George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

22o GEORGE WHITEFIELD
my lords, even in the eyes of worldly men, and does it not
render the author of this pamphlet justly liable to contempt,
to charge the Methodists with breaking canons and rubrics,
which is really not their fault ; when at the same time he
knows that the generality of the clergy so notoriously break
both canons and rubrics, and that too in the most important
articles, such as not catechising, pluralities, non-residence,
&c, every day themselves ? With what face can he do it ?
The Rev. Thomas Church, vicar of Battersea, came, among
others, to the rescue of the bishops with a ' Serious and
Expostulatory Letter to the Rev. G. Whitefield.' He raised
a few questions which throw some light upon Whitefield's
ecclesiastical position. There were irregularities in curtailing
the liturgy, or not using the Common Prayer in the fields
what had Whitefield to say about them ? That when, and
only when, his ecclesiastical superiors should arraign him at the
bar of the proper courts would he give any answer at all to the
question. There was his non-residence at Savannah—what
could he say in defence of that ? He replied :
' I wish every non-resident minister in England could give as good an
account of their non-residence as I can of my absence from Savannah.
When I came over to England to receive priest's orders, and collect money
for building an orphan-house, the honourable Trustees, at the request of
many, presented me to the living of Savannah. I accepted it, but refused
the stipend of fifty pounds per annum which they generously offered me.
Neither did I put them to any expense during my stay in England, where
I thought it my duty to abide till I had collected a sufficient sum where-
with I might begin the orphan-house, though I should have left England
sooner had I not been prevented by the embargo. However, I was more
easy, because the honourable Trustees I knew had sent out another
minister, who arrived soon after I left the colony. Upon my second
arrival in Georgia, finding the care of the orphan-house, and the care of
the parish, too great a task for me, I immediately wrote over to the honour-
able Trustees to provide another minister. In the meanwhile, as most of
my parishioners were in debt, or ready to leave the colony for want of
being employed, and as I believed that erecting an orphan-house would be