[743] Tyerman, iii. 252. It should not be forgotten that at the beginning as well as at the end of their career the Wesleys met with great consideration from some of the bishops. Charles Wesley speaks in the very highest terms of the 'affectionate' way in which Archbishop Potter treated him and his brother, and John seems never to have forgotten the advice which this 'great and good man' (as he calls him) gave him—'not to spend his time and strength in disputing about things of a disputable nature, but in testifying against open vice and promoting real holiness.'
[744] Id. 384.
[745] Id. 411.
[746] Mr. Curteis (Bampton Lectures for 1871, p. 382) calls Wesley 'the purest, noblest, most saintly clergyman of the eighteenth century, whose whole life was passed in the sincere and loyal effort to do good.'
[747] This passage on the contrast between Wesley and Whitefield was written before the author had read Tyerman's Life of Whitefield; a similar contrast will be found in that work, vol. i. p. 12.
[748] For some well-selected specimens of Whitefield's sermons see Tyerman's Life of Whitefield, vol. i. pp. 297-304, and ii. 567, &c.
[749] Life and Times of the Rev. G. Whitefield, by Robert Philip, p. 130, &c.
[750] Whitefield's Letters; a Select Collection written to his Intimate Friends and Persons of Distinction in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, from 1734 to 1770, vol. i. p. 277, &c.
[751] See Whitefield's Letters (ut supra), passim.
[752] Even Warburton owned, 'of Whitefield's oratorical powers, and their astonishing influence on the minds of thousands, there can be no doubt. They are of a high order.'—Life of Lady Huntingdon, i. 450.