For above thirty years, Whitefield had been the butt of persecution, and, therefore, was not unprepared to give advice to young Rowland Hill. He was still hunted by the hatred of his enemies. Among other publications, there was issued, about this period, a sixpenny pamphlet,in folio, with the title, “The Celebrated Lecture upon Heads,” most of which is too coarse and blasphemous to be quoted. One specimen, concerning Whitefield, must suffice.
“Behold here one of the righteous over-much—yet nought doth he give away in charity! No, no! He is the bell-wether of the flock, who hath broken down orthodoxy’s bounds, and now riots on the common of hypocrisy. With one eye he looks up to heaven, to make his congregation think he is devout, that’s his spiritual eye; and with the other eye he looks down to see what he can get, and that’s his carnal eye; and thus, with jokes flowing down his face, he says, or seems to say, or, at least with your permission, we’ll attempt to say for him, ‘Bretheren! bretheren! bretheren! The word bretheren comes from the Tabernacle, because we all breathe-there-in. If ye want rouzing, I’ll rouze you. I’ll beat a tat-too upon the parchment cases of your consciences, and whip the devil about like a whirl-a-gig.’”
Quantum sufficit! The remainder is a great deal worse than this.
Another pamphlet of the same description, price eighteen-pence, was entitled “The Methodist and Mimic. A Tale in Hudibrastic Verse. By Peter Paragraph. Inscribed to Samuel Foote, Esq.” The gist of this foul publication is, that Whitefield sends one of his congregation to Foote, with a proposal that the comedian should turn preacher; and, of course, Samuel Foote, Esq., rejects the proposal with disdain.
One more must be mentioned: “The Methodist. A Poem. By the Author of the Powers of the Pen, and the Curate. London, 1766.” (4to. pp. 54.) Some parts of this impious publication are obscene, and attribute to Whitefield behaviour of the most infamous and impure description. The general purport of it is to describe the devil making a tour of discovery, to find some one to manage his affairs on earth, so that he himself might have leisure to attend to his government in hell. With this object in view,
“he searched, without avail,
Each meeting, dungeon, court, and jail,
Each mart of villainy, where vice
Presides, and virtue bears no price.”
But nowhere could he find an agent suited to his mind, tillhe got to Tottenham Court Road chapel, where he discovered Whitefield. For the sake of gold, Whitefield became his terrestrial viceroy, and swore fealty to him. One of the devil’s requirements was, that, because what Whitefield did was contrary to what he said, his eyes ought to look different ways; and, accordingly, they were twisted. Describing Whitefield’s sermons, the writer says:—