Aug. 1, Sat.[1] -We considered the case of Dewsbury house,[2] which the self-elected trustees have robbed us of. The point they contended for was this- that they should have a right of rejecting any preachers they disapproved of. But this, we saw, would destroy itinerancy. So they chose J[ohn] A[tlay] for a preacher, who adopted W[illiam] E[els][3] for his curate. Nothing remained but to build another preaching-house, toward which we subscribed two hundred and six pounds on the spot.[4]

 

AUG. 1, Saturday

 

4 Prayed, letters; 6 Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, letters; 12.30 walk; 1 dinner, letters; 5 tea, conversed; 6 letters, prayed; 7 select society; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sun. 2.[5]-Knowing the church would not contain half of our congregation added to its own, we began at our room at half an hour past nine.  After preaching, with the assistance of three other clergymen, I administered the sacrament to fifteen or sixteen hundred persons, I hope, all desirous to be inward Christians.

 

Tues. 4.-Having before preached to the people at large, I now spoke directly to the preachers on ‘If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God’; and, I am persuaded, God applied His word to many of their hearts.

 

Wed. 5. -About noon we left Leeds, and that evening went to Newark, about seventy miles.

 

Thur. 6. -We set out early, and between four and five reached Hinxworth.

 

Sunday 2

 

4 Sleep; 5 prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, letters; 9.30 prayers,     Jo. xxi. 22! communion; 1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 sleep, letter, prayed; 4 tea, conversed, prayed; 5 Matt. vii. 16, society conversed; 8 supper, conversed; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 3[6]

 

Prayed, letter; 6 Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, Conf[erence]; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 Conf[erence]; 4 letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Judges iii. 19! writ letters, within; 8 supper, conversed; 9.30 prayer.

 

Tuesday 4

 

4 Prayed, letters; 6 Conf[erence]; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 Con­    f[erence]; 12 letters; 1 dinner, conversed; 4 letters; 5 tea,    conversed, prayed; 6 I Pet. iv. II! letters; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 5

 

4 Prayed, Rev. xxii. 20, Conf[erence]; 8 tea; 9 Conf[erence], communion; 11 dinner, conversed; 11.45 chaise; 8.45 Newark, within     supper, prayer; 10.30.

 

Thursday 6

 

     3.45 Tea; 4 chaise with T[homas] R[ankin],[-], Moore; 4.15 Hinxworth,              dinner, conversed; 6 tea,  

 

           conversed; 7 I Jo. iv. 17! supper, within, prayer; 9.45.

 

I was now pretty well inclined to rest; but a congregation soon getting together, I would not dis­appoint them, but preached on ‘We love Him because He first loved us’; and, after preaching and travelling fourscore miles, I was no more tired than when I set out in the morning.

 

Fri. 7. -We reached London between one and two, and found great reason to praise the Gracious Power which had preserved us by sea and by land, in all known and unknown dangers, unto the present hour.

 

Sat. 8. -I settled all my temporal business, and, in par­ticular, chose a new person to prepare the Arminian  Magazine, being obliged, however unwillingly, to drop Mr. O[livers],[7]

 

Friday 7

 

4.30 Prayed, tea; 5.30 chaise with Miss H[arvey], conversed; 7.30 chaise; 11 Hig[h]gate, visited; 1 chaise; 1.45 at home, on business; 4.45 prayer, tea, conversed, prayer; 6 on business, prayed; 7 within; 8 supper, conversed; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 8

 

4 Prayed, on business, within; 8 at T[homas] R[ankin’s], tea, conversed, prayer, Journal; 11 within to many, visited; 1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 Journal; 4.30 prayed, conversed; 5.15 tea, together; 6 prayed; 7 within to some; 8 supper, Pen[ry], on business; 9.30.

 

for only these two reasons: (1) The errata are unsufferable; I have borne them for these twelve years, but can bear them no longer. (2) Several pieces are inserted without my know­ledge, both in prose and verse. I must try whether these things cannot be amended for the short residue of my life.

 

Sun. 9. - The new chapel was sufficiently crowded, both in the morning and at four in the afternoon. At seven we set out, and about noon on Monday the l0th reached Bristol. Finding all things here in a flourishing state, I set out for the west early on Tuesday morning, and had an exceeding pleasant journey to Taunton, where we had a full and serious congrega­tion in the evening.

