every day, during his visit. This encroachment upon the time of the people, drew upon him the charge of encouraging idleness;—which, with his usual readiness, though not with his usual prudence, he retorted by saying, "Ye are idle, ye are idle, say the Pharaohs of this generation; therefore ye say, Let us go and worship the Lord." He was, however, permitted by the bishop to baptize an old quaker in the church of St. Mary De Crypt, where he himself had been baptized: and there, he did not confine himself to the book; but, giving way to the emotions awakened by the font where he himself had been presented before the Lord in infancy, he poured out his heart in a free and fervent exhortation to the spectators; "proving the necessity of the new birth from the Office."

From Gloucester he went to Cheltenham, where his acquaintance with the Seward family began, although they had to follow him to the bowling-green and the market-cross, the churches being all shut against him. And Oxford, to which he went next, completed and sealed this expulsion. "The vice-chancellor came in person to the house" where Whitefield was exhorting, and accosted him thus: "Have you, Sir, a name in any book here?' 'Yes, Sir,' said I; 'but I intend to take it out soon.' He replied, 'Yes, and you had best take yourself out too, or otherwise I will lay you by the heels. What do you mean by going about, and alienating the people's affections from their proper pastors? Your works are full of vanity and nonsense. You pretend to inspiration. If ever you come again in this manner among these people, I will lay you first by the heels, and these shall follow.'" It does not appear that Whitefield returned any answer to this paltry threat. A few days after it, he preached in Moorfields: and from that moment, he cared nothing about chancellors or vice-chancellors, when they stood in the way of the gospel.

In the course of his short excursions into the country, whilst the embargo prevented him from sailing, he visited Olney, where he was "not a little comforted," by meeting, as a field preacher, Mr. R of Bedford, who had been both expelled and imprisoned for preaching the Scriptural doctrines of justification and regeneration. "I believe," says Whitefield, "we are the first

professed ministers of the church of England, that were so soon, and without cause, excluded every pulpit. Whether our brethren can justify such conduct, the last day will determine." An earlier day determined the question! The people of Bedford had made up their minds upon it at the time for thousands assembled regularly around the windmill to hear their expelled minister preach from the stairs ;-" Mr. R-'s pulpit," as Whitefield calls it. Journals.

During this journey he visited Northampton; but, although "courteously received by Dr. Doddridge," he had to preach upon the common, " from the starting post." Indeed, he was not welcome to the Doctor's pulpit, even when he did preach there afterwards. Doddridge was so far from "seeking his preaching," that he took "all the steps he could prudently venture on to prevent it." The Doddridge Diary and Correspondence.

The clergy having thus shut their pulpits against him, and the dissenters not opened theirs to him, the country magistrates followed in the train of his opponents, and even the inn-keepers were afraid to admit him. At Tewkesbury he found four constables waiting to apprehend him, and the whole town in alarm. Happily, a lawyer in the crowd demanded a sight of the warrant; and the constables having none, Whitefield determined to preach at all hazards, though beyond the liberties of the town. He did preach in the evening, in the field of a neighbouring gentleman, and two or three thousand people attended. Next morning he waited on one of the town-bailiffs, and meekly remonstrated against the attempted outrage. The bailiff told him, that the whole council were against him; and that a judge had declared him a vagrant, whom he would apprehend.

It was now a crisis; and Whitefield determined to bring the question to an issue. He claimed the protection of the laws. The bailiff's answer was equivocal: "If you preach here tomorrow, you shall have the constables to attend you." Whether this was a threat or a promise, he knew not, and cared not. He did preach next day, in another field, to six thousand people; "but saw no constables to molest or attend" him.

The reports of this affair spread in all forms; alarming his friends for his safety, and preparing his enemies for his approach. At Basingstoke, the mayor (a butcher) sent him a warning by

the hands of a constable. This led to an amusing correspondence, as well as to interviews, between the parties; in which the mayor boasted of what he would do," although he was a butcher ;" and Whitefield told him what he ought to do as a magistrate.

It was the time of the revel at Basingstoke, and many of the people were riotous. Whitefield, however, preached in a field, although he was unprotected, and even told that he would not come out alive. Indeed, it was confessed, some days after, by one of the ringleaders, that a party were pledged to "give him a secret blow, and prevent his disturbances." He was, however, only grossly insulted.

