[346] No doubt, Dr. Pemberton's, in Wall Street, at that time the only Presbyterian meeting-house in New York. (Stevens's "History of Methodism," vol. i., p. 143.)
[347] Anthony Benezet was born in France in 1713. At the age of eighteen, he came to Philadelphia, and was apprenticed to a merchant. Two years after Whitfield's present visit, he abandoned business, and became the master of the Quakers' English school of Philadelphia; and this honourable, though not lucrative, office he continued to fulfil, with little intermission, until his death, in 1784. By his unwearied exertions, he was the means of first attracting public attention to the enormities of slavery. Hundreds of negroes followed him to his grave.
[348] The "Indian trader" was, probably, Samson Occum, who will be noticed hereafter.
[349] The Rev. Samuel Blair was a native of Ireland, but came to America in early life. He was trained for the ministry in the "Log College" of good old Mr. Tennent at Neshaminy. About the year 1745, he took charge of the church at Fagg's Manor, and opened a classical and theological academy. He was a man of great learning and piety, a profound divine, and an impressive preacher.
[350] One of these afterwards became the wife of Whitefield's factotum, Mr. Habersham. In his "Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia," Mr. Stephens writes: "1740, June 5. Mr. Whitefield came back in his sloop, fully laden with provisions of all sorts, and ten passengers (men and women) of divers trades useful to his purpose, namely, a tailor, shoemaker, glazier, etc."
[351] No doubt, the clergyman of Philadelphia.
[352] See "The Life and Times of Wesley," vol. i., pp. 297-310.
[353] It cannot be denied that, throughout his marvellous career, Whitefield was, practically, a Dissenter. Thomas Olivers, who knew him well, observes: "That Mr. Whitefield was strongly prejudiced in favour of the Dissenters, as Dissenters, is notorious. I myself have, perhaps on forty occasions, both at my own house and elsewhere, heard him speak, with great partiality, of our English Dissenters in general—particularly of the Puritans of old, and also of our modern Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists. The whole world knows how uncommonly fond he was of the Scotch Presbyterians, and of the American Independents; while the Episcopalians, in both these countries, were almost entirely overlooked by him." (Olivers' "Rod for a Reviler," 1777, p. 22.)
[354] Isaac Chandler was born at Bristol in 1701; but, in 1733, went to South Carolina. Three years afterwards, he became pastor of a Baptist church on Ashley River, where he continued until his death, in 1749. Among his other publications was a sermon on "Establishment in Grace," preached at Charleston, in 1740, by the desire of Whitefield, at the commencement of a course of lectures by ministers of different denominations.
[355] The Rev. John Osgood was born at Dorchester, South Carolina; graduated at Harvard College; and, in 1735, was ordained minister of the Independent church in his native town. In 1754, he followed a part of his church to a new settlement, about thirty miles from Savannah, where he remained until his death, in 1773.