Religious Apply as Means
George Whitefield examined seven practices to encourage non secular progress: studying Scripture, secret prayer, frequent meditation on Scripture, observing God’s providential dealings, watching the motions of the Holy Spirit, making full use of God’s ordinances, and conserving firm with different Christians who had been strolling with God. This was not meant to be an exhaustive record. The primary 5 had been extra private, although they might be carried out in public settings, whereas the final two had been communal. Whitefield’s educating of those non secular practices had been expanded via his different sermons and letters on every subject. Moreover, he argued that non secular disciplines “are means; however then they’re solely means; they’re half, however not the entire of faith.” He burdened that if the means had been automated, then the Pharisees would have been essentially the most spiritual of all individuals.1 Nonetheless, when the “highly effective operations of the Holy Spirit” enliven the technique of grace, the outcomes are the “fruits of the spirit.”2
1. Studying Scripture
Whitefield strengthened his first self-discipline, studying Scripture, via a number of biblical passages that burdened each the character of God’s phrase and the need and profit of normal interplay with it. If somebody neglects Scripture and permits the rest to supplant it because the supreme information in life, such an individual is deluded and in peril of constructing a “shipwreck of [his or her] religion.” To domesticate this behavior prepares believers to day by day develop in consciousness till they meet Jesus face-to-face. Those that saturate their souls with the dwelling phrase of God will expertise the delight of being renewed of their lives.3
Whitefield’s most detailed therapy of studying the Bible for non secular maturity was “The Obligation of Looking out Scriptures.” Since ignorance of God’s phrase is the reason for all error, he taught seven rules of the way to research Scripture. The primary precept, foundational to the others, was the popularity that the Bible was written to disclose the best way of salvation in Jesus Christ. Whitefield affirmed a typological studying, sustaining that Christ might be discovered within the Previous Testomony, and subsequently he instructed his listeners to all the time seek for Christ to information them in understanding troublesome passages. Second, he taught readers to method the phrase with a “humble child-like disposition,” as a result of God hides his reality from the proud.4
George Whitefield devoted his life to educating the Scriptures and calling individuals to know and love God. This biography explores the lifetime of Whitefield as a outstanding determine within the early evangelical revival in an sincere, historic, and balanced method.
Whitefield’s subsequent two rules are associated to the internalization of Scripture. Third, one have to be intentional to know the mysteries of the dominion of God, for many who ignore this counsel won’t ever perceive God’s message. The reader’s motivation is essential, for if an individual reads the Bible just for leisure or to criticize it, then it can fall on deaf ears.
Fourth, Whitefield taught that to “make an software of each factor you learn to your personal hearts” will improve your effectiveness in finding out Scripture. Whereas the Bible is an historic guide, what was written up to now is simply as related for up to date readers as for many who first heard it. To information the appliance to our hearts, we should “diligently search the help of the Holy Spirit.” This naturally overflows into the fifth precept, of relying upon the Holy Spirit. Whitefield illustrated this via Nicodemus: although he was a “trainer of Israel” who ought to have understood “the doctrine of regeneration,” he was ignorant, since he lacked the illumination of the Spirit. The pure man can not grasp the “hidden sense and that means” of the Bible, for his eyes can not learn it because it was meant. Subsequently, based on Whitefield, “if we’re strangers to the Spirit we will likely be strangers to [God’s] phrase.”5
Sixth, Whitefield recommended his readers to hope continuously all through the studying—pausing to “pray over each phrase and verse, if doable”; and after studying, “earnestly beseech God,” in order that what has been learn “could also be inwardly engrafted in your hearts, and produce forth in you the fruits of an excellent life.” His seventh and ultimate precept was that one should learn Scripture frequently with an depth that resembles somebody looking for buried treasure. He concluded that one can by no means uncover the richness of Scripture “by a careless, superficial, cursory method of studying them, however by an industrious, shut, and humble software” of them.6 Whitefield’s method was according to the emergence of eighteenth-century evangelicalism, which prioritized the foundational nature of the Bible.7
2. Secret Prayer
Whitefield mixed his second self-discipline, secret prayer, with what we regularly name “arrow prayers” immediately, and he in contrast prayers of this type to sending “brief letters . . . to heaven upon the wings of religion.” Given the spontaneous nature of such prayer, it was meant to information believers as they went about their day by day enterprise. It mirrored God’s omnipresence with those that sought him and fulfilled the Pauline admonition to “pray with out ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Private prayer is instrumental in drawing close to to God as a result of it’s the “fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fireplace kindled within the soul by God, is just not solely saved in, however raised into flame.” Amongst different advantages, this advert hoc prayer serves as a safety in opposition to temptation, and people who neglect it usually tend to expertise non secular ailments. Whatever the type of prayer, it creates a method for uniting the believer with God. Whitefield maintained that it raises an individual to God and brings God all the way down to those that pray, and he personally claimed that he had skilled “candy communion” with God via prayer.8
3. Meditation on Scripture
Whitefield separated holy and frequent meditation, his third non secular self-discipline, from studying Scripture. He in contrast meditation to the physique’s digestion of meals, using the biblical examples of David and Isaac (Gen. 24:63) as an instance gathering and internalizing non secular vitamins from Scripture to nourish the soul. Extra eloquently, he contended that meditation “is a form of silent prayer, whereby the soul is continuously, because it had been, carried out of itself to God, and in a level made like unto these blessed spirits, who by a form of rapid instinct all the time behold the face of our heavenly Father.” In mild of this advantage of divine communion and beatific imaginative and prescient, Whitefield urged his listeners to continuously have interaction in meditation, since it will probably each kindle “the hearth of divine love” and “keep an in depth and uniform stroll with the most-high God.”
