Whitefield went to Oxford towards the end of the year 1732. Twelve
years before this, Wesley had been admitted to Christ-Church
College, and in the interval had been elected Fellow of Lincoln
College, had taken his Master of Arts degree, and had been ordained
deacon and also priest. Charles Wesley had been six years at
Christ-Church, and was now Bachelor of Arts, and a College Tutor.
Willam Morgan, one of the first of the Oxford Methodists, died a few
weeks before Whitefield entered Pembroke College. For three years
past, Clayton had been at Brasenose. Ingham had already spent two
years at Queen's. In 1726, Gambold had been admitted as servitor
in Christ Church, and in 1733 was ordained by Bishop Potter.
Hervey, born in the same year as Whitefield, had, in 1731, become
undergraduate in Lincoln College, where Wesley was Tutor. Broughton
was in Exeter College. Kinchin was a Fellow of Corpus Christi. For
twelve years, Hutchins had been Fellow of Lincoln, where also, for
some time past, Whitelamb and Westley Hall had been studying, to the
content of Wesley.
These were the chief of the Oxford Methodists. Whitefield, a boy not
yet eighteen years of age, was the last to enter the University, and
the last of the illustrious ones to join their godly brotherhood.
For three years, the "Holy Club" had been notorious among their
fellows; but, up to the present, Whitefield had never seen them.
Pembroke College, founded in 1624, had a Master, fourteen Fellows,
twenty-four Scholars, and several Exhibitioners, being in all about
sixty. As already stated, Whitefield was admitted as a servitor,--a
lowly, but not necessarily dishonourable position. Half a century
before, Wesley's father had "footed it" to Oxford, with forty-five
shillings in his purse, and had been received as servitor of Exeter
College, in which, during his five years' residence, five shillings
was the only assistance he received from his family and friends. And
now Wesley's great coadjutor entered Pembroke in the same capacity,
and in about the same penniless condition.
It is a fact worth noticing, that Samuel Johnson left Pembroke
College only twelve months previous to Whitefield's admission; and
that the poet Shenstone entered at the same time Whitefield did.
At that period, some of the college tutors were so inefficient,
that Johnson declared, concerning one of them, Mr. Jorden, that
"he scarcely knew a noun from an adverb." The Rev. Dr. Adams,
however, who succeeded Jorden in 1731, was a man of another stamp;
and Johnson used to boast of the many eminent men who had been
educated at Pembroke. "Sir," he used to say, with a smile of
sportive triumph, when mentioning how many of the English poets had
been trained in Pembroke College, "Sir, we are a nest of singing
birds."[8]
[8] Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
Whitefield spent four years at Oxford--from 1732 to 1736. How did
he employ his time, and what were the results? For the reasons
previously assigned, the history of this important period shall be
given in his own language, without any abridgment or alteration
whatever. With perfect artlessness, he writes as follows:--
"Soon after my admission to Pembroke College, I found my having
been used to a public-house was now of service to me. For
many of the servitors being sick at my first coming up, by my
diligent and ready attendance I ingratiated myself into the
gentlemen's favour so far, that many, who had it in their power,
chose me to be their servitor.
"This much lessened my expense; and, indeed, God was so
gracious, that, with the profits of my place, and some little
presents made me by my kind tutor, for almost the first three
years I did not put all my relations together to above £24
expense.[9] [And it has often grieved my soul to see so many
young students spending their substance in extravagant living,
and hereby entirely unfitting themselves for the prosecution of
their proper studies.] I had not been long at the University
before I found the benefit of the foundation I had laid in the
country for a holy[10] life. I was quickly solicited to join in
their excess of riot with several who lay in the same room. God,
in answer to prayers before put up, gave me grace to withstand
them; and once, in particular, it being cold, my limbs were so
benumbed by sitting alone in my study, because I would not go
amongst them, that I could scarce sleep all night. But I soon
found the benefit of not yielding; for when they perceived they
could not prevail, they let me alone as a singular, odd fellow.
[9] All enclosed in brackets was omitted in the edition
published by Whitefield in 1756.
[10] "Religious."--Edit. 1756.
["All this while I was not fully satisfied of the sin of playing
at cards and reading plays, till God, upon a fast-day, was
pleased to convince me. For, taking a play to read a passage out
of it to a friend, God struck my heart with such power, that I
was obliged to lay it down again; and--blessed be His name!--I
have not read any such book since.
"Before I went to the University, I met with Mr. Law's 'Serious
Call to a Devout Life,' but had not then money to purchase
it. Soon after my coming up to the University, seeing a small
edition of it in a friend's hand, I soon procured it. God
worked powerfully upon my soul, as He has since upon many
others, by that and his other excellent treatise upon 'Christian
Perfection.']
