CHAPTER IX.

Earthquake in London--Mr. Romaine, his popularity--Lord Northampton--The King’s Coachman--Lady Huntingdon appoints Mr. Romaine her Chaplain--Ashby-place--Dr. Stonhouse--Dr. Akenside--New Jersey College--Governor Belcher--President Burr--Dissenting Ministers--Dr. Doddridge--Education of Ministers--Mrs. Hester Gibbon--Mr. Law--Mr. Whitefield--Success of his Ministry at Rotherham--Dr. Doddridge dedicates his Sermon to Lady Huntingdon--Lord Lyttleton--Mr. Hervey--Dr. Doddridge visits Ashby--Singular Accident--Lady Stonhouse--Colonel and Mr. Galatin--Dr. Cotton--Miss Hotham.

Events of a most disastrous and terrifying nature had at this time spread a general alarm, and awakened the most stolid in the metropolis to a sense of danger. The earthquake by which Lisbon was destroyed, the shocks felt in London, and the false alarm excited by pretended prophecies of still greater devastation, had filled many with terror, whom they could not bring to repentance. These signal judgments of Jehovah were preceded by great profligacy of manners, and its fruitful parent, licentiousness of principle. Iniquity stalked with brazen front through the streets; and error, in ten thousand forms, vented its unsoftened blasphemies against God and his Messiah.

“As to faith (says one who preached on that occasion), is not the doctrine of the Trinity and that of the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour--without which our redemption is absolutely void, and we are yet in our sins, lying under the intolerable burden of the wrath of God--blasphemed and ridiculed openly in conversation and in print? And as to righteousness of life, are not the people of this land dead in trespasses and sins? Idleness, drunkenness, luxury, extravagance, and debauchery--for these things cometh the wrath of God, and disordered nature proclaims the impending distress and perplexity of nations. And O may we of this nation never read a handwriting upon the wall of heaven, in illuminated capitals of the Almighty--MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN: God hath numbered the kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances of heaven, and found wanting the merits of a rejected Redeemer, and therefore the kingdom is divided and given away.”[66]

The shocks felt in London at this time were considerably more violent than any remembered for a great number of years: the earth moved westward, then east, then westward again, through all London and Westminster. It was a strong and jarring motion, attended with a rumbling noise like that of thunder. Many houses were much shaken, and some chimneys thrown down, but without any further hurt. Multitudes of every description fled from the city with astonishing precipitation, and others repaired to the fields and open places in the city. Tower-hill, Moorfields, and, above all, Hyde Park, were crowded with men, women, and children, who remained there a whole night under direful apprehensions. Places of worship were thronged with frightened sinners, especially the chapels of the Methodists, where multitudes came all night knocking at the doors and begging admittance for God’s sake. The convulsions of nature are always regarded by enthusiasts and fanatics as the sure harbingers of its final dissolution. A soldier “had a revelation” that a great part of London and Westminster would be destroyed by an earthquake on a certain night, between the hours of twelve and one o’clock. In consequence of his assertion thousands fled from the city for fear of being suddenly overwhelmed, and repaired to the fields, where they continued all night, in momentary expectation of beholding the prophecy fulfilled: whilst thousands ran about the streets in the most wild and frantic state of consternation, quite certain that the day of judgment was about to commence: the scene was truly awful. Fear filled the chapels of the Methodists with persons of every description. Mr. Charles Wesley, who was then in London, preached incessantly, and very many were awakened to a sense of their awful condition before God, and led to rest their hopes of eternal salvation on the Rock of Ages. Mr. Whitefield, animated with that burning charity which shone so conspicuously in him, ventured out at midnight to Hyde Park, where he proclaimed to the affrighted and astonished multitudes the most essential and important intelligence that ever assailed the ear of mortals--that there is a Saviour, Christ the Lord. The darkness of the night, and the awful horrors of an approaching earthquake, added much to the solemnity of the scene. The sermon was truly sublime, and to the ungodly sinner, the self-righteous pharisee, and the artful hypocrite, strikingly terrific. With a pathos that bespoke the fervour of his soul, and with a grand majestic voice that commanded attention, he took occasion from the circumstances of their assembling to call the attention of the surrounding thousands to that most important event, in which every soul will be essentially and particularly concerned--namely, the grand final consummation of all things, the universal wreck of nature, the dissolution of this lower world, and the confirming and fixing the eternal and unalterable state of every son and daughter of Adam. The awful manner in which he addressed the careless, Christless sinner, the sublimity of the discourse, and the appearance of the place, added to the gloom of the night, combined to impress the mind with seriousness, and to render the event solemn and memorable in the highest degree. Among those who failed not to improve these awful providences was Mr. Romaine, who then published his “Alarm to a Careless World,” and “The Duty of Watchfulness Enforced”--subjects treated so nobly, and with such awful views of our state and danger, that the two discourses remain, not merely the temporary warnings of the day, but equally applicable at the present time to the inhabitants of the great metropolis, where the sins that bring down God’s judgment, and the number of those who commit them, seem to have gone on in an increasing ratio, and the same punishment for which can be delayed or averted only by the piety and prayers of such men as Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Romaine.

We must brave abuse when speaking the truth, and fear not to lay open the nakedness of the land, because of the enmity which the fidelity of our narrative may excite. It may be a bold, but it is nevertheless a faithful assertion, that Mr. Romaine was, at the time of which we speak, almost, if not altogether, singular in the testimony he bore for Christ in the Church of England in this metropolis. The Methodists had indeed awakened great attention; they had at their commencement attracted immense auditories by their occasional discourses in the different churches to which they were invited; but as no one of them had any church settlement in the metropolis which could be considered as legally his own, the doors of the Church were soon closed against them, and they were driven into the fields, or into the chapels of their own erection, whither they whom their ministry had awakened fled for refuge, resolved to hear _the Gospel_ wheresoever it should be preached, rather than be confined to mere morals and the husks of formality. They who have once tasted that the Lord is gracious must have the bread of life, and they will seek it even in Egypt.

Mr. Romaine, who had descended from the stilts of self-taught excellence, and the enticing words of man’s wisdom, to the plainness and simplicity of the doctrine of the cross, determined henceforth to know nothing else but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; and God immediately began to bless his testimony with the signs of conversion. He had been elected to St. Dunstan’s somewhat before his appointment to St. George’s, Hanover-square, and at both places the word of the Lord, preached in the light of love, was glorified. Mr. Romaine’s now eminent position drew attention--to his voice, his manner, and more especially to the subjects he treated, to the dissimilarity of all around him to what was observed in other churches. Although he still adhered to the written sermon, he delivered it with energy and pathos, and great and small bore testimony to the power with which he spake. The Gospel from his mouth appeared to them another Gospel from that which they had heard before. His fame spread--multitudes thronged around him; the church was crowded, the parishioners incommoded;[67] the merely formal among the clergy were tacitly reproved by his example, so opposite to theirs; a conspiracy was formed to remove him, and the rector, wrought upon by his enemies, was induced to dismiss him, on no other ground than that he had ceased not to preach and to teach the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Among the members of the congregation who continued stedfast to Mr. Romaine was Mr. John Sanderson, many years state coachman to George III. He exemplified in himself _the life_, _the walk_, and _the triumph of faith_ so excellently described by the honoured instrument of his conversion. Of this individual, now occupying a place before Him who is no respecter of persons, a few recollections may be acceptable. He was brought up a coachman, and although, in his day, post-chaises were in little use, yet his _road-work_, such as driving the nobility down to Bath, &c., had already pointed him out for good conduct and recommended him to favour, when, being at Exeter, while Mr. Cennick was preaching in the streets, a new motive for the exercise of Christian energy was afforded him; the preacher, who had already been ill-treated by the mob, was expatiating on the blood of Christ, when a ruffian butcher, exclaiming “If you like blood, you shall soon have enough of it,” rushed from his shop with a pail nearly full of blood, which he would have cast on Mr. Cennick, had not Mr. Sanderson calmly met him, and, suddenly catching the pail, poured its contents over the man’s own head. This drew the attention of the mob from the preacher to Mr. Sanderson, who escaped with difficulty, and was obliged to leave the city early in the morning. From that moment to his death, which occurred on the 13th of August, 1799, in the 89th year of his age, he adorned the doctrine he professed by a conversation such as becometh godliness.

