Gospel in Charlestown, So. Car., Boston, MDCCLVII., Serm. XV.).
The Rev. Mr. Whitefield, on his return to England, which he visited for the double purpose of obtaining ordination and furthering his project of an orphan-house, found himself received with cold civility. In two days five pulpits were
230
WHITEFIELD AND GARDEN.
[1740-1750.
closed against him. The clergy began to see that his doctrine of a new birth and of justification without works of man's righteousness worked against them, while his zeal was a con- stant rebuke to the sloth and worldliness of too many of them. In proportion as he lost their confidence he gained upon the hearts of the common people.
In Bristol he had the use of the churches for two or three Sundays, but they were at length denied him. The embargo occasioned by a war with Spain being removed, and more than a thousand pounds being collected for the orphan-house, he embarked for Philadelphia, where he arrived in November, 1739. Multitudes gathered around him as in England, and all denominations flocked to hear him. In New York the Bishop of London's' commissary refused him his pulpit. In the afternoon he preached in the fields, and in the evening in the pulpit of Mr. Pemberton's Presbyterian church on Wall street. It was in this city that in his discourse to a large num- ber of sailors he introduced the description of a storm and shipwreck, which so wrought upon them that in the climax of the scene they sprang to their feet, exclaiming, " Take to the long-boat!" As he returned to Georgia by land he preached throughout his route, as was estimated, often to ten thousand people. He regarded himself as sometimes in danger. Once he heard the wolves " howling like a kennel of hounds near the road." He had a narrow escape in crossing the Potomac in a storm. Once he was obliged to swim his horse in crossing the swollen streams. One night he and his companion Seward lost themselves in the woods of South Carolina, and were greatly alarmed at seeing groups of negroes dancing around great fires. On his arrival in Charleston, the commissary, so friendly before, was absent, and the curate would not open the door of St. Philip's without his leave. Josiah Smith, the pastor, threw open the Independent church, and a large and "polite" con- gregation assembled to hear him. There was "an affected finery and gaity of dress and deportment which," he says, "I question if the Court-end of London could exceed." The next morning, in the French church, the scene was altered. A visible and almost universal concern prevailed. Many of the inhabitants desired him to give them one sermon more ; he deferred his journey to do so, and his labors were not in vain. On the 11th of January, 1740, he reached Savannah. Mr. Habersham had already selected a lot of five hundred acres, about ten miles from Savannah, as a site for the orphan-house, and had begun to clear it ; and between attention to this and
231
1740-1750.] CONTROVERSY ON JUSTIFICATION.
his numerous religious services, his time was fully occupied. The subjects of his preaching for a number of Sabbaths were the doctrine of justification and the new birth, and though his congregations were large for so small a population, there were some to whom his doctrines were exceedingly distasteful. In March, 1740, he again visited Charleston to meet his brother, captain of a ship from England. Commissary Garden, who had pledged himself " to defend him with his life and fortune," had now become his enemy. On the 17th of March he addressed a letter to Whitefield, calling in question his doc- trine of justification, and calling upon him to defend his charges against the Bishop of London and his clergy. White- field had said in his sermon, " Observe, my dear brethren, the words of the article-[the Twelfth Article of the Church of England]; good works are the fruit of faith, and follow justifi- cation: How can they then precede, or be any way the cause of it? No, our persons must be justified before our perform- ances can be accepted." Garden replied, "If good works do necessarily spring out of a true and lively faith, and a true and lively faith necessarily precedes justification, the conse- quence is plain, that good works must not only follow after, but precede justification also." Whitefield replied the next day, declining the controversy, and in language less respectful than was proper to his ecclesiastical superior. "I perceive," says he, " that you are angry overmuch. Was I ever so much inclined to dispute, I would stay till the cool of the day. Your letter more and more confirms me that my charge against the clergy is just and reasonable. It would be endless to enter into such a private debate as you, Reverend Sir, seem desirous of. You have read my sermon ; be pleased to read it again ; and if there be anything contrary to sound doctrine, or the Articles of the Church of England, be pleased to let the pub- lic know it from the press." Garden wrote and published six letters against Whitefield. Mr. Garden descends in these let- ters to language unworthy of him as a minister of Christ. " Your Reverence," says he, addressing Whitefield ; and if " the latter had been censorious and imprudent in the language he used," Garden in these letters was ill-mannered and virulent. They were answered in a style sarcastic and severe by the Rev. Andrew Croswell, with an appendix in the same strain by one of the Boston pastors ; probably the Rev. Joshua Gee .* Gar-
* The copy we have seen in the Old South Church Library, Boston. "Six Letters to Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, by Alexander Garden, M. A., Rector
232
SMITH'S SERMON
[1740-1750.
den contended that good works, though not the meritorious cause, were the condition and means of our justification. Cros- well shows that there must, in this case, be a certain amount of good works needed for the justification of each individual, and the precise amount being nowhere specified, a man must be always in doubt whether he is justified or not. "A man," says he, "might attain one-half, two-thirds, three-quarters, or ninety-nine hundredths of justification." "What would be- come of a poor sinner that should be taken out of the world at that unhappy juncture, wherein his justification was so near being effected that there wanted but one good wish, one 'Lord, have mercy on me' more, to complete it? Shall a man be mis- erable forever for this defect ?"" " Or shall he be doomed to purgatory for a while, to satisfy for what was wanting, and thereby made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light ? Lastly, I would ask, what will become of those good works which are the overplus after a man is justified ?"-(Answer to Rev. Mr. Garden, Boston : Kneeland and Green, 1741.) Mr. Whitefield was again befriended by Mr. Smith, in whose meet- ing-house he preached. At the desire of some of the inhab- itants he plead the cause of his orphans, and took up the first collection made for his orphan-house in America, which amounted to seventy pounds sterling. In reference to this visit to Charleston he says, " A great work I believe is begun there. God has given me an earnest of what he will do in America, by the large collection that was made at Charles Town." This he says when speaking of his intention to jour- ney northward to preach the gospel, and make fresh collections for his orphans. "I have been a few days returned from Charles Town, where our Lord Jesus, I trust, has begun a glo- rious work. Many came to me under convictions, and were made to cry out, 'What shall we do to be saved?'"-(Letters dated Savannah; March 26; New Brunswick, April 28, 1740.) On his return to Savannah he laid the first brick of his orphan- house, and called the institution Bethesda, the House of Mercy. This occurred on March the 25th. The next day, March 26th, the Rev. Josiah Smith preached in Charleston his famous ser- mon on the Character, Preaching, &c., of Rev. George White- field, which was forwarded to Dr. Colman and Mr. Cooper of Boston, who published it in Boston, A. D. 1740, with a com- mendatory preface. The large extract we here give will be
of St. Philip's, Charlestown, and Commissary in South Carolina, together with Mr. Whitefield's Answer to the first Letter." Second Edition, Boston, F. Flect, 1740, p. 54.) See also Tracy's "Great Awakening."
233
ON WHITEFIELD.
1740-1750.]
forgiven, not only for its eloquent and masterly defence of Whitefield, but as a favorable specimen of a minister of Christ who once occupied a conspicuous place in the city of Charles- ton, and deserves to be held in remembrance. It is from a copy preserved in the library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Mass.
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