"I now began to pray and sing psalms thrice every day, besides
morning and evening, and to fast every Friday, and to receive
the sacrament at a parish church near our college, and at the
castle, where the despised Methodists used to receive once a
month.
"The young men so called[11] were then much talked of at Oxford.
I had heard of, and loved them before I came to the University;
and so strenuously defended them when I heard them reviled by
the students, that they began to think that I also in time
should be one of them.
[11] "Because they lived by rule and method."--Edit. 1756.
"For above a twelvemonth my soul longed to be acquainted with
some of them, and I was strongly pressed to follow their good
example, when I saw them go through a ridiculing crowd to
receive the holy Eucharist at St. Mary's. At length, God was
pleased to open a door. It happened that a poor woman in one
of the workhouses had attempted to cut her throat, but was
happily prevented. Upon hearing of this, and knowing that both
the Mr. Wesleys were ready to every good work, I sent a poor
aged apple-woman of our college to inform Mr. Charles Wesley
of it, charging her not to discover who sent her. She went;
but, contrary to my orders, told my name. He having heard of my
coming to the castle and a parish church sacrament, and having
met me frequently walking by myself, followed the woman when she
was gone away, and sent an invitation to me by her, to come to
breakfast with him the next morning.
"I thankfully embraced the opportunity; [and, blessed be God! it
was one of the most profitable visits I ever made in my life.
My soul, at that time, was athirst for some spiritual friends
to lift up my hands when they hung down, and to strengthen my
feeble knees. He soon discovered it, and, like a wise winner of
souls, made all his discourses tend that way. And, when he had]
put into my hand Professor Frank's treatise against the 'Fear of
Man,' [and a book entitled 'The Country Parson's Advice to his
Parishioners,' the last of which was wonderfully blessed to my
soul, I took my leave.]
"In a short time, he let me have another book entitled, 'The
Life of God in the Soul of Man; [and, though I had fasted,
watched, and prayed, and received the sacrament so long, yet
I never knew what true religion was, till God sent me that
excellent treatise by the hands of my never-to-be-forgotten
friend].
"At my first reading it, I wondered what the author meant by
saying, 'That some falsely placed religion in going to church,
doing hurt to no one, being constant in the duties of the
closet, and now and then reaching out their hands to give alms
to their poor neighbours.' 'Alas!' thought I, 'if this be not
religion, what is?' God soon showed me; for in reading a few
lines further, that 'true religion was a union of the soul with
God, and Christ formed within us,' a ray of Divine light was
instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and, from that moment,
but not till then, did I know that I must be a new creature.
"Upon this, [like the woman of Samaria when Christ revealed
Himself to her at the well,] I had no rest [in my soul] till
I wrote letters to my relations, telling them there was such
a thing as the new birth. I imagined they would have gladly
received it. But, alas! my words seemed to them as idle tales.
They thought that I was going beside myself, and, by their
letters, confirmed me in the resolutions I had taken not to go
down into the country, but continue where I was, lest that, by
any means, the good work which God had begun in my soul might be
made of none effect.[12]
[12] "Obstructed." Edit. 1756.
"From time to time Mr. Wesley permitted[13] me to come unto
him, and instructed me as I was able to bear it. By degrees, he
introduced me to the rest of his Christian brethren.[14] [They
built me up daily in the knowledge and fear of God, and taught
me to endure hardness like a good soldier of Jesus Christ.]
[13] "Charles Wesley engaged." _Ibid._
[14] "The Methodists." _Ibid._
"I now began, like them, to live by rule, and to pick up the
very fragments of my time, that not a moment of it might be
lost. Whether I ate or drank, or whatsoever I did, I endeavoured
to do all to the glory of God. Like them, having no weekly
sacrament, although the rubric required it, at our own college,
I received every Sunday at Christ Church. I joined with them in
[keeping the stations by] fasting Wednesdays and Fridays [and
left no means unused, which I thought would lead me nearer to
Jesus Christ.
"Regular retirement, morning and evening, at first I found some
difficulty in submitting to; but it soon grew profitable and
delightful. As I grew ripe for such exercises, I was, from time
to time] engaged to visit the sick and the prisoners, and to
read to poor people, till I made it a custom, as most of us did,
to spend an hour every day in doing acts of charity.
"The course of my studies I soon entirely changed. Whereas,
before I was busied in studying the dry sciences, and books
that went no farther than the surface, I now resolved to read
only such as entered into the heart of religion, and which led
me directly into an experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified. [The lively oracles of God were my soul's
delight. The book of the Divine laws was seldom out of my hands:
I meditated therein day and night; and, ever since that, God has
made my way signally prosperous, and given me abundant success.
