Wesley Corpus

MY DEAR BROTHER,--Do not make too much haste. Give everything the last touch. It will be enough if the papers meet me at Manchester before the end of March. I believe it will be the best way to bestow a distinct pamphlet on that exquisite coxcomb. [Toplady. See letters of Dec. 30, 1769, and June 24, 1770] Surely wisdom will die with him! I believe we can easily get his other tract, which it would be well to sift to the very foundation, in order to stop the mouth of that vain boaster. I am to set out for Bristol March 5, and from Bristol March 12.--I am Your affectionate brother. To George Whitefield [9] LEWISHAM, February 21, 1770. MY DEAR BROTHER,--Mr. Keen informed me some time since of your safe arrival in Carolina; of which, indeed, I could not doubt for a moment, notwithstanding the idle report of your being cast away, which was so current in London. I trust our Lord has more work for you to do in Europe as well as in America. And who knows but before your return to England I may pay another visit to the New World? [See letters of Feb. 17 and Dec.14.] I have been strongly solicited by several of our friends in New York and Philadelphia. They urge many reasons, some of which appear to be of considerable weight. And my age is no objection at all; for I bless God my health is not barely as good but abundantly better in several respects than when I was five-and-twenty. But there are so many reasons on the other side that as yet I can determine nothing; so I must wait for farther light. Here I am: let the Lord do with me as seemeth Him good. For the present I must beg of you to supply my lack of service by encouraging our preachers as you judge best, who are as yet comparatively young and inexperienced, by giving them such advices as you think proper, and, above all, by exhorting them, not only to love one another, but, if it be possible, as much as lies in them to live peaceably with all men.