Wesley Corpus

They subsided apace, and more and more began to sink into seriousness. Some gentlemen (I am sorry to say it) labored exceedingly to prevent this; and one particularly, in light gray clothes, went to and fro with great diligence, and gave money to, I believe, twenty or thirty persons, to shout and strike or push their neighbors. Much tumult arose. In the intervals of calm I cried the more earnestly, ‘Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die, O house of Israel’ After almost an hour (the time I had first proposed) I withdrew, walking through the thickest of the rioters, who dropped away to the right and left, and could no more bear my eye than they could His that sent me. [See Journal, iii 80-1.] Now, sir, what an insult it is upon common sense to say that I raised that tumult. Had only these gentlemen (so called) stood quietly, I would have answered for the behavior of the rest, who within one quarter of an hour would have been as orderly and silent as an assembly in a court of justice. However that be, I have now delivered my own soul; and if these poor sheep do continue in sin, and consequently perish, I am clear. I have done what in me lay; their blood is not on my head. I am persuaded, sir, you do not take the freedom with which I have spoken as a mark of disrespect, but rather as a proof that I am, sir, Your most obedient servant.