Wesley Corpus

It is incredible what advantage Satan had gained here by my absence of only eight days. Disputes had crept in, and the love of many was waxed cold; so that all our Society was falling in pieces. I preached on Wednesday at Newgate at eleven and at four at Baptist Mills on those words, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.’ At seven I met the women bands at Eliz. Davis's house (Mrs. Grevil having forbidden them hers). I found disputes had hurt them also, so that many were resolved to quit the Society. Finding it necessary to speak to them apart, I fixed times to meet each band singly; which I did on the days of the following week, and all of them were (I hope) established in the faith. At eight I met our brethren in Baldwin Street, where, instead of disputing, we prayed together; the Spirit of the Holy One was with us. All divisions were healed; all misunderstandings vanished away; and we all felt our hearts drawn together and sweetly united in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Thursday, 21st, I talked an hour or two with a young man of Gloucester, who was deeply prejudiced against my dear brother Whitefield and me. He went away of another mind. In the afternoon I preached at Publow as usual, without any disturbance, on Isaiah xlv. 22. In the evening I was at the schoolroom, and had a large and attentive audience, though it was uncovered and it rained hard. Afterward I met with Molly Deacon's band, whose openness and childlike simplicity pleased me much; where also I spoke with a young man who was fully determined ‘naked to follow a naked Master,’ [The ideal of Francis of Assisi: Nudes nudum Christum sequens. Jerome used the expression (Epistles, No. 125), and also St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Coulton's Five Centuries of Religion, ii. 108). See Journal, i. 179.] having been turned out of doors by his friends the night before for coming to the Societies.