USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 25
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" Job 32 : 17-' I said, I will answer also my part, I also will show mine opinion.' My design from this text is to show my impartial opinion of that son of thunder who has lately graced and warmed this desk, and would have been an ornament, I think, to the best pulpit in the province. Happy shall I think myself if I can only clinch the nails, this great master of assemblies has already fastened. Elihu, the gallant youth before us, says, I am now full of matter. The spirit within me constraineth me. My belly is as wine which hath no vent, it is ready to burst like new bottles. I will speak, that I may be refreshed. Others have freely spoken their sentiments of the wondrous man before me, and I have heard the defaming as well as applause of many. I said there- fore, I will answer also my part, I also will show mine opinion. In this I design no offence, nor would I give flattering titles to any man, lest my Maker should take me away.
" The scheme I propose is,
"I. To give my opinion of the doctrines he insisted upon and so well estab- lished.
" II. To speak something of the manner of his preaching.
"III. To offer my sentinients upon his person and character.
"Lastly. To give you my thouglits, what Providence seems to have in its vieto, in raising up men of this stamp in our day, almost everywhere spoken against, yet crowded after and justly admired.
"I. I shall give you my opinion of the doctrines he insisted on amongst us." Then follow Original Sin (Imputation). " Another doctrine we have lately had in the warmest language impressed upon us is the Pauline one of JUSTI- FICATION BY FAITH ALONE," REGENERATION.
" Yet all that vast Reverence, with wh I have recd these Doctrines from the Mouth of our famous Preacher, cd not win my Applause or Approbation of some few harsher Epithets and Expressions (you know what I mean) which dropt from his lips. These, in my opinion, may be pronounced failings ; but such as often attend a warm zeal for Orthodoxy, in points of the last impor- tance; arise from a principle of Conscience, and are found interwoven with the brightest Characters ; and he that has none, let him cast the first stone. * * *
"II. I shall next give you my opinion of the MANNER of his preaching. And here, I need not say, nor can my Pen describe, his Action and Ges- ture, in all their Strength and Decencies. He is certainly a finished Preacher, a great Master of Pulpit-Oratory and Elocution, while a noble negligence ran through his stile. Yet his discourses were very extraordinary when we con- sider how little they were premeditated, and how many of them he gave us the little time he was here. Many, I trust, have felt, and will long feel tlie Impressions of his Zeal and Fire, the Passion and Flame of his Expressions.
"He appeared to me, in all his Discourses, very deeply affected and im- pressed in his own Heart. How did that burn and boil within him when lie spake of the things he had made, touching the King! How was his Tongue like the pen of a ready writer, touched as with a coal from the Altar ! With what a Flow of words, what a ready profusion of language, did lie speak to us upon the great concerns of our souls. In what a flaming light did lie set our eternity before us ! How earnestly did he press Christ upon us ! How did he move our passions, with the constraining love of such a Redeemer !
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WHITEFIELD'S
[1740-1750.
The Awe, the Silence, the Attention, which sat upon the face of so great an audience, was an Argument how he could reign over all their powers. Many thought he spake as never man spake before him. So charmed were people with his manner of address, that they shut up their shops and forgot their secular business, and laid aside their schemes for the world; and the oftener lie preached the keener edge he seemed to put on their desires of hearing him again. How awfully, with what thunder and sound, did he discharge the, Artillery of Heaven upon us? And yet how could he soften and melt, even a soldier of Ulysses, with the love and mercy of God ? How close, strong, and! pungent were his Applications to the Conscience; mingling light and heat,' pointing the Arrows of the Almighty at the Hearts of Sinners, while he poured the Balm upon the wounds of the Contrite, and made broken bones rejoyce ? Eternal Themes, the tremendous Solemnities of our religion, were all alive on liis tongue ! So methinks (if you will forgive the figure) Saint Paul would look and speak in a pulpit, and in some such manner, I have been tempted to conceive of a Seraph were he sent down to preach among us, and to tell what things he had seen and heard above ! How bold and courageous did he look ? He was no Flatterer, and would not allow men to settle upon their Lees; did not prophesy smooth things nor sew Pillows. He taught the way of God in Truth, and regarded not the person of men. The politest, the most modish of our vices he struck at; the most fashionable Entertainments, regardless of every one's presence, but His in whose name he spoke, with this Authority. And I dare