Wesley Corpus

476 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [ March, 1750. in the evening ; and in the morning, Wednesday, 28, took horse, with the north wind full in our face. It was piercingly cold, so that I could scarce feel whether I had any hands or feet, when I came to Blewbury. After speaking severally to the members of the society, I preached to a large congregation. In the evening I met my brother at Oxford, and preached to a small, serious company. | Thur. March 1.--In riding to Cirencester I read Dr. Bates’s Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Anglid. [Censure of the late commotions in England.] His Latin is not much inferior to Cesar’s, whom he seems studiously to imitate ; and his thoughts are generally just ; only that he has no more mercy on the Puritans, than upon Cromwell. I dined at a house beyond Farringdon, where both the man and his wife appeared thankful for instruction. I preached at Cirencester in the evening, to a large, but not serious congregation. Friday, 2.--I left this uncomfortable place, and in the afternoon came to Bristol. Many miserable comforters were with me soon, complaining, one after another, of the want of lively preachers, the hurt the Germans had done to some, and R W. to others ; and the almost universal coldness, heaviness, and deadness among the people. I knew but one that could help ; so we called upon God, to arise and maintain his own cause. And this evening we had a token for good ; for his word was as a twoedged sword. Sun. 4.--I desired John W. to preach at five ; and I no longer wondered at the deadness of his hearers. I preached at Kingswood at eight, and God spoke to many hearts: yea, and to a few even at Connam. But the greatest blessing was in the evening at Bristol, when we were all convinced, God had not * forgotten to be gracious.”