“Go on, dear sir, and prove the strength of Jesus to be yours. Continue instant in prayer, and you shall see and feel infinitely greater things than you have yet seen or felt. I am of your opinion, that there is seed sown in England, which will grow up into a great tree. God’s giving some of the mighty and noble a hearing ear forebodes future good. I do not despair of seeing you a proclaimer of the unsearchable riches of Christ. God be praised! that Mr. Hervey is so bold an advocate for his blessed Lord.”
Whitefield was always in trouble, from one quarter or another. While the ecclesiastical courts of Scotland were interdicting his preaching, without mentioning his name, Lavington, the Bishop of Exeter, was lashed into an unchristian rage against him. His Lordship of Exeter had recently delivered a charge to the clergy of his diocese. Some unknown wag circulated what pretended to be a manuscript copy of the charge, but containing declarations of doctrine and Christian experience worthy of Whitefield and Wesley themselves. Without authority, the pretended charge was printed, and occasioned the publication of several pamphlets in reply and congratulation. Meanwhile, however, Lavington, the inveterate hater of Methodists and Moravians, was dubbed a Methodist. This, to his lordship, was intolerable, and drew forth from him an angry “declaration,” in which he charged the Methodist chiefs with being the authors of the fraud. The charge was utterly unfounded; the Countess of Huntingdon interfered; with great difficulty she obtained a recantation from the infuriated prelate; and this was published in the leading journals of the day. The following letter refers to this disreputable fracas.
“Glasgow, October 5, 1748.
“Very dear Sir,—I received yours this morning, and think it my duty to send you an immediate answer.
“You might well inform my Lord of Exeter that I knew nothing of the printing of his lordship’s pretended charge, or of the pamphlets occasioned by it. When the former was sent to me in manuscript, from London to Bristol, as his lordship’s production, I immediately said, it could not be his. When I found it printed, I spoke to the officious printer, who did it out of his own head, and blamed him very much. When I saw the pamphlet, I was still more offended. Repeatedly, in several companies, I urged the injustice as well as imprudence thereof, and said it would produce what it did,—I mean a declaration from his lordship, that he was no Methodist. I am sorry his lordship had such an occasion given him to declare his aversion to what is called Methodism; and, though I think his lordship, in his declaration, has been somewhat severe concerning some of the Methodist leaders, I cannot blame him for saying, that he thought ‘some of them were worse than ignorant and misguided,’ supposing that his lordship had sufficient proof that they caused to be printed a charge which he had never owned nor published.
“If you think proper, you may let his lordship see the contents of this. I will only add, that, I wish a way could be found, whereby his lordship and other of the right reverend the bishops might converse with some of us. Many mistakes might thereby be rectified, and perhaps his lordship’s sentiments, in some degree, might be altered. If this cannot be effected, (I speak only for myself,) I am content to wait till we all appear before the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Meanwhile, I heartily pray, that their lordships may be blessed with all spiritual blessings, and wishing you the like mercies, I subscribe myself, very dear sir, your affectionate, obliged, humble servant,
“George Whitefield.”
Whitefield reached London at the beginning of November, and immediately resumed preaching, twice a week, in the house of the Countess of Huntingdon,“to the great and noble.”[207] Here he had to encounter another trouble. In a letter, dated October 20th, 1748, Howell Harris gives an account of his labours, in South and North Wales, during the last nine weeks. He had visited thirteen counties, had travelled a hundred and fifty miles every week, and had preached two sermons every day, and sometimes three or four. During the last week of his tour, he had never taken off his clothes; and, in one instance, had travelled above a hundred miles, from morning to the evening of the ensuing day, without any rest, preaching on themountains at midnight, in order to avoid the persecution of Sir Watkin William Wynn. Such was the malevolence of the Welsh baronet towards the poor Methodists, that, only a few days before, for simply meeting together to worship God, a number of them had had to pay fines, varying from five shillings to twenty pounds. Encouraged by those who ought to have known better, the mobs, in many places, were almost murderously violent; and, near to Bala, Harris received a blow on the headnearly sufficient to “split his skull in two.”[208] Whitefield was informed of these outrageous proceedings; he reported them to the Countess of Huntingdon; her ladyship laid the particulars before the Government; and, to the no small mortification of Sir Watkin Wynn,the fines he had exacted from the Methodists were ordered to be returned.[209]
Five years ago, Whitefield had formed an acquaintance with Dr. Doddridge, the great Dissenting tutor; he now visited the equally celebrated Dr. Watts, whom the Dissenters of the day might properly have regarded as their patriarch. Watts had looked upon Whitefield with disfavour, and had chidden Doddridge for lowering the dignity of the Dissenting minister and tutor, by preaching in Whitefield’s wooden meeting-house. For more than thirty years, Watts had been a beloved and honoured guest in the mansion of Sir Thomas Abney, Stoke Newington. He was now dying, and, on November 25th, away Whitefield went to see him. Being introduced, Whitefield tenderly enquired, “how he found himself?” “I am one of Christ’s waiting servants,” replied the dying Doctor. Whitefield assisted in raising him up in bed, that he might with more convenience take his medicine. Watts apologised for the trouble he occasioned. Whitefield answered, “Surely, I am not too good to wait on a waiting servant of Christ.” Whitefield took his leave;and half an hour afterwards Dr. Watts was dead.[210] Thus met and parted the great hymnist and thegreat preacher, until they met again in “the palace of angels and God.”[211]
A week after Watts’s death, Whitefield set out for Gloucester and Bristol. In the latter city, his preaching was the means of converting a Welsh shoemaker, who subsequently became one of Wesley’s best itinerant preachers, and who, in his wide wanderings, composed a few of the finest hymns ever sung in the Christian Church,—hymns not surpassed by the best of Dr. Watts’s, and which, after a century’s use, are as much in favour among the Methodists as ever.