"God enabled me to do much good to many, as well as to receive
much from the despised Methodists, and made me instrumental in
converting one who is lately come out into the Church, and, I
trust, will prove a burning and shining light.
"Several short fits of illness was God pleased to visit and to
try me with, after my first acquaintance with Mr. Wesley. My
new convert was a helpmeet for me in those and in all other
circumstances; and, in company with him and several other
Christian friends, did I spend many sweet and delightful hours.
Never did persons, I believe, strive more earnestly to enter
in at the strait gate. They kept their bodies under even to
an extreme. They were dead to the world, and willing to be
accounted as the dung and offscouring of all things, so that
they might win Christ. Their hearts glowed with the love of God,
and they never prospered so much in the inward man, as when they
had all manner of evil spoken against them falsely without.
"Many came amongst them for a while, who, in time of temptation,
fell away. The displeasure of a tutor or head of a college, the
changing of a gown from a lower to a higher degree--above all,
a thirst for the praise of men, more than that which cometh
from God, and a servile fear of contempt--caused numbers, that
had set their hands to the plough, shamefully to look back. The
world, and not themselves, gave them the title of Methodists,
I suppose, from their custom of regulating their time, and
planning the business of the day every morning. Mr. John and
Charles Wesley were two of the first that thus openly dared to
confess Christ; and they, under God, were the spiritual fathers
of most of them. They had the pleasure of seeing the work of the
Lord prosper in their hands before they went to Georgia. Since
their return, the small grain of mustard-seed has sprung up
apace. It has taken deep root. It is growing into a great tree.
Ere long, I trust, it will fill the land, and numbers of souls
will come from the east and from the west, from the north and
from the south, and lodge under the branches of it.
"But to return. While I was thus comforted on every side by
daily conversing with so many Christian friends, God was pleased
to permit Satan to sift me like wheat. A general account of
which I shall, by the Divine assistance, give in the following
section.
"At my first setting out, in compassion to my weakness, I grew
in favour both with God and man, and used to be much lifted up
with sensible devotion, especially at the blessed sacrament. But
when religion began to take root in my heart, and I was fully
convinced my soul must totally be renewed ere it could see God,
I was visited with outward and inward trials.]
"The first thing I was called to give up for God was what the
world calls my fair reputation. I had no sooner received the
sacrament publicly on a weekday at St. Mary's, but I was set
up as a mark for all the polite students that knew me to shoot
at. [By this they knew that I was commenced Methodist; for
though there is a sacrament at the beginning of every term, at
which all, especially the seniors, are by statute obliged to be
present, yet so dreadfully has that once faithful city played
the harlot, that very few masters, and no undergraduates but the
Methodists, attended upon it.
"Mr. Charles Wesley, whom I must always mention with the
greatest deference and respect, walked with me, in order to
confirm me, from the church even to the college. I confess, to
my shame, I would gladly have excused him; and the next day,
going to his room, one of our Fellows passing by, I was ashamed
to be seen to knock at his door. But, blessed be God! this
fear of man gradually wore off. As I had imitated Nicodemus in
his cowardice, so, by the Divine assistance, I followed him in
his courage. I confessed the Methodists more and more publicly
every day. I walked openly with them, and chose rather to bear
contempt with those people of God, than to enjoy the applause of
almost-Christians for a season.]
"Soon after this, I incurred the displeasure of the master of
the college, who frequently chid, and once threatened to expel
me, if I ever visited the poor again. Being surprised by this
treatment,[15] I spake unadvisedly with my lips, and said, if it
displeased him, I would not. My conscience soon pricked me for
this sinful compliance. I immediately repented, and visited the
poor the first opportunity, [and told my companions, if ever I
was called to a stake for Christ's sake, I would serve my tongue
as Archbishop Cranmer served his hand, namely, make that burn
first.]
[15] "And overawed by his authority,"--Edit. 1756.
"My[16] tutor, being a worthy man, did not oppose me [much,
but thought, I believe, that I went a little too far. He lent
me books, gave me money, visited me, and furnished me with a
physician when sick. In short, he behaved in all respects like a
father; and I trust God will remember him for good, in answer to
the many prayers I have put up in his behalf.
[16] "Worthy."--_Ibid._
"My relations were quickly alarmed at the alteration of my
behaviour, conceived strong prejudices against me, and for some
time counted my life madness.] I daily underwent some contempt
at college. Some have thrown dirt at me; others by degrees took
away their pay from me; and two friends that were dear unto
me grew shy of and forsook me, [when they saw me resolved to
deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ.
