"I believe Mr. Whitefield set out with a zeal for God, though a
mistaken one. The pulpits were _then_ open to him, in confidence
that he would preach nothing contrary to the Gospel; but when
his mistakes were more known, and when his errors were so
notorious that even _charity_ could not but see them; and when,
to propagate these errors, he claimed the chair, visiting every
church, and violently taking possession of their pulpits, it
was the duty of the clergy to check the spreading evil, and
refuse him the liberty of misleading their people in their own
churches. This he calls being turned out of our synagogues, and
complains of it as a hardship. Who made him universal pastor?
Who committed to him the care of _all_ the churches? Do such
complaints become a meek disciple of Christ? Is such behaviour
the mark of a dutiful and true son of the Church of England?
What ill consequences may we not dread from so _bold_ an
invader, from so _unreasonable_ a separatist?"
"A Curate in London" (in Pamphlet No. 33) writes:--
"Let us not be carried away by pretences--'tis hard to say to
what. Pretences! of weak and heated men, such as have, in all
the different ages of the Church, built up a faith of their own,
always to the prejudice, frequently to the ruin, of that once
delivered to the saints."
In "Methodism Displayed," by the Rev. James Bate, M.A., Rector of
St. Paul's, Deptford, there is an almost unceasing reiteration of
charges of pride, pertness, and impudence.
The "Compleat Account of that eminent Enthusiast, Mr. Whitefield"
(No. 36) tells its readers, that this "extraordinary itinerant had
lately made a progress into the western parts of England, and some
parts of Wales, where, from _tombstones_, and _market-crosses_,
on _commons_ and _mountains_, he had preached to vast numbers of
ignorant people, and, since his return to London, in a wide place
near a building" (Bedlam) "which would suit him much better." "He
had succeeded the _mountebank_ in Moorfields, pretty near the place
where the _White Bear_ exhibits himself to public view every day
(but _Sundays)._ From the _wall_, instead of a _stage_, he harangued
his congregation, and, by the choice of his text, most blasphemously
compared himself, after his usual custom, to our blessed Saviour."