Wesley Corpus

To James Wheatley Date: BRISTOL, June 25 1751. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1751) Author: John Wesley --- Because you have wrought folly in Israel, grieved the Holy Spirit of God, betrayed your own soul into temptation and sin, and the souls of many others, whom you ought, even at the peril of your own life, to have guarded against all sin; because you have given occasion to the enemies of God, whenever they shall know these things, to blaspheme the ways and truth of God: We can in no wise receive you as a fellow laborer till we see clear proofs of your real and deep repentance. Of this you have given us no proof yet. You have not so much as named one single person in all England or Ireland with whom you have behaved ill, except those we knew before. The last and lowest proof of such repentance which we can receive is that: that, till our next Conference (which we hope will be in October), you abstain both from preaching and from practicing physic. If you do not, we are clear; we cannot answer for the consequences. [Wheatley’s immorality ‘put my brother and me,’ says Charles Wesley, ‘upon a resolution of strictly examining into the life and moral behavior of every preacher in connection with us; and the office fell upon me.’ He set out for this purpose on June 29. His brother wrote frequently to him during these anxious weeks. Dr. Whitehead has preserved some fragments of Wesley's letters which show how jealously the brothers watched over their band of helpers. See Whitehead's Wesley, ii. 266--70. July 17. -- I fear for C.S. [Charles Skelton. He left Wesley in April 1754, intending to settle at Bury, but became an Independent minister in Southwark. See Journal, iii. 403, 470; iv. 93, 295.] and J.C. [Joseph Cownley, one of Wesley's best preachers. He died on Oct. 8, 1792. See Wesley’s Veterans iv. 122-69; and letter of Sept. 20, 1746.] more and more. I have heard they frequently and bitterly rail against the Church. [On this Charles puts the following query:] What assurance can we have that they will not forsake it, at least when we are dead Ought we to admit any man for a preacher till we can trust his invariable attachment to the Church