Wesley Corpus

Treatise Second Letter To Bishop Of Exeter

AuthorJohn Wesley
Typetreatise
YearNone
Passage IDjw-treatise-second-letter-to-bishop-of-exeter-002
Words372
Free Will Christology Catholic Spirit
Bennet, wherein he says, “On March 4th, last, Mrs. Morgan said, ‘I was told by my ser vant, that I was wanted above stairs; where, when I came, the chamber door being open, I found them” (Mr. Wesley and others) ‘round the table on their knees.’” He adds, “That Mrs. Morgan owned one circumstance in it was true; but as to the other parts of Mr. Wesley's letter to the Bishop, she declares it is all false.” I believe Mrs. Morgan did say this to Mr. Bennet; and that therefore neither is he “the maker of a lie.” But he is the relater of a whole train of falsehoods, and those told merely for telling sake. I was never yet in any chamber at Mrs. Morgan’s. I was never above stairs there in my life. On August 25, 1750, I was below stairs all the time I was in the house. When Mrs. Morgan came in, I was standing in the large parlour; nor did any of us kneel while we were under the roof. This both Mr. Trembath and Mr. Haime can attest upon oath, whatsoever Mrs. Morgan may declare to the contrary. But she declared farther, (so Mr. Bennet writes,) “That Mr. John Wesley, some time ago, said to a maid of hers such things as were not fit to be spoken;” (page 11;) and Mr. Morgan declared that he “did or said such indecent things to the above-named maid” (the same fact, I presume, only a little embellished) “in his chamber, in the night, that she immediately ran down stairs, and protested she would not go near him or any of the Methodists more.” (Page 12.) To save trouble to your Lordship, as well as to myself, I will put this cause upon a very short issue : If your Lordship will only prove that ever I lay one night in Mrs. Morgan's house, nay, that ever I was in the town of Mitchel after sun set, I will confess the whole charge. What your Lordship mentions “by the way,” I will now consider: “Some of your western correspondents imposed upon the leaders of Methodism, by transmitting to London a notoriously false account of my Charge to the Clergy.