 

Wed. 12. -I had no thought of preaching at Cullompton, though we were to pass through it; but I yielded to impor­tunity, and preached at one to a numerous audience. Thence we went on to Exeter, where the people were in high expecta­tion of seeing the King, who appointed to be there the next day. However, a pretty large congregation assembled, to which I preached at six o’clock. We set out at three on Thursday the 13th, and reached Plymouth between one and two in the afternoon. I preached to a large audience in the evening, and, although the day was extremely hot, yet I found myself better yesterday and to-day than I have been for some months.

 

Sunday 9

 

4 Prayed, writ narrative, on business; 8 the preachers, prayed; 9.30 prayers, I Cor. x. 12, communion, dinner; 2 prayed, the leaders, tea; 3 prayers, Heb. xii. 28, society, supper; 7 mail coach.

 

Monday 10

 

 4.30 Together; 12 Bath, tea, chaise; 2 Bristol, dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 on business, writ narrative, prayed, in the [-], tea, conversed, prayed; 6.30 No. [Numbers] xxiii. 33, prayers, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 11

 

3.30 Tea; 4 chaise; 6 tea, chaise; 11.15 Bridgew[ater], prayer, conversed; 1 chaise; 1.30 Taun[ton]; 2 dinner, conversed, writ narrative, prayed; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6.30 Psa. xxxiii. 6, walk; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 12

 

5.30 Prayed, tea, conversed; 7 chaise; 7.30 tea, within, chaise; 11 Col­lum[pton], dinner, 1 Heb. vi. 1! chaise; 5 Exon, tea, prayed; 6 Psa. xxxiii. I! prayed; 7.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.

 

Fri. 14. -In the afternoon I went on to the Dock, having previously determined not to say or hear anything of their late senseless quarrel, wherein I could not but blame both sides, and knew not which to blame most. So I spent this and the next day in peace, and answered all my letters.[8] 

 

Sun. 16. -In the morning I believe we had not less than six hundred communicants, but they were all admirably well behaved, as if they indeed discerned the Lord’s body. But when I preached in the afternoon the house would not hold half the congregation. I chose the space adjoining the south side of the house, capable of containing some thousands of people. Besides, some hundreds sat on the ridge of the rock which ran along at my left hand. I preached on part of the Gospel for the day, ‘He beheld the city, and wept over it,’ and it seemed as if everyone felt­-

 

                        His heart is made of tenderness; 

 

                           His bowels melt with love.[9] 

 

Thursday 13

 

2.30 Tea; 3 chaise; 7 at brother Bick[ford’s], tea, conversed, prayer; 8 chaise; 11 Ivy bridge; chaise; 1.45 Ply[mouth], at brother Gidl[ey’s], dinner, conversed, on business; 3.30 writ narrative, prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 Eph. iv. 30, writ narrative, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 14

 

4 Prayed, Journal, accounts, sermon; 12.30 walk; 1 at Mr. Parry’s, dinner, conversed; 3 chaise; 3.30 the Dock, letters, dinner, conversed, sermon, prayed, tea, writ narrative; 6.45 Lu. viii. 14! 8 supper, conversed, on business, prayer; 9.15.

 

Sunday 16

 

4.30 Prayed, sleep, letters, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, sermon; 11 Gen. iii. 19! communion; 1 dinner, sleep, sermon; 3 sermon, prayed, tea; 5.30 Lu. xix. 41! society, within, prayed; 7.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.

 

Mon. 17. -Setting out at three, we easily reached our friends at St. Austell by dinner-time.[10] But I knew not where to preach, the street being so dirty and the preaching-house so small. At length we determined to squeeze as many as we could into the preaching-house, and truly God was there.

 

Tues. 18. -We went on to Truro, where I had appointed to preach at twelve o’clock; but here an unforeseen hindrance occurred. I could not get through the main street to our preaching-house. It was quite blocked up with soldiers to the east, and numberless tinners to the west, a huge multitude of whom, being nearly starved, were come to beg or demand an increase of their wages, without which they could not live. So we were obliged to retire to the other end of the town, where I preached under the Coinage Ha1l[11] to twice as many people, rich and poor, as the preaching-house would have contained; and many of them would not have come thither at all. Row wise are all the ways of God!

 

Monday 17

 

2.30 Tea; 3 walk, boat, chaise; 7.30 Liscard, tea; 8.30 chaise; 11 Lost­withiel, in talk; 12 chaise; 1.45 St. Austell, writ narrative; 2 dinner; 3 sleep, sermon, prayed; 6 Mark xii. 32! within, supper, prayer; 9.

