George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

314
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houses and vaulted roofs '
GEORGE WHITEFIELD
he exclaimed when he resumed his
open-air work. Yet his revival was only temporary ; winter
prostrated him as much as ever, and he was glad to make
arrangements for sailing to America the following summer.
The condition and wants of Bethesda, and his own feeble
health, seemed to tell him that he must attempt another
voyage. He accordingly persuaded his friends, Mr. Robert
Keen, a woollen-draper in the Minories, and Mr. Hardy, to
accept the office of trustees to the two London chapels and all
his other concerns in England. He told them that their com-
pliance with his request would relieve him of a ponderous load
which oppressed him much. When they accepted the respon-
sibility, he entreated Mr. Keen not to consult him about any-
thing, unless absolutely necessary ; for, he added, ' the Lord,
I trust and believe, will give you a right judgment in all
things.' In this confidence he was not mistaken ; his friends
proved true to him and to the cause which he served. But
before we see him on board ship at Greenock, where he em-
barked for his eleventh voyage, there is one assailant to be
answered (there was a constant fusillade of pamphlets kept up
against him), and a faithful labourer to be laid in his grave.
The assailant was Dr. Warburton, who since 1759 had filled
the place of good Bishop Benson, as Bishop of Gloucester.
Where Whitefield had found kindness and help he was now to
encounter fierce and uncompromising hostility. Warburton
was totally opposed to the doctrines of Methodism, and the
success they had gained in the land was a sufficient reason for
his attempting to demolish them. Even before the death of
the charitable Doddridge, he showed his dislike of enthusiasm
in a characteristic way by rating Lady Huntingdon and
Doddridge in Lady Huntingdon's house, where he was paying
the dying man a farewell visit before his departure for Lisbon.
Neither the politeness due from guest to hostess, nor the con-