The fact is, the magistrates and the booth-keepers were afraid that he would spoil the revel: and he evidently intended to preach at the fair, although he did not exactly say so; for he repeatedly urged the mayor to prevent the scenes of cudgelling and wrestling, which were going forward. Failing in this, he set out to go to London; but when he saw the stage for the cudgellers and wrestlers, he could not proceed.

The following account of his "mad prank," is too characteristic of him to be suppressed, although he himself erased it from his journals. "As I passed by on horseback, I saw a stage; and as I rode further, I met divers coming to the revel; which affected me so much, that I had no rest in my spirit. And therefore having asked counsel of God, and perceiving an unusual warmth and power enter my soul,-though I was gone above a mile,-I could not bear to see so many dear souls, for whom Christ had died, ready to perish, and no minister or magistrate interpose. Upon this I told my dear fellow-travellers, that I was resolved to follow the example of Howel Harris in Wales, (he had just come from a tour with him in Wales,) and to bear my testimony against such lying vanities,-let the consequences, as to my own private person, be what they would. They immediately consenting, I rode back to town, got upon the stage erected for the wrestlers, and began to show them the error of their ways. Many seemed ready to hear what I had to say; but one more zealous than the rest for his master, and fearing conviction every time I attempted to speak, set the boys on repeating their huzzahs.

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My soul, I perceived, was in a sweet frame, willing to be offered up, so that I might save some of those to whom I was about to speak: but all in vain! While I was on the stage, one struck me with his cudgel, which I received with the utmost love. At last, finding the devil would not permit them to give me audience, I got off, and after much pushing and thronging me I got on my horse, with unspeakable satisfaction within myself, that I had now begun to attack the devil in his strongest holds, and had borne my testimony against the detestable diversions of this generation." Original Journals.

The reason why Whitefield excluded this event from his revised journals, was, perhaps, the tremendous severity of the following reflections. "Ye masters in Israel, what are ye doing? Ye magistrates, that are gods in Scripture, why sleep ye? Why do ye bear the sword in vain? Why count ye me a troubler in Israel, and why say ye, I teach people to be idle, when ye connive at, if not subscribe to, such hellish 'meetings as these, which not only draw people from their bodily work, but directly tend to destroy their precious and immortal souls? Surely I shall appear against you at the judgment-seat of Christ; for these diversions keep people from true christianity, as much as paganism itself. And I doubt not, but it will require as much courage and power to divert people from these things, as the apostles had to exert in converting the heathen from dumb idols. However, in the strength of my Master, I will now enter the lists, and begin an offensive war with Satan and all his host. If I perish, I perish! I shall have the testimony of a good conscience: I shall be free from the blood of all men." It is easier to find fault with the severity of this invective, than to prove that any lower tone of feeling could have sustained any man, in grappling with such national enormities. Whitefield struck the first blow at them, and thus led the way to their abandonment; an issue which may well excuse even the wildfire of his zeal.

Such was his position in London and the country, when he sailed for America the second time. He then left enough for the nation to think about until his return.

CHAPTER VI.

WHITEFIELD IN WALES.

THE following singular account of the commencement of methodism and dissent in Wales, is translated from the "Trysorva," by Johnes. "In the reign of James I. a clergyman of the name of Wroth was vicar of Llanvaches, in Monmouthshire. Being of a joyous temper, and like most of his countrymen, passionately fond of music, he was sometimes carried beyond the bounds of propriety by this enthusiasm. On one occasion, a gentleman with whom he was on terms of intimacy, having presented him with a new harp, fixed a day on which, in company with some friends, he would visit him, and hear him perform upon it. The day appointed came, and Wroth was anxiously expecting his visitor,when a messenger appeared to inform him that his friend was no more! This incident affected him so deeply, that, repenting the levity of his youth, from a gay clerical troubadour he became all at once a sad but zealous divine. With these impressions, he determined to commence preaching to his congregation, a practice then almost unknown in the churches of the principality. As a preacher, he soon distinguished himself so much, that the Welch peasantry flocked from all the neighbouring counties to hear him. His audience, being frequently too numerous for his church to contain-on such occasions, he was in the habit of addressing them in the churchyard. It is said that Sir Lewis Mansel, of Margam, a man illustrious for his exalted religious and patriotic zeal, was often one of his congregation.

"The irregularity alluded to at last exposed him to the censure of his diocesan, who, on one occasion, asked him, in anger, how he could vindicate his infringement of the rules of