The scene of George Whitefield's funeral was the
Old South First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
The date was October 2, 1770, and the
funeral sermon was given by the pastor of
the Old South Church, Jonathan Parsons, who was
a close friend of the great Whitefield.
Parsons' text was Philippians 121, For me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain.
The sermon was preached with the body of
Whitefield lying before the pulpit in an open
coffin.
The church in Newburyport is the same today
as it was in 1770 with the exception
that the original site of the pulpit has
been moved to a front wall of the
church as well as the crypt containing Whitefield's
remains.
When I was conducting research for my two
-volume definitive biography on Whitefield, I found the
exact location where Whitefield's coffin stood that particular
day in 1770.
I sat there one afternoon meditating on the
events of that dramatic day when Whitefield's coffin
was the centerpiece of the broad aisle of
the Old South Church, a church he had
often preached in himself, the same broad aisle
that George Washington stood in to call for
volunteers for the first regiment of the Revolutionary
War.
As this year marks the tricentenary of George
Whitefield's birth, it is important that we restudy
the life and ministry of Whitefield, for we
can learn much from him as well as
learn how God moved in former times, in
times of spiritual awakening and revival in the
land.
Whitefield's often comment was, let the name of
George Whitefield perish, and perish it has, for
few really are familiar with his great life
and ministry.
I would like to read for us today
the funeral sermon delivered by Jonathan Parsons on
that solemn day of October the 2nd, 1770.
Here now is that sermon.
Christ became a principle of spiritual life in
his soul while he was an undergraduate at
the University in Oxford.
Before his conversion, he was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, as strict as Paul ever was,
before God met him on his way to
Damascus, according to his own declaration in his
last sermon, which I heard him preach at
Exeter yesterday.
He was by means of reading, a very
searching puritanical writer, convinced of the rottenness of
all duties he had done, and the danger
of a self-righteous foundation of hope.
When he heard Christ speak to him in
the gospel, he cried, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?
And it seems as if, at that time,
it had been made known to him that
he was a chosen vessel to bear the
name of Jesus Christ through the British nation
and her colonies, to stand before kings and
nobles and all sorts of people to preach
Christ and him crucified.
From that time, the dawn of salvation had
living power in his heart, and he had
an ardent desire to furnish himself for the
gospel ministry.
To this end, besides the usual studies at
the college, he gave himself to reading the
Holy Scriptures, to meditation and prayer, and particularly,
he read Mr. Henry's annotations on the Bible
upon his knees before God.
Since my first acquaintance with him, which is
about thirty years ago, I have highly esteemed
him as an excellent Christian and an eminent
minister of the gospel.
A heart so bent for Christ, with such
a sprightly act of genius, could not admit
of a stated fixed residence in one place
as the pastor of a particular congregation, and
therefore he chose to itinerate from place to
place and from one country to another, which
indeed was much better suited to his talents
than a fixed abode would have been.
I often considered him as an angel flying
through the midst of heaven with the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on
the earth, for he preached the uncorrupted word
of God and gave solemn warnings against all
corruptions of the gospel of Christ.
The late Dr. Grosvenor, upon hearing Whitfield preach
at Charles Square, Hoxton, expressed himself thus, that
if the Apostle Paul had preached to this
auditory, he would have preached in the same
manner.
When he came the first time to Boston,
the venerable Dr. Coleman, with whom I had
a small acquaintance, condescended to write to me
that the wonderful man was come, and they
had a week of Sabbaths, that his zeal
for Christ was extraordinary, and yet he recommended
himself to his many thousand hearers by his
engagedness for holiness and souls.
I soon had opportunity to observe that wherever
he flew, like a flame of fire, his
ministry gave a general alarm to all sorts
of people, though before they had, for a
long time, been amazingly sunk into dead formality.
It was then a time in New England
when real Christians generally had slackened their zeal
for Christ and fallen into a remiss and
careless frame of spirit, and hypocritical professors were
sunk into a deep sleep of carnal security.
Ministers and their congregations seemed to be at
ease, but his preaching appeared to be from
the heart, though too many who spake the
same things preached as if it were indifferent
whether they were received or rejected, we were
convinced that he believed the message he brought
to us to be of the last importance.
Nevertheless, as soon as there was time for
reflection, the enemies of Christ began to cavil
and hold up some of his sallies as
if they were unpardonable faults.
By such means, he met with a storm
as tempestuous as the troubled sea that casts
up mire and dirt.
Some of every station were too fond of
their old way of formality to part with
it for such a despised cause as living
religion.
