2. THE COLONIES MATURE

THE GREAT AWAKENING OF THE MID-1700S

The Great Awakening was a result of the coming together of three key religious impulses:  Puritanism, Reformed or Presbyterian Christianity, and Pietism.

There was a residue of Puritanism still to be found in New England, and Presbyterianism and Pietism in the Middle Colonies.  And it took only a small number of energetic evangelicals to bring these impulses to full bloom. 

Also, Oglethorpe's Georgia colony in the Deep South was founded as a very special place, where those at the bottom of the social ladder could find a better life. Oglethorpe was thus very supportive of the idea of Christian regeneration. ... and of those who came to Georgia to get such Christian dynamics up and running ... such as Wesley and Whitefield.

This evangelical impulse was founded on a handful of basic principles:

1.  Evangelicalism calls for more than just proper Christian performance ... but more importantly, it calls for a deep sense of personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ

2.  This relationship necessarily includes some kind of conversion experience that breaks a person free from mere religious habit (religiosity struggles with sin ... but sadly still remains its victim) ... to take up that very personal sense of connection with God in Christ

3.  It includes an understanding that our salvation comes solely as a personal gift from God ... the penalty for our sins paid for by Jesus’s self-sacrifice on the cross.  In other words, it is Jesus who saves ... not our good works.  Good works are indeed good, but are not part of our spiritual salvation.  That comes only through the gifting of God ... and our faithful acceptance of this saving gift.

4.  Once enlightened to the vital importance of our own salvation ... it becomes our moral duty (not part of salvation itself ... but a sign of our gratitude) to help others find for themselves the path to such salvation (evangelism) ... actually not a burdensome duty but one that brings joyful blessings to both the giver and the receiver.

1726

The “Log College” is started up by pastor William Tennent (with the assistance of his eldest son, Gilbert Tennent)  in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania as something of a Presbyterian seminary (up to that point only Harvard and Yale count as American seminaries) ... to prepare pastors supporting the New Side in the growing controversy within the Presbyterian Church between the New Siders, part of the revival group, and the Old Siders, who consider a rising revivalist spirit as most unchristian.

Later 1720s

1729

John Wesley (a recently ordained Anglican priest and teaching fellow at Oxford), his brother Charles, and two friends start up what others mockingly termed "the Holy Club" at Oxford ... to study and worship together.  The mockery extends further, others calling their program "Methodism" ... in reference to the way they schedule regular prayer, fasting (Wednesdays and Fridays), bible study (but also outreach to the sick, poor, to orphans, and to people in prison).  No doubt, Wesley’s approach to the Christian life has been shaped deeply by the rigor and discipline he and his brother had been raised under by their father, a rector of the Church of England, and their mother, a highly self-disciplined Christian (herself the daughter of a Christian pastor).

These "Methodists" were also termed "enthusiasts" in reference to the fact that their Christianity was not standard in the way the Church of England worship conducted itself most ritually ... but was rather emotional in the way it went deep into personal feelings. 

But their numbers at Oxford would grow ... and importantly include the strongly Calvinist George Whitefield − who comes to Oxford in 1732 as a servitor, a penniless student who pays his educational costs by meeting the needs of fellow students. 

And most amazingly, Whitefield’s Calvinist views and the Wesleys' Arminian views on Christianity do not seem to disrupt their close relationship ... at least not at the time!

[Note:  Calvinism (following Paul’s line of thought in his Biblical writings, especially his Letter to the Romans) believes that personal salvation is given by God to people, not on the basis of their good works but on the basis of the faith that the Holy Spirit has freely given them.  In short, Calvinism does not believe that a person can "earn" something that is simply given purely by the grace of God.  Arminianism believes that a person has to work with God to gain salvation ... and without such human cooperation, salvation will never be achieved. 

Sadly, Whitefield and Wesley will eventually split over this all-important theological matter ... although some kind of personal respect for each other’s ministry will remain intact.  Consequently, Whitefield’s Christianity was more emotionally based, while Wesley’s was more self-disciplined based.  

Interesting also, this division would eventually produce a group called Calvinistic Methodists – (or Presbyterianism, similar to the Presbyterianism in Scotland ... and the Middle Colonies of America) led by Whitefield and supported importantly by Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntington ... a movement that eventually becomes quite strong in Wales.]

Jonathan Edwards, preaching on justification by faith, starts up a revival in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. 

By 1734 it has reached a huge number of people, especially youths, bringing in some 300 youths to full membership in the church.

Jonathan Edwards’ revival spreads south ... bringing out the first of the opposition against his "unorthodox" Christian leadership ... those claiming that his preaching is mere fanaticism.  And most tragically, Edward’s strong stand on the matter of God's gifting of personal salvation leads numerous people to despair about the authenticity of their "conversion" ... some even committing suicide.  Ultimately this leads to a setback in the momentum of Edward’s revival.  

