Whitefield wrote that the “screamings, tremblings” that he and other evangelists provoked were surely just like the “sudden agonies and screamings” that Jesus provoked among His converts. “Is not God the same yesterday, today, and forever?” It was Anne Hutchinson’s argument all over again. Give us the magic now! He reveled in the criticism, like Br’er Rabbit in the briar patch. Mainstream rejection served to reinforce his and his followers’ certainty. The uncomprehending critics were jealous because they’d never had the euphoric personal experience of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. America was a
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