 

Tuesday 18

 

5 Prayed, writ narrative, tea; 7.15 chaise; 10.45 Truro, writ narrative; 12 Acts xvii. 31! dinner, conversed, visited; 2.30 chaise; 4.30 Fal­mou[th], tea, conversed, prayed, writ narrative; 6 Jo. iv. 24! 7 prayed; 8 supper, together, prayer; 9.30.

---

 

[1] He wrote to Miss Bolton, who had sent him an account of her sister’s recent death; and to James Bogie (Works, vol. xii. pp. 486, 521).

 

[2] John Atlay was originally Wesley’s friend and Book Steward. His name, with that of William Eels, was omitted from the Deed of Declaration. A dispute arose between the trustees of the newly finished chapel at Dewsbury and the Con­ference. In a letter to the former Wesley put the question between them thus:

 

By whom shall the preachers sent, from time to time, to Dewsbury be judged? You say, ‘By the trustees.’ I say, ‘By their peers -the preachers met in Conference.’ You say, ‘Give up this, and we will receive them.’ I say, ‘I cannot, I dare not, give up this.’ There­fore, if you will not receive them on these terms, you renounce connexion with your affectionate brother 

 

  For the complete story, including much of the very curious correspondence be­tween Wesley and Atlay, see Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. pp. 551-60. Atlay eventually was betrayed into a slanderous attack on his old friend, which extorted from Wesley a characteristic ‘Word to Whom it May Concern,’ inserted in his Magazine for 1790 (Works vol. xiii. p. 282).

 

[3] Eels is buried in Dewsbury church­yard. The inscription on his grave reads ‘Here was interred Mr. William Eels, late minister of the gospel in this town amongst the society of Methodists. He died June 29, 1792, aged forty-eight years.’

 

[4] For a list at the subscribers, see Minutes of conference, vol. i. p. 225.

 

[5] He wrote from Leeds to Miss Frances Godfrey, and on the 3rd to Mrs. Cock, née Bisson (Works, vol. xiii. pp. 42, 109).

 

[6] He wrote from Leeds to Miss Harriet Lewis of Dudley on the ‘blessed’ effects of unconditional perseverance (Works, vol. xiii. p. 116). Also to the Rev. Dr. Ford, vicar of Melton Mowbray, who had invited him to call en route. This his engagements did not permit. (New ed. Wesley Letters.)

 

[7] Thomas Olivers, born at Tregonan in Montgomeryshire in 1725, died in London in 1799, and was buried in ‘Wesley’s grave. He became one of Wesley’s itinerant preachers in 1753, and was appointed to the most important circuits in Eng]and, Scotland, and Ire­land. After establishing the Arminian Magazine, Wesley appointed him to bring the articles through the press. As a sub-editor he proved a failure. Yet he wielded a trenchant pen. As a writer on the Calvinistic controversy, Wesley thought him a match for Toplady and for Rowland and Richard Hill. Against the abusive attacks of these writers he was an able defender of Wesley. In reply to Rowland Hill’s scurrilous at­tack, Olivers wrote A Rod for a Reviler, and in answer to Richard Hill’s Farrago Double Distilled he published A Scourge to Calumny. These proud University scholars, although not ashamed to use scurrilous language, thought it a degra­dation to be answered - by a man of humble origin who had worked at a trade. Richard Hill wrote to him con­temptuously as ‘one Thomas Oliver, alias Olivers.’ In allusion to this, Fletcher wrote: ‘This author was, twenty-five years ago, a mechanic, and, like “one” Peter, “alias” Simon, a fisherman, and like “one” Paul. “alias” Saul, a tent-maker, has had the honour of being promoted to the dignity of a preacher of the gospel. His talents as a writer, a logician, a poet, and a composer of sacred verse are known to those who have looked into his publications.’ For Olivers’ well-known hymn,  ‘The God of Abraham praise, see above. vol. v. P 354; and for his autobiography, E.M.P. vol. ii. p. 89, or Wesley’s Veterans, vol. i. p. 245.

 

        [8] He wrote from Plymouth Dock an accumulation of answers to letters, only one of which has survived, a letter to the Rev. Dr. Bradshaw, of 137 Bishops­gate Street (new ed. Wesley Letters).

 

[9] From the well-known hymn of Isaac Watts (see Meth. H.-B. 1904, No. 193) Wesley included the hymn in his Charles ­town Hymn-Book.

 

[10] Of this Cornish visit Watson says (Life, p. 16o):

 

When he was last in the county Wesley passed through the towns and villages as a triumphal march, whilst the windows were crowded with people anxious to get a sight of him and to pronounce upon him their bene­dictions; yet he says not a word of it all!

 

[11] See above vol. v.  p. 523, and vol. vi. p.124.