Wesley Corpus

1763.] JOURNAL. 153 evening, a company of steady, lively, zealous persons; and indeed with most of the society with whom I have conversed, none of whom seem to have lost ground since I was here last. Sun. 23.--I met the society, for the first time, immediately after the morning preaching. Afterwards I went to church, with a considerable number of the people, several of whom, I suppose, had not been within those walls for many years. I was glad to hear a plain, useful sermon; and especially for the sake of those who, if they had been offended at first, would hardly have come any more. In the evening God made bare his arm, and his word was sharp as a two-edged sword. Before I had concluded my sermon, the mob made a little disturbance; but let us only get the lambs in order, and I will quickly tame the bears. Mon. 24.--I rode to Bury. Here the mob had for some time reigned lords paramount; but a strange gentleman from London, who was present one evening, when they were in high spirits, took them in hand, and prosecuted the matter so effectually that they were quelled at once. Tues. 25.--I rode to Colchester, and found a strange ferment in the society, occasioned by the imprudence of* who had kindled a flame which he could not quench, and set every man’s sword against his brother. I heard them all face to face, but to no purpose: They regarded neither Scripture nor reason. But, on Thursday evening, at the meeting of the society, God was entreated for them. The stony hearts were broken ; anger, revenge, evil-surmising, fled away: The hearts of all were again united together, and his banner over us was love. It may be of use to insert part of a letter, which I received about this time: “IN reading your Notes on Heb. xii., a while since, I was struck with your exposition of the ninth verse: ‘Perhaps these expressions, fathers of our flesh and Father of spirits, intimate that our earthly fathers are only the parents of our bodies; our souls not being derived from them, but rather created by the immediate power of God, and infused into the body from age to age.