But our Lord, by His Spirit, soon convinced me that I must
know no one after the flesh; and I soon found that promise
literally fulfilled, 'That no one hath left father or mother,
brethren or sisters, houses or lands, for Christ's sake and the
Gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold in this life, with
persecution, as well as eternal life in the world to come.'
"These, though little, were useful trials. They inured me to
contempt, lessened self-love, and taught me to die daily.] My
inward sufferings were of a more uncommon nature. [Satan seemed
to have desired me in particular to sift me as wheat. God
permitted him for wise reasons, I have seen already, namely,
that His future blessings might not prove my ruin.
"From my first awakenings to the divine life, I felt a
particular hungering and thirsting after the humility of Jesus
Christ. Night and day I prayed to be a partaker of that grace,
imagining that the habit of humility would be instantaneously
infused into my soul. But as Gideon taught the men of Succoth
with thorns, so God, if I am yet in any measure blessed with
true poverty of spirit, taught it me by the exercise of strong
temptations.
"I observed before how I used to be favoured with sensible
devotion; those] comforts were soon withdrawn, and a horrible
fearfulness and dread permitted to overwhelm my soul. [One
morning in particular, rising from my bed, I felt an unusual
impression and weight upon my breast, attended with inward
darkness. I applied to my friend, Mr. Charles Wesley. He
advised me to keep upon my watch, and referred me to a chapter
in Kempis. In a short time I perceived this load gradually
increase, till it almost weighed me down, and fully convinced me
that Satan had as real a possession of, and power given over,
my body, as he had once over Job's.] All power of meditating,
or even thinking, was taken from me. My memory quite failed
me. My whole soul was barren and dry, and I could fancy myself
to be like nothing so much as a man locked up in iron armour.
Whenever I kneeled down, I felt great[17] heavings in my body,
and have often prayed under the weight of them till the sweat
came through me. [At this time, Satan used to terrify me much,
and threatened to punish me if I discovered his wiles. It being
my duty, as servitor, in my turn to knock at the gentlemen's
rooms by ten at night, to see who were in their rooms, I thought
the devil would appear to me every stair I went up. And he so
troubled me when I lay down to rest, that for some weeks I
scarce slept above three hours at a time.]
[17] "Pressures both in soul and body."--Edit. 1756.
"God only knows how many nights I have lain upon my bed groaning
under the weight I felt, [and bidding Satan depart from me in
the name of Jesus.] Whole days and weeks have I spent in lying
prostrate on the ground,[18] [and begging for freedom from those
proud hellish thoughts that used to crowd in upon and distract
my soul. But God made Satan drive out Satan; for these thoughts
and suggestions created such a self-abhorrence within me,
that I never ceased wrestling with God till He blessed me with
a victory over them. Self-love, self-will, pride, and envy so
buffeted me in their turns, that I was resolved either to die or
conquer. I wanted to see sin as it was, but feared, at the same
time, lest the sight of it should terrify me to death.
[18] "In silent or vocal prayer; and, having nobody to show
me a better way, I thought to get peace and purity by outward
austerities."--_Ibid._
"Whilst my inward man was thus exercised, my outward man was
not unemployed. I soon found what a slave I had been to my
sensual appetite, and now resolved to get the mastery over it
by the help of Jesus Christ.] Accordingly, by degrees, I began
to leave off eating fruits and such like, and gave the money
I usually spent in that way to the poor. Afterward, I always
chose the worst sort of food, though my place furnished me with
variety. I fasted twice a week. My apparel was mean. I thought
it unbecoming a penitent to have his hair powdered. I wore
woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty shoes;[19] and [though
I was then convinced that the kingdom of God did not consist in
meats and drinks, yet I resolutely persisted in these voluntary
acts of self-denial, because I found them great promoters of the
spiritual life.]
[19] "Therefore looked upon myself as very humble."--Edit. 1756,
"For many months, I went on in this[20] state, [faint, yet
pursuing, and travelling along in the dark, in hope that the
star I had before once seen would hereafter appear again. During
this season I was very active;] but finding pride creeping in at
the end of almost every thought, word, and action, and meeting
with Castaniza's 'Spiritual Combat,' in which he says 'that he
that is employed in mortifying his will was as well employed
as though he was converting Indians,' or words to that effect,
Satan so imposed upon my understanding, that he persuaded me
to shut myself up in my study till I could do good[21] [with a
single eye], lest, in endeavouring to save others as I did now,
I should at last, by pride and self-complacence, lose myself.
[20] "Legal."--_Ibid._
[21] "Without feeling any mixture of corruption."--_Ibid._
["Henceforward, he transformed himself into an angel of light,
and worked so artfully, that I imagined the good, and not the
evil, spirit suggested to me everything I did.