But Edwards does not let up in his dedication to a very needy spiritual revival.

At the request of General James Oglethorpe, the Wesleys sail to  America (leaving in October and arriving the next February) – to Oglethorpe's new Georgia colony ... which is supposed to be a colony dedicated to helping those in need of a new start in life (notably debtors).  It is during this voyage to America that Wesley encounters some Moravians ... whose deep Christian faith and pietism strikes the heart of Wesley deeply ... especially when a storm hits the ship and everyone panics – except the Moravians, who simply meet the issue calmly with prayer and song.  Wesley hungers for that same kind of strong personal faith ... something that he realizes has nothing to do with proper religious performance.

The Wesleys' friend Whitefield, meanwhile, becomes the leader of the Holy Club at Oxford.

1736

Wesley's intentions are to evangelize neighboring Indian tribes .. but finds himself short of support – at a time he has also pastoral duties in Savannah’s Christ Church.  In general, whatever he hoped he was to achieve in Savannah ... the results turn out to be well short of his goal, his high-church strategy not reaching the hearts of the Georgian commoners (or the Indians?). 

Meanwhile, back in England, Whitefield – who had long struggled with the idea of his own conversion – undergoes that conversion ... in finally coming to understand that it is God, by his own grace, that saves ... not Whitefield’s own works – no matter how good those works might be.  

At this point he is ordained as a deacon in the Church of England ... although not assigned any particular church ... leading Whitefield to take his new Christian enthusiasm not only to prisons and infirmaries and even soldiers’ quarters to pray and encourage (preach) but ultimately to churches here and there, his powerful testimonies and sermons filling them to capacity (actually an overflow).  His impact is powerful.  

1737

Being the scholar that he was, Jonathan Edwards publishes the results of his study of the process of conversion:  A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton

Whitefield’s ministry continues to grow in England as the number of people he reaches with his prayers and preaching are now found across a large part of England.  This includes also General Oglethorpe who becomes a big Whitefield supporter.

Meanwhile in Georgia, things go very wrong for Wesley in a relationship that almost starts up with a young woman, a controversy then developing when he denies her communion ... and then subsequently finds himself facing legal proceedings.  At this point (December) he simply flees back to England.  During the trip back he becomes depressed about his lack of the faith he feels is necessary to be the pastor God has intended him to be.

1738

Back in England, Wesley finds his way to a Moravian fellowship ... where the pastor (who is about himself to head to Georgia) helps Wesley with his questions ... and the Moravian fellowship (a Moravian church on Aldersgate Street) which then most abruptly speaks to Wesley’s heart – producing for him the life-changing "Aldersgate Experience" (May 24).

Gilbert Tennent leads a number of New-Side Presbyterian pastors to split from the Presbytery of Philadelphia ... to form a Presbytery of New Brunswick.

Whitefield arrives at Oglethorpe’s Georgia colony in America (May), where his friend John Wesley had previously served as pastor (Christ Church) in Savannah.  While there, Whitefield feels called to found an orphanage ... which he supposes is to be his life work.  But he also continues his habit of visiting the sick and praying, teaching and preaching lengthily.  He then returns later that year to England to receive a priest’s orders ... and to raise funds for his orphanage.

1739

But while in England, Whitefield is invited to make his appeal for support of the orphanage – and to preach – at various churches in Bristol.  Quickly, his unusual preaching style comes to be admired greatly by some ... and detested equally by others.  

Then, with the churches filled to capacity, Whitefield ultimately decides to undertake open-air preaching – at first to protesting miners ... something others view as rather scandalous. But he sees how important such open-air preaching can be ... and how it reaches people who would never come to church.  And soon he finds himself preaching to thousands in the streets and fields... even as many as ten thousand at a single presentation.

It is at this point, determined to head back to America, that he convinces his friend Wesley not only to take over Whitefield’s Bristol ministry but to continue the open-air preaching Whitefield had started up ... and to expand that even to London.    

A hesitant Wesley overcomes his strong sense of religious orderliness ... to step out in faith at such an unusual ministry.  And for Wesley it proves to be as grand a success as it has been for Whitefield.  At the same time, Whitefield impresses the Countess of Huntington, who becomes a major supporter of his.

Whitfield returns to America later that same year ... to Philadelphia – where Ben Franklin becomes deeply impressed by Whitefield’s preaching style, beginning their 30-year friendship (lasting up until Whitefield’s death in 1770).   Indeed, Franklin takes it upon himself to see that Whitefield’s sermons (some 40 of them) are published on the front page of Franklin’s newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette ... as well as some of the correspondence between the two. 

