1789. JAN. 1, Thur.-If this is to be the last year of my life,[1] according to some of those prophecies, I hope it will be the best.[2] I am not careful about it, but heartily receive the advice of the angel in Milton: 

 

How well is thine: how long permit to Heaven.[3]

 

1789. JAN. 1, Thursday.[4]

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 7 prayers, tea, prayer, letters; 10 prayers, Gen. xvii. I! communion, on business; 1 at brother Ball's, dinner, con­versed, letters, prayed; 4 tea, conversed; 5.30 at home, on business, prayed; 6.30 prayers, Rom. iv. 9! the bands, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 2

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 12 the females, letters; 2.15 dinner, conversed, prayer, prayed, on business, tea, Committee; 6.30 prayed, writ narrative; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 3

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 7.30 tea, prayer, letters; 2 dinner, conversed, read narrative; 4.30 tea, Th[omas] O[liver’s], communion, supper, Pen[ry]; 9.30.

 

Sun. 4. -Although the extreme severity of the weather kept many tender people away, yet we had a large congregation in the evening to renew their covenant with God, and we always find, when we avouch Him to be our God, He avouches us to be His people.

 

Mon. 5. -At the earnest desire of Mrs. T[ighe],[5] I once more sat for my picture. Mr. Romney is a painter indeed. He struck off an exact likeness at once, and did more in one hour than Sir Joshua did in ten.[6]                 

 

Sunday 4

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 the preachers; 9.30 prayers, Deut. xxix. 10; 12 communion, prayed: 1 dinner, conversed, prayed; 3 the Covenant, tea; 6 prayed, on business; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 5

 

4 Prayed, I Cor. xiii. 3, communion, select society, tea, prayer, visited; 9 Painter; 11.30 Chapel, writ narrative; 12 select society; 1.30 dinner, conversed, prayer; 3.30 at home, prayed; 4.30 tea, 

 

con­versed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 prayers, Rom. iii. I, supper, the bands, read narrative; 9.30.

 

Tues. 6. -I retired to Highbury Place, and on Thursday the 8th to Peckham. Here, in the evening, I preached to a very serious congregation, although many of them were of the better rank. But rich and poor seemed equally determined to work out their own salvation.

 

Fri: 9. -I left no money to anyone in my will, because I had none. But now considering that, whenever I am removed, money will soon arise by sale of books, I added a few legacies by a codicil, to be paid as soon as may be. But I would fain do a little good while I live, for who can tell what will come after him?

 

Tuesday 6

 

4 Prayed, 1 Cor. i. 3, communion, writ narrative, tea, walk; 9 at home, on business; 1 chaise, Hi[gh]b[ury] Place; 2 dinner, together; 3 writ narrative; 5 tea, conversed, prayed, writ narrative; 8 tea, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 7[7]

 

4 Prayed, writ Catalogue; 7 tea, together, prayer, Catalogue, sermon; 2 dinner, together, conversed, letters, sermon; 5 tea, prayed, sermon; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 10.

 

Thursday 8

 

5.30 Prayed, sermon; 7.30 tea, conversed, prayer, coach; 9 at home, writ narrative, letters; 1 chaise; 2 Peck[ham], dinner, conversed; 3 writ my Will; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 5.30 1 Jo. iii. 8! supper, con­versed, prayer; 9.45.

 

Friday 9

 

4 Prayed, Will; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 Will; 1 dinner, conversed, writ Journal, prayed; 5 tea, conversed, sermon, Journal; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Sun. 11. -I again warned the congregation, as strongly as I could, against conformity to the world. But who will [take the warning]? If hardly one in ten, yet is my record with the Most High.

 

Tues. 13. -I spent a day or two with my good old friends at Newington.

 

Thur. 15. -I retired to Camberwell, and carried on my journal, probably as far as I shall live to write it.[8] I preached once more at Peckham, and did not withhold, from them that had ears to hear, the whole counsel of God.

 

Saturday 10

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 7 tea, conversed, prayer; 8 chaise; 9 at home, on business, letters; 1dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 letters; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed, sermon, letters, supper, Pen[ry], on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 11

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 8 Chapel; 9.30 prayers, Rom. xii. 2, communion, dinner, sleep; 3 the leaders, prayers, Rom. ix. ult., society, coach,      society; 7 the single men; 8 supper, conversed; 9.30.

 

 Heb. vi., Isa. Ii. 6, Psa. xc. 4.

