George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

THE DISSENTERS 213
while, amid much laughter, the defendants' counsel went on to
describe the Methodists after the fashion which best suited his
bad case. In spite, however, of hard swearing, of oratorical
pleading, and of the genteel influence which the rioters un-
doubtedly had at their back, the jury found the defendants
guilty of the whole information lodged against them.
Our narrative must now run back for a few months, that we
may note the attitude of the Dissenters towards Whitefield.
Many of them had shown him much kindness, but, with the
exception of Doddridge and Watts, their leaders looked upon
him with contempt, or dislike, or fear. And for the fear there
was some reason. Dissenters were only permitted to hold
their opinions under great disadvantages, and were studiously
kept down in the State. In consequence, there was a great
^desire on the part of most of them to keep on friendly terms
with the Established Church, and not to risk in any wise the
good opinion of its bishops and clergy. Theirs was the
worldly-wise, cautious spirit of men who felt that any false
step might multiply their disabilities, not the fearless spirit of
those who could safely dare to assume any position. White-
field, the dread of orderly bishops and the reproach of idle
clergymen, they therefore carefully shunned. To consort with
him would have exposed them to double odium—the odium
of Dissent and the odium of Methodism.
Great weight must also be attached to their laudable desire
to grapple on safe ground with all forms of religious error ; and
it was not deemed safe, in dealing with Deism, to lie open to
the charge of enthusiasm. Only the calm, argumentative
preacher, such as Butler, or Waterland, could be heard against
the wit and arguments of Woolston, Shaftesbury, Collins, and
Tindal. A feverish fear, only paralleled by that which any
sensible man might now have of being esteemed a fanatic,
agitated nearly all Christian apologists, of being suspected of