Whitefield was ordained a priest. It is more than possible, if he had waited until the next Ember-days, he would never have been ordained a priest at all. Bishop Benson, from the first, had been a friend to him. Though he had publicly declared he would not ordain any one a deacon under the age of three-and-twenty, he, without solicitation, ordained Whitefield when he was only twenty-one years and a half. He gave him five guineas to assist him in defraying the expenses of taking his B.A. degree at Oxford, and twenty pounds for the poor of Georgia. He ordained him a priest when, with few exceptions, the clergy of the land were beginning to indulge in clamorous complaints against him; and, three weeks after his ordination, gave him another "liberal benefaction for Georgia."[154] And yet, even "the _good bishop_," as Whitefield so often calls him, was not absolutely contented with him. Hence the following extract from a letter addressed to the Earl of Huntingdon. After giving an account of Whitefield's ordination, the bishop proceeds to say:-- "I hope this will give some satisfaction to my lady, and that she will not have occasion to find fault with your lordship's old tutor. _Though mistaken on some points_, I think Mr. Whitefield a very pious, well-meaning young man, with good abilities and great zeal. I find his Grace of Canterbury[155] thinks highly of him. I pray God to grant him great success in all his undertakings for the good of mankind, and the revival of true religion and holiness among us in these degenerate days; in which prayer, I am sure, your lordship and my kind good Lady Huntington will most heartily join."[156] [154] Whitefield's Journal. [155] Archbishop Potter. [156] "Life and Times of Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 196. For a season, Whitefield's irregularities somewhat tried the patience of Bishop Benson; and it is related that, in an excited conversation with the Countess of Huntingdon, he "bitterly lamented" that he had ordained his youthful protégé. The countess replied, "Mark my words: when you come upon your dying bed, that will be one of the few ordinations you will reflect upon with complacence." It deserves remark, that Bishop Benson, on his dying bed, sent ten guineas to Whitefield, as a token of his favour and approbation, and begged to be remembered by him in his prayers.