Whereas meditation can be utilized in a number of methods, he burdened that the main focus ought to be “on the works and phrase of God.”9 Later his steering was enlarged “to meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to ponder the love of God in Christ, [and] the glories of heaven,” which might create “souls superior in piety.”10 In a sermon on self-denial, to encourage submission to God he admonished his hearers to meditate continuously “on the lifetime of our blessed Lord and Grasp Jesus Christ” from the cradle to the cross, taking note of Christ’s constant sample of whole submission to God the Father. Whitefield’s ultimate motivation challenged his listeners to “typically meditate on the fun of heaven.” Stephen adopted this precept (Acts 7:55–56), realizing that the fun of heaven far surpass any rewards one can achieve by submitting to the attract of the world.11
If somebody neglects Scripture and permits the rest to supplant it because the supreme information in life, such an individual is deluded and in peril of constructing a “shipwreck of [his or her] religion.”
4. Being Attentive to God’s Windfall
Whitefield’s fourth non secular self-discipline, attentiveness to God’s windfall, prolonged to God’s numbering the hairs of an individual’s head and God’s consciousness of even the sparrow that falls to the bottom (Matt. 10:29–31).12 Windfall teaches that God is ever current and governs all of creation—nothing is by probability, given God’s day by day consciousness and involvement. In a letter written from Dublin in 1751, Whitefield attested to his personal expertise of being guided by it: “I discover that windfall has splendidly ready my method, and over-ruled each factor for my better acceptance. O that I might be extra humble and grateful!”13 Pushed to perform God’s calling, he acknowledged that he wanted to note and discern how day by day life would possibly afford new alternatives for him to evangelise. This lesson was translated into steering for his listeners: “Hear what the Lord has to say regarding [your life] within the voice of his windfall.” Whereas it’s one factor to obtain the advantages of God, it’s one other factor to just accept that “each cross has a name in it, and each explicit dispensation of divine windfall, has some explicit finish to reply in these to whom it’s despatched.”14
5. Sensing the Motions of the Holy Spirit
Whereas observing God’s windfall is an exterior operation, Whitefield additionally taught the significance of recognizing the Spirit’s steering inside an individual’s coronary heart. This fifth non secular self-discipline had been foundational to him because the starting of his ministry. Simply as a toddler is led by a guardian, Jesus’s disciples wanted to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Whitefield’s utter dependence on the Spirit’s steering continuously introduced costs of enthusiasm. Acutely aware of his critics, he declared, “Although it’s the quintessence of enthusiasm, to faux to be guided by the Spirit with out the written phrase; but it’s each Christian’s bounden obligation to be guided by the Spirit along side the written phrase of God.” This interactive, twofold reliance on the phrase and Spirit was a central precept to Luther, Calvin, and different Protestant Reformers. Whitefield urged his listeners to intensely search the Holy Spirit’s steering, which might be confirmed by their experiencing “enlightening, quickening, and inflaming” energy “by the phrase of God” felt of their souls.15
Whereas there isn’t any particular reference to John 16:13 (“When he, the Spirit of reality, is come, he’ll information you into all reality”), it’s clear that Whitefield acknowledged that one of many central roles of the Spirit is to guide believers into God’s reality. Taken collectively, noticing the motion of God’s windfall and the motions of the Holy Spirit assures Jesus’s followers of God’s presence and steering in life. The better that consciousness, the nearer one is ready to stroll with God and revel in his fellowship.
