"Immediately after his ordination to the _priesthood_; without a license from any bishop; contrary to all the rules of the Christian Church; contrary to the canons and constitutions of our own Church, which so lately gave him his orders; contrary to the laws of the land,--he goes strolling about the kingdom, shewing the greatest contempt for our excellent liturgy, and all forms of prayer, and using extemporary effusions; preaching doctrines different from those which he subscribed before the bishop, with an unparalleled degree of vanity and vainglory; extolling himself, and, with the most unchristian spirit of censoriousness, undervaluing and blaming the _established_ clergy." In reference to the immense congregations daily assembled on Kennington Common, the same article remarks:-- "If Whitefield and the Wesleys are permitted to hold their _conventicles_ at pleasure, and to ramble up and down, singing psalms, and preaching in the open streets, or in the more open fields, wanton curiosity will carry thousands to hear them; hundreds of the ignorant multitude will innocently be corrupted; and the preachers' vanity and enthusiasm, if possible, will be still more inflamed by a fond imagination that their hearers are all _admirers_, whereas most of them would as eagerly attend any other monster equally as strange as that of a clergyman preaching in a _gown_ and _cassock_ on a common." On May 26, nearly two pages of the same newspaper were again filled with virulent abuse of Whitefield. The following is an extract:-- "I am told that this unfortunate young man is _forced_ upon this method of preaching. Hard, indeed, if it be so; but I take it to be much harder upon _us_ that we must be _forced_ to answer such impertinence. Have the bishops, from whom alone he ought to take directions, _commanded_ him to turn _mountebank_? Is he compelled by military force, or by the violence of the people, to mount the stage? On the contrary, does he not put out _bills_ in the daily papers, and invite people to assemble together contrary to law? I know of no force but an _internal_ one--an impetuous impulse, from a degree of _pride and vanity_ that is equalled by nothing but his weakness and folly."