Wesley Corpus

To George Whitefield Date: LONDON, March 16, 1739. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1739) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- On Thursday, the 8th instant, we breakfasted at Mr. Score's, [Oxford,] who, is patiently waiting for the salvation of God. Thence we went to Mrs. Compton's, who has set her face as a flint, and knows she shall not be ashamed. [See Journal, ii. 147.] After we had spent some time in prayer, Mr. Washington came with Mr. Gibs, and read several passages out of Bishop Patrick's [Simon Patrick (1626-1707). ‘A man of eminently shining life,’ says Burnet. As Rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, he stayed in his parish to minister to sufferers during the Great Plague. In 1689 he became Bishop of Chichester, and of Ely in 1691. He was one of the five founders of the S. P.C.K. He was much influenced by the ' Cambridge Platonists.' Extracts from his Works appear in Wesley's Christian Library (vols: xxi. and xxxii.); and ‘Bishop Patrick’s Picture of an Antinomian’ was inserted in the Arminian Mag. 1778, PP. 402-7. There are at least five records of Wesley's use of Patrick's devotional manuals in his early Journal and Diary (see Journal Index). The Parable of the Pilgrim, published in 1665, when he was Rector of St. Paul's, was noticed by Southey, who wrote: ‘Though the parable is poorly imagined and ill-sustained, there is a great deal of sound instruction conveyed in a sober, manly, and not unfrequently a felicitous manner.’] Parable of the Pilgrim, to prove that we were all under a delusion, and that we were to be justified by faith and works. Charles Metcalf [Charles Metcalf, of London. See Journal, i. 455d, if. 143d.] withstood him to the face, and declared the simple truth of the gospel. When they were gone, we again besought our Lord that He would maintain His own cause. Meeting with Mr. Gibs soon after, he was almost persuaded to seek salvation only in the blood of Jesus. Meanwhile Mr. Washington and Watson [‘George Watson has not missed reading prayers there [at the Castle] yet. I have accidentally met him and spoke with him hah an hour, and cannot help thinking him a sober man in the main’ (Clayton to Wesley, Journal, viii. 280).] were going about to all parts and confirming the unfaithful.