Wesley Corpus

Hence we rode to Thirsk, where I met the little society ; and then went on to York. The people had been waiting for some time. So I began preaching without delay, and felt no want of strength, though the room was like an oven through the multitude of people. Fri. 6.--I read Dr. Sharp’s elaborate Tracts on the “ Rubrics and Canons.” He justly observes, with regard to all these, 1. That our governors have power to dispense.with our observance of them: 2. That. a tacit dispensation is of the same force with an explicit dispensation: 3. That their continued connivance at what they cannot but know, is a tacit dispensation. I think this is true; but if it be, he has himself answered his own charge against the Methodists (so called.) For suppose the Canons did forbid field preaching, as expressly as playing at cards and frequenting taverns, yet we have the very same plea for the former, as any clergyman has for the latter. All our governors, the king, the archbishop, and bishops, connive at the one as well as the other. Sat. '7.--One of the residentiaries sent for Mr. Williamson, who had invited me to preach in his church, and told him, “ Sir, I abhor persecution; but if you let Mr. Wesley preach, it will be the worse for you.” He desired it nevertheless ; but I declined. Perhaps there is a providence in this also. God will not suffer my little remaining strength to be spent on those who will not hear me but in an honourable way. S82 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [ June, 1755 Sun. 8.--We were at the minster in the morning, and at our parish church in the afternoon. The same gentleman preached at both; but though I saw him. at the church, I did not know I had ever seen him before. In the morning he was all life and motion; in the afternoon he was quiet as a post. At five in the evening, the rain constrained me to preach in the oven again. The patience of the congregation surprised me. They seemed not to feel the extreme heat, nor to be offended at the close application of those words, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”