Archibald Alexander
It is doubtful whether George Whitefield has ever expressed so high an opinion of any other preacher of any denomination as Gilbert Tennent. Indeed it is probable that he never met with a man of a more congenial spirit with his own. As Whitefield was doubtless honoured to be the instrument of the conversion of more souls than any other preacher of his age, or perhaps of any age since that of the apostle Paul; so Tennent, among orthodox preachers, undoubtedly deserves to be placed next to him, both in the abundance of his labours and the wonderful success of his ministry.
When in the year 1740, Whitefield returned from Boston, he persuaded and urged Gilbert Tennent to make a preaching tour through New England as far as Boston, to water the good seed which he had sown there by his preaching on his recent visit. At that time, there was little contact between the middle and eastern colonies. Whitefield’s preaching, attended by the mighty power of God, was not only the means of the conviction and conversion of many of his hearers, but he also excited a host of enemies, who pursued him with unrelenting hostility. Among his opposers were reckoned, both in America and in Great Britain, the majority of the clergy
1An edited extract from The Log College, reviewed on page 56.
and of professors of religion. This verified the words of our Lord, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings they will keep yours also.”
Tennent must have been inflamed with a very ardent zeal, when as the pastor of a church and the father of a family, he set off in the depth of winter to preach to a strange people, among whom he probably knew no one, either among the clergy or the laity. But unconquerable resolution was a prominent trait in his character. Whitefield made no journeys without several men who cheerfully ministered to him, as did Timothy and others to Paul. But Tennent appears to have gone on this self-denying and evangelistic tour alone.
As Whitefield’s preaching had kindled a considerable flame in Boston, Tennent went there immediately and arrived on 13 December 1740. He stayed for nearly three months, preaching almost every day, with extraordinary power and success. There were many who were ready to welcome him; several excellent ministers of the town cordially received this zealous preacher, and opened their pulpits to him; among such ministers Thomas Prince, the author of “The Christian History”.
From his pen we are favoured with an account of Tennent’s manner of preaching during his ministry in Boston. “It was”, says he, “both terrible and searching. It was for matter, justly terrible, as he, according to the inspired oracles, exhibited the dreadful holiness, justice, law-threatenings, truth, power and majesty of God, and his anger with rebellious, impenitent and Christless sinners: the awful danger they were in at every moment of being struck down to hell and damned for ever, with the amazing miseries of that place of torment.
“By his arousing and scriptural preaching, deep and pungent convictions were wrought in the minds of many hundreds of people in Boston; and the same effect was produced in several scores of people in neighbouring congregations. Now was such a time as we never knew. William Cooper, one of the Evangelical ministers in Boston, used to say that more came to him in one week, in deep concern, than in the whole 24 years of his preceding ministry. I can say the same also, as to the numbers who came to me.”
By a letter from Cooper, it appears he had about 600 different people to visit him about the concerns of their souls, in three months’ time. And Webb, another of the pious Boston ministers, stated that he has had, in the same space of time, more than a thousand.
He who is in covenant with God is a holy person, for this . . . is its first promise: “I will put My laws in their minds, and in their heart will I write them”. It found him a sinner, but it has made him a saint.
John Dick