Wesley Corpus

To Richard Morgan Date: OXON, October 18, 1732 Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1732) Author: John Wesley --- SIR, -- The occasion of my giving you this trouble is of a very extraordinary nature. On Sunday last I was informed (as no doubt you will be ere long) that my brother and I had killed your son; that the rigorous fasting which he had imposed upon himself by our advice had increased his illness and hastened his death. Now, though, considering it in itself, ' it is a very small thing with me to be judged by man's judgment'; yet, as the being thought guilty of so mischievous an imprudence might make me less able to do the work I came into the world for, I am obliged to clear myself of it by observing to you, as I have done to others, that your son left off fasting about a year and an half since; and that it is not yet half a year since I began to practice it. I must not let slip this occasion of doing my part towards giving you a juster notion of some other particulars, relating both to him and myself, which have been industriously misrepresented to you. In March last he received a letter from you, which, being then not able to read, he desired me to read to him; several of the expressions whereof I perfectly remember, and shall do till I too am called hence. I then determined that, if God was pleased to take away your son before me, I would justify him and myself; which I now do with all plainness and simplicity, as both my character and cause require.