The writer of this informational and well-written article, Fredericka (Ricky) Pronk, is the wife of Rev. Cornelis Pronk, pastor of the Free Reformed Church of North America in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

At the beginning of her article, Mrs. Pronk states: “In the controversy regarding women in ecclesiastical offices, Scripture must be our guide. However, it is also beneficial to turn to history for examples.”

“Lady Huntingdon,” she writes at the close, “was never ordained to an ecclesiastical office. Her Calvinistic view of the unchangeable nature of Scripture would have abhorred and rejected such thoughts. Yet God ordained her to hold a position in His Church suited to her talents, birth, and sex. It was a supportive position, but an indispensable and important one.”

In the controversy regarding women in ecclesiastical offices, Scripture must he our guide. However, it is also beneficial to turn to history for examples. Since we are preparing to celebrate the Bicentennial of America’s Independence, it is appropriate to turn to the eighteenth century to see how women served in God‘s kingdom. Historian Page Smith says:

In the period of colonial American history from 1620 to the 1750‘s or 1760‘s, Puritan women were figures of unquestioned worth and importance, partners with their husbands in the economy of the farm and in the redemption of Christendom . . . Theological support . . . was found in the position of women in the New Testament and in the early Christian Church.1

Although the eighteenth century is usually thought of as the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment because of the high value set on reason and scientific experiment,2 Christianity, and especially Calvinistic Christianity, was by no means dead. When seventeenth century New England Puritanism began to move away from orthodoxy to Deism or Unitarianism, a powerful revival, Calvinistic in doctrine, called the Great Awakening, was set in motion through the preaching of Jonathan Edward, whose spiritual and intellectual gifts have probably been unequalled in America’s history.3 This revival was closely connected with a similar movement in England which drew tens of thousands to hear the preaching of men such as John Wesley and George Whitefield. It was Whitefield, the Calvinistic preacher, more than any other of the English revival preachers, who became most closely associated with the American Awakening.4 He made a number of trips to America, travelling and preaching through the Colonies, even establishing an orphanage at Savannah, Georgia5 and takin~ lip the plight of the Negro slave.6 So extraordinary were Whitefield‘s gifts that he drew the attention of no one less than Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was so impressed with Whitefield and the effects of his preaching that he devoted an essay entitled “George Whitefield” to his ministry.

   

The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation with me, who was one of the number, to observe the extra ordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers . . . It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manner of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless, or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro‘ the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street . . . . I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand.7

This was Franklin‘s account of one of the many occasions that he heard Whitefield preach in Philadelphia. He rejected the contents of Whitefield‘s preaching, however. Yet, shrewd businessman that he was, he became the principal publisher of Whitefield‘s works in America8 and thus became involved in promoting the Awakening.

Close any of Whitefield – It is remarkable that Calvinistic teachings, rather than the Arminianism of John Wesley predominated the revival. But what is even more remarkable is that a close ally of Whitefield and the central and unifying force in the revival movement in England was a woman.

It was Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, also known as Lady Huntingdon, whose name constantly is referred to by the preachers of the eighteenth century Reformation. Her influence has only recently been discovered and a noted church historian singles her out as the pivotal figure of the Calvinist group. It would be a capital mistake, he says, to suppose that Wesley, however valuable his contributions to the Revival may have been, was in any sense the leader of the whole, for he was in disagreement with the rest of the group on a crucial point of theology. Nor was Whitefield the leader of the movement, (or he was not an organizer. There is one single figure, Knox concludes, who, without dominating the scene, interprets and unifies it.9 This is Lady Huntingdon. Because of her position she brought the revival to the attention of the leaders of English society and government. Horace Walpole. important English diplomat, mentions her, although derisively, in his Letters and Correspondence. and calls her “the patriarchess of the Methodists.”10