"His main drift was to lead me into a state of quietism (he
generally ploughed with God's heifer); and when the Holy Spirit
put into my heart good thoughts or convictions, he always drove
them to extremes. For instance, having out of pride put down
in my diary what I gave away, Satan tempted me to lay my diary
quite aside. When Castaniza[22] advised to talk but little,
Satan said I must not talk at all. So that I, who used to be the
most forward in exhorting my companions, have sat whole nights
almost without speaking at all. Again, when Castaniza advised
to endeavour after a silent recollection and waiting upon God,
Satan told me I must leave off all forms, and not use my voice
in prayer at all. The time would fail me to recount all the
instances of this kind in which he had deceived me. But when
matters came to an extreme, God always showed me my error, and
by His Spirit pointed out a way for me to escape.
[22] "The Spiritual Combat; or, the Christian Pilgrim in his
Spiritual Conflict and Conquest." By John de Castaniza. Revised
and recommended by the Rev. Richard Lucas, D.D., Rector of St.
Stephen's, Coleman Street.
"The devil also sadly imposed upon me in the matter of my
college exercises. Whenever I endeavoured to compose my theme,
I had no power to write a word, nor so much as to tell my
Christian friends of my inability to do it. Saturday being come,
which is the day the students give up their compositions, it was
suggested to me that I must go down into the hall, and confess I
could not make a theme, and so publicly suffer, as if it were,
for my Master's sake. When the bell rung to call us, I went to
open the door to go down stairs, but feeling something give me a
violent inward check, I entered my study, and continued instant
in prayer, waiting the event. For this my tutor fined me half a
crown. The next week Satan served me in like manner again; but
now having got more strength, and perceiving no inward check,
I went into the hall. My name being called, I stood up and
told my tutor I could not make a theme. I think he fined me a
second time; but, imagining that I would not willingly neglect
my exercise, he afterward called me into the common room, and
kindly enquired whether any misfortune had befallen me, or what
was the reason I could not make a theme. I burst into tears,
and assured him that it was not out of contempt of authority,
but that I could not act otherwise. Then, at length, he said he
believed I could not; and, when he left me, told a friend, as he
very well might, that he took me to be really mad. This friend,
hearing from my tutor what had happened, came to me, urging the
command of Scripture, to be subject to the higher powers. I
answered, 'Yes; but I had a new revelation.' Lord, what is man?
"As I daily got strength, by continued, though almost silent,
prayer in my study, my temptations grew stronger also,
particularly for two or three days before deliverance came.]
"Near five or six weeks I had now spent in my study, except
when[23] I was obliged to go out. During this time I was
fighting with my corruptions, and did little else besides
kneeling down by my bedside, feeling, as it were, a heavy
pressure upon my body, as well as an unspeakable oppression
of mind, yet offering up my soul to God to do with me as it
pleased Him. It was now suggested to me that Jesus Christ was
among the wild beasts when He was tempted, and that I ought to
follow His example; and being willing, as I thought, to imitate
Jesus Christ, after supper I went into Christ Church walk, near
our college, and continued in silent prayer under one of the
trees [for near two hours, sometimes lying flat on my face,
sometimes] kneeling upon my knees, [all the while filled with
fear and concern lest some of my brethren should be overwhelmed
with pride. The night being stormy, it gave me awful thoughts of
the day of judgment. I continued, I think,] till the great bell
rung for retirement to the college, not without finding some
reluctance in the natural man against staying so long in the
cold.
[23] "College business obliged me to go down."--Edit. 1756.
["The next night I repeated the same exercise at the same place.
But the hour of extremity being now come, God was pleased to
make an open show of those diabolical devices by which I had
been deceived.]
"By this time, I had left off keeping my diary, using my forms,
or scarce my voice in prayer, visiting prisoners, etc. Nothing
remained for me to leave, unless I forsook public worship, but
my religious friends. Now it was suggested that I must leave
them also for Christ's sake. This was a sore trial; but rather
than not be, as I fancied, Christ's disciple, I resolved to
renounce them, though as dear to me as my own soul. Accordingly,
the next day being Wednesday, whereon we kept one of our weekly
fasts, instead of meeting with my brethren as usual, I went out
into the fields, and prayed silently by myself. Our evening
meeting I neglected also, and went not to breakfast, according
to appointment, with Mr. Charles Wesley the day following. This,
with many other concurring circumstances, made my honoured
friend, Mr. Charles Wesley, suspect something more than ordinary
was the matter. He came to my room, [soon found out my case,]
apprised me of my danger if I would not take advice, and
recommended me to his brother John, Fellow of Lincoln College,
as more experienced[24] [in the spiritual life]. God gave
me--[blessed be His holy name]--a teachable temper, and I waited
upon his brother, with whom from that time I had the honour of
growing intimate. He advised me to resume all my externals,
though not to depend on them in the least. From time to time he
gave me directions as my [various and] pitiable state required;
[and, at length, by his excellent advice and management of me,
under God, I was delivered from those wiles of Satan. 'Praise
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise His holy
name!']
