In 1744, Was it a Crime for a Believer to State He Had direct communications with the Holy Spirit of God?

In 1744, Harvard College published a 28 page “Testimony…” Against George Whitfield’s itinerant preaching throughout America. It made many of the same arguments from what was then known as the “Old Lights” of New England that were made sixty years earlier against Anne Marbury Hutchinson in Massachusetts colony; charges which resulted in two trials before Goverrnor Winthrop, and her banishment from the colony.

The short answer to this question in the Heading posed today in 2022, is provided from source documents written in 1744 at the beginning of the Great Awakening, where the “Old Light” school actively opposed the “New Light” school, so-called over this very issue of not only whether the Holy Spirit was indwelling in believers, born of water and spirit, but more importantly whether the Holy Spirit actually spoke to them and guided them.

The “Old Lights” discredited, maligned, resisted openly, and behind closed doors the open-air preaching by itinerant preachers such as George Whitefield, James Davies, Jonathan Edwards, Francis Asbury and many more. Some argue, the rapidly growing and massive audiences which these itinerant preachers drew to their open-air meetings during the Great Awakening period were responsible for the opposition. It is reported by primary sources, that not only did the established churches lose membership in large numbers, but that many clergyman in these churches observed “empty pews” on Sundays when these preachers appeared in their communities to preach. Others assert these preachers were a bad inluence on the local economies, as many in the audience left their work in the fields and businesses to listen to the preachers. To understand the effect in terms of numbers, it 1781, the number of people in Methodist societies numbered about 800 total. In 1816, that number had increased to over 215,000, and by the 1850’s it exceeded 1.5 million.

At the time to oppositon of Harvard’s Testimony (excerpted below) was delivered and published publicaly, Johnathan Edwards, a friend of Whitefield, and then an established Congregationalist pastor, who went on to become the President of Princeton College, was so disturbed by Harvard’s Testimony (excerpt below), that he wrote and delivered a 48 page sermon, and then published it throughout America on the very subject. In every way Edwards supported George Whitefield with some extremely well laid out arguments; arguments that are timeless and relevant to readers in 2022.

That sermon by Edwards was entitled Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (PDF); and Edwards also wrote, delivered, and published his most famous sermon around the same period entitled: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (PDF) Both PDFs can be read and downloaded here at this website.

This discussion in 1744, was not a new one, as the entire discussion between Christ Jesus, the Pharisees and Saducees, presented in the Gospel of John, and elsewhere, largely focused upon the same significant disputes in that time frame. These differences persist in 2022, and are indeed prophesied by Christ Jesus to occur yet again in Matthew 24; the entirety of Revelation; as well as Daniel, chapter 12.

“THE

TESTIMONY

Of the President, Professor, Tutors and Hebrew Instructors

of HARVARD COLLEGE in Cambridge

Against the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield

And his Conduct,

BOSTON, N.E.

Printed and fold By  T. Fleet, at the Heart and Crown. In Cornhill. 1744.[1]

In regard of the Danger which we apprehend the People and Churches of this Land are in, on the Account of the Rev. Mr.George Whitefield, we have tho't ourselves oblig'd to bear our Testimony, in this public Manner, against him and his Way of Preaching, as tending very much to the Detriment of Religion, and the entire Destruction of the Order of these Churches of Chrift, which our Fathers have taken such Care and Pains to settle, as by the Platform, according to which the Discipline of the Churches of New England is regulated:  And we do therefore hereby declare, That we look upon his going about, in an Itinerant Way, especially as he hath so much of an enthusiastic Turn, utterly inconsistent with the Peace and Order, if not the very Being of these Churches of Christ.

 And now, inasmuch as by a certain Faculty he hath of raising the Passions, he hath been the Means of rousing many from their Stupidity, and setting them on thinking, where by forne may have been made really better, on which Account the People, many of them, are strongly attach’d to him (tho’ it is most evident, that he hath not any SuperiorTalent at intruding the Mind, or shewing the Force and Energy of those Arguments for a religious Life, which are directed to in the everlasting Gospel) Therefore that the People who are thus attach’d to him,

May not take up an unreasonable Prejudice againft this our Testimony, we think it very proper to give some Reasons for it, which we shall offer, respecting the Man himself, and then his Way and Manner of Preaching.

First  as to the Man himself, whom we look upon as an Enthusiast, a censorious, uncharitable Person, and a Deluder of the People; which Things, if we can make, out, all reasonable Men will  doubtless excuse us, tho’ some such, thro' a fascinating Curiosity, may still continue their Attachment to him.