Conversion and concern for purity of doctrine – Whitefield’s conversion was the result of his involvement in the so-called “Holy Club” while studying at Oxford. Along with his Bible he read the works of the Puritan divines such as Alleine’s Alarm to the Unconverted and Matthew Henry’s Commentary.11 He also mentions Boston‘s Fourfold State of Man, and Ralph Erskine’s Sermons, John Edwards’ (not Jonathan, as some historians have supposed) The Preacher, and Elisha Cole’s God‘s Sovereignty.12

It is significant to note that the works of the Puritans and others standing in their tradition have had a profound effect of changing and influencing lives. The “Afseheiding” or Secession of 1834 in the Netherlands of the Reformed Churches was greatly influenced by these writings. Many of the English Puritans were translated into Dutch and considered the “zielespijs” or soul-food also of that branch which settled in America under the leadership of Van Baalte and Scholte. Through the excellent work of The Banner of Truth Trust and others, this literature is again available and has contributed to a renewed interest in the religion of our fathers and has become a source of blessing to many, including the author of this article.

Whitefield accepted the “Calvinistical scheme,” he writes, because he considered it to be the most Scriptural. “My doctrines I had from Christ and his apostles; I was taught them of God,”13 he writes. These precious doctrines of election, and free justification in Christ Jesus were increasingly pressed upon his heart. No doubt his first journey to America in 1737, at the age of 22,14 where he came into contact with New England‘s Calvinist ministers, including Jonathan Edwards. further confirmed him in the doctrines of “free grace.”

Therefore, when in 1739 John Wesley published his version of Free Grace,15 Whitefield felt it his “duty to bear an humble testimony, and earnestly . . . plead for the truths, which I am convinced, are clearly revealed in the word of God.”16 These truths, which Wesley denied in his controversial sermon were not only confined to the doctrines of predestination and election, but included all the five points of classical Calvinism, dealt with in the Canons of Dort.17

It was Whitefield and the Calvinist preachers of the revival, rather than the Wesleys, that Lady Huntingdon became attached to. She had heard Whitefield preach in London as early as 1736 and he may have had some influence on her conversion.18 In any event, just as the shallowness and superficiality of much of today’s Christianity can be traced to the lack of thorough and deep conversions, so Lady Huntingdon’s conversion had something to do with her zeal for the cause of Christ and her concern for purity of doctrine.

At the age of nine she had been impressed with eternity at a funeral of a playmate. “Oh God, be my God, when my hour shall come!”19 she had cried. With many tears she earnestly pleaded with God to give her peace and to deliver her from her fears. Born on August 24, 1707, Selina Shirley, second daughter of Earl Ferrars, she had no other reason to be concerned about her eternal destiny, than that the Spirit of God was making her mindful of her need. Her childhood days centered around the grand mansion and estate of her wealthy father. Yet, she loved to visit the grass-grown grave of the departed friend and would often steal away to a little closet in her room, were hidden from human eyes, she poured out her heart to God. No one knew of the inward sorrows of her heart, nor was there anyone who could guide her in her search for peace with God. Devoutly and religiously she studied her Bible and tried to pleace God with living an outwardly religious life.

By reason of her birth into nobility she was introduced to all the excitement of English high society life. At the home of her aunt, Lady Shirley, she met all the celebrities of society, the literary arts and government. Her marriage in 1728 to the ninth Earl of Huntingdon gave her further status in these circles. To the world she presented an unrivalled appearance of piety and virtue. Children were born and she became a dutiful mother. Among the women of her day it might have been said of her: she excelled them all. Dignity, sobriety, and charity were virtues she rigidly practiced, so that she became known as Lady Bountiful of Donnington Park, her husband‘s elegant summer residence.20 She was punctual in her private devotions and a diligent inquirer after truth. She regularly attended public worship.21 Her list of moral virtues was so impressive that she “was taken up in congratulating herself upon her own fancied eminence in piety, [but] she was an absolute stranger to that inward and universal change of heart, wrought by the gracious operations of the Spirit of God, by which new principles are established in the mind, new inclinations are imparted, and new objects pursued.”22

