Twelve months after this, Whitefield was made one of the most prominent figures in another of Chauncy’s works: “Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England. By Charles Chauncy, D.D. Boston, 1743.” (8vo. 454 pp.) It is impossible to give here any general outline of Chauncy’s book, but a few facts and extracts may be useful. Dr. Chauncy declares that he “could never see upon what warrant, either from _Scripture_ or _reason_, Mr. Whitefield went about preaching from one province and parish to another, where the gospel was already preached, and by persons as well qualified for the work as he could pretend to be.” He inclines to think, however, that Whitefield was moved by conceit and a love of popular applause. “The inconveniences, which had arisen from this method of acting, had been so great, that the Assembly of Connecticut had passed an Act, restraining both _ordained ministers_, and _licensed candidates_, from preaching in _other men’s parishes_, without _their_ and their _church’s_ consent; and wholly prohibiting the _exhortations of illiterate laymen_.” “Most, if not all, of the present _itinerants_ are swollen and ready to burst with _spiritual pride_. As to their _mission_, they have none, except from their own fond imagination.” “Mr. Whitefield seldom preached, but he had something or other in his sermon, against _unconverted ministers_; and what he delivered had an evident tendency to fill the minds of the people with evil surmisings against the ministers, as though they were, for the most part, _carnal_, _unregenerate_ wretches. He often spake of them, in the lump, as _Pharisees_, _enemies of Christ Jesus_, and the _worst enemies_ he had.” “There never was a time, since the settlement of New England, wherein there was so much _bitter and rash judging_――parents condemning their children, and children their parents; husbands their wives, and wives their husbands; masters their servants, and servants their masters; ministers their people, and people their ministers. _Censoriousness_, to a _high degree_, is the _constant appendage_ of this _religious commotion_.” “I have all along encouraged a hope of Mr. Whitefield as a _real Christian_. And he has certainly been _zealous_ and _active_ beyond most of his _brethren_. But has he not, through the _inexperience of youth_, and an _intemperature of zeal_, been betrayed into such things as cannot but be condemned? In particular, I was always afraid, lest people, from him, should learn to give heed to _impulses_ and _impressions_, and, by degrees, come to _revelations_, and other _extraordinaries_ of this kind.”