Editor's Introductory Notes: 1759

[1] This letter and Mr. Blackwell's reply show how Mrs. Wesley troubled her husband by her interference with his correspondence. Blackwell's feeling towards her comes out in his answer, and shows how wisely he bore himself in difficult circumstances. See letters of Dec. 23, 1758, and April 9, 1759.

[2] Blackwell's reply deserves to be given in full.

[3] William Alwood was one of the preachers in York, and a trustee of the site purchased there for a preaching-place on February 27, 1759. Wesley set out from Epworth for Selby on April 18. Near the town the recent flood had carried away the bank and left a great hole. Wesley says: 'We made shift to lead our horses over a narrow path where the water was fordable.' The congregation at Selby was such that he had to preach in the garden, though the north wind was exceeding high. He preached at York at seven that evening, and at six on the following night in the shell of the new house in Peaseholme Green, for which he had started a subscription list in July 1757. See Journal, iv. 224, 309; and letter of March 29. Dr. Cockburn was an old schoolfellow of Charles Wesley, who went with him from Hunslet to York on September 28, 1756. At York 'the doctor's house was open to all, and his heart also; his whole desire being to spread the gospel.' He gave £100 towards the new building. See Journal, iv. 156; C. Wesley's Journal, ii. 116-21, 197; Lyth's Methodism in York, pp. 83-90.

[4] Matthew Lowes became one of Wesley's preachers in 1757, and laboured with much success till 1771, when failing health compelled him to settle in Newcastle. He died there on February 8, 1795. Some of his last words were, 'All my dependence for present and eternal salvation is upon the blood and merits of Jesus Christ.' The Minutes of 1795 says: 'He was remarkable for humility, meekness, and seriousness.' See Atmore's Memorial, p. 244; and letter of September 8, 1761, to him.

[5] Peter Kruse, of Chelsea, sent copies of this letter and two others to the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 1857 (pp. 690-3): 'The letters now enclosed were given to me some months ago by a lady residing in this vicinity.' This letter appears in the Life of the Countess of Huntingdon. The Countess, who was then at Bath, had gone to Bristol on January 4 to meet Wesley. He accompanied her to Bath, and, after preaching to several of the nobility at her house, returned to London. In February Lady Huntingdon came to London, and on the 16th, the day of the Public Fast, heard Wesley preach at the Foundery at half-past eight at night to an overflowing multitude on 'Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.' Lady Huntingdon arranged intercession-meetings at her house, and Wesley took part in that on the 23rd The following Tuesday he breakfasted there with his brother and Thomas Maxfield. After the breakfast Whitefield, Madan, Romaine, Jones, Downing, and Venn, with some persons of quality and a few others, came in. Wesley administered the sacrament and preached from I Corinthians xiii. 13. On Wednesday he was there at the prayer-meeting. See Journal, iv. 299-301; Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon, i. 396-8.

[7] Wesley's fourth volume of Sermons was published in Bristol in 1760. The sermon on the New Birth is the second of the seven. Carthy was probably one of Wesley's preachers, who was looking after his printing. The letter shows how Wesley did his literary work, sending a sermon as it was ready. He was busy finishing the volume at Bristol in October 1759. See Journal, iv. 355; and letter of June 23, 1760.

[8] John Taylor (1694-1761) went to Norwich in 1733; where he founded the Octagon Chapel, 1754. He became divinity tutor at Warrington Academy in 1757. His Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin appeared in 1735-6. Wesley's Doctrine of Original Sin was published in 1757. How strongly he felt on the subject is shown by his letter to Toplady on December 9, 1758: 'I verily believe no single person since Mahomet has given such a wound to Christianity as Dr. Taylor.' Wesley wrote Sir Harry Trelawney in 1761 that he had 'reason to believe he was convinced of his mistake some years before he died.' Taylor did not publish any reply to Wesley's treatise; but after his death a pamphlet was issued which purported to give some 'Observations by way of Reply.' See W.H.S. viii. 53.

[9] Wesley's Journal for July 6 says: 'I rode on to Yarm. The heat of the day was hardly to be borne; but in the evening it was extremely pleasant, and the whole congregation were deeply serious.' This letter was written before one o'clock the next day, when he reached Hutton Rudby, six miles to the south, where a new preaching-house had just been built.

[10] Wesley refers to the Minutes, June 1747: 'Q. 22. Is not the teaching believers to be continually poring upon their inbred sin the ready way to make them forget that they were purged from their former sins! A. We find by experience it is, or to make them undervalue and account it a little thing: whereas, indeed (though there are still greater gifts behind), this is inexpressibly great and glorious.'

[11] At Middlezoy, not far from Bristol, Wesley had 'an exceeding good account of a young man here, Cornelius Bastable, both with regard to his gifts and grace and fruits.' Wesley asked him if he was willing to leave all and give himself up to the work of calling sinners to repentance. 'He said he was; and that he had weighed all circumstances before, knowing in his own mind that I would now ask him the question. I desired him then to go home and fetch his horse. He did so, and we rode together to Beer Crocombe.' Two letters from him to Wesley in 1767 show that Bastable was in feeble health, but was not suffered 'to live one moment without a ravishing and increasing sense of His glorious presence.' He died in 1777. See Journal, viii. 159; Arminian Magazine, 1783, pp. 500-1; and letter of December 15, 1763.

