Wesley Corpus

Instances of this kind occur in pages 12, 14, 15, 28, and 88 of the Third Journal; as also in pages 27, 28, and 80 of the last Journal. [Journal, ii. 91, 106, 157, 290-1, 336, 447.] I desire any who would understand the matter thoroughly to read those passages as they stand at length. As to the particular instances, I would observe: (1) That, with regard to my first journey to Bristol, you should in any wise have set down those words that preface the scriptures there recited: ‘I was entreated in the most pressing manner to come to Bristol without delay. This I was not at all forward to do; and perhaps a little the less inclined to it, because of the remarkable scriptures which offered as often as we inquired touching the consequence of this removal: though, whether this was permitted only for the trial of our faith, God knoweth, and the event will show.’ From the scriptures afterwards recited, some inferred that the event they apprehended was yet afar off. I infer nothing at all. I still know not how to judge, but leave the whole to God. This only I know, that the continual expectation of death was then an unspeakable blessing to me; that I did not dare knowingly to waste a moment, neither to throw away one desire on earthly things; those words being ever uppermost in my thoughts, and indeed frequently on my tongue: Ere long, when Sovereign Wisdom wills, My soul an unknown path shall tread, Shall strangely leave, who strangely fills This frame, and waft me to the dead. Oh what is Death 'Tis life's last shore, Where vanities are vain no more; Where all pursuits their goal obtain, And life is all retouched again. [By John Gambold, in Poetical Works of J. and C. Wesley, i. 9.] I observe: (2) That in two other of those instances (Journal, ii. 97, 103) it is particularly mentioned that ‘I was troubled’; and that, by the seasonable application of those scriptures, that trouble was entirely removed. The same blessing I received (so I must term it still) from the words set down in pages 290-1; and in a yet higher degree from that exceeding apposite scripture mentioned in vol. ii. p. 446.