Wesley Corpus

To William Wilberforce Date: BRISTOL, July 1790. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1790) Author: John Wesley --- Last month a few people met together in Lincolnshire to pray and praise God in a friend's house. There was no preaching at all. Two neighboring Justices fined the man of the house twenty pounds. I suppose he was not worth twenty shillings. Upon this his household goods were distrained and sold to pay the fine. He appealed to the Quarter Sessions; but all the Justices averred the Methodists could have no relief from the Act of Toleration because they went to church, and that so long as they did so the Conventicle Act should be executed upon them. Last Sunday, when one of our preachers was beginning to speak to a quiet congregation, a neighboring Justice sent a constable to seize him, though he was licensed, and would not release him till he had paid twenty pounds, telling him his license was good for nothing because he was a Churchman. Now, sir, what can the Methodists do They are liable to be ruined by the Conventicle Act, and they have no relief from the Act of Toleration! If this is not oppression, what is Where, then, is English liberty the liberty of Christians yea, of every rational creature, who as such has a right to worship God according to his own conscience But, waiving the question of right and wrong, what prudence is there in oppressing such a body of loyal subjects If these good magistrates could drive them not only out of Somersetshire but out of England, who would be gainers thereby Not His Majesty, whom we honor and love; not his Ministers, whom we love and serve for his sake. Do they wish to throw away so many thousand friends, who are now bound to them by stronger ties than that of interest If you will speak a word to Mr. Pitt on that head, you will oblige, &c.