Wesley Corpus

It seems to me I ought to go, and that without delay. I think of going early in the morning to Bexley and correcting Mr. Piers’s sermon, [The elaborate care which they used in revising such deliverances may be seen from the Diary notes in Journal, ii. 387-8.] and of setting out for Donnington on Wednesday. If you write thither as soon as you receive this, your letter will be there near as soon as me; and I will either go on into Lincolnshire for a week, or come straight to Bristol, as you will. Let all the brethren pray for me. Adieu! To his Brother Charles [2] LONDON, Saturday, July 31, 1742. Yesterday, about three in the afternoon, as soon as Intercession was ended, I went up to my mother. I found her pulse almost gone and her fingers dead; so that it was easy to see her spirit was on the wing for eternity. After using the Commendatory Prayer, I sat down on her bedside, and with three or four of our sisters sung a requiem to her parting soul. She continued in just the same way as my father was, struggling and gasping for life, though (as I could judge by several signs) perfectly sensible, till near four o'clock. I was then going to drink a dish o’ tea, being faint and weary, when one called me again to the bedside. It was just four o’clock. She opened her eyes wide and fixed them upwards for a moment. Then the lids dropped, and the soul was set at liberty without one struggle or groan or sigh. My heart does not, and I am absolutely assured [God does not condemn me for any want of duty toward] her in any kind, except only [that I have not reproved her so plainly and fully as I should have done]. Absurdum, iniquum, injustum, supra omnem modum mihi videtur, quod quis isto modo me lacessat. [‘Absurd, unfair, unjust beyond all measure it seems to me, that any one should attack me in that way.’] Now, I would have you send me word immediately whom I shall take into the house, to keep the Accounts, &c. &c. &c., in the room of T. Meyrick, and what [woman as hired girl or a lady in place of Betty Brown]. I wait your answer.