Wesley Corpus

We went from him to Baptist Mills. Two or three thousand were present; on whom I enforced those words on which my Testament opened: ‘And all the people which heard Him, and the publicans, justified God .... But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves.’ On Holy Thursday many of us went to King's Weston Hill, four or five miles from Bristol. As we were sitting on the grass two gentlemen went by; and by way of jest sent up many persons to us from the neighboring villages, to whom therefore I took occasion to speak on those words, 'Thou hast ascended up on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, &c.' In the evening, our landlady in Baldwin Street not permitting us to meet there any more, we had our second Society at Weavers' Hall; where I preached the next morning also. In the afternoon I was at a new brickyard, where were twelve or fifteen hundred. The rain was so violent on Saturday that our congregation in the Bowling Green consisted of only nine hundred or a thousand. But in the morning we had about seven thousand, to whom I described (in concluding the subject) a truly charitable man. At Hanham were about three thousand, to whom I explained those words, ‘That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.’ The same I again insisted on at Rose Green, to (I believe) eight or nine thousand. We could not meet in the evening at Nicholas Street; but we made shift to do so in the shell of our schoolroom, without and within which (I suppose) about two thousand or two thousand five hundred were present. [In the Horsefair. See letter of May 14.] We had a glorious beginning; the scripture that came in turn to be read was, ‘Marvel not if the world hate you.’ We sung, ‘Arm of the Lord, awake, awake.’ [In J. and C. Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739).] And God, even our own God, gave us His blessing. Farewell in the Lord, my dear brethren; and love one another! To James Hutton [12] BRISTOL, June 7, 1739.