Wesley Corpus

Thur. 10.--At the request of the author, I took some pains in correcting an ingenious book, shortly to be published. But the more I consider them, the more I doubt of all systems of astronomy. I doubt whether we can certainly know either the distance or magnitude of any star in the firmament.’ Else why do astronomers so immensely differ, even with regard to the distance of the sun from the earth? Some affirming it to be only three, others ninety, millions of miles! About this time the following note was given into my hand at Wapping :-- “John White, master-at-arms, aboard his majesty’s ship Tartar, now at Plymouth, desires to return Almighty God thanks, for himself and all the ship’s company, for their preservation in four different engagements they have had with four privateers which they have taken; particularly the last, wherein the enemy first boarded them. They cleared the deck, boarded in their turn, and took the ship, thirty of the enemy being killed, and fifty more wounded. Only two of our crew were wounded, wha, it is hoped, will recover.” Wed. 16.--Calling on a friend, I found him just seized with all the symptoms of a pleurisy. I advised him to apply a brimstone plaster, and in a few hours he was perfectly well. Now, to what end should this patient have taken a heap of drugs, and lost twenty ounces of blood ? To what end? Why, to oblige the doctor and apothecary. Enough! Reason good! Tues. 22.--I preached at Deptford. Even this wilderness does at length “ blossom and bud as the rose.” Never was there such life in this little flock before, nor such an increase in the number of hearers. The following letter was wrote on Saturday, 28 :-- “ REVEREND AND D=AR SIR,--When I was at Freshford, on January 30, in the morning, I scrupled singing those words,-- Ye now afflicted are, And hated for his name, And in your bodies bear The tokens of the Lamb. [ thought I was not afflicted or hated for the name of Christ. But this scruple was soon removed. For at Bradford, in the evening, | was pressed Journal I.--40 G22 0); REY. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [ March, 1757