But the greatest good often results from the sufferings and persecutions of God’s people; as the blood of the martyrs has been always the seed of the Church. Lord Northampton, who had married Lady Huntingdon’s relative, the Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley, granddaughter and heir of Robert, first Earl Ferrars,[68] had mentioned Mr. Romaine with high commendation. He spoke of his doctrine with respect, and of his abilities with admiration. He was now turned out of St. George’s, Hanover-square, but, reluctant to part with many who were dear to him, and who wished still to profit by his labours, he met them at the house of a Mr. Butcher; for which pretended irregularity, being threatened with a prosecution in the most apostolic spiritual court, the excellent Lady Huntingdon, supposing she had a right to protect him from this fresh opposition, invited him to her house in Park-street, gave him her scarf, and, as her chaplain, he continued long to preach to the poor in her kitchen unmolested; as he did afterwards in her drawing-room, to numbers of the nobility who were invited by her Ladyship to hear the Gospel, and where, by his aid, with that of Mr. Whitefield, the seraphic Mr. Jones of St. Saviour’s, Mr. Wesley, and others, a weekly lecture was delivered to a very polite circle. The utility of these labours shortly after induced the Countess to erect or open a variety of chapels at Brighton, Oathall, Bath, and Bretby, in all which Mr. Romaine zealously laboured for her with singular benediction. But the relation of these faithful services, and the great success attending them, must be reserved for a fitter period of our history, with the observation, that God never fails to bring still greater good out of man’s enmity and opposition to his Gospel. “The wrath of man shall praise him.”

To return to the earthquake. During that awful visitation Lady Huntingdon continued at Ashby-place, much indisposed. In a letter to her Ladyship, Mr. Whitefield says:--

“God has been terribly shaking the metropolis. I hope it is an earnest of his giving a shock to secure sinners, and making them to cry out, _What shall we do to be saved?_ I trust, honoured Madam, you have been brought to believe on the Lord Jesus, and have experienced the beginning of a real salvation in your heart. What a mercy is this! To be plucked as a brand out of the burning--to be one of those few _mighty_ and _noble_ that are called effectually by the grace of God; what consolation must this administer to your Ladyship under all afflictions! What can shake a soul whose hopes of happiness, in time and in eternity, are built upon the Rock of Ages? Winds may blow, rains may and will descend even upon persons of the most exalted stations; but they that trust in the Lord Jesus Christ never shall, never can, be totally confounded.”

In a letter to the Countess Delitz, sister to the excellent Lady Chesterfield, he likewise notices the awful occurrences in the metropolis:--

“The earthquake hath been an alarming providence. Happy they that have an interest in Christ, and are always ready! On him alone is my strength and safety founded. Did not this support and comfort your Ladyship under the awful alarm? Go on, then, honoured Madam, and, by a constant looking to Jesus, make continual advance in the divine life, which I believe hath been communicated to you from above. The more you see of His excellences, the more will all created things sicken and die in your view and taste. Wherever I am, your Ladyship and honoured sister, with the other honourable ladies, are continually remembered by me at the throne of grace. I hope all are determined with full purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord.”

Lady Huntingdon’s indisposition still continuing, Mr. Whitefield left London for Ashby, and on his way thither had an interview with Drs. Stonhouse and Doddridge, and Messrs. Hervey and Hartley.

“On the Tuesday (says Mr. Whitefield), I preached in the morning to Dr. Doddridge’s family, and in the afternoon to above two thousand in the field. Dr. Stonhouse, Mr. Hervey, &c., attended me, and walked with me afterwards along the street; so that I hope the physician will now turn his back on the world, and be content to follow a despised crucified Redeemer without reserve. I expounded at his house in the evening, and am hereafter to come to it as my own.”

Of this interview Mr. Hervey has preserved the following account:--

“I have seen lately that most excellent minister of the ever-blessed Jesus, Mr. Whitefield. I dined, supped, and spent the evening with him at Northampton, in company with Dr. Doddridge and two pious, ingenious clergymen of the Church of England,[69] both of them known to the learned world by their valuable writings. And, surely, I never spent a more delightful evening, or saw one that seemed to make nearer approaches to the felicity of heaven. A gentleman of great worth and rank in the town invited us to his house, and gave us an elegant treat; but how mean was his provision, how coarse his delicacies, compared with the fruit of my friend’s lips!--they dropped as the honey-comb, and were a well of life. Surely people do not know that amiable and exemplary man, or else, I cannot but think, instead of depreciating, they would applaud and love him. For my part, I never beheld so fair a copy of our Lord, such a living image of the Saviour, such exalted delight in God, such enlarged benevolence to man, such a steady faith in the Divine promises, and such a fervent zeal for the Divine glory; and all this without the least moroseness of humour or extravagances of behaviour, sweetened with the most engaging cheerfulness of temper, and regulated by all the sobriety of reason and wisdom of Scripture; insomuch, that I cannot forbear applying the wise man’s encomium of an illustrious woman to this eminent minister of the everlasting Gospel: ‘Many sons have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.’”

On Mr. Whitefield’s arrival at Ashby, he found the Countess very weak, but better than he expected. On this, as on a former visit to Ashby, some of the baser sort were stirred up to riot before her Ladyship’s door while Mr. Whitefield was preaching, and some persons in their way home narrowly escaped being murdered. A magistrate residing in the neighbourhood sent a message to Lady Huntingdon, in order to bring the offenders before him. In a letter to Mrs. Colonel Galatin, Mr. Whitefield says:--

“Good Lady Huntingdon hath been ill, but is recovering. There hath been an awakening at Ashby; but opposition begins to show itself in these parts by the instrumentality of a Dissenting minister.”

To another of his correspondents he writes thus:--

“For a few days I have been at good Lady Huntingdon’s, who, though weak in body, is always abounding in the work of the Lord. I preach daily at her Ladyship’s, and this week, God willing, I shall preach in two or three churches.”

After Mr. Whitefield left Ashby, in a letter to her Ladyship, he says:--

“I shall be glad to hear what becomes of the rioters. O that your Ladyship may live to see many of those Ashby stones become children to Abraham!” And again:--“Ungrateful Ashby! O that thou knewest the day of thy visitation! Surely your Ladyship may shake off the dust of your feet against them. This was the command which the meek and lowly Jesus gave to his apostles where the Gospel was not received; and he himself departed when the Gadarenes desired him to go from their coasts. This justifies your Ladyship in removing Mr. Baddelley. What avails throwing pearls before swine, who only turn again and rend you?”

In a subsequent letter he writes:--

“Ever-honoured Madam--The Lord, as yet, hath but begun to bless you; _you shall, you shall, you will be made a great blessing indeed_. If dear Mr. Hervey gets Ashby, that will be making you a blessing. I am glad that both he and Mr. Doddridge have been with your Ladyship. I would have all good ministers come and visit you; there are numbers would go scores of miles willingly for that purpose. Your Ladyship hath acted like yourself in forgiving the offenders; such offences come that Christ’s followers may give evidence of his blessed temper being wrought in their hearts. Your letter revived my heart, and gave me some fresh hopes for ungrateful Ashby.”

To his friend and correspondent, Lady Gertrude Hotham, Mr. Whitefield says:--

“Good Lady Huntingdon I left some time ago, weak in body, but strong in the grace which is in Jesus Christ. Thousands and thousands flocked to hear the word twice every day, and the power of God has attended it in a glorious manner. But the good people of Ashby were so kind as to mob round her Ladyship’s door whilst the Gospel was preaching. Alas! how great and irreconcilable is the enmity of the serpent! This is my comfort--the Seed of the woman shall at length be more than Conqueror over all. Her Ladyship will yet live, I trust, to declare the works of the Lord. Ashby is not worthy of so rich a pearl. The Countess and Lady Fanny were constantly remembered at Ashby at the holy table.”[70]

About the period that Dr. Stonhouse[71] and Dr. Akenside, author of the “Pleasures of Imagination,” came to reside at Northampton, the Rev. James Hervey had also removed to that part of the country, and his preaching began to be attended with signal success. Mr. Whitefield soon after paid a visit to Northampton, and was invited by Dr. Doddridge to preach in his pulpit. This gave violent offence, and exposed the Doctor to the censure and expostulations of many of his brethren in the ministry: but the Christian simplicity and gentle firmness with which Dr. Doddridge defended himself and two of his pupils, Mr. Darracott and Mr. Fawcett, from the unmerited and bigoted reproaches with which his moderate conduct towards the Methodists had been assailed, reflects the highest credit on his character. The wrath manifested towards him was unreasonable: for Mr. Whitefield’s visit at Northampton was rather to his old friend and brother Churchman, the ingenious author of the “Meditations.”

