Herbert Jenkins, in a letter, dated February 23, 1745, says:—
“The first night I was at Birmingham, the people received the word with great affection, and with many tears. The place where we met on Sunday night was so thronged that the candles went out; but the Lord made the place a Bethel to our souls. I stayed there four days, declaring to all who came the glad tidings of salvation. From thence, I went to Wednesbury, where, for a week, morning and evening, I shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God. Many heard with tears, longing and panting for a discovery of the Lord Jesus; while others rejoiced in the Lord, their portion and everlasting friend. There is much Christian simplicity among them. I preached once at Wolverhampton (a large populous place), to a little company of sincere seeking souls. The next day I went to Brewood, where there was scarcely a dry eye among all the people. From thence, I went to Bewdley, where I was invited by a minister of the Established Church, who received me very courteously, and procured the Presbyterian meeting-house for me to preach in. The minister came to hear me, and behaved very civilly. The people flocked to hear the word. There is a little Society formed.”
Devonshire.—After attending “The Association” of Calvinistic Methodists in Bristol, John Cennick, on September 5, 1744, set out for Devonshire. He preached in Mr. Darracott’s chapel at Wellington, to a “congregation made up of Church people, and several sorts of Dissenters.” He had, what he calls, “blessed times,” at Exeter. At Kingsbridge, he preached in the Baptist and Presbyterian chapels. At Plymouth, “the room” was always crowded; and, on Tuesday, September 11, he “laid the first stone of the New Tabernacle with prayer and singing.” On his return to London (to officiate as Whitefield’s successor at the Tabernacle), he spent ten days at Exeter, where the Dissenting ministers circulated “fly-sheets,” asserting that Whitefield and his assistants were “false prophets, unlearned, and Antinomians.” Cennick was a puzzle to the people. Some said he was “a patten-maker;” others said he had been “a footman.” Numerous other trades were mentioned, when, at last, a man declared he “was certainly a coachman.” “Yes,” repliedanother, who happened to be one of Cennick’s hearers. “Yes, he is a coachman, and drives the chariot of the Lord, and wishes you all to be his passengers.”
On his arrival in London, Cennick seems to have received a large number of letters from the Plymouth converts. One correspondent told him, that, the Presbyterian minister had warned his people against Whitefield and his preachers, whom he called “Bold Intruders, Usurpers, and Novices.” The same writer said:—
“I have removed our singing meeting to the Baptist Chapel. There are about fifty who meet to learn the tunes. My house is, every night, like a little church; and, last Sunday evening, I began to read Mr. Whitefield’s sermons to the people. Several gentlemen have desired to draw off our masons, so that the building of the Tabernacle has been neglected. I have had much trouble to keep the work going forward.”
Cennick was succeeded in Devonshire by Thomas Adams. At Exeter, Adams preached in “the Society room,” at five in the mornings; and in the house of Mr. Kennedy, his host, at seven in the evenings. He writes: “It would have delighted you to have seen the multitudes who flocked to hear. Mr. Kennedy’s three rooms and large passage would not near contain the people: many, very many stood in the court.” At Kingsbridge, Adams met a lawyer who had been converted by Whitefield’s preaching. At Plymouth, he found “the partition-wall of bigotry tumbling down daily.” This was in the month of November, 1744. Shortly afterwards, so far as Exeter was concerned, the scene had changed.
In 1745, a pamphlet of forty-two pages was published at Exeter, entitled,“A brief Account of the late Persecution and Barbarous Usage of the Methodists at Exeter.[106] By an Impartial Hand.” The author assures his readers, that he is not a Methodist himself; and that “it would never have entered his head to have taken up his pen in defence of the Methodists, had they not been daily, and openly, treated in Exeter with such rudeness, violence, and abuse, as would have made even Indians, or Pagans, to have blushed.” He relates that,—
“The rioters violently entered the Methodist meeting-house, interrupted the minister with opprobrious and obscene language, and fell upon him in a most furious manner with blows and kicks. They treated every man they could lay their hands upon with such abuse and indignity as is not to be expressed. But what is more than all, was their abominable rudeness to the poor women. Some were stripped quite naked. Others notwithstanding their most piercing cries for mercy and deliverance, were forcibly held by some of the wicked ruffians, while others turned their petticoats over their heads, and forced them to remain, in that condition, as a spectacle to their infamous banter and ridicule; the poor creatures being afterwards dragged through the kennel, which had been filled with mud and dirt. Others of the women had their clothes, yea, their very shifts, torn from their backs. Towards the close of the evening, one of the mob forced a woman up into the gallery, and attempted other outrages, three different times. After many struggles, she freed herself, leaped over the gallery, and so made her escape. Many, to avoid falling into the hands of this wicked crew, leaped out of the windows, and got over the garden walls, to the endangering of their lives. This outrage was committed in the centre of the city, and in the presence of many thousands. The riot continued for several hours. The mob had their full swing. No magistrates came to the relief or assistance of the poor people, notwithstanding they were applied to, and greatly importuned to read the Riot Act. It is true, no one was actually murdered; but the whole Society were put into great danger and fear of their lives, and expected nothing but death. Many of the women are now in very critical circumstances, under the care of surgeons and apothecaries; and their lives are even yet (two days after the riot) in danger.
“Before I dismiss this Exeter riot, I must remark, that the Methodists, not only on the day of the grand riot, but, many times since, have been treated by this lawless rabble with the utmost fury and violence. They have been mobbed and insulted, at noonday, in the open streets, and furiously pelted with dirt, stones, sticks, and cabbage-stumps.
“After the strictest enquiry, I cannot find that any one Dissenter, of any denomination, was at all concerned in this riot. They were all of the old stamp, that have ever been known by the name of church rabble; though I cannot omit to notice, that the Methodists complain much against the Presbyterian clergy, who (they say), in their sermons and conversations, frequently represent them in a false and injurious light; and, thereby, lessen the affection, and raise the antipathy, of the people towards them.”