But the Spirit of Christ sent home the
message of Lord upon the conscience of some
and shook them off from their false hopes,
but many began to find fault and some
to write against his evangelizing through the country
while others threatened firebrands, arrows, and death.
Yet God gave room for his intense zeal
to operate and fit objects appeared wherever he
went to engage him in preaching Christ and
him crucified.
In his repeated visits to America, when his
services had almost exhausted his animal spirits and
his friends were ready to cry, spare thyself,
his hope of serving Christ and winning souls
to him animated and engaged him to run
almost any risk.
Neither did he ever cross the Atlantic on
an itinerating visitation without visiting his numerous brethren
here to see how religion prospered amongst them
and we know that his labors have been
unwearied among us to the applause of all
his hearers and through the infinite mercy of
God his labors have sometimes been crowned with
great success in the conversion of sinners and
the edification of saints.
And though he has often returned from the
pulpit very feeble after public preaching yet his
engaging sweetness of conversation changed the suspicions of
many into passionate love and friendship.
In many things his example is worthy of
imitation and if anything he exceeded or came
short his integrity zeal for God and love
to Christ and his gospel rendered him in
extensive usefulness more than equal to any of
his brethren.
In preaching here and through most parts of
America he has been in labors more abundant
of proving himself a minister of God in
much patience in afflictions in watchings in fastings
by pureness by the Holy Ghost by love
unfeigned as sorrowful yet always rejoicing as having
nothing yet possessing all things and God that
comfort those that are cast down has often
comforted us by his coming and not by
his coming only but by the consolation wherewith
he was comforted in us so that we
could rejoice the more.
His popularity exceeded all that ever I knew
and though the asthma was sometimes an obstruction
to him his delivery and entertaining method was
so inviting to the last that it would
command the attention of the vast multitudes of
his hearers and apprehension of his concern to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ and do good
to the souls of men who drew many
thousands after him who never embraced the doctrines
he taught.
He had something so peculiar in his manner
expressive of sincerity in all he delivered that
it constrained the most abandoned to think he
believed what he said was not only true
but of the last importance to souls and
by adapted text deduced and instances of the
grace of God related agreeable thereto often surprised
his most judicious hearers.
His labors extended not only to New England
and many other colonies in British America but
were eminent and more abundant in Great Britain
many thousands at his chapel and tabernacle and
in other places were witnesses that he faithfully
endeavored to restore the interesting doctrines of the
reformation and the purity of the church to
its primitive glory.
Some among the learned some of the mighty
and noble have been called by his ministry
to testify for the gospel of the grace
of God the force of his reasonings against
corrupt principles and the easy method he had
of exposing the danger of them have astonished
the most that heard him in all places
where he preached how did he lament and
withstand the modern unscriptural notions of religion and
salvation that were palmed upon the churches of
every denomination the affecting change from primitive purity
to fatal heresy together with the sad effects
of it in mere formality and open wickedness
would often make him cry as the prophet
did in another case how is the gold
become dim and the most fine gold changed
how has the lord covered the daughter of
with a cloud in his anger and cast
down from heaven to earth the beauty of
Israel it is no wonder that this man
of God shouldn't meet with enemies and with
great opposition to his ministry for hell trembled
before him it is not more than may
be always expected of the devil that he
should stir up his servants to load the
most eminent ministers of Christ with calumny and
most impudent lies and represent them as the
filth and offscoring of all things all this
may be and often has been done under
a pretense of great concern for the honor
of Christ and the preservation of the gospel
order when satan totters and begins to fall
he can find men enough to cry the
church is in danger and that he knows
is sufficient with many to hide his cloven
foot and make him appear as an angel
of light through a variety of such labors
and trials our worthy friend and extensively useful
servant of Christ Mr. Whitfield passed both in
England and America but the Lord was his
son to guide and animate him and his
shield to defend and help him unto the
end neither did he count his own life
dear so that he might finish his course
with joy and the ministry that he had
received of the Lord Jesus to testify the
gospel of the grace of God the last
sermon that he preached though under the disadvantage
of a stage in the open air was
delivered with such clearness pathos and eloquence as
to please and surprise the thousands and as
he had been confirmed by the grace of
God many years before and had been waiting
and hoping for his last change he then
declared that he hoped it was the last
time he should ever preach doubtless he then
had such clear views of the blessedness of
open vision and the complete fruition of God
in Christ that he felt the pleasures of
heaven in his raptured soul which made his
countenance shine like the unclouded sun