[12] The Journal for December 27, 1758, shows how much Wesley's strength was overtaxed at this time. He bore up well during the journeys of the next few months; but on August 12 he felt exceeding weak in view of his Sunday work, and deferred his journey to Norwich or Cornwall on Tuesday, as he felt the need of a little rest. He was quiet for the remainder of the week, but on the 19th was in full work again. His Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, to which he refers in his postscript, appeared in 1755; the third corrected edition in three volumes was published in Bristol 1760-2. See p. 99.

[13] The editor of the pamphlet Original Letters between the Reverend Mr. John Wesley and Mr. Richard Tompson, 'imagining it would not be proper to publish any person's letters without their knowledge, requested Mr. Tompson to inform Mr. Wesley of the design, and to ask his permission. He returned him the following answer.' See letter of June 28, 1755, to Tompson.

[14] On October 15 Wesley 'walked up to Knowle, a mile from Bristol, to see the French prisoners.' He found they had only a few foul, thin rags to cover them. 'I was much affected, and preached in the evening on Exodus xxiii. 9.' £18 was collected, and next day it was made up to £24. Clothes were bought and carefully distributed to the most needy. The Corporation sent mattresses and blankets. Contributions were set on foot in London and other places; and from that time the prisoners 'were pretty well provided with all the necessaries of life.' See Journal, iv. 355-6; and letter of November 4.

[15] The following contemporary estimate, and especially the statement of the trusty old preacher, John Furz, shows what Wesley had to stand against in his wife's endeavour to rob his preachers of the Book Room money. The date of the Conference in Leeds is not given; but Furz became a preacher about 1765, and retired in 1782, four years before Joseph Sutcliffe entered the ranks. Conference met in Leeds in 1766, 1769, and 1772. Furz died in 1800; and his obituary in the Minutes of that year says he 'was a zealous defender of our purest doctrines.' See Atmore's Memorial, pp. 148-54; Wesley's veterans, v, 199-228; and letters of April 9 and November 24. Sutcliffe says in his manuscript History of Methodism, i. 402:--

Mrs. Vazeille was in many views a generous-hearted woman. Her house and heart were open to ministers whenever it was convenient for them to call. But her temper was difficult, yet such as Mr. Vazeille had known how to manage. Mr. and Mrs. Charles [Wesley] had visited at her house, and in return had taken her round to Oxford, Evesham, Blenheim, and Ludlow where Mr. Gwynne's family then resided; Charles not then dreaming that she would be his brother's wife. The fact is, Mrs. Vazeille had not counted the cost that in marrying Mr. Wesley she married a man already married to the work of the Lord. His society she could not hope to enjoy more than a fourth part of the year. To accompany him, as he then had no chaise, would be expensive and deprive her of her children. In that case farewell to his rides of fifty and sixty miles a day. Be that as it might, she would often accompany him to small distances in and about the city.

On one occasion, when going to preach at a small distance, the time being come and the coach waiting, but she was not ready, he stood for ten minutes with a watch in his hand. Still she was not ready; so he stepped into the coach and left her behind.

She accompanied him to the Leeds Conference. Mr. John Furz told me that Mr. Wesley took him into a room and wept; adding she was teasing him continually to settle £800 upon her son, which would swallow up for one year more than the proceeds of his books. Then nothing would be left for the preachers that had families and for his own travelling expenses above what the Stewards in certain places gave him. It happened that during this Conference she was walking up Briggate, and an old woman exclaimed, 'Oh, God bless you, Mrs. Wesley!' She asked, 'What does that woman mean!' 'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'I suppose she thinks that Mrs. Wesley is the happiest woman in all the world.'

After marriage, they associated for the space of about five years; then she left him, and went to her friends, alleging many complaints. After leaving her husband's house, she saw her error, felt as an isolated woman, and wished to return. Some letters passed between them. She had alleged neglects and slights. On one occasion she went into the house when Mr. Wesley was sitting down to supper with a friend or two, and said that she was coming home on Tuesday evening, and requested that a room might be ready. The reply was, 'It happens very contrary; for I am going off for Yorkshire early on Monday morning.'

Among the letters that passed were two letters in which Mr. Wesley admitted some improprieties in himself. These Mrs. Wesley preserved, and sometimes showed to his friends--a source of mischief in future years between Mr. Charles and Mr. Maxfield. Maxfield in his first love and ingenuous zeal has so successfully imitated the trait of Mr. Wesley's pen, that people could scarcely distinguish their handwritings. When those letters after a lapse of time came to Charles's knowledge, he reproached Maxfield with the forgery, and, being ever jealous of Maxfield's popularity, on a Saturday morning, when the preachers met to receive their Sabbath appointments, would give him no work! Mrs. Green, great-niece of Mrs. Charles, told me that Sam often said Maxfield had forged those letters; and every trait in the character of Maxfield would authorize us to think the contrary. But oh, what is it that the enemy will not do when once he enters the fold and gains a partial possession of the heart!

[16] In the Morning Chronicle for March 11, 1791, appears an extract from a letter of Wesley's in answer to some insinuations as to his appropriation of money collected for the French prisoners at Knowle. The writer says: 'Those who tell us that his income was £10,000 a year have fallen into that mistake by supposing that the collections in the various chapels were for his use, whereas he had not so much as the beholding this money with his eye; it was all constantly expended where it was collected' See letter of October 20.

[17] For the letter of November 17, 1759, to John Downes, author of the pamphlet Methodism Examined and Exposed, see pp. 325-37.