{"id":"jw/letters/1742/05-to-captain-robert-williams","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"05 To Captain Robert Williams","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-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-000","jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-001","jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-002"],"word_count":785,"themes_auto":["assurance","christology","experience","prevenient-grace","primitive-christianity","reign-of-god","trinity"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-000","jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-001","jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-002"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams","source_title":"05 To Captain Robert Williams","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To Captain Robert Williams Date: BRISTOL, October 17, 1742 SIR, I really did you wrong. I believed the letter said to come from your very humble servant had been of your own composing till I had read it half through. But, on a narrower observation, I soon took knowledge both of the style and turn of thought so peculiar to Mr. Thomas Christie, once Recorder of Savannah, but now I fear (as before) wandering about to seek a piece of bread. I would not tread upon a worm; therefore let him pass. My concern, sir, is with you. Not that I should take notice of such a composition; only some might think silence a proof of guilt. That Mr. Wesley's answer is so indirect and full of evasion as to be a justification rather than confutation of your charge; that his leaving any doubt as to your great and well-known improvements plainly shows his malice and insincerity; and that Mr. Christie has still farther mementoes to convince the world what a base and jesuitical man he is, these, being mere rhetorical flowers fit to embellish the discourse, need no particular reply. But the fact (says your friend) with regard to the indictments stands in a different light than he tells it, and, as to his relation of persons dissenting on the Grand Jury, must be a story of his own making. That is easily known. The original paper is lodged at the Trustees' Office at Palace Yard. And Mr. Fallowfield, one of those dissenters, you know succeeded Mr. Causton when Mr. Christie and he were displaced from their offices.","word_count":269,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","assurance","experience"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:42:10.387002"},{"id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams","source_title":"05 To Captain Robert Williams","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"'Tis great pity that your friend, too, did not make affidavit of the extraordinary particulars following: that Mr. Wesley continued to disturb the public peace; that he endeavored to make an insurrection in the public Court while sitting; that the Magistrates received several petitions, laying fresh accusations to his charge, and declaring his design of leaving the colony privately (an extremely private design, of which five days before I had given notice by an advertisement set up in the market-place!); that several persons took an opportunity of going off with him with several sums of money; that they gave out that they would oppose with violence any person that should attempt to seize any of them; and that, immediately after, a great reward was affixed publicly for apprehending of Mr. Wesley. You can't but own these are a great improvement upon your design, and would sound as well as your own affidavit itself. But would it not be needful first for Mr. Christie and you to confer together and agree upon your story else he may again blunder out more than you desire and confute you instead of me. This it is undeniable he has done now, and that in the most material parts of your evidence. For, first, you aver that Mr. Wesley, being bailed for the appearance at the then next Sessions, a little before the Sessions came on, deferred his bail and went away. No, says Mr. Christie, Mr. Wesley, after he was bailed, did appear at the next Court. I desired his trial might be brought on, or his recognizance estreated. Again, Mr. Christie flatly affirms that Mr. John Coats, who was one of his bail, went off with Mr. Wesley and never returned; whereas you aver upon oath that the Justices threatened to prosecute and imprison his bail, who were in the utmost confusion. But by the interposition of this deponent and several others, on behalf of the said bail, and to prevent destruction to their respective families, the Justices respited their recognizances during pleasure.","word_count":340,"source_url":null,"themes":["prevenient-grace","christology","primitive-christianity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:42:10.387120"},{"id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1742-05-to-captain-robert-williams","source_title":"05 To Captain Robert Williams","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"Now, sir, feeling these accounts are utterly inconsistent, feeling it is impossible ever to reconcile them, give me leave to ask you one plain question, which I would beg you seriously to consider. Is Thomas Christie, Esq., a gross, notorious liar, one who neither fears God nor regards man Or is Robert Williams, merchant, a vain, weak man, who, having causelessly and willfully forsworn himself, neither knows how to get backward or forward, how to retract his perjury or how to defend it I am, sir, Your friend. To a Gentleman 5 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, November 16, 1742 My father's method was to visit all his parishioners, sick or well, from house to house, to talk with each of them on the things of God and observe severally the state of their souls. What he then observed he minuted down in a book kept for that purpose. In this manner he went through his parish (which was near three miles long) three times. He was visiting it the fourth time round when he fell into his last sickness.","word_count":176,"source_url":null,"themes":["trinity","experience","reign-of-god"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:42:10.387179"}]}