It was at this time in her life, when she was surrounded by earthly blessings and quite satisfied with her accomplishments in religion, that the testimony of her sister-in–law, Lady Margaret of Ledstone Hall, greatly disturbed her. Lady Margaret had undergone a complete transformation under the preaching of Ingham, who had been at Oxford with Whitefield and was one of the members of the “Holy Club.” After leaving Oxford he preached in the towns and hamlets of Yorkshire. His preaching of “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” had caused a great stir and come to the attention of the patrons of Ledstone church. The preacher‘s words fell upon good ground and his simple, yet searching message alarmed the conscience and melted the heart. Lady Margaret Hastings experienced the miracle of the new birth. Christianity was no longer a creed or ritual, but became the motivating force in her life. Filled with this new-found life, her lips overflowed in testimony to others.

“Since I have known and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, I have been as happy as an angel,”23 she told her friend Lady Huntingdon. But it found no response in her heart. Lady Huntingdon felt herself an utter stranger to this joy. She became alarmed. Could she, religious from her youth, be lacking the true peace with God? She became harassed with inward conflicts. She felt that every attempt to make her life acceptable to God’s law had only widened the breach between her and God. In spite of all her doings and strugglings, she had not been able to subdue her sense of sinfulness. Plagued by these doubts and fears she became seriously ill and was brought to the point of death. The fear of death took hold on her. “It was to no purpose that she reminded herself of the morality of her conduct . . . . Her best righteousness, so far from justifying her before God appeared only to increase her condemnation”24 an acquaintance said. Was there no balm in Gilead and no Physician? Then it was that she was led to cast herself completely on Christ, renouncing every other hope.

Now the day began to dawn, Jesus the Sun of Righteousness arose, and burst in meridian splendour on her benighted soul. The scales fell from her eyes, and opened a passage for the light of life which sprang in, and death and darkness fled before it. Viewing herself as a brand plucked from the burning, she could not but stand astonished at the mighty power of that grace which saved her from eternal destruction jllst when she stood upon its very brink, and raised her from the gates of hell to the confines of heaven; and the depths from which she was raised, made the heights which she reached only the more ama7.ing; she felt the rock beneath her, and from that secure position looked with astonishment downward, to that horrible pit from which she was so mercifully delivered and upwards, in ecstasy, to that glory to which she was so mercifully delivered—and upwards, in ecstasy. to that glory to which she should be raised. . . . Her disorder from that moment took a favourable turn; she was restored to perfect health, and, what was better, to newness of life. She determined thenceforward to present herself to God, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which she was now convinced was her reasonable service.25

The exact date of her conversion is not known, but we do know that upon her recovery she sent for the Wesleys, then in London, to come and visit her. She expressed a warm interest in their work This was in 1739, when Lady Huntingdon was thirty-two years old.26 Both she and her husband, the Earl, joined themselves to the leaders of the revival. Although her husband supported his wife, he never shared all her views. He was a man of unblemished character, and although not a believer in the distinctive theology of the revival, he courteously entertained her friends and listened with admiration to the eloquent preachers of that day. “The morality of the Bible I admire, but the doctrine of the atonement I cannot understand,”27 he said.

Evangelistic concern for others – Lady Huntingdon took a great delight in the fellowship of her new Christian friends and encouraged them in their work. At the same time an urge to acquaint her former friends with her new-found joy was born. As was to be expected, she often met with rebuffs and ridicule. But nothing could deter her to express the concern she felt for the salvation of her society friends and the promotion of her Redeemer‘s name. This concern also extended to her “work people” and to the poor, whom she visited and relieved in their needs.28

In the meantime she kept up extensive correspondence with the preachers of the revival and encouraged and supported them in their work. Increasingly she showed a preference for the Calvinistic doctrines of the Scriptures. It is said that her correspondence with the Welsh leader of the revival, Howell Harris, convinced her of Calvinism.29 However, as early as 1737 “Lord and Lady Huntingdon constantly attended wherever . . . [Whitefield] preached.”30

In 1744 severe trials came her way. Two of her children, both boys, died of small-pox.31 In 1746 her husband died, leaving her a widow at the age of thirty-nine with the care of two sons and two daughters, and the management of a large estate.32

Until now her life had necessarily revolved around her position as mistress of a princely estate. But upon the death of her husband, she began a life entirely devoted to promoting the work of the revival. From this period stems a life of selfless giving of a large fortune, time and talents. She travelled, organized, and corresponded, all in behalf of the kingdom of Christ. Her main interest was the promotion and encouragement of the preaching of the pure Gospel.