[24] "Than himself."--Edit 1756.
["During this and all other seasons of temptation my soul was
inwardly supported with great courage and resolution from
above. Every day God made me willing to renew the combat, and
though my soul, when quite empty of God, was very prone to
seek satisfaction in the creature, and sometimes I fell into
sensuality, yet I was generally enabled to wait in silence
for the salvation of God, or to persist in prayer till some
beams of spiritual light and comfort were vouchsafed me from
on high. Thomas à Kempis, since translated and published by
Mr. John Wesley; Castaniza's Combat; and the Greek Testament,
every reading of which I endeavoured to turn into a prayer,
were of great help and furtherance to me. On receiving the
holy sacrament, especially before trials, I have found grace
in a very affecting manner, and in abundant measure, sometimes
imparted to my soul,--an irrefragable proof to me of the
miserable delusion of the author of that work called, 'The Plain
Account of the Sacrament,' which sinks that holy ordinance into
a bare memorial, who, if he obstinately refuse the instruction
of the Most High, will doubtless, without repentance, bear his
punishment, whosoever he be.]
"To proceed--I had now taken up my externals again;[25] [and
though Satan for some weeks had been biting my heel, God was
pleased to show me that I should soon bruise his head.] A few
days after, as I was walking along, I met with a poor woman
whose husband was then in [Bocardo, or] Oxford Town-Gaol,
[which I constantly visited.] Seeing her much discomposed, I
enquired the cause. She told me, not being able to bear the
crying of her children, ready to perish for hunger, and having
nothing to relieve them, she had been to drown herself, but was
mercifully prevented, and said she was coming to my room to
inform me of it. I gave her some immediate relief, and desired
her to meet me at the prison with her husband in the afternoon.
She came, and there God visited them both by His free grace.
She was powerfully quickened from above; and when I had done
reading, he also came to me like the trembling gaoler, and,
grasping my hand, cried out, 'I am upon the brink of hell!'.
From this time forward, both of them grew in grace. God, by His
providence, soon delivered him from his confinement. Though
notorious offenders against God and one another before, yet now
they became helpmeets for each other in the great work of their
salvation. They are both now living, and, I trust, will be my
joy and crown of rejoicing in the great day of our Lord Jesus.
[25] "And began to visit the poor."--Edit. 1756.
"Soon after this, [the holy season of] Lent came on, which our
friends kept very strictly, eating no flesh during the six
weeks, except on Saturdays and Sundays. I abstained frequently
on Saturdays also, and ate nothing on the other days, except
on Sunday, but sage-tea without sugar, and coarse bread. I
constantly walked out in the cold mornings till part of one of
my hands was quite black. This, with my continued abstinence
and inward conflicts, at length so emaciated my body, that,
at Passion-week, finding I could scarce creep upstairs, I was
obliged to inform my kind tutor of my condition, who immediately
sent for a physician to me.
"This caused no small triumph amongst the collegians, who began
to cry out, 'What is his fasting come to now?' [But I rejoiced
in this reproach, knowing that, though I had been imprudent, and
lost much of my flesh, yet, I had nevertheless increased in the
spirit.]
["This fit of sickness continued upon me for seven weeks,
and a glorious visitation it was.[26] The blessed Spirit was
all this time purifying my soul. All my former gross and
notorious, and even my heart sins also, were now set home upon
me, of which I wrote down some remembrance immediately, and
confessed them before God morning and evening. Though weak, I
often spent two hours in my evening retirements, and prayed
over my Greek Testament and Bishop Hall's most excellent
'Contemplations' every hour that my health would permit.]
About the end of the seven weeks,[27] [and after I had been
groaning under an unspeakable pressure both of body and mind
for above a twelvemonth, God was pleased to set me free in the
following manner. One day, perceiving an uncommon drought and
a disagreeable clamminess in my mouth, and using things to
allay my thirst, but in vain, it was suggested to me that when
Jesus Christ cried out, 'I thirst,' His sufferings were near
at an end. Upon which I cast myself down on the bed, crying
out, 'I thirst! I thirst!' Soon after this, I found and felt
in myself that I was delivered from the burden that had so
heavily oppressed me. The spirit of mourning was taken from
me, and I knew what it was truly to rejoice in God my Saviour,
and, for some time, could not avoid singing psalms wherever I
was; but my joy gradually became more settled, and, blessed be
God, has abode and increased in my soul, saving a few casual
intermissions, ever since.