Dr. Johnson, in his “Lives of the Poets,” speaking of Akenside, observes--“Being now to live by his profession, he first commenced physician at Northampton, where Dr. Stonhouse then practised with such reputation and success, that a stranger was not likely to gain ground upon him.” Dr. Akenside was patronized by the Huntingdon family, and an Ode was addressed by him to the young Lord Hastings, afterwards Earl of Huntingdon. Encouraged by such patronage, he tried the contest with Dr. Stonhouse for a time; but his unnecessary zeal for what he called and thought liberty disgusted Lord Huntingdon: “A zeal (says Dr. Johnson) which sometimes disguises from the world, and not rarely from the mind which it possesses, an anxious desire of plundering wealth or degrading greatness, and of which the immediate tendency is innovation and anarchy--an impetuous eagerness to subvert and confound, with very little care what shall be established.” Though the son of a Presbyterian, and educated for the office of a Dissenting minister, yet he was entirely unsupported by the Dissenters at Northampton. He might have had the support and countenance of Dr. Doddridge, to whom he was known, but the intimacy which had subsisted for some time between him and Dr. Stonhouse, and the obligation which the town and country owed to the latter, as the founder of the infirmary, induced him to deny his support to Dr. Akenside, who, after losing the patronage of Lord Huntingdon, and deafening the place with clamours for liberty, removed to Hampstead, where he resided a short time, and then fixed himself in London, the proper place for a man of accomplishments like his.

Of Mr. Hervey, Mr. Whitefield says:--

“Your sentiments concerning Mr. Hervey’s book are very just. It has gone through six editions; the author of it is my old friend, a most heavenly-minded creature, one of the first of the Methodists, who is contented with a small cure, and gives all that he has to the poor. He is very weak, and waits daily for his dissolution. A neighbouring clergyman[72] near him preaches the Gospel; and a physician,[73] formerly a noted Deist, has lately espoused the interest of Jesus of Nazareth. We correspond with, though we cannot see one another: we shall, ere long, meet in heaven--

‘There pain, and sin, and sorrow cease, And all is calm, and joy, and peace.’”

Soon after Dr. Stonhouse, the converted infidel, had become the apostolic minister, we find Mr. Whitefield writing thus to Mr. Hervey:--

“For Christ’s sake, my dear Mr. Hervey, exhort Dr. Stonhouse, now he hath taken the gown, to play the man, and let the world see that, not worldly motives, but God’s glory and a love for souls, have sent him into the ministry. Though when I conversed with him he was exceedingly weak, yet, as I trust there is sincerity at the bottom, I hope he will turn out a flamer at last.”

The prevailing weakness of this good man was a dread of being considered a Methodist. Worldly hopes and worldly fears were a perpetual stumbling-block in his way. He had not yet learned to endure the cross, despising the shame.

“I earnestly wish (says the Countess) to see you more actively engaged in the cause of Christ, and in shedding abroad the savour of his most precious name. Go forth boldly--fear not the reproach of man--and preach the inestimable gift of God to impotent sinners. My poor intercessions are ever offered in your behalf, that you may be led forth to testify the righteousness of our Immanuel, freely imputed to guilty, hell-deserving man, for his complete justification and acceptance with the Judge of all; and I shall cease not to beseech the Father of mercies and Fountain of light that you may be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power.”[74]

Mr. Whitefield’s interview with Dr. Stonhouse, on his way to Ashby, excited in his warm and generous heart the liveliest sensations of gratitude for the signal conversion which God had wrought. On his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s he communicated what he had witnessed to her Ladyship, who rejoiced with him that the Doctor had been called without the camp to bear that reproach which all who will live godly in Christ Jesus, but especially those who preach him to a proud, self-righteous, gainsaying world, must ever expect to meet for their fidelity. Knowing some of the peculiarities of his character, Mr. Whitefield lost not a moment in communicating that advice which he conceived most needed for the confirming of the new convert.[75] A few days after his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s he addressed the following letter to Dr. Stonhouse:--

“Ashby, May 11, 1750.

“My dear Doctor--I have thought of and prayed for you much since we parted at Northampton. Now, I believe, is the time in which the axe is to be laid at the very root of the tree. How wonderfully doth the Lord Jesus watch over you! How sweetly does he lead you out of temptation! O! follow his leadings, my dear friend, and let every, even the most beloved Isaac, be immediately sacrificed for God. Kindness is cruelty here. Had Abraham consulted either Sarah or his affections he never would have taken the knife to slay his son. God’s law is our rule, and God will have all the heart or none. Agags will plead, but they must be hewn in pieces. May the Lord strengthen, stablish, and settle you! Good Lady Huntingdon was much rejoiced to hear that you had been without the camp. May you quit yourself like a man, and in every respect behave like a good soldier of Jesus Christ! Her Ladyship is very weak, _but I hope will yet be spared to do much good on earth_. O, the happiness of giving up all for Christ, who hath given himself for us. The Lord be with you. I am yours to command,

“G. W.”

Lady Huntingdon was much interested at this time about an institution which seemed to promise much benefit to the cause of God, and the extension of his kingdom on the continent of America. From time to time her Ladyship had received letters from his Excellency Governor Belcher, relative to the Presbyterian College in the New Jerseys. The importance and extensive usefulness in this seminary to the spread of the Gospel in the New World had been often mentioned by Mr. Whitefield, who had been on the spot, and had conversed with many connected with it. Principally by the exertions of Governor Belcher, the College was now on a different footing from what it had hitherto been; and in the early part of this year two gentlemen, Mr. Allen and Colonel Williams, friends of the Governor, arrived in England, to negotiate all matters concerning the institution, and collect funds which would enable the president and trustees to enlarge the sphere of its operations. These gentlemen brought letters to Lady Huntingdon, from Governor Belcher and President Burr, which Mr. Whitefield presented to her on her arrival at Ashby. A statement of the intended plan and enlargement of the College was drawn up, and several of the Dissenting ministers in London promised their assistance. By the advice of Lady Huntingdon this statement was printed, together with a recommendation of the plan, subscribed by her Ladyship, Dr. Doddridge, Mr. Whitefield, and others. Being desirous of serving the interests of this rising institution, which had many worthy presidents, some of whose names are well known in the learned world, such as President Burr, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, Dr. Samuel Davies, Dr. Samuel Finley, Dr. Witherspoon, &c., her Ladyship was very active in collecting considerable sums amongst her friends and acquaintances, and corresponded with many persons of eminence in England and Scotland, to whom she communicated the mission of Mr. Allen and Colonel Williams. Mr. Whitefield, likewise, lost no opportunity of recommending the institution to the attention of those who, he thought, could effectually further the objects it had in view. He preached several sermons in its behalf; and in the course of a few months considerable sums were collected, which were immediately transmitted to America.

Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. McCulloch, of Cambuslang, dated about a week after his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s, says, “I have desired to write you a long letter for a considerable time, but was so hurried when at London that I could not be so explicit as the affair I wanted to write about necessarily required. It is concerning the Presbyterian College in the New Jerseys, the importance and extensive usefulness of which I suppose you have long since been apprized of. Mr. Allen, a friend of Governor Belcher’s, is come over with a commission to negotiate this matter: he hath brought with him a copy of a letter, which Mr. Pemberton sent to you some months past. This letter hath been shown to Dr. Doddridge and several of the London ministers, who all approve of the thing, and promise their assistance. Last week I preached at Northampton, and conversed with Dr. Doddridge concerning it. The scheme that was then judged most practicable was this:--‘That Mr. Pemberton’s letter should be printed, and a recommendation of the affair, subscribed by Dr. Doddridge and others, be annexed;--that a subscription and collections should be then set on foot in England, and afterwards that Mr. Allen should go to Scotland.’ I think it is an affair that requires despatch. Governor Belcher[76] is old, but a most hearty man for promoting God’s glory and the good of mankind. He looks upon the College as his own daughter, and will do all he can to endow her with proper privileges. The present President, Mr. Burr,[77] and most of the trustees, I am well acquainted with. They are friends to vital piety, and I trust this work of the Lord will prosper in their hands. The spreading of the Gospel in Maryland and Virginia in a great measure depends upon it, and therefore I wish them much success in the name of the Lord.”