First: then, we charge him, with Enthusiasm, Now that. We may speak clearly upon this Head, we mean by an Enthusiast one that acts, either according to Dreams, or some sudden Impulses and Impressions upon his Mind, which he' fondly imagines to be from the Spirit of God, perswading and inclining him thereby to such and such Actions, tho’ he hath no Proof that such Perswasions or Impressions are from the holy Spirit: For the perceiving a strong Impression upon our Minds, or a violent Inclination to do any Action, is a very different Thing from perceiving such Impreffions to be from the Spirit of God moving upon the Hcart:  For our Strong Faith and Belief, that such a Motion on the Mind comes from God, can never be any Proof of it; and if such Impulies and Impressions be not agreeable to our Reason, or to the Revelation of the Mind of God to us, in his Word, nothing can be more dangerous than conducing ourselves according to them; for otherwise, if we judge not them by these Rules they may as well be the Suggestions of the evil Spirit:  And in what Condition must that People be, who stand ready to be led by a Man that conducts himself according to his Dreams, or some ridiculous and unaccountable Impulses and Impressions on his Mind? And that this is Mr. Whitefield’s Manner, is evident both by his Life, his Journals, and his Sermons. …

To mention but one Instance more, tho' we are not of such Letter-learned as deny, that there is such an Union of Believers to Christ:, whereby they are one in him as the Father and he are One as the Evangelist:  speaks, or rather the Spirit of God by him;  yet so Letter-learned we are, as to say, that that Passage in Mr. W—'s Sermon of the Indwelling of the Spirit p, 311: vol. of Sermons, contains the true.  Spirit of Enthusiasm, where he says, to talk of any having the Spirit of God without feeling of it is really to deny the Thing, Upon which we say, That the Believer may have a Satisfaction, that he hath the Assistance of the Spirit of God with him in so continual and regular Manner, that he may be said to dwell in him, and yet have no feeling of it ; for the Metaphor is much too gross to express this (however full) Satisfaction of the Mind, and has led some to take the Expression literally, and hath (we fear) given great Satisfaction to many an Enthusiast among us since the Year 1740, from the swelling of their Breasts and Stomachs in the irreligious Agitations, which they have tho't to be feeling the Spirit and its Operations on them.  But it is no way necessary to instance any further upon this Head; for the aforesaid Compositions are full of these Things. The whole tends to perswade the World ("and it has done so with respect to many) that Mr. W., hath as familiar a Converse and Communion with God as any of the Prophets and Apostles, and such as we all acknowledge to have been under the Inspiration of the Holy, Ghost. …”

____________________

The foregoing was typed from an original book published in 1744, and it contains 22 pages which can be downloaded from the link given in footnote (1) on the first page. 

George Whitefield did respond to the letter from the Harvard statement, in a letter dated January 23, 1745 stating:

“ REVEREND AND HONOURED GENTLEMEN:

‘ . . . You Gentlemen . . . have thought proper to publish a Testimony against me and my Conduct, wherein you have undertaken to prove, page 4, that I am an Enthusiast, a censorious, uncharitable Person, and a Deluder of the People …’

‘By Enthusiast (you say p. 4) we mean one who acts according to Dreams, or some sudden Impulses and Impression upon his Mind, which he fondly imagines to be from the Spirit of God,  perswading and inclining him thereby to such and such actions, tho’ he hath no Proof that such Perswasions  or Impressions are from the holy Spirit;’ This Definition of an Enthusiast (whether exactly right or not), you are pleas’d to apply to me, and accordingly at the Bottom of the aforementioned  Page assert that I am “a Man that conducts himself according to his Dreams, or some ridiculous Impulses and Impressions upon his Mind,” and that this is Mr. Whitefield’s Manner is evident (you say), both by his Life, his Journals and his Sermons.’

“You proceed . . . to lay more something to the charges, ‘Sometimes  you say, He speaks as if he had Communications directly from the Spirit of God.’  And is it  a Crime for a Believer, much more a Minister of Jesus, to speak of his having Communications directly from the Spirit of God?  I thought that was no new Thing to Ministers and the People of New England, especially since such a remarkable revival of Religion has been vouchsafed to them.  How are Believers sealed; or how is the Divine Life begun and carried onif there be no such Thing as having Divine Communication from the holy Spirit of God?’”

[1] From primary Source in the public domain:  https://archive.org/details/testimonyofpresi00harv/page/4/mode/2up