[26] "But, however, notwithstanding my fit of sickness continued
six or seven weeks, I trust I shall have reason to bless God for
it, through the endless ages of eternity. For," Edit. 1756.
[27] "After having undergone innumerable buffetings of Satan,
and many months' inexpressible trials by night and day under
the spirit of bondage, God was pleased at length to remove the
heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear Son by a living
faith, and, by giving me the spirit of adoption, to seal me, as
I humbly hope, even to the day of everlasting redemption. But
oh! with what joy--joy unspeakable--even joy that was full of,
and big with glory, was my soul filled, when the weight of sin
went off, and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God,
and a full assurance of faith broke in upon my disconsolate
soul! Surely it was the day of my espousals,--a day to be had
in everlasting remembrance. At first my joys were like a spring
tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks. Go where I would,
I could not avoid singing of psalms almost aloud; afterwards it
became more settled--and, blessed be God, saving a few casual
intervals, has abode and increased in my soul ever since. But to
proceed."--Edit. 1756.
"Thus were the days of my mourning ended. After a long night
of desertion and temptation, the star, which I had seen at
a distance before, began to appear again, and the day star
arose in my heart. Now did the Spirit of God take possession
of my soul, and, as I humbly hope, seal me unto the day of
redemption."]
Here we must pause. Whitefield evidently considered this to be the
time of his conversion. The date was about seven weeks after Easter,
in the year 1735. This was three years before the Wesley brothers
professed to receive the same blessing. In fact, young Whitefield
seems to have been the first of the Oxford Methodists who attained
to the experience expressed in Romans viii. 15, 16: "Ye have not
received the Spirit of bondage, again to fear; but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of
God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ." It cannot be denied that Whitefield's first account of the
way in which he obtained this gift of God is tinged with fanaticism.
The second and revised account, published sixteen years afterwards,
is unobjectionable. Oppressed with a sense of sin, and buffeted by
Satan, the young servitor laid hold of Christ "by a living faith,"
received "the spirit of adoption," was blessed with "a sense of the
pardoning love of God," and filled with "joy unspeakable" and "big
with glory."
Whitefield's history of his college life, especially the first
edition of it, brought upon him the scathing criticisms of both
friends and foes. The recital of his diabolical buffetings is
more minute than sensible, and was sure to excite the sarcastic
laughter of men like Lavington. The taciturnity which came over
him is neither to be desired nor commended. His religious jargon,
partly bracketed and partly otherwise, is not "good to the use of
edifying." The lengthy descriptions of his fastings, prayers, and
devotions have a somewhat pharisaic tinge. But, notwithstanding all
these animadversions, this section of Whitefield's autobiography
is useful and important. Throughout, it exhibits the spirit, the
principles, and the practices of the Oxford Methodists. It shows
that college life at Oxford was profligately wicked, and that men
like the Oxford Methodists were greatly needed. It reveals the
significant and momentous fact that the work of God was not confined
to the Oxford University, for, in his way, young Whitefield was
intensely religious before he left his home at Gloucester. The
omnipresent Spirit was preparing men for a great work in different
places--not only in Oxford and Gloucester, but, as will be seen
hereafter, in various parts of the United Kingdom, and even across
the Atlantic.
"When I was sixteen years of age," said Whitefield, a few months
before he died, "I began to fast twice a week for thirty-six
hours together, prayed many times a day, received the sacrament
every Sabbath, fasted myself almost to death all the forty days
of Lent, during which I made it a point of duty never to go less
than three times a day to public worship, besides seven times a
day to my private prayers; yet I knew no more that I was to be
born a new creature in Christ Jesus, than if I had never been
born at all. I had a mind to be upon the stage, but then I had
a qualm of conscience. I used to ask people, 'Pray can I be a
player, and yet go to sacrament, and be a Christian?' 'O,' said
they, 'such a one, who is a player, goes to sacrament; though,
according to the law of the land, no player should receive
the sacrament unless he gives proof that he repents; that was
Archbishop Tillotson's doctrine.' 'Well then,' said I, 'if that
be the case, I will be a player;' and I thought to act my
part for the devil as well as anybody. But, blessed be God, He
stopped me in my career. I must bear testimony to my old friend,
Mr. Charles Wesley. He put a book into my hands, called 'The
Life of God in the Soul of Man,' whereby God showed me that
I must be born again or be damned. I know the place; it may
perhaps be superstitious, but, whenever I go to Oxford, I cannot
help running to the spot where Jesus Christ first revealed
Himself to me, and gave me the new birth. I learned that a man
may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament, and
yet not be a Christian. How did my heart rise and shudder like a
poor man that is afraid to look into his ledger, lest he should
find himself a bankrupt. 'Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw
it down? Or shall I search it?' I did search it; and, holding
the book in my hand, thus addressed the God of heaven and earth:
'Lord, if I am not a Christian, for Jesus Christ's sake show me
what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last.' I read
a little further, and discovered that they who know anything of
religion know it is a vital union with the Son of God--Christ
formed in the heart. O what a ray of Divine life did then break
in upon my soul! I fell a writing to all my brethren and to my
sisters. I talked to the students as they came into my room. I
laid aside all trifling conversation. I put all trifling books
away, and was determined to study to be a saint, and then to
be a scholar. From that moment God has been carrying on His
blessed work in my soul. I am now fifty-five years of age, and
shall leave you in a few days; but I tell you, my brethren, I am
more and more convinced that this is the truth of God, and that
without it you can never be saved by Jesus Christ."[28]
[28] Eighteen Sermons preached by Rev. George Whitefield. Revised by
Dr, Gifford: p. 359.
