Wesley Corpus

To his Wife GRIMSBY, April 9, 1759. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1759) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR MOLLY,--I must write once more. Then, if I hear nothing from you, I have done. About a year ago, while I suspected nothing less, you opened my bureau and took out many of my letters and papers. Mr. Blackwell advised me, before you, if you refused to restore them, to send that instant for a smith, and break open your bureau and take my own. To prevent which you restored them. But it was not long before you robbed me again, and showed my private letters to more than twenty different persons on purpose to make them have an ill opinion of me. For the same end you spoke much evil of me while I was several hundred miles off. Your presence was that I conversed with Sister Ryan and Crosby. [See letters of July 12, 1758, and March 2and Oct. 23, 1759.] I know it was only a presence, and told your friends the humouring you herein would leave matters just where they were. I knew giving a person drink would not cure a dropsy. However, at their instance I made the experiment. I broke off all correspondence with them, whether by speaking or writing. For a while, having gained your point, you was in a good humour. Afterwards it was just as I said. You robbed me again; and your sin (as before) carried its own punishment: for the papers you had stole harrowed up your soul and tore your poor fretful spirit in pieces.