o'clock morning lecture," when they got him back. He seems to have been unable to comply with their cruel request: but he declined with reluctance. He preached for them, however, thrice a week for some time; and such was the number of converts discovered after his farewell sermon, that his friends actually proposed to send after him a book, full of names of the multitude who were clamorous for his return, although he was fleeing for his life. The heat alone had compelled him to leave. It was now summer, and he began to sink again. What could he do but fly? The good Bostonians assured him, that their summers had lately become much cooler than formerly, and that he might safely risk their dog-days now! He tried to believe them, until he had hardly breath enough to say farewell. His parting with them tried him much. "It has been heart-breaking," he says, “I cannot stand it!" They acted more considerately when his visit commenced. Then, "at a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Boston, it was unanimously voted, that the thanks of the town be given to the Rev. George Whitefield, for his charitable care and pains in collecting a considerable sum of money in Great Britain, for the distressed sufferers by the great fire in Boston, 1760. A respectable committee was appointed to wait on Mr. Whitefield, to inform him of the vote, and present him with a copy thereof." Boston Gazette, February, 1764.

Urgency, like that at Boston, was employed with him at New Haven college. He had preached to the students, and taken his leave; but such was the impression, that they sent the president after him, to entreat for another" quarter of an hour's exhortation." He complied, of course: and the effect was, what he called, "the crown of the expedition." Letters. He spent the summer in and around New-York, without suffering much from the heat. Often, a handred carriages might be seen in the streets, around whatever chapel he preached in. This pleased him: but twice he got into the fields again; and then he exclaims, "We sat under the Redeemer's shadow with great delight."

In September, he went to Philadelphia again; and the effect, he says, 66 was great indeed." It made him exclaim, "Grace, grace!" He was also much gratified at Nassau Hall, where he preached at Commencement. Both the governor and ex-governor of the state, with the principal gentlemen of the city, attended, and the provost of the college read

prayers for him. The trustees also sent him a vote of thanks for his services and the countenance he gave to the institution. About this time, a picture of him was taken by an American artist, who could not finish the drapery, owing to an attack of ague. Whitefield must have been pleased with it, for he sent it to England to be finished, and then "hung up in the Tabernacle parlour." There is a painting there, imperfect in its drapery, which has often astounded me, the figure is so unwieldy, and so unlike all my old prints. Until this moment I could not account for its enormous obesity. It is, I now suspect, the original he sent from Philadelphia, for he was then much swollen. He calls it, in his letter," my shadow:" I should like to have seen his smile, when he used these words! He must have been very ill, if he was grave then.

He was well enough, however, to cross-plough Virginia again. During this itineracy, he found here and there, in places as "unlikely as ROME itself," groups of new lights, formed and led on by a wealthy planter in the state. This he calls " grace indeed." They also met him in a body, to identify themselves publicly with him. The character and result of this camp-meeting at Lockwoods, I do not know; but such was his own opinion of the prospects in Virginia at large, that he wrote home thus : "Surely the Londoners, who are fed to the full, will not envy the poor souls in these parts. I almost determine to come back in the spring" to them, from Georgia.

He spent the winter at Bethesda. How flourishing he found it, will be best told in his own words. "Peace and plenty reign at Bethesda. All things go on successfully. God hath given me great favour in the sight of the governor, council, and assembly. A memorial was presented for an additional grant of lands, consisting of two thousand acres. It was immediately complied with. Both houses addressed the governor in behalf of the intended college. A warm answer was given; and I am now putting all in repair, and getting every thing ready for that purpose. Every heart seems to leap for joy, at the prospect of its future utility to this and the neighbouring colonies. He that holdeth the stars in his right hand, will direct, in due time, whether I shall directly embark for England, or take one tour more to the northward. I am in delightful winter quarters, for once! His EXCELLENCY dined with me yesterday, and expressed his satisfaction in the warmest terms. Who knows how many youths may be trained up for the ser

vice of the ever-loving and altogether lovely Jesus? Thus far, however we may set up our Ebenezer. Hitherto the bush hath been burning, but not consumed."

