The  daring  irregularity  of  the  act  made  a
great  impression.  Within  two  months  he
was  preaching  to  crowds  of  several  thousands.
At  Moorfields  and  Kennington  his  audiences


are  said  to  have  reached  fifty  thousand.  At
these  services  he  made  collections  for  his
proposed  orphanage  in  Georgia,  whither  he
returned  and  founded  the  institution  in  1740.
He  now  habitually  gave  up  the  surplice,  and
exchanged  pulpits  with  dissenters,  disregard-
ing the  sentence  of  suspension  passed  on  him
by  the  Church  court  at  Charleston  (said  to
be  the  first  exercise  of  jurisdiction  by  a
Church  court  in  the  colonies).  Returning  to
England,  1741,  he  championed  the  cause  of
predestination  against  J.  Wesley,  whose  pro-
vocative assumption  of  superiority  partially
excuses  Whitefield's  unseemly  violence  and
use  of  such  expressions  as  '  Infidels  of  all  sorts
are  on  your  side.'  The  two  men  were  soon
reconciled,  and  were  close  friends  till  death,
but  the  breach  between  Calvinists  {q.v.)
and  Arminians  {q.v.)  remained  unhealed.
[Nonconformity,  v.]  In  1743  the  Calvinistic
Methodists  chose  Whitefleld  as  their  moderator.
Though  he  declared  he  would  never  leave
the  Church  of  England  unless  thrust  out,
he  was  not  so  essentially  orthodox  as  the
Wesleys.