Although Protestantism was the national religion of England, Lady Huntingdon saw the general indifference among clergy and laity alike. The Bible was there indeed, but it was a closed book to the majority of the laboring people. The clergy had grown fat and secure in their positions in the Established Church. Also the Free Churches, which had developed from the Dissenters of the seventeenth century had lost most of their vitality and had become mostly formal and cold.33

How did a Revival then come about? God raised up men, mostly clergymen of the Established Church, whose hearts were touched about the same time in different places. As Ryle writes:

They were . . . men whom God stirred up and brought out to do his work . . . . They did his work in the old apostolic way, by becoming the evangelist of their day. They taught one set of truths . . . . They taught them with fire, reality, earnestness, as men full y convinced of what they taught.34

This movement shook England from one end to another. Many were aroused and awakened and convinced of sin; many were converted. And what was the instrumentality of these spiritual reformers? It was the old apostolic weapon of preaching! They preached simply, fervently, and directly. The Bible, whole and unmutilated, was their only rule of faith and practice. They taught the total corruption of human nature, that Christ’s death was the only satisfaction for sin and that the ungodly were justified by faith only. They taught constantly the necessity of heart conversion and a new creation by the Holy Spirit – “Ye must be born again.” They taught that the effects of such a change must be seen in a radical change of life. “No fruits, no grace” was the unvarying theme of their preaching. It was preaching that made ploughmen and colliers weep, arrested the attention of nobility and philosophers, and changed the character of society.35 Such was the preaching that effected the great Revival of the eighteenth century and it was such preaching that God has blessed throughout the history of His Church and He will still bless today.

A college for ministers – It must be remembered that throughout her life, and also after her conversion, Lady Huntingdon’s sympathies were with the Anglican Church and she wished to remain inside its fellowship. In those days it was very common for members of the nobility to keep domestic clergy to conduct family devotions and preach in their private chapels. The Countess saw in this practice an opportunity to propagate the Gospel of Christ.

Thus it was that some of the leading figures of the Revival were under her patronage. The first one seems to have been William Romaine, a pioneer of the London Revival. Whitefield was appointed in 1748 and became her closest ally in the promotion of the cause of Christ. Others were Walter Shirley, Martin Madan, Thomas Haweis and John Berridge. These men preached under her patronage to congregations she had gathered to hear the Word of God, either in her private apartments or later in chapels which she had erected throughout England. The audiences consisted often of the very wealthy and most influential in England. Lords and ladies of nobility were confronted with the claims of Christ. One eyewitness, the Duchess of Buckingham, reports: “It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting.”36 Some however, were impressed and some became genuine converts. For a time it became a recognized feature of London’s social life to hear the unusual preachers at Lady Huntingdon‘s mansion.37

Hcr zeal for promoting the true religion was so great that she sold much of her jewelry and valuables for the purpose of promoting the Gospel of Christ. Her lifestyle was extremely simple. She allowed herself only one new dress per year. “What a lesson! Can a person of noble birth, nursed in the lap of grandeur, live in such a house, so meanly furnished?”38 a visitor to her home in London exclaimed. By 1767, due to the good stewardship of her goods, she had been able to build, purchase or hire chapels in all the most populous cities in Britain. “Oh, that I might be more and more useful to the souls of my fellow-creatures”39 she wrote.

