Wesley Corpus

1. None of those six persons lately ordained by a Greek bishop were ordained with my consent or knowledge. 2. I will not, cannot, own or receive them as clergymen. 3. I think an ordination performed in a language not understood by the persons ordained is not valid. 4. I think it is absolutely unlawful for any one to give money to the Bishop (or to any one for him) for ordaining him.--I am, sir, Your humble servant. To Thomas Rankin LONDON, February 9, 1765. DEAR TOMMY,--I have little more to add to my last but that I have wrote to Brother Jane and the leaders at the Dock to the same effect as I wrote to James Stevens and to you at St. Austell. You have only to go on steadily, and lovingly, and to overcome evil with good.--I am, dear Tommy, Yours affectionately. To Mr. Rankin, At Mr. Wood's, Shopkeeper, In Port Isaac, Near Camelford, Cornwall. To the Printer of the 'St. James's Chronicle' [LONDON, February 10, 1765.] SIR,--In the St. James's Chronicle published on Saturday last there was an innocent thing wrote by an hat-maker in Southwark. It may be proper to take a little more notice of it than it deserves, lest silence should appear to be an acknowledgement of the charge. I insert nothing in the public papers without my name. I know not the authors of what has been lately inserted; part of which I have not seen yet, nor did I see any part before it was printed. A year or two ago I found a stranger perishing for want and expecting daily to be thrown in prison. He told me he was a Greek bishop. I examined his credentials,, and was fully satisfied. After much conversation (in Latin and Greek, for he spoke no English at all) I determined to relieve him effectively; which I did without delay, and promised to send him back to Amsterdam, where he had several friends of his own nation. And this I did, without any farther view, merely upon motives of humanity. After this he ordained Mr. John Jones, a man well versed both in the languages and other parts of learning. When I was gone out of town, Bishop Erasmus was prevailed upon to ordain Lawrence Coughlan, a person who had no learning at all.