To The Rev. George Whitefield
CX. — To the Reverend George Whitefield.
MY DEAR BROTHER, March 20, 1739.
WOULD you have me speak to you freely? without any softening or reserve at all? I know you would. And may Our loving Savior speak to your heart; so my labor shall not be in vain. I do not commend you with regard to our brothers Seward and Cennick. But let me speak tenderly; for I am but a little child. I know our Lord has brought good out of their going to you: God to you, and good to them: Very much good; and may he increase it a thousandfold, how much soever it be! But is everything good, my brother, out of which He brings good? I think that does not follow. O my brother, is it well for you or me to give the least hint of setting up our will or judgment against that of our whole society? Was it well for you once to mention a desire which they had all solemnly declared they thought unreasonable? Was not this abundant cause to drop any design which was not manifestly grounded on a clear command of our Lord? Indeed, my brother, in this I commend you not. If our brother R——, or P——, desired anything, and our other brethren disapproved of it, I cannot but think he ought immediately to let it drop. How much more ought you or I? They are upon a level with the rest of their brethren. But I trust you and I are not: We are the servants of all. Thus far have I spoken with fear and much trembling, and with many tears. O may our Lord speak the rest! For what shall such an one as I say to a beloved servant of my Lord? O pray that I may see myself a worm and no man! I wish to be Your brother in Jesus Christ.
CXI. — To the Same.
April, 1741.
WOULD you have me deal plainly with you, my brother? I believe you would: Then, by the grace of God, I will.
Of many things I find you are not rightly informed; of others you speak what you have not well weighed.
The society room at Bristol, you say, is adorned. How? Why, with a piece of green cloth nailed to the desk; two sconces for eight candles each in the middle; and — nay I know no more. Now, which of these can be spared I know not; nor would I desire either more adorning or less. But “lodgings are made for me or my brother.” That is, in plain English, there is a little room by the school, where I speak to the persons who come to me; and a garret, in which a bed is placed for me. And do you grudge me this? Is this the voice of my brother, my son, Whitefield? You say further, “that the children at Bristol are clothed as well as taught.” I am sorry for it; for the cloth is not paid for yet, and was bought without my consent or knowledge. “But those of Kingswood have been neglected.” This is not so, notwithstanding the heavy debt which lay upon it. One master and one mistress have been in the house ever since it was capable of receiving them. A second master has been placed there some months since; and I have long been seeking for two proper mistresses; so that as much has been done, as matters stand, if not more, than I can answer to God or man.
Hitherto, then, there is no ground for the heavy charge of perverting your design for the poor colliers. Two years since, your design was to build them a school, that their children also might be taught to fear the Lord. To this end, you collected some money more than once; how much I cannot say, till I have my papers. But this I know, it was not near one half of what has been expended on the work. This design you then recommended to me, and I pursued it with all my might, through such a train of difficulties as, I will be bold to say, you have not yet met with in your life. For many months I collected money wherever I was, and began building, though I had not then a quarter of the money requisite to finish. However, taking all the debt upon myself, the creditors were willing to stay: And then it was that I took possession of it in my own name; that is, when the foundation was laid; and I immediately made my will, fixing my brother and you to succeed me therein.
But it is a poor case, that you and I should be talking thus. Indeed, these things ought not to be. It lay in your power to have prevented all, and yet to have born testimony to what you call “the truth.” If you had disliked my sermon, you might have printed another on the same text, and have answered my proofs, without mentioning my name: This had been fair and friendly.
You rank all the maintainers of universal redemption with Socinians themselves. Alas! my brother, do you not know even this, that the Socinians allow no redemption at all? that Socinus himself speaks thus: Tota redemptio nostra per Christum metaphora? 69 and says expressly, “Christ did not die as a ransom for any, but only as an example for all mankind?” How easy were it for me to hit many other palpable blots in that which you call an answer to my sermon! And how above measure contemptible would you then appear to all impartial men, either of sense or learning! But I spare you; mine hand shall not be upon you. The Lord be judge between me and thee! The general tenor both of my public and private exhortations, when I touch thereon at all, as even my enemies know if they would testify, is, “Spare the young man, even Absalom, for my sake.”
CXII. — To the Same.
MY DEAR BROTHER, LEWISHAM, February 21, 1770.
MR. KEEN informed me some time since of your safe arrival in Carolina; of which indeed I could not doubt for a moment, notwithstanding the idle report of your being cast away, which was so current in London. I trust our Lord has more work for you to do in Europe, as well as in America. And who knows, but before your return to England, I may pay another visit to the New World? I have been strongly solicited by several of our friends in New York and Philadelphia. They urge many reasons, some of which appear to be of considerable weight: And my age is no objection at all; for I bless God, my health is not barely as good, but abundantly better in several respects, than when I was five-and-twenty. But there are so many reasons on the other side, that as yet I can determine nothing: So I must wait for farther light. Here I am: Let the Lord do with me as seemeth him good. For the present I must beg of you to supply my lack of service by encouraging our Preachers as you judge best; who are as yet comparitively young and inexperienced; by giving them such advises as you think proper; and, above all, by exhorting them, not only to love one another, but, if it be possible, as much as lies in them, to live peaceably with all men.
Some time ago, since you went hence, I heard a circumstance which gave me a good deal of concern; namely, that the College or Academy in Georgia had swallowed up the Orphan-house. Shall I give my judgment without being asked? Methinks, friendship requires I should. Are there not then two points which come in view? a point of mercy, and a point of justice? With regard to the former, may it not be inquired, Can anything on earth be a greater charity, than to bring up orphans? What is a College or an Academy compared to this? unless you could have such a College as perhaps is not upon earth. I know the value of learning, and am more in danger of prizing it too much, than too little. But still, I cannot place the giving it to five hundred students, on a level with saving the bodies, if not the souls too, of five hundred orphans. But let us pass on from the point of mercy to that of justice: You had land given, and collected money, for an Orphan-house: Are you at liberty to apply this to any other purpose? at least, while there are any orphans in Georgia left? I just touch upon this, though it is an important point, and leave it to your own consideration, whether part of it, at least, might not properly be applied to carry on the original design? In speaking thus freely, on so tender a subject, I have given you a fresh proof of the sincerity with which I am
Your ever affectionate friend and brother.