{"id":"jw/letters/1739/23-to-james-hutton","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"23 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-1739-23-to-james-hutton","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-000","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-001","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-002","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-003","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-004"],"word_count":1624,"themes_auto":["catholic-spirit","christology","pneumatology","prevenient-grace","reign-of-god","trinity","universal-redemption","works-mercy","works-piety"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-000","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-001","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-002","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-003","jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-004"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton","source_title":"23 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To James Hutton Date: July 2, 1739. DEAR BRETHERN, I left London about six on Monday morning June 18; and on Tuesday evening at seven preached (as I had appointed if God should permit) to about five thousand people in the Bowling Green at Bristol, whose hearty affection moved me much. My subject was the same as at Kennington. About nine that faithful soldier of Christ, Howell Harris, See letter of July 29, 1740. called upon me. He said he had been much tempted not to do it at all; that many had told him I was an Arminian, a Free-wilier, and so on; so that he could hardly force himself to come to the Bowling Green. 'But,' he added, 'I had not been long there before my spirit was knit to you, as it was to dear Mr. Whitefield; and before you had done, I was so overpowered with joy and love that I could scarce stand, and with much difficulty got home.' It is incredible what advantage Satan had gained here by my absence of only eight days. Disputes had crept in, and the love of many was waxed cold; so that all our Society was falling in pieces. I preached on Wednesday at Newgate at eleven and at four at Baptist Mills on those words, 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.' At seven I met the women bands at Eliz. Davis's house (Mrs. Grevil having forbidden them hers). I found disputes had hurt them also, so that many were resolved to quit the Society. Finding it necessary to speak to them apart, I fixed times to meet each band singly; which I did on the days of the following week, and all of them were (I hope) established in the faith. At eight I met our brethren in Baldwin Street, where, instead of disputing, we prayed together; the Spirit of the Holy One was with us. All divisions were healed; all misunderstandings vanished away; and we all felt our hearts drawn together and sweetly united in the bowels of Jesus Christ.","word_count":354,"source_url":null,"themes":["catholic-spirit","universal-redemption","christology"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:15.674534"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton","source_title":"23 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"Thursday, 21st, I talked an hour or two with a young man of Gloucester, who was deeply prejudiced against my dear brother Whitefield and me. He went away of another mind. In the afternoon I preached at Publow as usual, without any disturbance, on Isaiah xlv. 22. In the evening I was at the schoolroom, and had a large and attentive audience, though it was uncovered and it rained hard. Afterward I met with Molly Deacon's band, whose openness and childlike simplicity pleased me much; where also I spoke with a young man who was fully determined 'naked to follow a naked Master,' The ideal of Francis of Assisi: Nudes nudum Christum sequens. Jerome used the expression (Epistles, No. 125), and also St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Coulton's Five Centuries of Religion, ii. 108). See Journal, i. 179. having been turned out of doors by his friends the night before for coming to the Societies. Friday, 22nd, I writ to a Society just begun at Wells, which I hope to visit when God permits. At nine I called on Mr. Whitehead, Thomas Whitehead, 'a professed Quaker about sixty years of age,' was baptized by Whitefield on April 17, 1739 (see his Journal). He was afterwards led astray by the French prophets. See Journal, ii. 226; and letter of Feb. 10, 1748. whom G. Whitefield baptized at Gloucester. 'Ye did run well; who hath bewitched you' 'Woe unto the prophets, saith the Lord, which prophesy in My name, and I have not sent them.' At Weavers' Hall I endeavored to point them out, and exhorted all to cleave to the law and the testimony.","word_count":272,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","works-mercy","works-piety"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:15.674654"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton","source_title":"23 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"In the afternoon I preached at Fishponds on the same words as at Publow, but had no life or spirit in me. I came back to the band on trial, whose behavior (especially Mrs. Thorn-hill) a little revived and comforted me; but when I left them to go to Gloucester Lane Society, I was more dead and cold than ever, and much in doubt whether God would not now lay me aside and send more faithful laborers into His harvest. When I came thither, my soul being grieved for my brother Whitehead, I began in much weakness to exhort