Unhappily for the scheme of the New Jersey College, Mr. Allen, who came over on purpose to negotiate it, was smitten by the fatal infection which, during the summer of this year, was so prevalent at the Old Bailey,[78] and died about two months after his arrival in England. Colonel Williams returned to America, and Dr. Doddridge wrote largely to Mr. Pemberton, urging him to visit England the ensuing summer, and to bring over with him some of the converted Indians--a scheme which had been suggested by Lady Huntingdon, from an idea that it would be a convincing proof to the public of the good that had already been effected, and was likely to result more largely from the extended operations of the College. Thus matters remained till the visit of Messrs. Tennant and Davies to England in 1753.

It was about the same period that several meetings were held in London for the purpose of establishing an academy for the education of young men for the ministry amongst the Dissenters. In many congregations the life and power of religion was almost extinct, and others were wholly destitute of pastors; so much so, that when Mr. Whitefield was applied to for a minister to take charge of a church in America, he returned for answer:--

“I wish I could send you good news about your minister. But, alas! I despair of procuring one. I waited upon Dr. Gifford immediately after my arrival; he gave no hopes. The person that was fixed upon declined it. Several of the large congregations in London, besides many more in the country, are without pastors: they are obliged to make use of our preachers. O that the Lord of the harvest may thrust out more labourers into his harvest!”

Dr. Doddridge felt extremely anxious for the establishment of an institution that would furnish a succession of true Christian evangelical ministers to the churches. He circulated the printed prospectus which had been sent him by the Committee in London, and was very active in procuring funds, and recommending it to the Dissenting churches in his neighbourhood. From Lady Huntingdon, to whom he mentioned the scheme when at Ashby, he received a most liberal contribution, accompanied by her prayers and good wishes for its success. When her Ladyship’s donation was remitted to the Committee in London, the Rev. John Barker, an eminent Dissenting minister in the metropolis, says, “Lady Huntingdon’s generosity is noble and catholic.”[79]

Mr. Barker was morning preacher at Salter’s Hall, long esteemed one of the most celebrated places of worship among the Dissenters. For many years the congregation was large and respectable, and it was considerably increased during Mr. Barker’s ministration, by the attendance of great numbers of the awakened people in the metropolis, who were eager to profit by his preaching. Lady Huntingdon, Lady Chesterfield, Lord Dartmouth, and some others of the nobility, occasionally formed part of his auditory.

In the correspondence of Lady Huntingdon, Dr. Doddridge, and Mr. Barker, frequent allusion is made to the decline of vital godliness in many of the Dissenting churches. “In my opinion (says the Countess), coldness and indifference have much to do with the desertion so often and so justly complained of. Were the Gospel of our adorable Saviour preached in purity and with zeal, the places would be filled with hearers, and God would bless his own word to the conversion of souls. Witness the effects produced by those whom he hath sent forth of late to proclaim his salvation. What numbers have been converted to God, and what multitudes attend to hear the word wherever it is proclaimed in the light and the love of it.”

In his “Free Thoughts on the most probable means of serving the Dissenting Interest,” and in his letter to his numerous correspondents, Dr. Doddridge expresses his firm persuasion that the preaching of evangelical doctrines in a plain, spiritual, experimental, and affectionate way, is the only thing which can preserve a congregation from decay, and revive it when it is decayed. So much did the existence of Dissenters, in his view, depend on this one thing, that he expresses his sentiments in the following terms:--

“I cannot but believe, if the Established clergy and the Dissenting ministers in general were mutually to exchange their strain of preaching and their manner of living but for one year, it would be the ruin of our cause, even though there should be no alteration in the constitution and discipline of the Church of England. However you might fare at London, or in some very singular cases elsewhere, I can hardly imagine that there would be Dissenters enough left in some considerable counties to fill one of our largest meeting-places.”

On the character of its ministers the prosperity of the Church will at all times greatly depend. That they should first be men of talents and piety is devoutly to be desired. Education succeeds to prepare them for this peculiar service. Could a greater blessing be wished for the human race, than that it might be regarded as an universal maxim, “that no man should receive an education for the pastoral office who had not first been made a partaker of a divine nature, and know the grace of God in truth?” Could a man write Latin with the elegance of a Cicero, or Greek with the sublimity of a Plato--could he compose poetry like Virgil, and vie as a mathematician with Euclid or Sir Isaac Newton, how little would they all conduce to make him a good minister of Jesus Christ; for they all lie at the remotest distance from the knowledge of a Saviour, and the doctrine which is according to godliness. The most illiterate man that ever entered a pulpit, if he understands the method of salvation, is versed in the Scriptures, and can tell one unvarnished tale of Him who died upon the cross to save the chief of sinners, though he cannot utter a single sentence without a breach of the rules of grammar, is infinitely better qualified for the pastoral office, and will do unspeakably more service in promoting the salvation of immortal souls.

The awful departure from the “faith once delivered to the saints” in many of the old Dissenting congregations, and the great want of evangelical ministers and students to supply the place of those who were daily dropping into another world, became the objects of Lady Huntingdon’s particular solicitude. She had contributed nobly to the evangelical seminary to be established by the Dissenting ministers in London, and now turned her attention to the academy at Northampton, under the management of Dr. Doddridge, whom she and some of her friends enabled to increase his establishment by the addition of two tutors, and six boys to be instructed in grammatical learning:--

“The want of ministers and students is so seen and felt (says the Doctor), and the necessity of the scheme for educating lads not yet ripe for academical studies is grown so apparent, that between three and four score pounds per annum have been, by well-disposed persons, without any pressing solicitations from me, subscribed for that purpose. And I have now in that view the six following--Mr. Bennett, a serious lad, lately arrived, and who is subsisted by an exhibition of ten guineas yearly from Lady Huntingdon; Messrs. Howe, Brooks, Robotham, Cole, and Smith, three of whom come from a distance: and I hope they will many of them prove a seed to serve the Lord, who shall be accounted to him for a generation. The number of pupils and lads altogether is now thirty-six.”[80]

Mr. Whitefield appears to have continued at Ashby about a fortnight, actively engaged in preaching whenever he could obtain a pulpit:--

“Your kind letter (says he to Dr. Doddridge) found me happy at our good Lady Huntingdon’s, whose path shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Gladly shall I call upon you again at Northampton, if the Lord spares my life; and in the meanwhile shall not fail to pray that the work of our common Lord may more and more prosper in your hands. I thank you a thousand times for your kindness to the chief of sinners, and assure you, reverend Sir, that the affection is reciprocal. Good Lady Huntingdon greatly esteems you. I go with regret from her Ladyship, who intends writing to you this evening: do come and see her soon. I shall not be unmindful of your sick student.[81] May the Lord Jesus sanctify all pain, and through his sufferings make him perfect.”

Leaving Ashby, Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Nottingham, and on his way thither preached at Milburn and Radcliff. At the latter place, where he was attended by great crowds, he preached on these words: “But one thing is needful.” After sermon he conversed with Mrs. Hester Gibbon, Mrs. Hutcheson, and a sister of the celebrated mystic, Mr. Law. The divine power accompanied the word, “and many (says Mr. Whitefield) were deeply impressed. Mr. Law’s sister seems to be under awakenings.”

