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visited many parts of Devonshire and Cornwall. At Gwinnop, he preached to a large audience, although the Clergyman had preached a virulent sermon against him in the morning. This worthy had said on Saturday," Now Whitefield is coming-I must put on my old armour." He did. Whitefield says, "It did but little execution, because not Scripture-proof; consequently, not out of God's armoury. I preached to many thousands. The rain dropped gently upon our bodies, and the grace of God seemed to fall like a gentle dew, sprinkling rain upon our souls." Thus in Cornwall, "an unthought-of and unexpectedly wide door" was opened. He preached in many churches, and the power of God came down so, that even the ministers were overcome. Such was the flying of doves to their windows there, that he ceased for a time to long for the wings of a dove to flee away to America.

He returned to London much improved in health and spirits; and, having rested a few days, he visited Doddridge and Hervey, in order to promote a public subscription for the New Jersey college. Doddridge entered warmly into the plan; nobly hazarding all the consequences of associating with the man whom the Coward trust despised. Whitefield appreciated his kindness: "I thank you a thousand times," he says, "for your kindness, and assure you it is reciprocal. Gladly shall I call upon you again at Northampton." In this letter, he informed the Doctor, that Lady Huntingdon was to write to him that night, and thus playfully prepared him for the news:"She is strangely employed now. Can you guess? The kind people of Ashby stirred up some of the baser sort to riot before her ladyship's door, whilst the gospel was preaching. Some of the people narrowly escaped being murdered in their way home. The justice has ordered to bring • the offenders before him." To her ladyship he said on this occasion, "I trust you will live to see many of these Ashby stones become children to Abraham."

Soon after this, he went again into Yorkshire. At Rotherham, he says, "Satan rallied his forces. The crier was employed to give notice of a bear-baiting. You may guess who was the bear! However, I preached twice. The drum was heard, and several watermen attended with great staves. The constable was struck, and two of the mobbers apprehended, but rescued afterwards. But all this does not come up to the kind usage of the people of Ashby!" Sheffield and Leeds, he found to be a new and warmer climate. Lancashire, how

ever, he still found to be but cold to him. All was quiet at Manchester, and he humbly hoped "some had enlisted;" but no great impression was made, although thousands attended. Liverpool he did not visit, at this time. At Bolton, a drunkard stood up to preach behind him; and the wife of the person who lent him the field, twice attempted to stab the workman who put up the stand for him. This roused him, and he bore down all opposition by a torrent of eloquence, which quite exhausted him. In the night, however, some of the Boltoners got into the barn and stables where his chaise and horses were put up, and cut both shamefully. This he called, "Satan showing his teeth."

From this quarter, he went into Cumberland; new ground to him. At Kendal, " such entrance was made as could not have been expected." The impression was so great under his first sermon, that he could not forget it when he left, and therefore he returned to confirm "the souls of the disciples." At Ulverston, also much good was done. "There," he says, "Satan made some small resistance: a clergyman, who looked more like a butcher than a minister, came with two others, and charged a constable with me. But I never saw a poor creature sent off in such disgrace."

Further particulars of this northern itineracy would only present similar alternations of insult and success. He preached" above ninety times, and to a hundred and forty thousand people," on this route from London to Edinburgh, where he arrived in the beginning of July.

"He was received," says Gillies, "as usual, in the most tender and loving manner; preaching generally twice a day to great multitudes, whose seriousness and earnest desire to hear him, made him exert himself beyond his strength." "By preaching always twice," he says, "and once thrice, and once four times, in a day, I am quite weakened; but I hope to recruit again. I am burning with a fever, and have a violent cold; but Christ's presence makes me smile at pain, and the fire of His love burns up all fevers whatsoever."

Whitefield's own estimate of this visit to Scotland, was very high. He says, "I shall have reason to all eternity to bless God for it. I have reason to think that many are under convictions, and am assured of hundreds having received great benefit and consolation. Not a dog moved his tongue all the while I was there, and many enemies were glad to be at peace with me. Oh that I may spring afresh!"

