Wesley Corpus

Thur. 20.--A clergyman having sent me word, that if I would preach in the evening on the text he named, he would come to hear me, I preached on that text, Matt. vii, 15. And strongly enforced the caution of our Lord, to “ beware of false prophets ;” that is, all preachers who do not speak as the oracles of God. Tues. 25.--I explained, at Chelsea, the nature and necessity of the new birth. One (who, I afterward heard, was a dissenting teacher) asked me when I had done, “ Quid est tibti nomen?” And on my not answering, turned in triumph to his companions, and said, “« Ay, I told you he did not understand Latin !” Wed. 26.--I was informed of a remarkable conversation, at which one of our sisters was present a day or two before ; wherein a gentleman was assuring his friends, that he himself was in Charles’ Square, when a person told Mr. Wesley to his face, that he, Mr. Wesley, had paid twenty pounds already, on being convicted for selling Geneva; and that he now kept two Popish priests in his house. This gave occasior. to another to mention what he had himself heard, at an eminent dis Sept. 1741. ] REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. 219 senting teacher’s, viz. that it was beyond dispute, Mr. Wesley had large remittances from Spain, in order to make a party among the peor; and that as soon as the Spaniards landed, he was to join them with twenty thousand men. Mon. 31.--I began my course of preaching on the Common Prayer. Tuesday, September 1.--I read over Mr. Whitefield’s account of God’s dealings with his soul. Great part of this I know to be true. O “let not mercy and truth forsake thee! Bind them about thy neck! Write them upon the table of thy heart!” Thur. 3.--James Hutton having sent me word, that Count Zinzendorf would meet me at three in the afternoon, I went at that time to Gray’s Inn Walks. The most matenial part of our conversation (which I dare not conceal) was as follows: --To spare the dead I do not translate :-- Z. Cur Religionem tuam mutasti? W. Nescio me Religionem meam mutasse. Cur id sentis? Quis hoc tibi retulit? Z. Plané tu. Id ex epistolA tua ad nos video. Ibi, Religione, quam apud nos professus es, relicta, novam profiteris.