George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

316 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
had it been commonly adopted by the believers of our faith.
But the conclusion he wanted to reach was something subver-
sive of the Methodistical belief concerning the operations of
the Holy Ghost upon the heart of man ; substantially the
same view which Bishop Gibson had advanced against
' enthusiasm,' but supported by a greater show of reasoning.
To these views Whitefield wrote an answer, in the form of a
letter to a friend, which he called ' Observations on some fatal
mistakes in a book lately published, and entitled, &c.' He
fairly and exactly summed up the bishop's reasoning by saying
that, in effect, it robbed the Church of its promised Comforter,
and thereby left us without any supernatural influence or
Divine operations whatsoever. Left in this forlorn state,
and yet told by the bishop that charity is the one thing
which is to abide in the Church for ever, Whitefield asks with
pertinence and force :
' Now, can human reason, with all its
heights ; can calm philosophy, with all its depths ; or moral
suasion, with all its insinuating arts, so much as pretend to
kindle, much less to maintain and blow up into a settled,
habitual flame of holy fire, such a spark as this in the human
heart ? ' Upon our ability to do without the Holy Ghost he
remarked with a pungency which Warburton must have felt
keenly :
' Supposing matters to be as this writer represents
them, I do not see what great need we have of any established
rule at all, at least in respect to practice, since corrupt nature
is abundantly sufficient of itself to help us to persevere in a
religion attended with ease and honour. And I verily believe
that the Deists throw aside this rule of faith entirely, not
barely on account of a deficiency in argument to support its
authenticity, but because they daily see so many who profess
to hold this established, self-denying rule of faith with their
lips, persevering all their lives long in nothing else but an
endless and insatiable pursuit after worldly ease and honour.'