Wesley Corpus

company ofpious, sensible men. I rejoiced to find that peace and love prevailed through the whole Circuit. Those who styled themselves My Lady's Preachers, who screamed, and railed, and threatened to swallow us up, are vanished away. I cannot learn that they havemade one convert ;-a plain proof that God did not send them. One was mentioning to-day a wonderful oration, which Mr. Rowland H. had lately made. I thoughtMr. Toplady hadnot left behind him his fellow ; but see !- -Primo avulso, non deficit alter Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo.* Sat. 29. I found the venerable old man at Cubert pale, *The following is Dryden's translation of these lines :- The first thus rent, a second will arise : And the same metal the same room supplies. EDIT. Sept. 1778.1 thin, and scarce half alive. However, he made shift to go in a chaise to the preaching, and, deaf as he was, to hear almost every word. He had such a night's rest as he had not had for many months, and in the morning seemed hardly the same person. It may be God will give him a little longer life, for thegood ofmany. Sun. 30.-About five I preached in the amphitheatre at Gwennap, it was believed, to four-and-twenty thousand. After- wards I spent a solemn hourwith the society, and slept in peace. Mon. 31. About eleven I preached to a large and serious congregation, near the Town-Hall, in Bodmin ; and about six inthe evening at Launceston ; a town as little troubled with religion as most in Cornwall. Tues. SEPTEMBER 1.-I went to Tiverton. I was musing here onwhat I hearda good man say long since,---" Once in seven years I burn all my sermons ; for it is a shame if I can- not write better sermons now than I could seven years ago." Whatever others can do, I really cannot. I cannot write a better sermon on theGood Steward, thanI did seven years ago : I cannot write a better on the Great Assize, than I did twenty years ago : I cannot write a better on the Use of Money, than I did near thirty years ago: Nay, I know not that I can write a betteronthe Circumcision of the Heart, than Idid five-and-forty years ago. Perhaps, indeed Imay have read five or six hun-