Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
As with any large undertaking there are always a number of people to thank for helping it all come together. First and foremost I would like to thank James Crabtree and Duncan Boyd for their vision and confidence in supporting the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library project, and these volumes in particular.
David Phillips at Church Society and Phil Roberts of Tentmaker Publications have done sterling work to produce the final product. Timothy and Deborah Edwards, Benedict Bird, David Meager, Tom D. Wright, and Kerry Gatiss were exceptionally eagle-eyed readers and discerning commentators, saving me from many embarrassing errors; any that remain are sadly all my own work.
Thanks are also due to my wife, Kerry, for constant encouragement as I tinkered away at my ‘spare time and insomniac project’, even on the rare occasions when she felt a little like a ‘Whitefield widow.’
These volumes are dedicated to the Reverends Paul T. Darlington, Rohintan K. Mody, and Stephen J. Walton (‘the Musketeers’) with gratitude for their faithful and prayerful friendship and partnership in gospel ministry over many years. May George Whitefield be an inspiration to them and to many others like them who preach the word, in season and out of season, wherever the Lord has called them.
By constitution the Church of England, into which I and they were ordained, is a Reformed, Protestant, and Evangelical denomination. In its original foundation it was never intended to be merely the religious expression of changing English culture; nor was it designed as a pluralistic melting pot of various contradictory persuasions. As the late John Stott rightly asserted (in his excellent book, Christ the Controversialist), ‘according to its own formularies, this church is reformed and evangelical.’
In recent years such firm confidence has been lost, as alternative versions of Anglican identity and history have gained sway. Evangelicals have too often been content to think, act, and be seen as marginal rather than as mainstream Anglicans. Part of the reason for this has been a neglect of the doctrinal deposit and pastoral piety of our rich heritage of heroes amongst Anglican reformers, revivers, and writers from years gone by.
To contribute towards the recovery of their more robust vision of Anglican theology and identity, these volumes of Whitefield’s sermons were originally published in the UK as part of the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library (REAL). It is my hope and prayer that by God’s grace this collection will contain a variety of theological, homiletical, and pastoral works from previous generations to both edify and inspire us as we seek to reform the church and reach the lost in our day.
May God be pleased graciously to continue using us and the Church of England for his greater glory, in every corner of our land and throughout his world, as we uphold what the Queen’s Coronation Oath calls ‘the true profession of the Gospel . . . the Protestant Reformed Religion.’
Whitefield had a great heart for those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean too, and so I am grateful to Crossway for giving his sermons a fresh lease of life both there and around the world. As his words begin thus to circulate more freely, it is my prayer that his passion for God’s glory, his biblical boldness, his ‘catholic’ spirit, and his heart for the lost will be a tremendous inspiration to a new generation of men and women as we think through the challenges of following the Lord Jesus in our own day and age.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Lee Gatiss
Tyndale House, Cambridge (UK)