In 1768, on her sixty-second birthday, a college for the purpose of training evangelical ministers for the service in the Anglican church was opened. Situated io Wales at Trevecca, it provided a stream of preachers, not only for her chapels, but also (or the many Dissenting meeting places. It was her vision to have the college “send preachers into all parts of England—to convey the gospel to the deluded Irish—to strengthen the hands of Occum40 in his labors among the Indians—and to proclaim the message of mercy to many savage tribes of the earth.”41

Lady Huntingdon took a personal interest in her students. From a letter of a student at the college we get an idea of the magnitude of her devotedness and gifts;

Her Ladyship is such a woman that nobody can refuse anything she asks them; she is a mother to us all and indeed she calls us her children . . . . She takes so many of us in to her every night and makes us to read a chapter to her and she prays with us and prays for us, and indeed my sou experiences a blessing every time I am with her.42

Men whose names still inspire respect, such as William Romaine, William Grimshaw, Daniel Rowlands, John Berridge and Henry Venn, were intimately connected with Lady Huntingdon. Dissenters such as Isaac Watts, well-known for his Calvinistic hymns, and the famous Dr. Doddridge, also belonged to her personal aquaintances. The Welsh Howell Harris and Toplady, author of “Rock of Ages” defended her in the controversy against Arminianism, which broke out soon after Whitefield’s death. Wm. Cowper, poet and friend of John Newton, made Lady Huntingdon the subject of a poem.43 Indeed, her influence and connections were extensive.

At Whitefield’s death, Lady Huntingdon assumed his mantle in defense of Calvinism and she took an uncompromising stand against the Arminian teachings of John Wesley. The controversy caused “the most lively and exasperated tempest of theological controversy that ever broke on English literature,”44 one church historian remarks. Calvinistic and Anninian preachers of the revival were sharply drawn into two opposing camps. Lady Huntingdon became the unyielding champion of the Calvinist cause.

Secessions from Church of England – At no time did Lady Huntingdon desire separation from the Church of England. From the beginning she had seen her witness as lying within the context of the Established Church. Although she had friends among the Dissenters, she could not condone schism. However, against her desires, she was to secede, when a legal decision compelled her to either obey the laws of the church and shut down her chapels, or register them as Dissenting places of worship.45 This caused her great heartache and grief. “I am to be cast out of the church now, only for what I have been doing these forty years—speaking and living for Jesus Christ,46 she said. In 1781 her chapels ceased to be part of the Church of England. At the time of secession the connection numbered sixty-seven chapels.47

Before her death she made provisions for the perpetuation of her work. She herself had superintended the entire organization. The strong powers of her mind, combined with her knowledge and feeling for business, peculiarly fitted her for the oversight of this great work.48

Her glorious departure – The last years of Lady Huntingdon’s life were spent in London, next door to one of her chapels. When her eighty–fourth year approached, Lady Huntingdon felt that her work was nearly done. The once robust and active frame began to feel the infirmities of age. Her life had been one of consecration to the Lord and His cause. Her wealth, her home, her heart and her whole life had been dedicated to the cause of Christ. She had been the central force during the most luminous period of the eighteenth century Reformation in England. But there was no spirit of self-congratulation now. “O, who would dare to produce the best works of his days before God for their own sake? Sufficiently blessed and secure are we, if we can but cry, ‘O God be merciful unto me a sinner.’ Let me be found ‘accepted in the Beloved.’”49 Earlier in her life her active mind had turned to express the struggles of faith in poetry.

When Thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come, To take Thy ransomed people home, Shall I among them stand? Shall such a worthless worm as I, Who sometimes am afraid to die, Be found at Thy right hand?

I love to meet Thy people now. Before Thy feet with them to bow, Though vilest of them all; But can I bear the piercing thought What if my name should be left out, When Thou for them shall call?

O Lord, prevent it by Thy grace: Be Thou, my only hiding place, In this th’ accepted day; Thy pardoning voice oh let me hear, To still my unbelieving fear, Now let me rest, I pray.49

One morning, coming from her bedroom, her face shone and seemed to be reflecting a heavenly light. “The Lord hath been present with my spirit this morning in a remarkable manner,” she said; “what he means to convey to my mind I know not; it may be my approaching departure: my soul is filled with glory—I am as in the element of heaven iteslf.’”50 A few days later a ruptured bloodvessel brought an end to her activities and laid her on a sickbed from which she never recovered. Her dying testimony was: “My work is done; I have nothing to do but to go to my Father.”51 And so she went Home on June 17, 1791.

