Wesley Corpus

Mon. 15.--I rode to the Old Passage: but finding we could not pass, we went on to Purton; which we reached about four in the after noon. But we were no nearer still; for the boatmen lived on the other side, and the wind was so high, we could not possibly make them hear. However, we determined to wait a while; and in a quarter of an hour they came of their own accord. We reached Coleford before seven ; and found a plain, loving people, who received the word of God with all gladness. Twes. 16.--Examining the little society, I found them grievously harassed by disputations. Anabaptists were on one side, and Quakers on the other: and hereby five or six persons have been confused : but the rest cleave so much the closer together. Nor does it appear that there is now one trifler, much less a disorderly walker, among them. Wed. 17.--I learned the particulars of that surprising storm which was here the year before last. It began near Cheltenham, on June 14, 1754, and passed on over Coleford, in a line about three miles broad. It was rain mixed with hail. The hail broke all the windows it had access to, stripped all the trees both of fruit and leaves, and destroyed every green thing. Many of the stones were as large as hen eggs: some were fourteen or fifteen inches round. The rain occasioned such a torrent of water in the street, as bore away man and beast. A mile or two further, it joined with the waters of a mill dam; which it broke down, and carried away several houses. How frequent would accidents of this kind be, if chance, not God, governed the world! Thur. 18.-- We rode through hard rain to Brecknock, and came just at the hour appointed for preaching. The Town Hall, in which I was desired to preach, is a large and commodious place ; and the whole congregation (one poor gentleman excepted) behaved with seriousness and decency.