Wesley Corpus

You are not a match for the silver tongue, nor Brother Hopper. But do not, to please any of your new friends, forsake Your true old friend. To Zachariah Yewdall [16] LONDON, November 12, 1782, MY DEAR BROTHER, -- Before this time I suppose you have my last. I have wrote to T. Rutherford to send Andrew Blair. The leaders, I find, were unwilling to part with him; but I think he will be guided by me rather than by them. Till I have done meeting the classes, I shall have little leisure to write either prose or verse, being fully taken up from morning to night. After this I may get a little time. O let us work while the day is l The night cometh, wherein no man can work. -- I am Your affectionate brother. To Zachariah Yewdall [17] LONDON, November 21, 1782. MY DEAR BROTHER, -- I believe you need not be ashamed to inscribe the lines above on R. Boardman’s tombstone. I doubt you do not find any account of himself among his papers. -- I am Your affectionate brother. To Joseph Benson [18] LONDON, November 29, 1782. DEAR JOSEPH, -- I am well pleased that it is you who give me an opportunity of considering this important question, because you are able to bring the whole strength of the cause; so that in answering you I may answer all. I will first endeavor to state the case, and then argue a little upon it. When our Lord preached on the mountain or St. Paul by the river-side, there was no such thing as patronage. But as soon as Christians grew rich some of them built preaching-houses (afterwards called churches); and those who built were called patrons, and appointed whom they pleased to preach in them. When revenues were annexed to these houses,-they disposed of houses and revenues together. Indeed, the patrons generally gave the lands from which the revenues arose. At the Reformation many rich men built new churches, and still claimed to dispose of them; and many Presbyterians and Independents built preaching-houses at their own expense, and placed in them whom they pleased. But others entrusted their powers with a few friends whom they could confide in.