Wesley Corpus

Mr. B was not so wise as to take my advice. So the sufferers. applied to the court of king’s bench; and after it had cost him a large sum, he was glad to let them worship God in their own way. Sat. 17.--Calling on a gentleman in the city, whom I had not seen. for some time, I was surprised to find him thin and pale, and with ali the marks of an approaching consumption. I asked whether he did not think a journey would do him more good than a heap of medicines; and whether he would set out with my wife and me for Comwall, on Monday: to which he willingly assented. On Monday evening } preached at Reading. Mr. B overtook us on Tuesday morning, with whom we had an agreeable ride to Newbury, and thence to Andover. Leaving him there, I rode on, through heavy rain, to Salisbury and preached in the evening to an attentive congregation. Wed. 21.--We joined companies again, till Mr. B went to Shaftesbury. I overtook him there the next morning, and we rode on together to Yeovil. Here I struck off, to visit the societies in Devonshire, and Mr. B went straight forward to the Land’s End, whence he returned in perfect health. I now found more and more proofs that the poor wretch whom we had lately disowned, was continually labouring to poison our other preachers. And with some of them he did not lose his labour; the deep prejudices they then received having utterly drank up their blood and spirits ; so that we were obliged, sooner or later, to part with them also. We reached Beercrocombe in the evening, and Collumpton the next day, Friday, 23. I preached in the little meadow at the end of New-street, and observed one circumstance which I had not seen elsewhere. ‘The people did not come close to me, but stood. in a half moon, some yards off, leaving a considerable space in the midst. The very children behaved with remarkable seriousness. 1 saw but one, a girl of three or four years old, who ran about as in play, till another, not much bigger, reproved her, and constrained her to stand still. Here I rested the next day. ,