Funeral Sermon for George Whitefield — E.A. Johnston

Whitefield’s Funeral and the Historic Setting

The scene of George Whitefield's funeral was the Old South First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The date was October the 2nd, 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.

Whitefield’s Conversion and Call to Gospel Ministry

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.

Whitefield’s Itinerant Ministry and Evangelistic Zeal

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, active 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. Grovesner, 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.

Revival, Opposition, and the Defense of Living Religion

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 intent seal 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.

Whitefield’s Labor, Suffering, and Spiritual Fruit

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 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 comforted 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.

Whitefield’s Popularity and Persuasive Preaching

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.

An apprehension of his concern to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and do good to the souls of men 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.

Whitefield in Britain and the Doctrines of the Reformation

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 effecting 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.

Whitefield’s Opposition to Heresy and Spiritual Formality

How is the gold become dim and the most fine gold changed? How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion 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.

Whitefield’s Perseverance and Faithfulness to the End

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 surrounding 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.

Whitefield’s Hope of Heaven

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.