ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY at his criticism of their neglect of pastoral duties.*'" His first sermons were usually his last, and in 1740 he began his career as a ' missioner,' regarding his ministrations in much the same way as Baxter had done,"^ as helpful to the Church in a time of necessity, and in 1756 Whitefield opened the Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road. Wesley was mobbed several times,*" denounced as an enthusiast and as a Jesuit in disguise, but the new light grew and was felt among the City clergy.*" Godden, a member of the Wesleys' Oxford Society, became rector of St. Stephen's Coleman Street, and though differing from Wesley, differed still more decidedly from the general London clergy.*^* William Romaine, a disciple of Whitefield, was lecturer at St. George's Hanover Square, until the large congregation he drew caused his dismissal,*" and he was elected rector of St. Anne's Blackfriars in 1764. Thomas Jones, chaplain of St. Saviour's Southwark, drew large congrega- tions,*" and various lectureships were filled with men of the new ideas. But progress was slow. Jones died early, worn out with overwork in 1 774,*" and though there were about ten lecturers of the school,*" the only beneficed Evangelicals were William Romaine and John Newton, who at St. Mary Woolnoth was the confessor and counsellor of the party.*" In 1787 the chapel of St. John Bedford Row came into the hands of Richard Cecil, whose eloquence did much to spread evangelical views ; and the party was further strengthened by the appointment of Beilby Porteus to the bishopric of London in 1787. Though not strictly an Evangelical, his sympathies were with the philanthropic reforms of the party, and the pungent criticisms based on careful inquiry *™ of his primary charge must have given a shock to the more old-fashioned of his clergy. In 1783 Newton, Henry Foster, rector of St. John's Clerkenwell, Cecil, and Eli Bates founded the ' Eclectic Society,' **^ a clerical club for consultation and discussion, which by 1800 had become the centre of the Evangelical party. As the pressure of the European War increased, the new ideas with their strong emotional appeal found more and more followers, and the small band of clergy who in 1798 began services of intercession were gladly heard. **^ By the energy, good sense, and real spiritual power of the ' Clapham Sect,' the Evangelical party spread its influ-
ence wide, organizing parishes and originating philanthropic schemes such as
' soup kitchens.**' By 1830 it was the dominant influence in the Church in London,*** and Wilberforce could speak with joy of the great increase in religion during the past forty years.**' The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion was another expression of the Evangelical revival. Her chapels were proprietary, and as many of them were unlicensed even the bishops did not object to the clergy officiating
- '" Gibson, Charge, 1 74 1-2, p. 8 et seq.
"^ 'Q&itt.tT, Breviate of the Life of Margaret . . . wife of Richard Baxter, j^.
- Wesley, J cum. 14 Sept. 1739 ; 28 Sept. 1 739.
- " Letters of Horace Walpole (ed. Cunningham), ii, 126. *'* Wesley, Treatise on "Justification.
- " Ryle, Christian Leaders of the Last Century, 159.
- ™ Thomas Jones, Works, p. xxi. *" Taylor, Annals of St. Mary Overy, 1 1 7.
- " Some Acct. of the State of Religion in Lond. 24 et seq.
'" Mem. of John Newton (ed. Bickersteth), i, 190. *'" Hodgson, Life of Porteus, 106. '" Bull, Life of John Newton, 262 ; Pratt, Eclectic Notes, I. '" Thomas Scott, Observations of the Signs and Duties of the Present Times, 10.
- " Wilberforce, Private Papers, 88 ; Pratt, Eclectic Notes, 652.
- '* The State of Things for 1831 (B.M. Pressmark, 4108 d, 114, no. i).
"* Wilberforce, Private Papers, 279. I 369 47
