George Whitefield - Philip - XXII - Chapter 20

Required reading
Life and times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read Chapter 20 (Whitefield in Lisbon).

My summary
This week's reading is entirely written by Whitefield's own hand and consists of letters written from Lisbon, Portugal.

No mention is made of any preaching from Whitefield, rather the entire account is a description of the Roman Catholic practices Whitefield witnessed there.

Whitefield saw:
(i) statues of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, St Francis;
(ii) processions of monks feeding the poor;
(iii) penitents flagellating themselves in public procession;
(iv) royalty washing the feet of the poor;
(v) an entire play of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

He sums up his trip there with the following words: 'I am well aware that the Romanists deny the charge of idolatry; but after having seen what I have seen this day, as well as at sundry other times since my arrival here, I cannot help thinking but a person must be capable of making more than metaphysical distinctions, and deal in very abstract ideas indeed, fairly to evade the charge. If 'weighed in the balances of the sanctuary,' I am positive the scale must turn on the protestant side. But such a balance these poor people are not permitted to make use of! Doth not your heart bleed for them? Mine doth, I am sure; and I believe would do so more and more, was I to stay longer, and see what they call their hallelujah and grand devotions on Easter day.'

What grabbed me
I loved Whitefield's expression of thankfulness for the Reformation.  After witnessing the pain that some of the people were inflicting on themselves with whips, Whitefield writes: 'The whole scene was horrible—so horrible, that, being informed it was to be continued till morning, I was glad to return from whence I came, about midnight. Had you been with me, I know you would have joined in praising and gratefully adoring the Lord of all lords, not only for the great wonder of the Reformation, but also for that glorious deliverance wrought out for us in stopping of our late unnatural rebellion. Oh with what a mighty Spirit and power from on high, must Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, Zuinglius, and those glorious Reformers, be necessarily endued, who dared first openly to oppose and stem such a torrent of superstition and spiritual tyranny!— And what gratitude owe we to him, who, under God, was instrumental in saving us from the return of such spiritual slavery, and such blind obedience to a papal power! To have had a cardinal for our king—a cardinal, if not born, yet from his infancy nursed up, at Rome—a cardinal, one of whose sons is advanced to the same ecclesiastical dignity, and both under the strongest obligations to support the interest of that church whose superstitions, as well as political state principles, they have sucked in and imbibed even from their infancy. But, blessed be God, the snare is broken, and we are delivered. Oh for protestant practices to be added to protestant principles! Oh for an obediential acknowledgment to the ever blessed God for our repeated deliverances ! But alas ! pardon me, my dear friend, I stop to weep...'

We should never stop giving thanks for the Reformation which God used to save us from false religion.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 21 (Whitefield and the London Moravians) and Chapter 22 (Whitefield's influence in America).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.