Selected Sermons of George Whitefield - With an Introduction and Notes #229476

The figs? Were favourable to a ministry delifigfiihgfgb such a message as that Of Whitefield and in such almanner. The eighteenth century is Often blamed beyond its deserts. Whitefield's contemporaries, both amongst Churchmen and Nonconformists, included men of piety and zeal as well as of learning and orthodoxy. The Church of Butler, Of Secker, of Gibson, Of Sherlock and Of Waterland could not lack worthy leaders; nor were the ranks Of the clergy at large without men Of real devotion. But the period was one of moral depravity and decaying faith. Arianism, developing into Socinianism, infected Church and Non conformity alike. Theological learning was of little repute. The Universities had sunk into intellectual Obscurity. The Observance of the Lord's Day and the practices of religion had decayed. The type Of preaching most common was that of the written sermon com posed Of cold and polished phrases which left the hearer untouched.