6. Celebrating God’s Ordinances
Whitefield’s sixth self-discipline included numerous non secular practices however sometimes targeted on baptism and particularly the Lord’s Supper. He asserted that God’s ordinances are “conduit-pipes, whereby the infinitely condescending Jehovah conveys his grace to [his people’s] souls.” That is the very best privilege prolonged by God and creates “delight to go to the place the place God’s honour dwelleth.”16 Such language articulates Whitefield’s theology that the Lord’s Supper communicates grace to its contributors by reminding them of Christ’s presence. That is clear in an early letter to a pal, through which he instructed him: “If you obtain the sacrament, earnestly endeavour to be inwardly bettered by it the next week.”17
For Whitefield, the ordinances had been an expression of God’s tokens of affection despatched via his Holy Spirit; individuals might expertise deep intimacy with Jesus via the Lord’s Desk as a result of they had been “espoused unto Christ.” This bridal language, related to union with Christ, attests to the covenantal pleasure of feasting with Jesus. In Communion, Christ’s deepest love is dramatically displayed via the damaged bread and poured out wine, and invitations the recipients to give up their love in response to Christ.18 In a sermon preached from Isaiah 54:5, “For thy Maker is thine husband,” Whitefield exhorted his listeners that the Church of England eucharistic liturgy required the minister to “acquaint all those that obtain the sacrament worthily, that they’re one with Christ, and Christ with them; that they dwell in Christ, and Christ in them.” This indwelling of Christ was strengthened within the participation of the Lord’s Supper, which was a profound thriller that he known as an “ineffable union.”19 Due to Christ’s presence within the sacrament, it possesses the dynamic potential to rework individuals via the Spirit’s energy.
7. Searching for Fellowship with Different Christians
The seventh and ultimate technique of grace that Whitefield emphasised was how “Christian societies, and fellowship conferences” have guided believers over the centuries in trustworthy discipleship. He discerned from church historical past that vibrant Christianity depends upon sturdy gatherings for mutual fellowship. Subsequently, it was important that believers “would stroll with God, and sustain the life of faith, to fulfill collectively as they’ve alternative, to impress each other to like and good works.’20
The significance of this was demonstrated by his earliest sermon, “The Nature and Necessity of Society in Common, and Non secular Society in Specific” (Eccl. 4:9–12), which argued that Adam wanted a helper within the backyard earlier than the autumn, since friendship was an important dimension of life. Whitefield proclaimed three advantages of non secular societies: when an individual falls into temptation, there’s somebody to select her or him up; one other individual can impart warmth or enliven somebody in want; and believers can protect others from exterior enemies. He additionally set forth three duties for members: mutual reproof, mutual exhortation, and mutual safety from opposition.21 Along with this sturdy reliance on mutual help and accountability, he declared that the aim of the societies is to fire up love and holiness and “persuade one another of the evil of sin.”22
Notes:
- George Whitefield, “On Regeneration,” in The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield. M. A. Edited by John Gillies. 7 vols. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771–1772), 6:266.
- Whitefield, “Advantages of an Early Piety,” in Works, 5:161.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 27–28.
- Whitefield, “The Nice Obligation of Household-Faith,” in Works, 5:56.
- Whitefield, “The Obligation of Looking out the Scriptures,” 83–86.
- Whitefield, “The Obligation of Looking out the Scriptures,” 83–87.
- Tom Schwanda, The Emergence of Evangelical Spirituality: The Age of Edwards, Newton, and Whitefield (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2016), 2–3, 112–52.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 28–29. This imagery of fireside was additionally important in Whitefield’s spirituality. D. Bruce Hindmarsh, The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Faith in a Trendy World (New York: Oxford College Press, 2018), 10.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 29.
- Whitefield, “Regulation Gospelized,” in Works, 4:411, 431.
- Whitefield, “The Extent and Reasonableness of Self-Denial,” in Works, 5:437–38.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 29.
- Whitefield to Woman H—, Might 30, 1751, in Works, 2:409. See additionally Whitefield to Mr. S—, August 18, 1749, in Works, 2:273.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 29–30.
- Whitefield, “The Obligation of Looking out the Scriptures,” 86.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 31.
- Whitefield to Mr. H—, April 2, 1736, in Letters, 14. See additionally Whitefield, “On Regeneration,” 266.
- Whitefield, “Christ the Finest Husband,” 74.
- Whitefield, “Christ the Believer’s Husband,” 178. For a broader background of Whitefield’s use of this sermon’s bridal imagery, see Thomas S. Kidd, George Whitefield: America’s Religious Founding Father (New Haven, CT: Yale College Press, 2014), 163–66.
- Whitefield, “Strolling with God,” 31.
- Whitefield, “Nature and Necessity of Society,” in Works, 5:108, 111–19.
- Whitefield, “Christ the Solely Relaxation for the Weary and Heavy Laden,” in Works, 5:314–15.
This text is customized from Whitefield on the Christian Life: New Beginning to Take pleasure in God by Tom Schwanda and Ian Maddock.
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