Wesley Corpus

On Saturday se’nnight a middle-aged, well-dressed woman at Beech Lane (where I expound usually to five or six hundred before I go to Mrs. Exall’s Society) was seized, as it appeared to several about her, with little less than the agonies of death. We prayed that God, who had brought her to the birth, would give her strength to bring forth, and that He would work speedily, that all might see it, and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Five days she travailed and groaned, being in bondage. On Thursday evening our Lord got Himself the victory; and from that moment she has been full of love and joy, which she openly declared at the same [Society] on Saturday last: so that thanksgivings also were given to God by many on her account. It is to be observed, her friends have accounted her mad for these three years, and accordingly bled, blistered her, and what not. Come, and let us praise the Lord and magnify His name together. To George Whitefield LONDON, March 16, 1739.