Whitefield now finds himself also preaching not only in Pennsylvania, but New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

1740

Whitefield then (January) heads to Georgia, where he sets up his Bethesda Orphan House ... (Bethesda: "House of Mercy") some 500 acres purchased to serve a community of orphans as a place to grow up in the security and discipline of a strongly gospel-based social-spiritual environment.  And it is Whitefield himself who goes out to discover and "bring home" his first group of orphans, some 40 of them. 

He also persuades Moravian Brethren in Georgia to build a similar orphanage for negro children ... on land he had purchased in Pennsylvania (today’s Nazareth).  Unfortunately, they come to some kind of theological disagreement and Whitefield is not able to complete the development.  But ultimately the Moravians take it upon themselves to complete the task.

Whitefield continues his revival preaching across the colonies ... heading again to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. ... then back to Savannah, then on to Boston.  He is now reaching huge crowds (in the tens of thousands) that gather to hear this increasingly famous preacher.   It is esteemed today that certainly half of the entire population of the colonies came to be familiar with his preachings ... or at least his writings – his sermons put to print.   Certainly the name was also at least known to all colonials − favorable or unfavorable as they might be to his ministry.

Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent work closely together on a preaching tour of New Jersey and Staten Island. 

And in New England, Edwards is an early supporter of Whitefield’s ministry, doing what he can to help Whitefield ... particularly when Whitefield comes to Boston and then Northampton that fall.  In Northampton, Whitefield preaches a sermon reminding both Edwards and his congregation of the revival they had gone through in previous years, bringing Edwards to tears and the congregation to something similar.

Yet Whitefield could be most business-like in all this, with William Seward supporting him in getting advanced publicity out in anticipation of a Whitefield revival ... and making sure that all the costs of this endeavor were met.

And thus revivalism gets back on its feet in New England.   But opposition against such revivalism also becomes intense. 

And Edwards writes more works in defense of revival or evangelical Christianity.

Also, a sermon of Gilbert Tennent’s (and printed by Ben Franklin), The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, succeeds in stirring the wrath of the Old Siders in the Presbyterian Synod (Tennent claims that those who preach without having experienced true spiritual conversion were simply Pharisees!).

That winter Tennent also undertakes his own tour of New England, where revival is now well underway.

Meanwhile, the Synod of Philadelphia votes to cut ties with Tennent’s Presbytery of New Brunswick ... thus severing ties with Tennent and his New Side associates.

And too, Jonathan Edwards stirs the wrath of religious traditionalists with a powerful sermon preached at a revival in Enfield Connecticut, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

But it has the effect on his congregation to get the faithful to truly seek  a dynamic relationship with God ... through Christ and Christ alone (again ... not through their own good works).

A young David Brainerd, who experiences a deep conversion experience in 1739, finds himself the next year unable to complete his Yale education ... because of his tuberculosis – and then because of his outspoken opposition to those who are trying to block the revivalism sweeping Yale students.  Thus without a Yale degree, he finds himself ineligible for ordination as a pastor.    

But New Jersey’s leading Presbyterian pastor, Jonathan Dickinson, convinces Brainerd instead to simply go among the neighboring Indians ... to bring them to Christ.  The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge will support him.

Meanwhile, in England, in his open-air preaching, Wesley disregards the parish boundaries that were supposed to define where it was that a pastor had pastoral authority ... and preaches where he feels the need to do so ... further angering Church of England pastors and officials.  

Also, Wesley is finding that pastors who share his view on a number of key theological matters – especially the need for the Christian world to undergo some kind of deep spiritual revival – are quite unable to secure pastorates ... due to the opposition of the Church of England.  Ultimately, finding himself and his colleagues cut off by the Church of England, Wesley simply sets up Methodist congregations here and there and assigns fellow Methodist lay pastors to lead them.  Thus Methodism as a distinct Christian community or "denomination" is born in England.

1741

Whitefield returns from America to England ... to a crowd of tens of thousands (he had a very strong voice!).  But he remains very interested in his American connections ... and keeps that connection strong with his publishing an autobiography that touches deeply the hearts of the readers back in America.

But most sadly, Whitefield and John Wesley find their friendship finally broken over this matter of Whitfield’s Calvinism and Wesley’s Arminianism ... when Wesley comes out strongly against Whitefield’s Calvinism – even publishing a pamphlet denouncing strongly Whitefield's theology ...and sending the pamplet to America.  Whitefield is furious.

But in any case, Whitefield pushes strongly his preaching in England, Scotland and Wales.

1742

Whitfield continues his preaching in England ... and then even more extensively in Scotland.  

And Wesley also is continuing his open-air preaching ... advancing considerably his Methodist movement.

1743

Whitefield helps found the Welsh Calvinistic-Methodist Association and becomes its first moderator or leader.

Brainerd begins his work among the Delaware Indians (just northeast of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) ... and is ordained by the Newark Presbytery.  This begins his strong, but brief missionary work among the Indians ... despite offers extended to him for a pastorate among the Anglo population.

