Wesley Corpus

To Westley Hall Date: LONDON, August 18, 1743. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1743) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR BROTHER, -- You are angry. Therefore you do not see clearly. Compose yourself (by the grace of God), and I will speak. I did think you sincere. I think otherwise now. There is no inconsistency in this. I have forgiven but not forgotten you for poor Brother Hodges. Do you separate chief friends, and then wipe your mouth and say you have done no evil You are quite insincere in this, as well as in calling yourself a presbyter of the Church of England. Why, you believe the Church of England to be no Church at all, no part of the Church of Christ. Don't shuffle and evade. You spoke plain enough to Mrs. Clark and to Mrs. Stotesbury and her husband; and your trying to palliate the matter made it still worse, and was a fresh proof of your insincerity. Alas, my brother! who will tell you the plain truth You are a weak, injudicious, fickle, irresolute man; deeply enthusiastic and highly opiniated of yourself; and therefore a fit tool for those who apply to your weak side, vanity. The first considerable step you took, after God had put you under my care, without preconsulting me, was the courting my poor sister Kezzy, to which I cannot but ascribe her death.[See heading to letter of Dec. 22, 1747.] What a gross piece of weakness and enthusiasm was this! For you may remember you fathered all upon God! You then jilted one of my sisters, and married the other; and all was by inspiration still. Your life has been one blunder ever since. I pray God give you a sound mind. -- I am Your true friend and affectionate Brother. Indeed, my brother, you need a tutor now more than when you came first to Oxford.