he had been obliged to leave town a few days before for New York to embark thence for England.[1] His last visit to Philadelphia was in May, 1770, when he writes in his Journal, 24 May, "to all the Episcopal Churches, as well as to most of the other places of worship, I have free access;" and on 30 September following he died in Newburyport, where lie his remains.[2]
The friendship between these two remarkable men was begun by some common attraction the one for the other and continued through life unbroken, though their views on the deepest thoughts of humanity were so diverse. Such affinities are often witnessed, though the link is so subtle as to be undefinable. The one a Deist whose time was given to material things and his thoughts to the development of human knowledge, the other a warm believer in divine revelation and a burning preacher of the message which he claimed to have received; yet there was somewhat between them of sympathy and of a mutual understanding, which bound them to each other in a common respect and appreciation of each other's earnestness and reality. Whitefield's concern for his older friend manifested itself afterwards in many ways. He writes to him 26 November 1740, on his way to Savannah after their first meeting in Philadelphia, about his publications, and could not conclude without saying "I do not despair of your seeing the reasonableness of Christianity. Apply to GOD; be willing to do the divine will, and you shall know it."[3] And on 17 August, 1752, he writes him[4]:
I find that you grow more and more famous in the learned world. As you have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent unprejudiced pursuit and study the mystery of the new birth. It is a most important, interesting study, and when mastered, will richly answer and repay you for all your pains. One hath solemnly declared, that without it, "we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." You will excuse this freedom. I must have