On transcribing this sentence, I was about to say, "Alas, the consuming fire is kindling ;--when the recollection of Berridge's opinion on the eventual fate of Bethesda, checked me. He thought it a good thing that that bush was consumed, and thus prevented from becoming a nursery for unconverted minBut this subject will occur again.

In the spring of 1765, Whitefield began to prepare again for his wilderness range.' He was tired of "ceiled houses and crowded tables." These, he says, "I leave to others: a morsel of bread and a little bit of cold meat, in a wood, is a most luxurious repast" to me. He left Georgia, however, with great regret, on some accounts. It was all alive to hear him. It was, in his opinion, " such a scene of action" then, that words could not express the facilities for usefulness which it presented. But both Old and New England were clamorous for his return to them. All the way from Charleston to Philadelphia, the loud and piercing cry was,-" For Christ's sake stay, and preach the gospel to us." Even in Charleston, of which he often said, its motto is "chastened but not changed," (referring to its calamitous visitations by storms,) he was detained a week longer than he intended, by the urgency of the mayor and the principal gentlemen of the town. Indeed he calls his parting from it and Bethesda, "affecting, cutting, and awful." So it was to him every where : for he doubted very much whether it was his duty to move homewards. But he had laid the foundation of his college, and the superstructure depended upon his influence at home. Besides, the heat soon decided the question, when he reached Philadelphia. In a few days he could scarcely move. He even dreaded the motion of a ship, when he was compelled to embark for England; but he said, "If it shake this tottering frame to pieces, it will be a trading voyage indeed!" In this spirit he sailed, and reached home so speedily, that he could hardly believe his own senses, when he found himself there in twenty-eight days!

In this second illustration, as in the first, of Whitefield's influence in America, there is, it will be seen, no selection of facts from any former or subsequent visits, but merely the details of the moment. I have already stated my reasons for not going into the general estimate of his influence in the new

world. Let some of my American friends show this out. The old world, instead of being jealous, will be thankful, to see Whitefield, as we now see Luther, Knox, and Latimer, in his own place, amidst the Aarons and Hurs who sustained his hands, and the Joshuas who carried on his work and warfare. It is worthy of American Christians, that, whilst they would feel at a loss between two of their patriarchs-one of whom had shaken hands with George Washington, and the other with George Whitefield-with which to shake hands first, they would venerate most a veteran who had known both. Again I tell them, that I have not dared to do Whitefield full justice, in reference to their father-land, because I was afraid of doing injustice to their fathers, who acted with him, and followed after him. I devolve the duty, therefore, upon America. Let her give Britain the Transatlantic Life and Times of Whitefield!

CHAPTER XXV.

WHITEFIELD AND THE BISHOPS.

WHITEFIELD's deliberate and final opinion of the episcopate as an order, or as an office, is very doubtful. Until I read his solemn declaration to the Erskines, that he would not be episcopally ordained again for a thousand worlds, I had seen nothing to warrant even a suspicion of the kind. Even now I know of nothing to illustrate that declaration. It is not repeated in any of his letters. It is not reported in any popular anecdotes of his preaching or conversation. The dissenters had no idea of his doubts on this head, and his episcopalian friends regarded him as a sound although irregular churchman upon the whole. It is thus evident that he was very silent upon the subject. Besides, although he was present at several ordinations of another kind, he took no part in any of them. He preached in the evening, at Deal, after Dr. Gibbons and other ministers had ordained a pastor there. He also spent the afternoon with them, greatly to his own edification, he says. All this is proof that he did not doubt the validity of their ordination; but not proof that he preferred their way. The strongest thing I know him to have said of that way is," The prayer put up in the very act of laying on of hands by Dr. Gibbons, was so affecting, and the looks and behaviour of those that joined so serious and solemn-that I hardly know when I was more struck under any one's ministration. Several very important questions were asked and answered before, and a solemn charge given after imposition of hands." Thus he thought, felt and wrote, on this subject, thirty years after what he said to the Erskine's about his own ordination. He showed, however, no preference during all that time, to either presbyterian or congregational ordination. What, therefore, ought we to think of his strong language to the Erskines? Was it a hasty assertion never repeated?