Wesley Corpus

383 and the next day came to Norwich. At six I preached in the shell of the new House, crowded enough both within and without. Thur. NoveMBER 2.--We went to Yarmouth, a cold, dead, uncomfortable place. Friday, 3. I laboured to gather up the fragments of the poor society, shattered to pieces by Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and disputers of all kinds; especially by one unhappy man, who had arisen among ourselves. In the evening I strongly exhorted them to “repent and do the first works.” Sat. 4.--We returned to Norwich. In coming to Yarmouth, I had called upon a young woman, alive to God, but exceeding ill. She died before I came back. This after noon I was desired to bury her. I took the opportunity of preaching at five in the burying-ground, to a multitude of people, who were all attention, as though they had already seen “the dead standing before God.” Monday, 6, and the following days, I visited as many of the people, sick and well, as I possibly could; and on Friday, 10, leaving them more united than they had been for many years, I took coach again, and the next afternoon came to London. In the coach, going and coming, I read several volumes of Mr. Guthrie's ingenious “History of Scotland:” I suppose, as impartial an one as any to be found, and as much to be depended upon. I never read any writer before who gave me so much light into the real character of that odd mixture, King James the First; nor into that of Mary Queen of Scots, so totally misrepresented by Buchanan, Queen Eliza beth’s pensioner, and her other hireling writers; and not much less, by Dr. Robertson. Them he effectually exposes, showing how grossly they contradict matter of fact, and one another. He likewise points out the many and great mistakes of Dr. R., such as seem to imply either great inattention or great partiality. Upon the whole, that much-injured Queen appears to have been far the greatest woman of that age, exquisitely beautiful in her person, of a fine address, of a deep, unaffected piety, and of a stronger understanding even in youth than Queen Elizabeth had at threescore. And probably the despair wherein Queen Elizabeth died, was owing to her death, rather than that of Lord Essex. Fri. 17.--I preached at a chapel near St. John-Street, built 384 REv.