10 To Thomas Maxfield
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | letter |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-letter-1778-10-to-thomas-maxfield-003 |
| Words | 390 |
With what view, then, can you charge me with that perfidy which I am no more guilty of than of high treason For what end can you affirm, 'When he went abroad, he delivered many thousands into the hands of those he thought he could have trusted them with' Delivered! when where how What can you mean I flatly deny that ever he delivered one thousand or one hundred souls into my hands. Do you mean, 'He spoke honorably of you to them at Kennington Common and Rose Green' True; but not so honorably as I spoke of you even at London - yea, as late as the year 1763 I Yet was this the same thing with 'delivering the people' at London 'into your hands' Nay, but 'Mr. Whitefield trusted that you would have given them back at his return.' Them! whom His Society at London or Bristol I had them not to give. He never entrusted me with them. Therefore I could not 'give them back.'
But how melancholy is the exclamation that follows: 'Alas ! it was not so.' Was not how Why, I did not give back what I never had received, but went straight on my way, taking the best care I could of those who entrusted themselves to me.
III. So much for the second article. As to the third, your words are, 'I heard Mr. Whitefield say, "Oh that division! that division! What slaughter it has made!"'
But who made that division It was not I. It was not my brother. It was Mr. Whitefield himself; and that notwithstanding all admonitions, arguments, and entreaties. Mr. Whitefield first wrote a treatise against me by name. He sent it to my brother, who endorsed it with these words: 'Put up again thy sword into its place.' It slept a while; but after a time he published it. I made no reply. Soon after Mr. Whitefield preached against my brother and me by name. This he did constantly both in Moorfields and in all other public places. We never returned railing for railing, but spoke honorably of him at all times and in all places. But is it any wonder that those who loved us should no longer choose to hear him Meantime was it we that 'turned their hearts against him' Was it not himself