{"id":"jw/letters/1739/11-to-james-hutton","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"11 To James Hutton","title_alt":[],"text_basis":null,"date_composed":null,"date_precision":"unknown","date_note":null,"numbering":{"bicentennial":null,"jackson_running":null,"sugden":null},"source_edition":{"editor":null,"title":null,"edition":null,"place":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"volume":null,"pages":null,"scan_url":null,"scan_page_ids":null},"transcription":{"derived_from":null,"corrected_against_scan":false,"corrector":null,"corrected_on":null},"modernization":"none","license_text":"Public Domain Mark 1.0","license_apparatus":"CC BY 4.0","wikidata":null,"prev":null,"next":null,"part_of":"jw-letters","editorial_note":null,"source_id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-000","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-001","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-002","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-003"],"word_count":1068,"themes_auto":["christology","free-will","means-of-grace","pneumatology","reign-of-god","scriptural-authority","trinity","universal-redemption"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-000","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-001","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-002","jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-003"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton","source_title":"11 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To James Hutton Date: BRISTOL, April 9, 1739. MY DEAR BRETEREN, On Sunday evening, the 1st instant, I began to expound at Nicholas Street Society our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. The room, passage, and staircase were filled with attentive hearers. On Monday I talked with several in private, to try what manner of spirit they were of; and at four in the afternoon went to a brickyard, For a description of this noted place, see Journal, ii. 172n. adjoining to the city, where I had an opportunity of preaching the gospel of the kingdom (from a little eminence) to three or four thousand people. The scripture on which I spoke was this: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.' At seven I began expounding the Acts of the Apostles to the Society in Baldwin. Street. We had more company than the room would hold, and the power of our Lord was with us. On Tuesday, 3rd, I began preaching at Newgate (as I continue to do every morning) on the Gospel of St. John. Many Presbyterians and Anabaptists came to hear. Afterwards I transcribed some of the rules of our Society for the use of our (future) brethren here. In the evening I expounded on 'Blessed are those that mourn' at Nicholas Street Society. I hope God spake to the hearts of many there. The next day the audience increased at Newgate. At four in the afternoon I offered the free grace of God from those words, 'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely,' to about fifteen hundred in a plain near Baptist Mills, a sort of suburb or village, not far from Bristol; where many, if not most, of the inhabitants are Papists. Oh may they effectually lay hold on the one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus!","word_count":354,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","pneumatology","free-will"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:04.826823"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton","source_title":"11 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"About seven in the evening, three women who desire only to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified (Mrs. Norman, Mrs. Grevil, and Mrs. Panou) agreed to meet together once a week, to confess their faults to one another, and pray one for another, that they may be healed. And Mrs. Panou desired she might propose their design to her two sisters, and offer them the liberty of joining with them. At eight Samuel Wathen (surgeon), Richard Cross (upholsterer), Charles Bonner (distiller), and Thomas Westall (carpenter) met and agreed to do the same; who also desired they might make the offer of joining with them to three or four of their acquaintance. If this work be not of God, let it come to naught. If it be, who shall overthrow it On Thursday, at five in the evening, I began the Epistle to the Romans at a Society in Castle Street, where, after the expounding, a poor man gave glory to God by openly confessing the things he had done. About eight a young woman of Nicholas Street Society sunk down as one dead; we prayed for her, and she soon revived, and went home strengthened and comforted both in body and in spirit. A Presbyterian minister was with us at Newgate on Friday and Saturday. On Friday evening we were at a Society without Lawford's Gate, where, the yard being full as well as the house, I expounded part of the 1st chapter of the First Epistle of St. John at the window. On Saturday evening Weavers' Hall was quite full. A soldier was present at the preaching on Monday, two at the expounding on several of the following days, and five or six this evening. I declared to them all 'that they were damned sinners, but that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'","word_count":312,"source_url":null,"themes":["trinity","christology","reign-of-god"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:04.826947"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton","source_title":"11 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"Beginning at seven (an hour earlier than usual) at the Bowling Green (which is in the heart of the city) yesterday morning, there were not, I believe, above a thousand or twelve hundred persons present. And the day being very cold and stormy (beside that much rain had fallen in the night) many who designed it were hindered from going to Hanham Mount, which is at least four miles distant from the town. Between ten and eleven I began preaching the gospel there in a meadow on the top of the hill. Five or six hundred people from Bristol (of whom several were Quakers) were. there, and (I imagine) about a thousand of the colliers. I called to them in the words of Isaiah, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.' On Rose Green (which is a plain upon the top of an high hill) are several small hills, where the old coal-pits were. On the edge of one of these I stood in the afternoon, and cried in the name of my Master, ' If any man thirst, let him come unto Me. and drink. He that believeth on Me (as the Scripture hath said) out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' About five thousand were present, many of 'whom received the word gladly, and all with deep attention. From thence we went to the Society in Baldwin Street, whose room containing but a small part of the company, we opened the doors and windows, by which means all that was spoken of the true Christian life described in the end of the and chapter of the Acts was heard clearly by those in the next room, and on the leads, and in the court below, and in the opposite house and the passage under it. Several of the soldiers and of the rich were there; and verily the power of the Lord was present to heal them. My dear brethren, who among you writes first to strengthen our hands in God Where is our brother Bray and Fish, and whosoever else finds his heart moved to send unto us the word of exhortation You should no more be wanting in your instructions to than your prayers for","word_count":397,"source_url":null,"themes":["means-of-grace","scriptural-authority","universal-redemption"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:04.827046"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton-003","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-11-to-james-hutton","source_title":"11 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":3,"text":"Your affectionate but weak brother.","word_count":5,"source_url":null,"themes":[],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:04.827058"}]}