About ten years previous to this period, Mrs. Hester Gibbon, aunt to the eloquent but infidel historian of the “Decline and Fall,” and Mrs. Hutcheson, widow of Archibald Hutcheson, Esq., of the Middle Temple, having formed the plan of retiring from the world to the exercise of charitable and religious duties, took the well-known author of “The Serious Call to a Devout Life” as their chaplain, instructor, and almoner, and came to reside at King’s Cliffe, in Northamptonshire, having previously lived for a short time at Thrapston, in the same county. With these singular and benevolent characters Lady Huntingdon soon became acquainted, and occasionally corresponded with Mrs. Gibbon and Mr. Law. They were frequently visited by Mr. Hartley, who was an extravagant admirer of the mystic writers, and in the latter years of his life an enthusiastic follower of the Baron Swedenborg. The severe indisposition under which Lady Huntingdon so long and resignedly laboured appears to have excited considerable alarm in the minds of Mrs. Gibbon and her amiable associates, and Mr. Hartley was deputed bearer of the following letter to her Ladyship:--

“King’s Cliffe, May 29, 1750.

“My dear Madam--Your excellent physician, and our worthy and respected friend, Dr. Stonhouse, about a month since, was so kind as to inform us of your Ladyship’s illness, and the alarming state of debility to which you were reduced. At our particular wish, Mr. Law requested good Mr. Hartley to visit Ashby, and report to us the result of his observations; but the duties of his parish prevented his leaving home at that time, and we were not able to learn any tidings of your Ladyship till the other day, when we were delighted with the sight of your valuable chaplain, Mr. Whitefield. O, my dear Madam, how have we prayed and wrestled with the great Author of life and light for the preservation of your invaluable existence! Precious above estimation is the prolongation of such a life as yours. We mourned, we wept, we prayed, and each returning day your case was presented on our family altar. Thanks, eternal thanks to Him, with whom are the issues of life and death, for your restoration and subsequent amendment. My dear Mrs. Hutcheson has not been quite well for some time, and good Mr. Law’s advanced stage of life precludes our leaving our beloved retreat, or we should do ourselves the gratification of personally congratulating you on your recovery. Present our united thanks and good wishes to Lady Anne Hastings for her kind remembrance of us. We hope, now that your Ladyship is so much better, she will pay us her long-promised visit. Best compliments to Lady Frances and all your amiable circle, in which good Mr. Law most cordially unites.

“I remain, my dear Madam, very sincerely, and with Christian affection, your faithful friend,

“HESTER GIBBON.”[82]

At Nottingham, Mr. Whitefield was attended by great multitudes, who thronged every avenue to the place appointed for his preaching. “Several came to me (says he) enquiring what they should do to be saved? I preached four times. One evening Lord Essex and several gentlemen were present, and behaved with great decency.” After leaving Nottingham, Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Mansfield, Rotherham, and Sheffield, in which places he preached several times with great and remarkable success.

“After leaving Mansfield (writes Mr. Whitefield), I went to Rotherham, where Satan rallied his forces again. However, I preached twice on the Friday evening and Saturday morning. The crier was employed to give notice of a bear-baiting: your Ladyship may guess who was the _bear_. About seven in the morning the drum was heard, and several watermen attended it with great staves. The constable was struck, and two of the mobbers were apprehended, but rescued afterwards. But all this does not come up to the kind usage of the people of Ashby. I preached on these words: ‘Fear not, little flock.’ They were both fed and feasted; and after a short stay I left Rotherham, when I knew it was to become more pacific.”

With this species of brutal opposition, the propagation of malicious falsehoods was encouraged, with a design to counteract the good effects of his labours. Mr. Thorpe, afterwards pastor of the Independent Church at Masborough, near Rotherham, ranged under the standard of his most virulent opposers; and not content with personal insult, added private ridicule to public interruption. Public houses became theatres where the fate of religious opinions was to be determined.[83] But a mighty change awaited Mr. Thorpe, the heart of the scoffer became changed, and the people whom, in the days of his blindness and thraldom to Satan, he so frequently reviled, became the object of his delight. He sought their company with avidity, and soon after became a member of Mr. Ingham’s connexion, which at this period had spread over a great part of Yorkshire and some of the neighbouring counties. His habitual seriousness and uniform morality soon endeared him to his new connexions, and the specimen he gave of his talents, in his occasional exercises in private, flattered their hopes that he would soon be called forth to public notice. In these expectations they were not disappointed, for he was quickly sent forth by Mr. Ingham to “preach the faith which he once laboured to destroy.” He afterwards preached for a short time in Mr. Wesley’s connexion; but his ideas becoming more enlarged in the doctrines of grace, he was eventually chosen pastor of the Independent Church at Masborough, where he exercised the ministerial function thirteen years. On the 8th of November, 1776, and the 46th year of his age, he gently resigned his breath without a struggle, and doubtless went triumphantly to the perfect worship and happiness of heaven! He left a son, the Rev. William Thorpe, for many years one of the stated supplies at the Tabernacle and Tottenham-court Chapel, London, and minister of Castle-green meeting, in Bristol.

It was about this time that Dr. Doddridge, who had long known and highly estimated the talents and virtues of Lady Huntingdon, preached at a meeting of ministers at Creaton, in Northamptonshire, and afterwards published a sermon, the title of which is, “Christian Candour and Unanimity stated, illustrated, and urged.” This is an admirable discourse, and exhibits a fine transcript of the author’s own mind, which was fully attuned to the virtue he recommended. It was addressed to Lady Huntingdon,[84] and strongly displays his admiration of her excellent character.

Not long after the publication of this sermon, Lady Huntingdon wrote to Dr. Doddridge. Her letter speaks of his friendship and candour, and towards the close mentions Mr., afterwards the well known and excellent Lord Lyttleton, with whom her Ladyship became acquainted about this time. The letter is dated Ashby-place, June 6, 1750:--

“My most excellent Friend--I know no one who, without intending it, seems more calculated to betray me into a spirit of partiality than yourself: for as your friendship and great kindness to me bind me by obligation, so your piety and abilities obtain both my love and highest estimation; and were I to judge by you of all that think with you, I should have more to say for my partiality than has fallen to the share of any particular denomination; and yet, by looking a little farther, I find to distinguish is my best privilege, as it ever will be one of yours to be the most eminently distinguished; and thus my preference honours and admires in you only what it would rejoice to see in _all_; but this is reserved for heaven, and a few pledges of it are given us to show how worthy it will be to all eternity of our friendship.

“Your candour is such a blessedness about you, that I fear it will make you too soon fit for heaven, and leave no mourning followers of your example. It is what my whole soul aspires after--it is my reigning object, as well as subject of delight; yet how do the fetters of prejudice, weakness, and ignorance, contend with me; and still hope assures me, that feeling these so strong will but occasion my bolder springs for liberty; and while my chains thus oppress me, my longing heart pants for the deliverance, and sighs after the happy prospect of breathing love upon the whole creation. I live satisfied _for this_ to be despised, mistaken, and reproached; rejected by all, yet rejecting none; from the unwearied labours of my life and love hoping all things, and, in conformity to heaven’s best gift to man, the Son of God, ready to yield up those prison garments of flesh and blood a humble offering to testify it. For such a paradise _in man_ it was that Jesus Christ paid the penalty--for this blessed reality he died. O, this high price! Happy am I, though but a redeemed slave, and following my mighty Conqueror in the bonds of guilt, fear, and shame; the multitude does not make him forget me, though so far behind them all; and on his pardon, the captive’s liberty has reached my rebellious heart, he will yet delight to listen.

