“The converts are all made in this manner. First, they become concerned for their souls, and greatly distressed, and not rarely distracted. They continue in this condition for some days, and then, all at once, without any visible means, they come out of their dark and disconsolate state all light, joy, and ecstasy. This they express by their talk to their neighbours, which they call telling their experiences; and, in many places, by immoderate laughter and singing hymns. Their joy is sometimes so great, that, their eyes sparkle, and their faces shine. These are certain signs of the Spirit of God being in them. One of a hundred excepted, they all make religion to consist in the feeling of inward impulses and impressions, in an inexplicable faith, joys, ecstasies, and such-like things. They are bigoted to certain opinions, which they do not understand; and have not the least degree of charity for those who are of another way of thinking. All of them are vain, self-conceited, superstitious, enthusiastic, censorious slanderers. Reason, learning, and morality, they professedly disregard. If they hear a minister preach, in the most evangelical manner, upon any moral duty, or if they hear him recommend the exercise of reason and understanding, they call him a dry, husky, Arminian preacher, and conclude for certain that he is not converted.”
The reader may easily imagine the effects likely to be produced, at this juncture, among the Presbyterians of Scotland, by such infamous statements respecting Presbyterian converts and congregations in New England.
The subject is a loathsome one; but, perhaps, it is best, once for all, to exhaust it. To say nothing of objectionable passages in Ralph Erskine’s pamphlet, entitled, “Fraud and Falsehood Detected,” and in the sermons he preached at different places in the year 1742,particularly those on Luke xxii. 31, 32; Heb. xiii. 8; and Rev. v. 9;[16] the following publications must have annoyed Whitefield, and, also, injured him in the estimation of the Scottish people.
1. “Some Observations upon the Conduct of the Famous Mr. W—field. By a true Lover of the Church and Country. Edinburgh: printed in the year 1742.” (12mo. 12 pp.) The author of these “Observations” told his readers, that, Whitefield had taken upon himself “the office of a thirteenth apostle;” and that he began his work in Scotland “with a notorious lie, for he said he was £600 out of pocket about his Hospital in Georgia, whereas it can be proved that he advanced about £1000 to a captain of a man of war, who gave him bills for it upon the Admiralty, who paid this sum to him a little before he came to Scotland.” The writer adds, “Instead of going to Georgia, this thirteenth Apostle was moved to take to him a fellow-mate; so that now, I am afraid, these” (Scotch) “collections will be applied towards the maintenance of him, her, and their issue.” The anxious author, in conclusion, benevolently remarks: “Let all good people beware of this stroller; for he will yet find a way to wheedle you out of your money. He is as artful a mountebank as any I know.”
2. “A Letter to a Gentleman in Edinburgh, containing Remarks upon a late Apology for the Presbyterians inScotland, who keep Communion, in the Ordinances of the Gospel, with Mr. George Whitefield, a Priest of the Church of England: shewing that such a Practice is not justifiable by the Principles and Practice of the Church of Scotland, from the Reformation to this day; nor by the Westminster Confession of Faith, Solemn League and Covenant. In which Mr. Whitefield’s Religion, Orthodoxy, and Moral Character are set in a proper light, by Collections from his own printed Performances. Glasgow, 1742.” (pp. 112.) The letter is signed, “John Bisset, Minister of the Gospel in Aberdeen;” and is dated, “October 26, 1742.” Upon the whole, the pamphlet is well written, and less verbose than many of the Scotch productions of that period. Half of it is an elaborate criticism of the “late Apology;” and the remainder a venomous attack on Whitefield, who is branded as being “enthusiastically, daringly presumptuous, and popishly superstitious,”—“a strolling impostor, whose cheats, in due time, will be discovered.” In conclusion, Mr. Bisset writes: “Mr. Whitefield has done more to promote effectually the cause of Episcopacy, and a liking to it in Scotland, than all the means, fair and foul, that have been used since our reformation from Popery to this day.”
Besides the above, two other antagonistic pamphlets must be noticed, which, though not printed in Scotland, were doubtless circulated there, and helped to increase the difficulties with which Whitefield had to struggle.
1. “A Brief History of the Principles of Methodism, wherein the Rise and Progress, together with the Causes of the several Variations, Divisions, and present Inconsistencies of this Sect are attempted to be traced out, and accounted for. By Josiah Tucker, M.A., Vicar of All Saints, and one of the Minor Canons of the College of Bristol. Oxford, 1742.” (8vo. 51 pp.) Mr. Tucker, in obsequious terms, dedicated his anti-Methodistic publication to Dr. Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, who had treated Whitefield with great courtesy on his return from America in 1738. Mr. Tucker tells the Archbishop, that Whitefield left the University of Oxford “with a crude and undigested notion of the system of William Law;” and, that “it happened through a blunder on his side, and a mistake of the question on allsides, that he fell in with the Calvinistical party, and looked upon them as his patrons and advocates.” “It was some time, however, before he understood his new credenda, or so much as knew the nature of the five points, and how they hang in a chain one upon another.”
2. “Genuine and Secret Memoirs relating to the Adventures of that Arch-Methodist, Mr. G. W—fi—d: Likewise, Critical and Explanatory Remarks upon that inimitable piece, entitled ‘God’s Dealings with the Rev. Mr. Whitefield;’ wherein is likewise proved (by his own words), that he has had pretty large dealings also with Satan: the whole interspersed with observations instructive and humorous. Collected and published, by a Gentleman of Oxford, for general information; and necessary to be had in all families as a preservative against Enthusiasm and Methodism. Oxford, 1742.” (8vo. 85 pp.)
This was a most disgraceful and disgusting pamphlet. To quote its obscenity would be criminal. It finishes with eight verses, entitled “The Field-Preacher. To the Tune of the Queen’s Old Courtier.” The first of these verses is as follows:—
“With face and fashion to be known,