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 service 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 ministers. But 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.

It

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. 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 anecdote 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 Erskines 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? Did he repent of it as a rash saying? With my knowledge of Whitefield, I cannot think that he kept silence from either policy or repentance. He had, indeed, no policy except that of trying to do the greatest sum of good.

My own conviction is, that he had neither fixed nor definite opinions upon the subject of episcopacy. He was for it and against it, just as it was for and against the work of evangelizing the country. He thought highly of episcopal power, when it aided or protected faithful preaching; and meanly, when it hindered the gospel. If a bishop did good, or allowed good to be done, Whitefield venerated him and his office too: but he despised both, whenever they were hostile to truth or zeal ;-I have no objection to say, whenever they were hostile to his own sentiments and measures. The question comes thus within a narrow compass,-Were his measures and sentiments, or those of the hostile bishops, the more apostolical? Gibson compromised the apostolic doctrine of regeneration; Lavington caricatured it; Smallbroke all but denied the work of the Spirit; and Warburton evaporated divine influence. Whitefield sustained the doctrine of the Reformation on the subject; and however his modes of expression varied, his invariable meaning was, that it is Christ in the heart, that is the hope of glory. It was this apostolic maxim which made him at first, and kept him to the end, a faithful echo of the supreme oracle,-" Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again." They may be prelates, but they are not bishops of the church of Christ, who either oppose or explain away this oracle. Το honour such masters in Israel, is to dishonour Christ. And as to respecting their office, notwithstanding their errors, that is drawing a distinction equally unwise and unwarrantable. What honest man would respect an unjust judge or an ignorant physician, because of their professional titles? It is high time to put an end to this nonsense. Bishop is a name of office in the Bible, because it is a name of creed and character; and therefore ought never to be conceded to any man whose creed and

character are not apostolical, whoever may confer it upon him. Ordination can no more make a worldly man a bishop, than a diploma can make an ignorant man a physician, or a theologian.

Whitefield's sentiments on this subject came out, most fully, in his exposure of Warburton. He did not spare him, as he did Smallbroke; for although no match for Warburton as a scholar or a reasoner, his spirit compelled the wrangler to calculate consequences. I have never seen the original form of the bishop's pamphlet on the grace of the Spirit; but as sermons, it is evidently softened and qualified in his works. The memory of Doddridge had, perhaps, some influence upon him. Not much, however. When I read his letters to Doddridge I can hardly believe my own recollections of his works; and when I read his works, I can hardly believe that he wrote the letters. I regret this discrepancy: for Warburton, if the most "impudent man of the age," was a mighty man of valour, and warred well against the twin-scepticism of Bolingbroke and Middleton. I select him, therefore, that the point of Whitefield's argument may be felt. It penetrates "the joints of his

armour," even.

The following remonstrances are not addressed to the leviathan of the Legation himself. Whitefield was probably afraid to put a hook in his jaws," by a direct effort; and therefore he caught him with holy guile, by addressing a private friend; probably Keene, one of the first managers of the Tabernacle.

"However profound and unintelligible our author's comments may be, yet, when he comes to show the reasonableness and fitness of an abatement or total withdrawment of divine influence in these last days, he speaks intelligibly enough. On the Spirit's first descent upon the apostles, he found their minds rude and uninformed, strangers to all celestial knowledge, prejudiced in favour of a carnal law, and utterly averse to the dictates of the everlasting gospel. The minds of these he illuminated, and, by degrees, led into all truths necessary for the professors of the faith to know, or for the propagators of it to teach.' True! Secondly, the nature and genius of the gospel were so averse to all the religious institutions of the world, that the whole strength of human prejudices was set in opposition to