[395] Though all held it desirable that a minister should be converted, yet, many also entertained the pernicious theory of Stoddard. Whitefield again and again, fearlessly attacked the theory, and, thereby, gave great offence.
[396] Wakeley's "Anecdotes of Whitefield," p. 278.
[397] Prince's Christian History, No. 46.
[398] The Rev. Thomas Clap, who died, at Scituate, in 1767, aged 63. By some means, he became one of Whitefield's opponents, and will be mentioned in subsequent pages.
[399] This small pamphlet, first published in Philadelphia, was reprinted in London, in 1741, with two letters appended, written by the Rev. Charles Tennent and a minister in Boston; and also Whitefield's "Answer to the Querists." (8vo. 52 pp.) Tennent's letter is dated Philadelphia, October 16, 1740; and, after admitting that Whitefield had used unguarded expressions, says: "I believe Mr. Whitefield to be sound in the faith, and a most eminent servant of Jesus Christ."
[400] The following is the title of an American edition: "A Letter from the Rev. Mr. Whitefield to some Church Members of the Presbyterian Persuasion; in answer to certain Scruples and Queries relating to some passages in his printed Sermons and other Writings. To which is added two Letters from Nathaniel Lovetruth to the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, containing some exceptions to his aforesaid Letter. Third edition. Philadelphia: printed, South Carolina, Charleston. Reprinted by Peter Timothy, 1741." (16mo. 8 pp.) There is nothing in Lovetruth's letters that is worthy of being quoted.
[401] Whitefield evidently misunderstood Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection. Wesley never contended for absolute perfection.
[402] This is the house mentioned by Franklin. (See p. 377.) In the 1756 edition of his Journals, Whitefield says, "The house is now, by consent, become an academy as well as preaching place; and, when I was last at Philadelphia, I heard several youths speak in it so oratorically as would have delighted even a Cicero or a Demosthenes" (p. 428).
[403] In this same year 1740, Hutton went to Germany, where the Brethren considered it necessary that he should marry, in order that there might be a sister in London to attend to the work of God among the females. Hutton bowed to this decision: proposed to Louise Brandt, a native of French Switzerland; and was married by Count Zinzendorf, at Marienborn, on July 3, 1740. ("Memoirs of James Hutton," p. 56.)
[404] The allusion here is doubtless to the contentions at that time existing among the Moravians in London.