them to try the spirits whether they were of God. I told them they must not judge of the spirits, either by common report, or by appearances, or by their own feelings no, nor by any dreams, visions, or revelations made to their souls, or outward effects upon their bodies. All these I warned them were of a doubtful nature in themselves, which might be of God or of the devil; and were not either to be simply condemned or relied on, but to be tried by the law and the testimony. While I was speaking a woman dropped down before me, and presently a second and third, and one after another five others. All the outward symptoms were as violent as those at London the Friday before. Upon praying, five of them were comforted, one continued in pain an hour longer, and one for two or three days.","word_count":248,"source_url":null,"themes":["reign-of-god","pneumatology","trinity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:15.674731"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-003","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton","source_title":"23 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":3,"text":"Saturday, 23rd, I spoke severally with those which had been so troubled the night before; some of whom I found were only awakened, others had peace in the blood of Christ. At four I preached to about two thousand at the Bowling Green on 'Do all to the glory of God'; at seven, in the morning, to four or five thousand, and at ten to about three thousand at Hanham. As I was riding afterwards to Rose Green in a smooth plain road, my horse pitched upon his head and rolled over and over. I received no other hurt than a little bruise on the side I fell, which made me lame for two or three days; for the present I felt nothing, but preached there on the same words to six or seven thousand people, and in the evening explained the 12th of the Acts to twelve or fifteen hundred at the New Room. On Saturday evening Ann Allin (a young woman) was seized with strong pangs at Weavers' Hall; they did not continue long before the snare was broken and her soul delivered. Sara Murray (aged thirteen) and four or five other persons (some of whom had felt the power of God before) were as deeply convinced on Sunday evening; and with most of the same symptoms groaned for deliverance. At Weavers' Hall on Monday, 25th, a young woman named Mary Pritchard was cut to the heart and soon after comforted; as was Mary Greenwood at four in the afternoon. At Gloucester Lane in the evening one Mary Conway (who, as she was sitting at work at ten in the morning, was suddenly seized with strong trembling and bitter agonies of soul, in which she had continued all the afternoon) was restored to peace; as were four or five others who were there cut to the heart. On Tuesday, 26th, I preached the first time under the sycamore-tree near the school at Kingswood, during a violent rain, on those words of Isaiah, 'As the rain cometh down from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud: . . . so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.'","word_count":397,"source_url":null,"themes":["trinity","reign-of-god","prevenient-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:15.674842"},{"id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton-004","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1739-23-to-james-hutton","source_title":"23 To James Hutton","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":4,"text":"After expounding to some hundreds in the Back Lane, I went as usual to the schoolroom, where the pains of hell came about three persons, who soon after saw the light of heaven. At Baptist Mills on Wednesday I explained to two thousand or two thousand five hundred, 'All things are lawful for me; but all things edify not.' At seven the women bands met, and agreed to defer admitting any new members till the next month and to wait a little longer before they excluded those who had for some time excluded themselves, if haply they might return. At Baldwin Street William Farnell and Richard Hereford were excluded the Society, as being not only unwilling to attend it, but utterly incapable (as yet) of improving by it. I was afterward much enlarged in prayer for Mrs. Grevil. Oh that she could again feel herself a lost sinner! I went on Thursday in the afternoon to preach on the south edge of Kingswood, near a sort of a village called the Cupolas; but the people not having notice, but few came: so that, having used some prayer with them, I promised to come again the next day, and then preached on 'Believe, and thou shalt be saved.' Saturday, 30th, Anne Williams (Ant. Williams's wife) was the thirteenth time tapped for the dropsy. She desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ; but gives herself up to Him for life or for death. To about twelve hundred in the Bowling Green I showed many lawful things edify not. At Weavers' Hall Kitty Deschamps (about fourteen), Prudence Woodward, and five more roared for the very disquietness of their heart, and all, upon prayer, were relieved and sang praise unto our God and unto the Lamb that liveth for ever and ever. Yours in Christ. Wesley wrote to the Rev. John Oulton (Baptist pastor of Leominster) on July 9 and 28; but these letters have not been preserved. See Journal, ii. 240d, 247d; W.H.S. xi. 118-19. Mr. Oulton's reply to the first letter is given in the Supplement to the Arrninian Magazine, 1797, PP. 25-6.","word_count":353,"source_url":null,"themes":["reign-of-god","christology","works-piety"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:41:15.674961"}]}