Ultimately, because of Brainerd's dedication to the ministry among the Indians, his example inspires many young Americans to take up a similar missionary role.

Charles Chauncy, pastor of Boston’s prestigious First Church (Congregational) writes a strong rebuttal to all this revivalism, Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England ... in his effort to keep Christianity moving along "rational" rather than "emotional" lines.

1744

Whitefield now returns to America, his third such visit, arriving in October ... as actually a rather sick man.  But he finds an even greater reception awaiting him.  Thus he will preach across the colonies ... three times a day before thousands of eager listeners.  His influence will become even greater (the best-known preacher in America at the time) 

But the opposition to his preaching style will also grow even stronger.  Indeed, over the years Whitefield will find himself frequently under physical attack ... when women with scissors go at him, he is peed on by someone in a tree, stones and dead cats are thrown at him, and he is assaulted by someone who comes at him with a brass-headed cane.   And his visit to very Catholic Ireland (1757) gets him physically mauled by an angry mob when he comes out strongly against the Catholic religious hierarchy.  But Whitefield has no intention of ever backing down from his ministry.

Whitefield will continue his American preaching for the next three years ... and build the spirit of revival in America to even greater heights.

Meanwhile, back in England, the Wesleys, John and Charles, along with four clergy and four lay preachers take action to establish the first Conference of the Methodist movement  in England ... with John Wesley as its president − and the Conference as the Methodist church’s ruling body.

1745

The Presbytery of New Brunswick joins with the Presbytery of New York to form the New York Synod ... a move of the New-siders to free themselves from the restrictions of the Philadelphia Synod, made up heavily of Old-Siders. 

1746

In part due to Yale’s earlier refusal to readmit Brainerd, the College of New Jersey (ultimately Princeton) is started up in the Home of Jonathan Dickinson.  This new college is supported by the New York and New Jersey Presbyterian Synods ... and a number of individuals who were graduates of Tennent's Log College.

1747

Classes begin in May of 1747 ... with a sick Brainerd in attendance − because he is too ill to continue his missionary work.    

The elderly William Tennent, founder of the Log College, dies that same month.

Finally, a very sick Brainerd – moves to Massachusetts and spends the last few months of his life with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton – where he finally dies of his tuberculosis.  Sadly, Edwards' daughter Jerusha, who nursed Brainerd during that time, contracts Brainerd’s tuberculosis, and dies the following year (1748)

Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen dies.  But his ministry is continued by his sons Theodorus Frelinghuysen and John Frelinghuysen.  (They would eventually, in 1766, receive a royal charter to found Queens College in New Brunswick ... which eventually – in 1825 − is renamed Rutgers University).

1748

But now back in England (1748-1751) Whitefield finds his ministry strongly supported financially by Lady Huntington, easing the strain and stress of his heavy schedule ... once again spread across England and Wales (touching on every county in the process), Scotland (making some 14 or 15 trips there), but also Ireland (twice). But his ministry at the Moorfields Tabernacle in London also becomes quite substantial. (turning out the thousands to hear him preach)

1749

Edwards publishes a book, The Life of David Brainerd ... which inspires numerous missionaries in the years ahead (even into the next century)

Franklin undertakes to convert the huge preaching hall (and Philadelphia’s biggest building at the time) built originally in 1740 to accommodate Whitefield’s preaching in Philadelphia now into a public school for boys ... in accordance with a curriculum Franklin has designed − one focused on educating young leaders in the fields of academics, commerce and public service.  Eventually (1755) this school will be chartered as the College of Philadelphia ... to then (1799) ultimately become the University of Pennsylvania. 

1750

Edwards is voted out of his pulpit by his congregation ... by a large majority in fact.  Edward’s constant call to repentance was becoming a tiresome theme to people who believed themselves by their earlier conversion to have been freed from the spiritual dangers that Edwards keeps pointing out.  

1751-1752

A visit (his fourth) by Whitefield to America is cut short because of the financial problems he finds facing him in his Bethesda Orphan House.  He heads back to England to find more financial support.

1753

Tennent goes to England to raise funds for the College of New Jersey (the future Princeton) ... effectively to build what would become the university’s central building, Nassau Hall.

1754-1755

In his fifth American visit, Whitefield again preaches across the full spread of the colonies from Boston to Savannah.

1758

The Old Side/New Side split comes to an end as both sides finally seek reconciliation.  Tennent, by this point, has been long regretting his own hand in the Presbyterian split, has tamed the rigor of his sermons, and has been doing all he could to bring about this reconciliation.  Consequently the Old Side Synod of Philadelphia and New Side Synod of New York merge into a single synod (with both names!).

1763-1765

In Whitefield’s sixth trip to America he finds the going more difficult because of health problems ... but also easier because he is getting less resistance to his preaching.  His popularity in America merely continues to grow.

1769-1770