George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

326 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
Americans to toleration principles ; because of the avowed
habitual feelings and sentiments of his own heart.' He wrote
as feeling that his very piety and salvation were involved in
the position he assumed, and his last words to the archbishop
are well worth preserving :
' If I know anything of my own heart, I have no ambition to be looked
upon at present, or remembered for the future, as a founder of a college ;
but I would fain, may it please your Grace, act the part of an honest man,
a disinterested minister of Jesus Christ, and a truly catholic, moderate
presbyter of the Church of England. In this way, and in this only, can I
hope for a continued heartfelt enjoyment of that peace of God which passeth
all understanding, whilst here on earth, and be thereby prepared to stand
with humble boldness before the awful, impartial tribunal of the great
Shepherd and Bishop of souls at the great day.'
~^ His plan was defeated. In order to uphold his reputation
in America, he published his correspondence with the arch-
bishop, and sent it to the Governor of Georgia for circulation.
To come as near his idea as possible, he now proposed to add
a public academy to the orphan-house, and to form a proper
trust, to act after his decease, or even before, with this proviso,
that no opportunity should be omitted of making a fresh
application for a college charter, ' upon a broad bottom,
whenever those in power might think it for the glory of God
and the interest of their king and country to grant the same.'
Thus his beloved Bethesda would not only be continued as a
house of mercy for orphans, but be confirmed as a seat and
nursery of sound learning and religious education to the latest
posterity. Great and worthy aspirations, which were doomed
to disappointment
In 1768 six students of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, were
expelled from the university for holding Methodistical tenets,
for taking upon them to pray, read, and expound the Scrip-
tures, for singing hymns in private houses, and for being
tradesmen before entering as students. But their judges did