“Thus does divine compassion show me the extremes of love in him, and by it best discovers the depths of misery in myself, and that nothing but a sad insensibility to the one can exclude me from the other. That watchful care follows every unguarded thought, and with those eyes which are as flames of fire pursues all our enemies and drives them out before us, so will he prepare the habitation of his creatures for himself, till, from the charity of their souls, he can rejoice in them; it is through this transparency alone we can behold him, for ‘blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;’ and, indeed, when we reflect upon the price of our ransom, we can join in the reasonableness of the Apostle’s argument, and expect unboundedly from such liberality--‘He who spared not his own Son, but delivered _him_ up for us all, _how shall he not with him freely give us all things_?’ and yet by man a guilty heart is thought too much to offer him! Oh! had he not the love of God, even earth could not bear us, heaven could not receive us, and then our miserable but just portion in eternal banishment would be to enjoy only our own horrid natures--all we could have left, and hell enough. I can say, for _one_, mine would be so were I left to it, and that, my worthy friend, I find myself a miserable being, existing in time out of eternity; but that only in order to become, by an infinite redemption from evil, a glorious, happy, and immortal creature, by an acquaintance and resemblance of nature with the God and Lord of all heaven and earth; and I do _now_, in part, by _actual_ possession, rejoice in the hope of that glory with God for evermore. These truths want no metaphors: that well of living water is ever springing up, and will eternally abound with further displays of these infallible truths; and thus a Christian can never have cause to despair, or ask any one if the promises in the Bible belong to him;--he has got them, they are wrote with the Spirit of the _living_ God within him, and each hour serves but to make the characters more legible. Of this divine knowledge my soul _now_ breathes with the force and ardour of anticipated glory in hallelujahs with those blessed spirits who are permitted to rejoice for us, though not with us; they are strangers to the joys of redemption; and oh! they must long to have come from Abraham’s loins, since the humility of Jesus took upon him his nature; and who, being thus lowly, makes them the blessed beings they are. Alas! what a lesson of humility have they come from; rather, how must they see their glory in this respect to be nothing, by reason of that which so far excelled in the Son of God: they gaze and admire, but these depths exceed the capacities of their natures. But how or where am I looking myself? Even in a mystery the angels are not worthy to look into. Forgive the eager adoration and high sensibility of the love of Jesus Christ which carries my transported heart to forget what I am, from the view of what his love is resolved to make me, and from my great poverty: do not wonder that this exaltation seems too much for me; it is literally taking the beggar out of the dust and seating him for a moment with the princes of his people.

“But I must now beg you to return my kindest respects to Mr. Lyttleton. I honour his sentiments of universal love to all good men; may the choicest of all blessings rest upon him! I own I should be glad to hear he was out of those trammels his vast parts and knowledge may make him liable to continue in long; his heart none ever doubted of being truly upright; but under such his great temporal advantages, these humble condescensions of becoming simple and quite unknown before God as a little child, perhaps his whole life has been calculated to destroy; books, men, friends, earthly pursuits, with the wise man’s ambitious heart, all serve but to hold that humility cheap which is to exalt God above all _these_; and till _He is_ depended upon _for all_, as the ignorance and helplessness of a little child makes his parent the object of _all_ its hopes and fears, there is no help for man that can yield him a rational joy or a secure hour upon earth. I suspect you have spoken of me to him with that partiality of the friend I have felt you to be: this is owing to your knowing me little, as well as the goodness of your heart, that it makes you hope all things.

“Assure Mrs. Doddridge it is I must sustain the disappointment, by not having the pleasure of seeing her. How am I bound to your prayers! It is these have again lifted me from the gates of death. Do thank and bless _for me_ the kindness of those charitable souls who so entreated for me; may heaven, with every pure joy upon earth, be their reward.

“I am, my most excellent friend, with the truest respect and most affectionate regard, your companion in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

“S. HUNTINGDON.”

Before Mr. Whitefield left Ashby, Lady Huntingdon wrote to Mr. Hervey, requesting him to pay her a visit as soon as convenient. Mr. Hervey obeyed the summons, and arrived at Ashby a few days before Mr. Whitefield set out on his tour. Mr. Baddelley had been some weeks in London, and during his absence Mr. Graves and Mr. Simpson alternately supplied his place as domestic chaplain to the Countess and the Ladies Hastings. Mr. Baddelley had been usefully and actively engaged during his stay in the metropolis, preaching wherever he could obtain a pulpit:--

“I am glad (says Mr. Whitefield) you have sounded the silver trumpet in London; _crescit eundo_ must be your motto and mine. There is nothing like keeping the wheels oiled by action. The more we do, the more we may do; every act strengthens the habit: and the best preparation for preaching on Sundays, is to preach every day in the week. I am glad you have peace at Ashby. What a fool is Satan, always to overshoot his mark! I hope that Mr. Graves, as well as Mr. Simpson, will hold on. They will be glorious monuments of free grace indeed. I am like-minded with you in respect to the Doctor’s comment; he is indeed a glorious writer! May the Lord Jesus strengthen him to finish the work! My dear Mr. Baddelley, what blessed opportunities do you enjoy for meditation, study, and prayer! Now is your time to get rich in grace, to search into the depths of divine love, and the mystery of iniquity hid in your own heart. _Such an example, and such advantages, no one in England is favoured with but yourself._ I do not envy you; but I pray the Redeemer, from my inmost soul, to sanctify your situation, and give you to increase with all the increase of God.”

In the month of June, Dr. Doddridge arrived at Ashby, but his stay was of short duration, the duties of his congregation obliging him to return to Northampton, having but lately returned from London, Norwich, and other places, where he had been preaching with great acceptance and success. He remained one Lord’s-day at her Ladyship’s, on which day Mr. Baddelley read the service of the Church of England, and the Doctor preached to a numerous congregation. In the evening Dr. Doddridge exchanged places with her Ladyship’s chaplain, reading the Liturgy, and Mr. Baddelley preaching. Speaking of this circumstance, Lady Huntingdon remarks:--

“His is a true Catholic spirit, that wishes well to the cause of Christ in every denomination. I would that all the Dissenting ministers I hear of were like-minded; less attached to all the punctilios of order, system, regularity, &c., and more determined to publish the glorious Gospel of the ever-blessed Immanuel, in season and out of season, wherever men were assembled to hear, whether in a church, a meeting-house, a field, or a barn;--less desirous to convince men of the errors in the discipline of those churches who hold the great doctrines of the Reformation, and more anxiously solicitous to gather souls to Christ, the true Shiloh. This should be the one great object of those who are called to the high and honourable office of ambassadors of Christ--all others are unimportant when compared with this.”

Of this visit to Ashby, the providential escape of his MSS. from destruction, and some singular circumstances which preceded it, the Doctor has preserved the following very interesting account, contained, in a letter to his pupil, the Rev. Benjamin Fawcett, of Kidderminster:--

“Northampton, June 26, 1750.

“Lady Huntingdon, for whom I desired your prayers, is wonderfully recovered. She walked with me in the garden and park, and almost wearied me; such is her recruit of strength: but the strength of her soul is amazing. I think I never saw so much of the image of God in woman upon earth. Were I to write what I know of her, it would fill your heart with wonder, joy, and praise. She desired me to educate a lad for the Dissenting ministry, at her expense, till he be fit to come into my academy on an exhibition; and this is but one of a multitude of good works she is continually performing. I must tell you, however, one observation of hers, which struck me much: ‘None (said she) know how to prize Christ but those who are zealous in good works. Men know not till they try what imperfect things our best works are, and how deficient we are in them; and the experience of that sweetness which attends their performance makes me more sensible of those obligations to Him whose grace is the principle of them in our hearts.’ She has God dwelling in her, and she is ever bearing her testimony to the present salvation he has given us, and to the fountain of living waters, which she feels springing up in her soul; so that she knows the divine original of the promises before the performance of them to her, as she knows God to be her Creator by the life he has given her.

“As I was setting out for my blessed journey to her, for such indeed it was, yesterday was seven-night, a terrible accident happened in my study, which might have been attended with fatal consequences: I had been sealing a letter with a little roll of wax, and I thought I had blown it out, when, fanned by the motion of the air, as I arose in haste, it was re-kindled. It burnt about a quarter of an hour, while we were at prayer, and would have gone on to consume, perhaps, the closet and the house, had not my opposite neighbour seen the flame, and given an alarm. When I came up, I found my desk, which was covered with papers, burning like an altar; many letters, papers of memoranda, and schemes for sermons, were consumed. My book of accounts was on fire, and the names at the top almost burnt through, a volume of the ‘Family Expositor,’ the original MSS. from Corinthians to Ephesians, surrounded with flames, and drenched in melted wax; the fire had kindled up around it, and burnt off some leaves and the corners of the other books, so that there is not one leaf entire: and yet so did God moderate the rage of this element, and determine in his Providence the time of our entrance, that not one account is rendered uncertain by what it suffered, nor is one line which had not been transcribed destroyed in the MS. I have to add that all my vouchers for Miss Ekins’[85] money, all my sermons and MSS. intended for the press, and, among the rest, the remainder of the ‘Family Expositor,’ were all in such danger, that the fire, in another quarter of an hour, had probably consumed them. Observe, my dear friend, the hand of God, and magnify the Lord with me.”