warrant, if none should go to these diversions, till they have answered the solemn questions he put to their consciences, our Theatre would soon sink and perish. * "III. I now proceed to show my opinion of our Preacher, in his PERSONAL CHARACTER and behaviour. * * 'Tis indispensable with me that * he affects no party in religion nor sets himself at the Head of any. Had this been his aim no man living has had fairer occasions offered ; but he abhors the Spirit, he endeavors to suppress it. He is always careful to time his Sab- bath discourses so as not to interfere with the stated hours of worship in that church, of which he is a professed member and minister, and, in the opinion of many people a very bright ornament, because, as he told us, he would not tempt away hearers from their proper and respective Pastors. And is not this a noble and generous, a catholick and Christian Spirit ? He is not bigoted to the Modalities and lesser rites and Forms of religion, while zealous enough and very warm and jealous in all its essentials, especially in the divine Hon- ours and Godhead of the Saviour. And now behold! God seems to have revived the ancient Spirit and Doctrines. He is raising up of our young men with zeal and courage to stem the Torrent. They have been in labours more abundant. They have preached with such Fire, Assiduity, and success ; such a solemn awe have they struck upon their hearers ; so unaccountably have they conquered the prejudices of many persons ; such deep convictions have their sermons produced; so much have they roused and kindled the zeal of ministers and people ; so intrepidly do they push through all opposition, that my soul overflows with Joy, and my heart is too full to express my Hopes. It looks as if some happy period were opening, to bless the world with another Reformation."
Mr. Whitefield visited Charleston again, the 30th of June, 1744, and preached in that city, at Dorchester, Ashley Ferry, Pon Pon, and John's Island. On Sabbath, July 6th, he attended church at St. Philip's. "I heard the commissary," said he, " preach as virulent, unorthodox, and inconsistent a discourse as ever I heard in my life. His heart seemed full
235
WHITEFIELD'S CITATION.
1740-1750.]
of choler and resentment. Out of the abundance thereof he poured so many bitter words against the Methodists (as he called them) in general, and me in particular, that several who intended to receive the sacrament at his hands withdrew. Never, I believe, was such a preparation sermon preached before. After sermon, he sent his clerk to desire me not to come to the sacrament till he had spoken with me. I immediately retired to my lodgings, rejoicing that I was accounted worthy to suffer this further degree of contempt for my dear Lord's sake." On the following day the com- missary issued a writ against Whitefield, citing him to appear before his ecclesiastical court. It was couched in the fol- lowing terms :-
"Alexander Garden, lawfully constituted Commissary of the Right Reverend Father in Christ, Edmund, by Divine permission Lord Bishop of London, supported by the royal authority underwritten .-
"Alexander Garden.
" To all and singular clerks and literate persons whomsoever, in and throughout the whole province of South Carolina, wheresoever appointed, Greeting.
"To you conjunctly and severally, we commit, and strictly enjoining, command, that you do cite, or cause to be cited, peremptorily, George Whitefield, clerk and presbyter of the Church of England, that lie lawfully appear before us in the parish church of St. Philip, Charlestown, and in the judicial place of the same, on Tuesday, the 15th day of the instant July, 'twixt the hours of nine and ten in the forenoon, then and there in justice to answer to certain articles, heads or interrogatories which will be objected and ministered unto him concerning the mere health of his soul, and the reformation and correction of his manners and excesses, and chiefly for omitting to use the form of prayers prescribed in the Communion Book: and further, to do and receive what shall be just on that behalf, on pain of law and contempt. And what you shall do in the premises, you shall duly certify us, together with these presents.
"Given under our hands and seals of our office, at Charlestown, this seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and forty."
This citation appeared to give Mr. Whitefield little alarm. On the same day this writ was issued he preached for Mr. Chanler, "a gracious Baptist minister about fourteen miles from Charlestown," and on the next day twice "to a large audience in Mr. Osgood's meeting-house, a young Indepen- dent minister" at Dorchester ; the next day at Dorchester in the morning and at Charleston in the evening ; on the next day, the 10th, he preached and read prayers in Christ's church, and twice at Charleston on the next day. On the 11th the citation was served upon him; on the 12th he preached and read prayers twice on John's Island. On Sab- bath, the 13th, he heard the commissary again. A man is not a very candid hearer who sits and hears himself preached
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WHITEFIELD'S TRIAL AND APPEAL. [1740-1750.