Lady Huntingdon was never ordained to an ecclesiastical office. Her Calvinistic view of the unchangeable nature of Scripture would have abhorred and rejected such thoughts. Yet God ordained her to hold a position in His Church suited to her talents, birth, and sex. It was a supportive position, but an indispensable and important one.

1. Page Smith, Daughters of the Promised Land (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970), pp. 55–56. 2. Cleanth Brooks and other, American Literature (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973), 1, 110. 3. Ibid., p. 83. 4. George Whitefield’s Journal (London WI: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), p. 19.

5. Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (London WI: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970) pp. 445–462.

6. Ibid., pp. 495–509. 7. As quoted by Arnold Dallimore, Ibid., p. 439.

8. Ibid., p. 439.

9. Quoted by A. Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), pp. 189–190.

10. Ibid., p. 204.

11. Dallimore, p. 82.

12. Ibid., p. 405.

13. Wood, p. 179.

14. Journals, p. 9.

15. Ibid., p. 565. 16. Ibid., p. 571. 17. Wood, p. 177. 18. Ibid., p. 193. 19. Mrs. Helen C. Knight, Lady Huntingdon and her Friends (New York: American Tract Society, 1835), p. 1. 21. Wood, p. 191. 22. A.C.H. Seymour, as quoted by Wood, p. 191. 23. Mrs. Knight, p. 17. 24. Ibid., p. 14. 25. Wood, p. 192. 26. Mrs. Knight, p. 17. 27. Ibid., p. 39. 28. Ibid., p. 48. 30. Dallimore, p. 131. 31. Mrs. Knight, p. 37. 32. Wood, pp. 193–194. 33. Ibid., p. 24. 34. J.C. Ryle, Five Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1960), p. 18. 35. Ryle, pp. 20–23. 36. Wood, p. 195.

37. Ibid., p. 194.

38. Mrs. Knight, p. 279.

39. Wood, p. 194.

40. This Occum is no doubt the converted Indian Trader-turned missionary to the American Indians. Samson 0ccam, mentioned by Whitefield in his journals, May 8, 1740, p. 419.

41. Geoffrey Thomas, “Treveeca College and the Countess of Huntingdon,” The Banner of Truth, 61 (October 1968), 5.

42. Thomas, 11.

43. Wood, p. 196.

44. W. H Fitchett, as quoted by Wood, p. 200.

45. Wood, p. 202.

46. Mrs. Knight, p. 271

47. Ibid., p. 276.

48. Ibid., p . 279.

49. Ibid., p. 281.

49. Hezekeah Butterworth, “Hymn Writers,” Youth’s Living Ideals (July-September, 1974), pp. 198–199.

50. Mrs. Knight, p . 281.

51. Ibid., p . 282.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, Anthony. The Church of England, the Methodists and Society 1700–1850. London: University of London Press Ltd., 1973.

Beets, Dr. Henry. De Chr. Ceref. Kerk Grand Rapids, Mich.: Grand Rapids Printing Company, 1918.

Brooks, Cleanth and others American Literature, Vol. 1. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973.

Butterworth, Hezekeah. “Hymn Writers.” Youth’s Living ldeals (July-September, 1974), 198–199.

Dallimore, Arnold. George Whitefield. London WI: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970.

Knight, Mrs. Helen G. Lady Huntington and Her Friends. New York: American Tract Society, 1853.

Ryle, J. C. Five Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century, London WI: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1960.

Smith, Page. Daughters of the Promised Land. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1970.

Thomas, Geoffrey, “Trevecca College and the Countess of Huntingdon.” The Banner of Truth., 61 (October 1968), 5–14.

Whitefield, George. Journals. London WI: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965. Wood, A.

Skevington. The Inextinguishable Blaze. Grand Rapids 3, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960.