Wesley Corpus

To the Countess of Huntingdon Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1763) Author: John Wesley --- [LONDON, March 20, 1763.] MY LADY, -- For a considerable time I have had it much upon my mind to write a few lines to your Ladyship; although I cannot learn that your Ladyship has ever inquired whether I was living or dead. By the mercy of God I am still alive, and following the work to which He has called me; although without any help, even in the most trying times, from those I might have expected it from. Their voice seemed to be rather, ‘Down with him, down with him, even to the ground.’ I mean (for I use no ceremony or circumlocution) Mr. Madan, Mr. Haweis, [Dr. Thomas Haweis (1734-1820) was Madan’s curate at the Lock Hospital. He became Rector of All Saints’, Northampton; and had charge of Lady Huntingdon’s College, and managed several of her chapels. He was a director of the London Missionary Society.] Mr. Berridge, and (I am sorry to say it) Mr. Whitefield. Only Mr. Romaine has shown a truly sympathizing spirit and acted the part of a brother. I am the more surprised at this, because he owed me nothing (only the love which we all owe one another); he was not my son in the gospel, neither do I know that he ever received any help through me. So much the more welcome was his kindness now. The Lord repay it sevenfold into his bosom! As to the prophecies of those poor, wild men, George Bell and half a dozen more, I am not a jot more accountable for them than Mr. Whitefield is; having never countenanced them in any degree, but opposed them from the moment I heard them. Neither have these extravagances any foundation in any doctrine which I teach. The loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and the loving all men as Christ loved us, is and ever was, for these thirty years, the sum of what I deliver, as pure religion and undefiled. However, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved! The will of the Lord be done! Poor and helpless as I am, Thou cost for my vileness care: Thou hast called me by my name! Thou cost all my burdens bear.