.
against. Whitefield thus describes the sermon :- " Had some infernal spirit been sent to draw my picture, I think it scarcely possible that he could paint me in more horrid colors. I think, if ever, then was the time that all manner of evil was spake against me falsely for Christ's sake. The commissary seemed to have ransacked church history for in- stances of enthusiasm and abused grace. He drew a parallel between me and all the Oliverians, Ranters, Quakers, French Prophets, till he came down to a family of Dutartes, who lived not many years ago in South Carolina, and were guilty of the most notorious incests and murders."-(See back, p. .)
From the antecedents and theological views of Commissary Garden we are not surprised at the analogy he traced. White- field himself had not yet wholly defined the limits between true spiritual emotion, the direct work of the Holy Spirit, and that fanaticism which arises out of nervous excitement and is of the earth earthy .. On the next day, Monday, July 14th, he again preached twice ; and on Tuesday, the 15th, he appeared before the commissary and his court, consisting, besides him- self, of the Rev. Messrs. William Guy, Timothy Mellichamp, Stephen Roe, and William Orr,* assisting. " This is said to have been the first court of the kind ever attempted in the colonies."+ Whitefield protested against the admission of any articles against him, doubted the authority of the court to proceed in the cause, and asked for time to offer his objec- tions. The court adjourned till nine o'clock the next day for this purpose. He preached twice that same day. The court having assembled according to adjournment, Mr. Graham appeared as prosecuting attorney, and Mr. Andrew Rutledge as counsel for the respondent. He now made exceptions in writing " in recusation of the judge," and proposed to refer them to six indifferent arbitrators, three to be chosen by Com- missary Garden. A reply was made to these exceptions by William Smith, their relevancy was argued in behalf of Mr. Whitefield by Mr. Rutledge, and the contrary by James Graham. On the adjournment of the court, he went to James Island, read prayers and preached. On the following day he appeared in court, found that the exceptions were repelled, that arbitrators would not be appointed, and took his
* William Orr had been a Presbyterian minister, and was a fugitive from the discipline of his own church .- Webster's Hist. of the Pres. Ch., pp. 410, 411.
t Tracy, Great Awakening, p. 80.
237
WHITEFIELD'S TRIAL AND APPEAL.
1740-1750.]
appeal to the lords commissioners appointed by the king for hearing appeals in spiritual causes from the plantations in America .- (Dalcho, p. 130.) The following day, the 18th of July, he appeared before the commissary's court, and bound himself in a penalty of ten pounds to prosecute his appeal in London within twelve months. These things gave him no great uneasiness. Under the same date he writes, joyfully, " Praise the Lord, O my soul ! Our glorious Emanuel seems to have girt his sword upon his thigh, and to be riding on from conquering to conquer. He gets himself the victory in Philadelphia. He is getting himself the victory in Charles- town also. Indeed a glorious work is begun and carried on here. Many souls are awakened to a sense of the divine life. The alteration in the people since I came here at first is surprising. I preach twice a day, generally, either in town or in the villages around. The commissary shoots out his ar- rows, even bitter words. He hath denied me the sacrament, and cited me to appear before him and his court ; I was obliged to appeal home." " The Lord is bringing mighty things to pass. I am surprisingly strengthened to bear the heat and burden of every day. My dear Lord never leaves nor forsakes me, but works by my ministry more and more. O that I was humble ! O that I was a little, little child. The inhabitants here are wondrous kind. They attend morning and evening most cheerfully on my preaching." The appeal referred to was never tried. Either Whitefield himself thought it not advisable to prosecute it, or the dignitaries at home shrunk from it as unfruitful in good.
" The court being ended, the commissary," says Whitefield, " desired to speak with me. I asked him to my lodgings. He chose to walk in a green, near the church. His spirit was somewhat calmer than usual ; but after an hour's conversation we were as far from agreeing as before." "All his discourse was so inconsistent and contrary to the gospel of our Lord, that I was obliged to tell him that I believed him to be an unconverted man, an enemy to God, and of a like spirit with the persecutor Saul. At this he smiled ; and, after we had walked a long while, we parted; and God gave me great satis- faction that I had delivered my soul in my private conversa- tion with the commissary." This was one of the many instances in which he expressed his judgment of the religious state of ministers of the gospel that were opposed to him, more to his own injury than to theirs, and of which, as well as
238
WHITEFIELD IN SAVANNAH.
[1740-1750.
many other imprudent things, he expressed his regret in after life. Commissary Garden had satisfied his own conscience, and he could be calm now as well as Whitefield.