We find in the memoranda of remarkable incidents in the life of Dr. Doddridge--a narrative of what he considered the special dealings of Providence with regard to himself and some persons of his acquaintance--these allusions to our subject:--

“The mercies of my journey (says he) I would solemnly acknowledge; the wonderful preservation of my study from fire, and the great goodness of God in sparing the dear and excellent Lady Huntingdon, my interview with her, and the preservation and growing friendship of her Ladyship.”

Leaving Rotherham, Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Sheffield and Leeds, where he was attended by vast multitudes; and from thence to Aberford, on a visit to Mr. and Lady Margaret Ingham. At Sheffield the people received the word gladly, and a great alteration was discernible in their looks and behaviour since he had been there before. Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Ingham joined Mr. Whitefield at Leeds, and the crowds that assembled from every side exceeded anything they had ever seen before in that part of Yorkshire. “Last night (says he), I preached to many, many thousands, and this morning also at five o’clock. Methinks I am now got into another climate. It must be a warm one, where there are so many of God’s people. Our Pentecost is to be kept at Mr. Grimshaw’s: I have seen him and Mr. Ingham.” For these occasional itinerant visits Mr. Whitefield’s talents were admirably adapted. His manner, his voice, his action, and, above all, his solemnity and fervour, commanded and riveted the attention beyond anything that modern times have exhibited. When he was at Haworth, the Lord’s Supper was frequently administered, not only to the stated communicants, but to hundreds from other quarters, who resorted thither on those solemn occasions, esteeming them, in a peculiar sense, as “days of the Son of Man;” such, in many respects, as had never been witnessed since the first promulgation of Christianity, when the Spirit was, in so eminent a degree, “poured out from on high.” “Pen (says Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to Mr. Hervey) cannot well describe what glorious scenes have opened in Yorkshire. Perhaps, since I saw you at Ashby, seventy or eighty thousand have attended the word preached in divers places. At Haworth, on Whit-Sunday, the church was thrice filled with communicants. It was a precious season.”

Accompanied by Mr. Grimshaw and Mr. Ingham, Mr. Whitefield visited Manchester, where they found Colonel and Mrs. Galatin, who received them with the greatest cordiality. “All was quiet (he writes to Lady Huntingdon) at Manchester, and I humbly hope the Redeemer will gather to himself a people there. Kind Colonel Galatin and his lady will acquaint your Ladyship with particulars. I hope he will prove a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I advised him to send your Ladyship word of their coming to Ashby, that they might be directed the best road from Derby.” Through different parts of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, Mr. Whitefield was accompanied by Mr. Ingham and Mr. Milner; Mr. Grimshaw having returned to Haworth. Everywhere he preached in Mr. Ingham’s chapels, and, as usual, was attended by large and attentive congregations. At Kendal, and Ulverston, and Whitehaven, where Lady Huntingdon afterwards had chapels, he was followed by immense multitudes, who thronged around him, eager to hear all the words of this life. From Kendal we find him writing thus to Mr. Hervey:--“I guess this will find you returned from good Lady Huntingdon, with whom, undoubtedly, you have taken sweet counsel, and been mightily refreshed in talking about the things which belong to the kingdom of God. This leaves me at Kendal, where I arrived this morning, and where, God willing, I shall preach the everlasting Gospel this evening.” Soon after his arrival he was joined by Mr. Batty, a very popular preacher in Mr. Ingham’s connexion. Mr. Whitefield preached on the brow of a hill, which overlooks the town, to many thousands of hearers. That night, some evil-disposed persons got into the barn and stable where his travelling carriage and horses were locked up: the leathers were all destroyed, and the carriage otherwise much abused; they also cut off the long tails of a pair of black horses that he had had a long time, and greatly esteemed. Nevertheless, he rejoiced at the success attending his labours. “Still (he observes, in a letter to Lady Huntingdon), the Lord of all lords vouchsafes to prosper the Gospel plough. Such an entrance hath been made into Kendal as could not have been expected. I preached twice to several thousands last week, and the people were so importunate that I was prevailed on to return hither again last night; the congregation was greatly increased, and the power of the Lord was displayed in the midst of them.”

After preaching some weeks in Scotland, Mr. Whitefield returned to London, where, besides his usual labours at the Tabernacle, he frequently assisted Mr. Wesley at West-street Chapel. “Mr. Wesley (says he) breakfasted and prayed with me this morning; and Mr. Hervey was so kind as to come up and be with me in my house. He is a dear man, and I trust will yet be spared to write much for the Redeemer’s glory. I have prevailed on him to sit for his picture, and it will be published in a short time.” Mr. Hervey’s health was so delicate, that Dr. Stonhouse advised change of air, and Mr. Whitefield invited him to the Tabernacle-house, in London. On his way thither he paid a visit to Dr. Cotton, an eminent physician and poet, who resided at St. Alban’s, where he kept an asylum for lunatics, in the treatment of whom he was remarkably skilful. By means of Dr. Stonhouse he was introduced to the notice of Lady Huntingdon, who had a great esteem for him, and occasionally corresponded with him. When the Doctor published his “Visions,” he sent a copy to her Ladyship, who, in her letter acknowledging the receipt of the present, made some strong animadversions on the defects of the poem:--

“I am glad (says her Ladyship) that my good friend was not offended at my late well-meant admonition and reproof. We must be faithful to each other, or else how can we expect to meet with joy at the great tribunal? I trust he will yet be enabled to see by faith the Lord’s Christ. Blessed be God, in him all fulness dwells, of merit and righteousness, of grace and salvation, and this for the vilest of the vile, for whoever will. O, then, my friend,

“If haply still thy mental shade Dark as the midnight gloom be made, On the sure faithful arm Divine, Firm let thy fast’ning trust recline. The gentlest sire, the best of friends, To thee nor loss nor harm intends; Though toss’d on a tempestuous main, No wreck thy vessel shall sustain. Should there remain of rescuing grace No glimpse, no footsteps left to trace, Hear the Lord’s voice; ’tis Jesus’ will-- ‘Believe (thou poor dark pilgrim) still.’

“Thus much (continues the Countess) I have written to my worthy friend at St. Alban’s, and I trust God will bless my poor unworthy services to his eternal good. I long to see his fine genius consecrated to the best of causes--the glory of our incarnate God, and the salvation of souls redeemed by his most precious blood.”

To his pious and ingenious friend, the author of “Meditations,” Dr. Cotton also sent a copy of his “Visions.” In a letter to Dr. Stonhouse, also a poet and a critic, Mr. Hervey makes some excellent observations on the merits and defects of the Doctor’s work:--

“Please (says he) to make my best thanks to Dr. Cotton for his very delicate ‘Visions.’ I think they may do good, and promote virtue; then, I am persuaded, they will answer the benevolent intention of the author. I wish, at the same, that he would be a little explicit and courageous for Jesus Christ. He deserves it at our hands, who, for our sake, endured the cross and despised the shame: he will recompense it unto our bosom, by owning us before his Father and the holy angels. Nor can I ever think that the spread of our performances will be obstructed by pleasing Him who has all hearts and all events in his sovereign hand. A vision upon death, without a display of Christ, seems to me like a body without a heart, or a heart without animal spirits. I am sure, when I was lately (as myself and every one apprehended) on the brink of eternity, I found no consolation but in Christ. Then I felt, what I had so often read, that there is no other name given under heaven whereby man may obtain life and salvation, but only the name, the precious and inestimable name of Jesus Christ. O, that its savour may be to us, both living and dying, _as ointment poured out_. Shall I beg you to tell Dr. Cotton, that his beautiful ‘Visions’ were, by Dodsley, the bookseller, put into the hands of a very pious and ingenious friend of mine (Mr. Moses Browne), who proposes an alteration in a line, where he would read _Jesus_, instead of _virtue_.

“‘At that important hour of need, Jesus shall prove a friend indeed.’

“But I am not of his opinion, unless an uniform vein of evangelical doctrine had run through the whole. This, I must confess, I could have been glad to have seen in so elegant a poem where Spenser’s fancy and Prior’s ease are united. And I hope, if the Doctor should ever write any more poetry, he will take this important hint into his consideration. Indeed, he ought; for even in his ‘Vision on Death’ he has not paid the least regard to Christ the Redeemer, the Conqueror of death.”

