Wesley Corpus

There ties before me a transcript from a letter of yours sent lately to John Haughton in Ireland. Some of the words are: ‘I was married to Grace Murray on Tuesday by the advice of Mr. C. Wesley and G. Whitefield. But when Mr. Wesley came to hear it and saw us, he was so enraged as if he had been mad, for he himself was inflamed with love and lust unto her.’ I saw you first at William Shents. [In Leeds on Oct. 6, 1749, three days after the marriage, when he kissed him and uttered no word of reproach. See letter of Nov. 3, 1749.] Was I then so enraged as if I had been mad Or was it when I saw her and you together in the chamber at Mr. Towers [See Journal, iii. 330.] How came you to know that I ‘was inflamed with lust’ Did your wife tell you so If she did not, you would not have so roundly affirmed it. If she did, she has made me a fair return. If you only, after having robbed me, had stabbed me to the heart, I might have perhaps endeavored to defend myself But I can now only cover my face and say, ‘Art thou also among them Art thou! my daughter!’ To Dr. Lavington, Bishop of Exeter [2] Agedum! Pauca accipe contra. [Horace's Satire, I. iv. 38: ‘Now hear a few things in reply.’] CANTERBURY, February 1, 1750. SIR, -- 1. In your late pamphlets you have undertaken to prove that Mr. Whitefield and I are gross enthusiasts, and that our whole ‘conduct is but a counterpart of the most wild fanaticisms of the most abominable communion in its most corrupt ages’ (Preface, p. 3). You endeavor to support this charge against us by quotations from our own writings compared with quotations from celebrated writers of the Romish communion.