On July 20th, being the Sabbath, Garden preached in his wonted style, and Whitefield pronounced his farewell discourse to the people of Charleston. "He "advised the people, as the gospel was not preached in the church, to go and hear it in the meeting-house." He speaks of a great change having taken place in that city since his coming. "What makes the change more remarkable in Charlestown people is, that they seemed to me, at my first coming, to be a people wholly devoted to pleasure. One well acquainted with their manners and circumstances told me more had been spent on polite entertainments than the poor's rate came to; but now the jewellers and dancing-masters began to cry out that their craft is in danger. A vast alteration is discernible in ladies' dresses ; and some, while I have been speaking, have been so convinced of the sin of wearing jewels, that I have seen them with blushes put their hands to their ears, and cover them with their fans. But I hope the reformation has gone further than externals. Many moral, good sort of men, who were before settled on their lees, have been gloriously awakened to seek after Jesus Christ; and many a Lydia's heart has been opened to receive the things that were spoken. Indeed, tlie word came like a hammer and a fire. And a door, I believe, will be opened for teaching the poor negroes. Several of them have done their work in less time, that they might come to hear me. Many of their owners, who have been awakened, resolve to teach them Christianity. Had I time, and proper schoolmasters, I might immediately erect a negro school in South Carolina, as well as in Pennsylvania. Many would willingly contribute both money and land."
He left Charleston on the 21st of July, preaching as he had opportunity on his way to Savannah. On the 23d he arrived at Huglı Bryan's, at Good Hope ; the next day went in Hugh Bryan's boat to Beaufort; the next evening he arrived at Sa- vannah, and supposing it to be the lesson for the day, he expounded the passage respecting " Alexander the copper- smith," which, says Tracy, "evidently reminded him of Alex- ander the commissary."-(Great Awakening, p. 82.) " The commissary felt himself called upon," says Dr. Dalcho, "by a sense of duty to his congregation, to counteract the opinions of Mr. Whitefield from the pulpit. He preached and after- wards published a sermon from Acts, xvii. 6: These that have
239
WHITEFIELD IN SAVANNAH.
1740-1750.]
turned the world upside down are come hither also. This was replied to by Mr. Whitefield in a sermon from 2 Tim. iv. 14: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil ; the Lord reward him according to his works."-(Dalcho, Hist., p. 140.) On Sab- bath, July 27th, several of his friends from Carolina were present who came to see the orphan-house ; he was unable to preach in the forenoon. In the evening service, which he was persuaded to attempt, he received assistance from on high. "I soon found power communicated to me from above. I felt sweet melting in my soul, and, ere I had prayed long, Mr. Bull dropped down as though shot with a gun. He soon got up and sat attentively to hear the sermon. The power soon began to spread abroad ; the greatest part of the congre- gation were under concern." The next day he was sent for to. see Mr. Jonathan Bryan, whom he found " under great concern and strong convictions of sin." "On July 31st," says Mr. Ste- phens, who had no friendship for Mr. Whitefield or his doc- trines, "Mr. Whitefield's sloop came in from Carolina, by which several of his disciples in those parts came," "one of them being an Anabaptist teacher." "Sunday, August 3d, divers of the Carolina strangers, who came last week, continuing with their wives, &c., among whom Mr. Jones, minister at Port Royal, was one ; Mr. Whitefield had two divines with him on the bench this day, when Mr. Jones read the prayers of the church, who is a man of very good character and orthodox principles ; Mr. Tilly, the Anabaptist teacher, sat as auditor only, and preaching was the part which Mr. Whitefield took to himself, the like before noon and after; when he seemed to exert himself in a particular manner, laboring to make good the doctrine which more especially he had taught hitherto." Mr. Jones preached the following Sabbath. Tuesday, August 12th-" Some of our Carolina strangers, who found themselves pretty well replenished with the Spirit, which they thought abounded from the doctrines they had learnt here, now left us ; and Mr. Jones, the minister of Port Royal, also ; but Mr. Tilly, being found useful during Mr. Whitefield's weakness, continued yet as a helper and fellow-laborer." So wrote the not very friendly pen of Mr. Stephens .- (Journal, vol. ii.) We learn from Mr. Whitefield himself that Messrs. Bull and Bryan returned home, rejoicing in hope. On the 15th he writes from Savannah : "The word runs like lightning in Charles Town. A serious, lively Baptist minister named Tilly is here also ; he has preached often for me, and last Sunday received the sacrament in our way. O bigotry, thou art tumbling down
240
THE YOUNG STAGE-PLAYER.