During Mr. Hervey’s residence in London, Dr. Cotton visited the metropolis, and it was Lady Huntingdon’s wish that that good man should avail himself of the Doctor’s medical skill, and at the same time drop such hints as might, by the blessing of God, be made useful to him. “If I am tolerably well (says Mr. Hervey), I will wait upon Dr. Cotton on Tuesday morning. He has a delicate genius, and I dare say he is an excellent physician. O that his fine parts may be grafted into the true olive-tree, and bring forth fruit unto God. If Providence permits us to meet, I hope to have some evangelical discourse with him.”

Some time after, Lady Huntingdon sent Dr. Cotton a present of Marshall’s “Gospel Mystery of Sanctification,” a work that has long had the seal of high approbation from many judicious ministers and Christians. It had been recommended to her Ladyship’s notice by Mr. Cudworth, a preacher in Mr. Whitefield’s connexion, who sometimes visited Mr. Hervey, and occasionally preached at Ashby and other places in the neighbourhood. But Dr. Cotton thought the doctrine contained in Marshall’s[86] book inconsistent with Scripture and repugnant to reason. This produced a little controversy, in which Mr. Hervey ably defended his favourite author. On this subject he uses a little pleasantry with his friend Dr. Stonhouse, who became the medium of communication in this affair:--

“Tell our ingenious friend at St. Alban’s, if I did not give a direct answer to his question, it was because he stated it improperly. His manner was like making a raw apothecary’s apprentice the proper judge of a doctor’s bill. If such a chap should take upon himself to say, ‘Doctor, your language is unintelligible, your recipes are injudicious,’ what answer would you make? Some such answer must be made to Dr. Cotton, if he maintain, or would intimate, that the ‘Mystery of Sanctification,’ as delineated by Marshall, is unintelligible and injudicious, merely because _he_ does not immediately discern its propriety.

“‘This (says Dr. Cotton) is my firm faith--that if we do well, we shall be accepted through the merits of Christ.’ I might ask the Doctor whether he does well? Dare he avow this, even before me, his fellow-worm and fellow-sinner? How, then, will he maintain the pretension before that infinitely pure God, in whose sight the very heavens are unclean? But I choose to ask him (what may seem less offensive), has he never read of ‘the righteousness of faith?’ of being ‘made righteous by one man’s obedience?’ of ‘righteousness imputed without works?’ Now I should be glad to learn what the Holy Spirit means by these expressions? And if our worthy friend pleases to show how his faith can be made conformable to any one of these texts, I will undertake to demonstrate the conformity of my faith to them all. Ah! why should we hug a despicable rag, and reject a suit of beautiful apparel? May the Lord Jesus enable us all to discern the things that are excellent.”

Prevailed on by the repeated importunity of Lady Huntingdon and Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Hervey came to London by easy stages, in order to try whether change of air might be of any service to his decayed constitution; his worthy physician, Dr. Stonhouse, having declared that nothing which he could prescribe was likely to administer relief. One of the winters he stayed in London he lodged at the house of his good friend, Mr. Whitefield, adjoining the Tabernacle, in Moorfields. “I took up my abode (says he), not at my brother’s after the flesh, but with the brother of my heart.” By means of Lady Huntingdon he soon became acquainted with many pious and excellent characters in London, particularly Lady Gertrude Hotham, Lady Chesterfield, the Countess Delitz, and Lady Fanny Shirley, at whose house he occasionally expounded to very polite and attentive auditories. With the latter he maintained a very intimate correspondence for several years, which was published after her death by her executors. It was to Lady Fanny that he dedicated his celebrated work, “Theron and Aspasio,” which she was the means of introducing to the notice of Royalty, “I should never have been known to such grand personages (says he), if you had not condescended to introduce me. My name had never been heard by a royal ear, if it had not received some credit by your Ladyship’s notice.” His “Observations on Lord Bolingbroke’s work ‘On the Use and Study of History,’” were likewise addressed to her Ladyship.

Mr. Hervey had also frequent interviews with Miss Hotham, and on one occasion administered the sacrament at Lady Gertrude’s before Mr. Whitefield’s return from Portsmouth. Of his last interview he has preserved a short notice in his letter to Lady Huntingdon:--

“I had the pleasure of perusing your Ladyship’s letter to Mr. Whitefield, and return my grateful acknowledgments for your condescension in enquiring after me. My kind patroness, Lady Chesterfield, and many honourable persons whose names I trust are written in the Book of Life, are very desirous for your Ladyship’s return to the great city. I have lately expounded, and administered the ordinance, at good Lady Gertrude Hotham’s. Her daughter is ripening fast for glory. I had but little conversation with her, for she is too weak to endure much fatigue. When speaking of God’s stupendous love, in giving his only Son for our salvation, and of our interest in the all-sufficient propitiation of his death, I quoted these portions of Scripture:--‘He came into the world to save sinners--He poured out his soul for transgressors.’ ‘Yes (said Miss Hotham, who had been listening with singular attention), He died, the just for the unjust--he suffered death upon the cross, that we might reign with him in glory.’ On a subsequent visit I found her much altered for the worse, as respected her bodily health. Mr. Whitefield had been to see her the preceding day, and has since gone to erect the joyful standard at Portsmouth. Blessed be God, she enjoyed much peace and tranquillity of mind, and a firm persuasion that God was her reconciled Father, and the blessed Redeemer her all-sufficient portion. I expect to hear every day of her abundant entrance into the joy of her Lord. Good Lady Gertrude, and all her noble relatives and friends, are wonderfully supported in this trying affair. May the inestimably precious Jesus refresh and uphold them with the choicest cordials of his glorious Gospel! and may his name be very precious to them!”

As often as his health permitted, he attended the ministry of Mr. Whitefield and his faithful associates, at the Tabernacle; he says of him:--

“On Sunday he preached with his usual fervour, and administered the sacrament to a great number of very serious communicants. He delights in the work of the ministry, and embraces every opportunity of preaching the everlasting Gospel. He is, indeed, in labours more abundant. What a pattern of zeal and ministerial fidelity is our excellent friend! and God rewards him with joy unspeakable. God also fulfils to him, in a remarkable manner, his gracious promise, ‘Them that honour me, I will honour.’ This day he was most respectfully entertained at the houses of two noblemen. What a most exalted satisfaction must he enjoy in attending these great personages--not to cringe for favour, but to lay upon them an everlasting obligation--not to ask their interest at court, but to be the minister of their reconciliation to the King of kings.”

Again:--

“Yesterday our indefatigable friend renewed his labour of love. He preached to a crowded audience, and yet multitudes went away for want of room. In the midst of this audience was a clergyman in his canonical dress--a stranger; his name I could not learn. He behaved with exemplary seriousness, and expressed much satisfaction.”

While in the metropolis he was visited by Dr. Gill, Dr. Gifford, and other ministers of eminence, both in the Established Church and amongst the Dissenters, and declares it was his own fault if he reaped not much advantage by their conversation. With Mr. Cennick, Mr. Cudworth, and other devoted men who laboured at that period in the Tabernacle connexion, he formed a very intimate friendship. There, also, for the first time, he heard Mr. Romaine, to whom he was introduced at Lady Huntingdon’s particular request. To Lady Fanny Shirley he gives an account of Mr. Romaine’s style and manner of preaching, and wishes much success to him in explaining the Gospel to his thronged auditors. Mr. Romaine often visited him at the Tabernacle-house, and occasionally accompanied him to hear Mr. Whitefield. On one occasion Mr. Wesley and Mr. Romaine breakfasted with Mr. Whitefield. Besides Mr. Hervey, there were present Dr. Gifford, Dr. Gill, Mr. Cudworth, and Mr. Cennick. Mr. Romaine led the doctrinal part of the service, and Dr. Gill addressed a short exhortation to his brethren in the ministry. At other seasons these excellent men often met at the residence of the Countess Delitz, Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Fanny Shirley, where they proclaimed the truth of the Gospel to polite and fashionable auditors, and were enriched with spoils--spoils won from the kingdoms of darkness, and consecrated to the Captain of our salvation.