'
This was a great deal from him, especially as he had written a pamphlet
upon it.
Of his fellow-collegian, the celebrated Mr. George Whitefield, he said,
'Whitefield never drew as much attention as a mountebank does; he did
not draw attention by doing better than others, but by doing what was
strange. Were Astley to preach a sermon standing upon his head on a
horse's back, he would collect a multitude to hear him; but no wise
man would say he had made a better sermon for that. I never treated
Whitefield's ministry with contempt; I believe he did good. He had
devoted himself to the lower classes of mankind, and among them he
was of use. But when familiarity and noise claim the praise due to
knowledge, art, and elegance, we must beat down such pretensions.'
What I have preserved of his conversation during the remainder of my
stay in London at this time, is only what follows: I told him that when
I objected to keeping company with a notorious infidel, a celebrated
friend of ours said to me, 'I do not think that men who live laxly in
the world, as you and I do, can with propriety assume such an authority.
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