Wesley Corpus

But would it not be needful first for Mr. Christie and you to confer together and agree upon your story else he may again blunder out more than you desire and confute you instead of me. This it is undeniable he has done now, and that in the most material parts of your evidence. For, first, you aver that Mr. Wesley, being bailed for the appearance at the then next Sessions, a little before the Sessions came on, deferred his bail and went away. No, says Mr. Christie, Mr. Wesley, after he was bailed, did appear at the next Court. I desired his trial might be brought on, or his recognizance estreated. Again, Mr. Christie flatly affirms that Mr. John Coats, who was one of his bail, went off with Mr. Wesley and never returned; whereas you aver upon oath that the Justices threatened to prosecute and imprison his bail, who were in the utmost confusion. But by the interposition of this deponent and several others, on behalf of the said bail, and to prevent destruction to their respective families, the Justices respited their recognizances during pleasure. Now, sir, feeling these accounts are utterly inconsistent, feeling it is impossible ever to reconcile them, give me leave to ask you one plain question, which I would beg you seriously to consider. Is Thomas Christie, Esq., a gross, notorious liar, one who neither fears God nor regards man Or is Robert Williams, merchant, a vain, weak man, who, having causelessly and willfully forsworn himself, neither knows how to get backward or forward, how to retract his perjury or how to defend it -- I am, sir, Your friend. To a Gentleman [5] NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, November 16, 1742 My father’s method was to visit all his parishioners, sick or well, from house to house, to talk with each of them on the things of God and observe severally the state of their souls. What he then observed he minuted down in a book kept for that purpose. In this manner he went through his parish (which was near three miles long) three times. He was visiting it the fourth time round when he fell into his last sickness. To Mrs. Hall (Martha Wesley) [6] NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, November 17, 1742.