Nothing more need be said on the subject of Whitefield's conversion.
The reader now has Whitefield's own testimonies at three different
periods of his life. The accounts might have been clearer, more
precise, and perhaps more scripturally expressed; but the fact is
patent: Whitefield was converted--regenerated--born again--in the
year 1735. Or, perhaps, to speak more correctly, it was in 1735,
that, through a penitent, heartfelt trust in Christ, he received
"the Spirit of adoption," God sending "forth the Spirit of His Son
into his heart, crying, Abba, Father."
For five years, Whitefield had been a sincere and earnest penitent.
Like all the other Oxford Methodists, he sought salvation, not by
simple, heartfelt faith in Christ, but by self-denial, ardent piety,
and the practice of good works. No wonder that he was destitute
of the joy arising from a firm and full assurance of acceptance
with God. The man relying on his own piety and beneficence must
necessarily live a joyless, anxious, and almost miserable life;
because he knows and feels that much in his past career has been
absolutely wicked; and because, however sincere his present piety,
and however commendable his good works, he knows that, at the best,
they are exceedingly imperfect, and, so far from meriting the Divine
favour, and atoning for the iniquities of other days, actually need
the forgiveness of a long-suffering God. No man of this description
can be happy. But it is far otherwise with the penitent, who, while
diligently using all the means of grace, and to the utmost of his
power endeavouring to serve both God and man, obeys Scripture
teaching by firmly believing that the death of Christ was a full
atonement for _his sins, even his_, and by trusting solely and
exclusively in that astounding but scripturally revealed fact for
acceptance with God, both in this world and in that which is to
come. Let a man attain to such a faith as this, or rather let him be
blessed with such a blessing (for faith is a Divine gift as well as
a human act), and he cannot fail to be filled, as Whitefield was,
with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Even his love to God,
also, becomes what it had never been before, inasmuch as he now, in
the death of Christ, sees God's love manifested to himself as it is
manifested nowhere else. Love kindles love, and the man serves his
Maker, not merely because it is his duty, but because he cannot help
it, love making his duty his delight. With such a belief concerning
the death of Christ, and such a trust in it, his faith in God, in
Providence, in the blessed Bible as a whole, is of necessity higher,
holier, stronger, broader, firmer than it ever could be without such
a belief and trust; and the same may also be said respecting hope,
and all the other Divine gifts and Christian virtues possessed and
exercised by the genuinely converted man.
It was not until the year 1735 that Whitefield attained to such a
state as this; and three more years elapsed before his friends and
religious preceptors, John and Charles Wesley, were brought to the
same self-renunciating crisis, and were enabled by the Holy Spirit
to trust simply and solely in the blood of Christ for personal,
present, and endless salvation.
From this point in their history, all the three were "new creatures
in Christ Jesus." This will be seen hereafter; but, before
proceeding further, it may be instructive and profitable to look at
them again in their transition period. Pietists more sincere and
earnest never lived; and yet none of them were happy. They were
ready to do and almost to suffer anything and everything that would
be conducive to the Divine honour; and yet they were in doubt and
darkness respecting their being blessed with the Divine favour. The
reason of this perplexed them. To others it is obvious. The language
of St. Paul concerning the Jews may, with perfect propriety, be
applied to the Oxford Methodists: "I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God."
The following extracts from letters, written by Whitefield during
the twelve months immediately preceding his conversion, will not
only help to elucidate his character, but will also confirm what has
just been said respecting the principles, and piety, and personal
experience of the Oxford Methodists at this important period of
their history.