affected," that he was "almost prevented from making any application" of the subject. But whatever was the number of his converts then, TOPLADY, who was not inclined to give an exaggerated answer to the question, "Are there many that be saved?" gave Whitefield credit for having been, in the course of his entire ministry, useful to " tens of thousands besides " himself.

CHAPTER V.

WHITEFIELD'S FIRST VISITS TO THE COUNTRY.

WHATEVER disadvantages may attend the mode in which I trace the first labours and influence of Whitefield, the divisions I have adopted will enable the reader to follow him without effort or confusion, and to judge fairly of each of his successive spheres; many of which were very dissimilar, however much alike were the effects of his preaching in them. Besides, it is much easier to realize the changes which passed upon his spirit as he moved from country to country, and from spot to spot, in the glory or gloom of circumstances, than to realize places, however vividly characterized; for they seldom gave a character to his preaching. I mean, that he did not exactly adapt himself to localities; but came into a new field in the spirit he had left the old one. He preached" the common salvation" every where, although with varied power. According to "the brook in the way," he "lifted up the head." He came to London under the Bristol impulse; and he embarked for America under the London impulse. This is evident from his journals. He had no plans, but for winning souls; and these, although they could never be set aside by circumstances, could be inflamed by them. Accordingly, whilst the vessel was detained in the river or on the coast, he was never idle. Wherever he could land, he preached; and when on board, he read prayers and expounded daily; just as might be expected from a man fresh from the impulses of London.

His work in England, as distinguished from London and its immediate vicinity, began on his return from Georgia; and then, he was full of his orphan school: an institution which, if

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it did little for the colony, led him to do much for the mother country! Humanly speaking, but for that school, and the college he intended to graft upon it, Whitefield would never have traversed England as he did, nor visited Scotland so often. It compelled him to travel, and inspired him to preach. It was his hobby, certainly; but by riding it well, he made it like "the white horse" of the Apocalypse, the means of going "forth conquering and to conquer."

Having been ordained a priest at Oxford, and received a "liberal benefaction" from the bishop of Gloucester for Georgia, his first visit was to Windsor. There he could find only a school-room to expound in; but such was the impression made by his address, that he exclaimed on leaving, "Not unto me, Lord, not unto me; but unto thy name be all the glory."

Next morning he went to Basingstoke, and expounded to about a hundred very attentive hearers, in the dining-room of the inn; but on the evening of the next day, the crowd outside was noisy, and threw stones at the windows. This roused Whitefield's zeal and the curiosity of the town. On the following day, he had three large rooms nearly filled; and although some interrupted him, many were so struck and overawed, that they said they would "never oppose again."*

At this time he visited and revisited Dummer, where he had once been so useful and happy amongst the poor. "I found," says he, that "they had not forgotten their former love. We took exceeding sweet counsel, prayed, and sang psalms, and eat our bread with gladness and singleness of heart. How did Jesus comfort us by the way! Monstrare nequeo sentio tantum! Lord, melt down my frozen heart, with a sense of thy unmerited love."

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From Dummer he went to Salisbury, and there visited " old disciple, Mr. Wesley's mother;" but found no opportunity for preaching. He then went to Bath, with the hope of preaching in the abbey church for the orphan-house, the trustees having obtained leave of the bishop; but Dr. C. would not permit him. "He was pleased" (so Whitefield expresses it) "to

See Letter 51. Works, vol. i.

give me an absolute refusal to preach either on that or any other occasion, without a positive order from the king or the bishop. I asked him his reasons. He said he was not obliged to give me any. I therefore withdrew, and reached Bristol." There a welcome awaited him; and he felt the difference. "Who can express the joy with which I was received?" It was not long, however, unmixed joy. He was refused the use of Redcliffe church, although he had the promise of it. The clergyman pretended that "he could not lend his church without a special order from the chancellor." Whitefield, with his usual promptitude, put this excuse to the test at once. "I immediately waited on the chancellor, who told me frankly, that he would neither give positive leave, nor would he prohibit any one that should lend me a church; but he would advise me to withdraw to some other place, till he heard from the bishop, and not to preach on any other occasion. I asked him his reaHe answered,Why will you press so hard upon me? The thing has given general dislike.' I replied, 'Not the orphanhouse; even those that disagree with me in other particulars, approve of that. And as for the gospel-when was it preached without dislike?'

sons.

"Soon after this I waited upon the reverend the dean, who received me with great civility. When I had shown him my Georgia accounts, and answered him a question or two about the colony, I asked him, whether there could be any just objection against my preaching in churches for the orphan-house? After a pause for a considerable time, he said, he could not tell. Somebody knocking at the door, he replied, 'Mr. Whitefield, I will give you an answer some other time: now I expect company.' 'Will you be pleased to fix any time, Sir,' said I. 'I will send to you, says the dean. O christian simplicity, whither art thou fled?"

Whitefield himself fled, that afternoon, to the Newgate of Bristol, and obtained the jailer's permission to preach there to the prisoners. "I preached a sermon on the Penitent Thief, and collected fifteen shillings for them." On the following sabbath he preached at St. Werburgh's church to a large audience. Even St. Mary Redcliffe was open to him soon, though

not for a collection. "Blessed be God,-I thought yesterday I should not have the use of any pulpit; but God has the hearts of all men in his hands." The old effects accompanied this new visit to Bristol. "Great numbers were melted down. Thousands could not find room." He thus verified a prediction which had been sent from London to Bristol, by some raving blasphemer;" Whitefield has set the town on fire, and now he is gone to kindle a flame in the country. I think the devil in hell is in you all."

The flame was kindled in Bristol; and the devil had certainly something to do with those who tried to extinguish it. "The chancellor told me plainly, that he intended to stop my proceedings. I have sent for the registrar here, Sir, to take down your answers.' He asked me, by what authority I preached in the diocess of Bristol without a licence? I answered, 'I thought that custom was grown obsolete. Why, pray, Sir, did not you ask the clergyman, who preached for you last Thursday, this question?' He said, that was nothing to me?" Dr. Southey says, that Whitefield's reply to the chancellor was given "without the slightest sense of its impropriety or its irrelevance." But where is its irrelevance? It is certainly quite ad rem, whatever it may be as etiquette, when curates argue with chancellors; and in all respects, it is more gentlemanly than the chancellor's "what is that to you." That is real vulgarity.

The Doctor narrates the remainder of this high-church scene, with more discrimination. "The chancellor then read to him those canons which forbade any minister from preaching in a private house. Whitefield answered, he apprehended they did not apply to professed ministers of the church of England. When he was informed of his mistake, he said, 'There is also a canon forbidding all clergymen to frequent taverns and play at cards why is not that put in execution?' And he added, that notwithstanding these canons, he could not but speak the things he knew, and that he was resolved to proceed as usual." Now, if the Doctor pleases, Whitefield is as unpolite, as the apostles were to the chancellor of the Jewish sanhedrim! "His answer was written down, and the chancellor then said, 'I am