Wesley Corpus

Thursday, 21st, I talked an hour or two with a young man of Gloucester, who was deeply prejudiced against my dear brother Whitefield and me. He went away of another mind. In the afternoon I preached at Publow as usual, without any disturbance, on Isaiah xlv. 22. In the evening I was at the schoolroom, and had a large and attentive audience, though it was uncovered and it rained hard. Afterward I met with Molly Deacon's band, whose openness and childlike simplicity pleased me much; where also I spoke with a young man who was fully determined ‘naked to follow a naked Master,’ [The ideal of Francis of Assisi: Nudes nudum Christum sequens. Jerome used the expression (Epistles, No. 125), and also St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Coulton's Five Centuries of Religion, ii. 108). See Journal, i. 179.] having been turned out of doors by his friends the night before for coming to the Societies. Friday, 22nd, I writ to a Society just begun at Wells, which I hope to visit when God permits. At nine I called on Mr. Whitehead, [Thomas Whitehead, ‘a professed Quaker about sixty years of age,’ was baptized by Whitefield on April 17, 1739 (see his Journal). He was afterwards led astray by the French prophets. See Journal, ii. 226; and letter of Feb. 10, 1748.] whom G. Whitefield baptized at Gloucester. ‘Ye did run well; who hath bewitched you’ ‘Woe unto the prophets, saith the Lord, which prophesy in My name, and I have not sent them.' At Weavers' Hall I endeavored to point them out, and exhorted all to cleave to the law and the testimony.