On his return to London, he was received with great joy both at the Tabernacle and West-street. During his stay, Hervey came up on a visit, and resided with him, and Wesley met with them occasionally. As may be supposed, they had much" sweet fellowship." But even that could not divert him from the fields long. It was now autumn; and, therefore, he resolved to work hard before going into winter quarters. Chatham owes much to this resolution! The awakening produced by his visit he calls "as promising a work as in almost any part of England." It re-acted also upon Sheerness. There a few pious people won the confidence of good Shrubsole, and drew him on step by step to read and pray amongst them, until he became a minister, although without relinquishing his office in the dock-yard. In reference to this, he said, "I am accounted a phenomenon, there never having been a preaching master mast-maker before. However, I know there has been a preaching Carpenter, of the most exalted rank, and this blessed person I am resolved, by the grace of God, to imitate while I live." He did Mr. Shrubsole wrote a "Pilgrim's Progress," in which he has drawn the character of Whitefield with great accuracy, and sustained it with much effect, under the name, Fervidus. He wrote also an elegy on Whitefield's death, quite equal to His any thing of the kind which appeared on that occasion. "Pilgrim, or Christian Memoirs," presents, perhaps, a fairer and fuller view of the state of religion in England at this time, than any other contemporary book. I hope it is not out of print! It was the first book which drew my attention to the Times of Whitefield. It was lent to me, whilst a student at Hoxton College, by the late W. Shrubsole, Esq., of the Bank of England; the son of the author, in every sense, and 66 a stranone of my earliest and kindest friends, when I was ger in a strange land." I never enter the Bank of England, without remembering with a thrill of grateful emotion, the sweet evenings I spent there in his chambers, and in his family circle! There I obtained my first glimpses of English society, (and I shall never forget them,) on my arrival in the metropolis from the mountains and solitudes of Aberdeenshire. I feel young again in recording this fact. There I heard, for the first time, instrumental music and musical science combined with divine worship; and now I never hear them, without remembering how all my Scotch prejudices against this combination were charmed away at the bank chambers of Mr. Shrubsole.

CHAPTER XVII.

WHITEFIELD IN IRELAND.

WHITEFIELD'S Connexion with Ireland was too slight to impress any character upon the religion of the country, or even to give an impulse to it. His preaching won souls; but it set in motion no evangelizing enterprise, except the itineracy of the celebrated John Cennick, who obtained for the Methodists in Ireland the nick-name of swaddlers, by a Christmas sermon. His text was, "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." A catholic who was present, and to whom the language of Scripture was a novelty, says Dr. Southey, "thought this so ludicrous, that he called the preacher a swaddler, in derision; and this unmeaning word became the nickname of the Methodists, and had all the effect of the most opprobrious appellation." It had indeed! When persecution arose against the Wesleys and their adherents, the watchword of the mob was, Five pounds for a swaddler's head!" "Anti-swaddlers 99 was a name chosen for themselves, by the popish party, and even avowed by them at the trial of the rioters. A public notice was posted up at the Exchange, with the writer's name affixed to it, in which he offered to head any mob that would pull down any house that should harbour a swaddler. And houses were demolished and much furniture destroyed. Nor was this all. In Cork, Butler's mob fell upon men and women, old and young, with clubs and swords, and beat and wounded them in a dreadful manner. Even the mayor told one of the complainants, whose house was beset and about to be pulled down, that if he would not "turn the preachers out," he must take whatever he might get. The sff also sent a woman to Bridewell, for expressing regret at seeing the vagabond ballad-singer, Butler, going about in the dress of a clergyman, with the Bible in one hand, and ballads in the other. Moore's Life of Wesley." Mr. Wesley himself describes, what he calls, "Cork persecution," thus :"breaking the houses of his Majesty's Protestant subjects, de

stroying their goods, spoiling or tearing the very clothes from their backs; striking, bruising, wounding, murdering them in the streets; dragging them through the mire, without any regard to age or sex; not sparing even those of tender years: no, nor women, though great with child; but, with more than pagan or Turkish barbarity, destroying infants that were yet unborn."

These enormities were well nigh over before Whitefield visited Ireland. The higher powers had interfered, when they found that the lower were nearly as low as Butler. Whitefield found the benefit of the shield which Wesley so much needed, and so nobly won. He had, however, preached in Ireland before Wesley visited it; which was in 1747. In 1738, Whitefield touched there, on his return from America, weak and weary, after a tedious and famishing voyage. When he landed from the vessel, "we had," he says, "but half a pint of water left, and my stomach was exceeding weak through long abstinence. Most of us begin to be weak, and look hollow-eyed. My clothes have not been off, except to change, all the passage. Part of the time I lay on the open deck, part on a chest, and the remainder on a bedstead, covered with my buffalo's skin." He was welcomed at a "strong castle," where, he says, "I asked the servant for water, and she gave me milk, and brought forth butter in a lordly dish. And never-did I make a more comfortable

meal!"

After resting for a day or two at Kilrush, to renew his strength, he went to Limerick, where the bishop, Dr. Burscough, received him with much hospitality and candour. His lordship requested him to preach in the cathedral on Sunday, and on parting with him kissed him and said, " Mr. Whitefield, had God bless you! I wish you success abroad; staid you in town, this house should have been your home." This welcome was the more gratifying, because his sermon had agitated the people. In walking about the town next day, "all the inhabitants," he says, "seemed alarmed, and looked most wishfully at me as I passed along." The contrast in his circumstances, also, affected him very deeply. "Good God!" he exclaims," where was I on Saturday last? In hunger, cold, and thirsting; but now I enjoy fulness of bread, and all things convenient for me. God grant I may not, Jeshurun-like, wax fat and kick! Perhaps it is more difficult to know how to abound, than how to want."

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