[1740-1750
apace ! Blessed be God." He had induced two or three dis- senting ministers in and about Charleston to set up a weekly lecture. The first of these lectures was preached by Mr. Isaac Chanler, Baptist minister on Ashley river, and was published in Boston this same year .*
Whitefield left Savannah on the 18th of August for Charles- ton, on his way to Boston. Mr. Bull and J. Bryan resorted to him in Charleston to be "more established" in the right way. " Mr. Hugh Bryan they left at home drinking deeply of the cup of God's consolations. His wife came with them to Charleston, a gracious woman. By my advice they returned home, with a resolution to begin a negro school for their slaves. A young stage-player, convinced when I was last at New York, and who providentially came to Georgia when Mr. Bryan was there, is to be their first teacher."
Whitefield touched at Charleston on his return from his northern tour,. made a short visit to Savannah to adjust the affairs of the orphan-house, and on January 1st, 1741, was at Jonathan Bryan's at Good Hope, on his way to Charleston to embark for England. Here he preached in the evening. "The Lord made it a Bethel." He again speaks of the young man, " lately a player in New York." " The latter," he says, "I intend for the ministry. Mr. H[ugh] B[ryan]'s wife died not long since, rejoicing in God her Saviour. Several others in these parts are growing in grace, and Mr. C-'s ministry hath been much blessed."-(Letter ccxli., Jan. 1, 1741.) The S. C. Gazette of Jan. 8th, chronicles the arrival of Mr. White- field in the city of Charleston, and mentions the fact that he had preached twice every day. He was here brought into a new difficulty. Hugh Bryan had written a letter which he liad submitted to Whitefield, who had made some " corrections and alterations" in it. Among other things " it hin ed that the clergy break their canons." This was published November 20th, 1740. Whitefield being now in town, he, Bryan, and the printer were arrested, and Whitefield was held accountable for the hand he had in the matter. In the writ it is charged that Whitefield "had made and composed a false, malicious, and
* New Converts exhorted to cleave to the Lord. A sermon on Acts xi. 23, preached July 30, 1740, at a Wednesday evening weekly lecture in Charles- Town, set up at the motion and at the desire of Mr. Whitefield. With a brief introduction relating to the character of that excellent man. By Isaac Chanler, minister of the Gospel on Ashley River, in the Province of South Carolina. With a preface by the Rev. Mr. Cooper of Boston, N. E. Acts, xi. 21-And the hand of the Lord was with them. Boston: printed by D. Fowle, 1740.
241
HUGH BRYAN.
1740-1750.]
infamous libel against the clergy of this province, in contempt of his majesty." The parties were admitted to bail, White- field giving security in £100 proclamation money to appear by his attorney at the next quarter sessions. " Blessed be God," he says, "for this further honor." In writing to a friend in Boston, he says : " I am bound to appear next sessions, as well as Mr. B -. He, I believe, for libelling the king, and I for libelling the clergy, in saying they break the canons daily. I think, dear sir, these are earnests of what I may be expected to meet with in my own native country." The next morning he preached upon Herod's stratagem to kill Christ : in the afternoon, on the murder of Naboth. He did not spare his persecutors. "My hearers," he says, " as well as myself, made the application. It was pretty close." He embarked for England, Friday, January 15th. " He preached here," says the S. C. Gazette, "twenty-two times, and likewise exhorted great numbers of people every night at his lodgings." "I never received," he says, "such generous tokens of love, I think, from any people before, as from some in Charlestown. They so loaded me with sea-stores that I sent much of them to Savannah."
Such was the opposition on the one part, and the admiring devotion on the other, which this " burning and shining light' was destined to meet with wherever he should go. There was in him a fervid, glowing piety ; he was a man of unequalled eloquence, bent on the salvation of souls. This won to him the hearts of a large portion of God's people of every name. And there was, on the other hand, enough of rashness, impru- dence, and hasty judgment, especially of men's spiritual state, to give his enemies a handle for their assaults, and to make a large portion of the calm and judicious to stand aloof, and finally to be driven also into the ranks of opposition to him. Yet he was the most conspicuous instrument, in the hands of God, among all he used in the eighteenth century, of rousing the slumbering spirit of piety, and disenchanting the church, in our own and other denominations, from the spell of formal- ism and worldly conformity which rested upon her.
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