 

Monday 12

 

4 Prayed, Rom. xii. 2, select society, tea, conversed, prayer, writ narrative; 8.30 chaise, Painter; 12 at C.’s, read narrative; 1 Mr. Goslin, within; 2 dinner, music, within, tea; 6 prayers, Rom. x. 5, etc., supper, the bands; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 13

 

4 Prayed, Rom. xii. 2, read narrative, tea, chaise, [-] at home, letters; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, chaise; 3 Newington, read narrative,      prayed; 5 tea, conversed, letters; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 14

 

5.30 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 on business, letters, Journal; 1 dinner, conversed; 2.30 letters; 5 tea, conversed; 6letters; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30

 

Thursday 15

 

 4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 on business, chaise; 10.45 at home, on business, letters, chaise; 1.30 at sister Thornton’s, dinner, conversed; 3 Journal; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 Journal; 8 supper; 9.30 prayer, lay down; 11.

 

­

 

Fri. 16. -I looked over the finest picture of atheistical religion that ever I saw, in the account that Captain Wilson gives of Thule, King of Pelew. But how utterly needless is either the knowledge [or the grace] of God (consequently, how idle a book is the Bible), if a man be all-accomplished that has no more knowledge of God than a horse, and no more of His grace than a sparrow![9] 

 

Tues. 20.[10]-I retired in order to finish my year’s accounts.[11] 

 

Friday 16

 

5.45 Prayed, read Account of Pelew; 8.30 tea, conversed, prayer; 9.30 Acc[oun]t; 1.30 dinner, 2 conversed; 3 Acc[oun]t ; 4.30 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 read Acc[oun]t ; 8.30 supper, conversed, prayer; 10.30.

 

Saturday 17

 

6 Prayed, Acc[oun]t; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 chaise, at home, letters; 1.15 dinner, conversed; 2 letters; 4 prayed, tea; 5.30 letter, Journal; 8 supper, conversed, Pen[ry], on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 18

 

4 Prayed, Journal; 8 Sp[italfields]; 9.30 prayers, Psa. xc. 4, communion; 1 dinner, prayer; 2 sleep, Journal; 3 the leaders, tea, conversed, prayed; 5 prayers, Isa. Iii. 6, society, Journal; 8 supper, conversed; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 19

 

4 Prayed, Heb. vi. 11! select society, tea, prayer, Journal; 9.30 Painter; 12 select society; 1 writ narrative, dinner, letters; 4 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 prayers, I Cor. i. 30; 7.30 the bands, read narrative; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 20

 

4 Prayed, Heb. vi. 11, letter, tea, conversed; 8 walk, at home, letters; 1 dinner, within; 2.30 chaise; 3.30 Bal[h]am, within, letters, prayed; 5 tea, conversed, letters; 8 supper; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

­If possible, I must be a better economist; for, instead of having anything beforehand, I am now considerably in debt; but this I do not like. I would fain settle even my accounts before I die.

 

Sun. 25. -Much of the power of God was in the congregation don, both morning and afternoon; as also on Monday evening, which gave me a good hope that God will carry on His own work. At the earnest importunity of our friends, on Wednesday the 28th I went to open the new preaching-house at Rye.

 

Wednesday 21

 

5 Prayed, letters; 8 prayer, tea, conversed, letters, accounts; 2 dinner together, accounts; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 writ narrative; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 22

 

4 Prayed, texts; 8 prayer, tea, conversed; 9 writ texts; 2 dinner together;      3.30 writ texts; 4 prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 texts, read Psalms; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 23

 

4 Prayed, texts; 6.30 Charles’s Psalms; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, writ narrative, conversed, chaise; 11.30 at home, on business; 12 the females, letters; 2 dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 letters; 4.30 Mrs. Goslin, etc.; 7 prayed, letters, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 24­

 

4 Prayed, letters, tea, prayer; 8.30 within to many; 10 texts; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, letters; 2.30 texts; 3.30 prayed, walk, tea, con­versed, prayed; 6 prayers, Mark xii. 32; 7 communion, supper, Pen[ry]; 9.30.

 

Sunday 25

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 Chapel [West Street]; 9.30 prayers, Acts xxii. 16! Communion; 1 dinner, within; 2.15 sleep, prayed, the leaders; 3.30 prayers, Mark xii. 32! 6.30 society, writ narrative, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 26

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. v. 15, select society, tea, prayer; 8 letters, texts; 11 chaise, select society; 1.15 dinner, conversed, prayer, texts; 4.30 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed; 6.30 prayers, I Cor. vii. 29! supper; 8 [-]; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 27

 

4 Prayed, 2 Cor. v. 15, within, tea, conversed, prayer, visited! 9 letters; 1.30 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6.30 I Cor. viii. 6! the leaders; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 28

 

3.30 Tea; 4.30 chaise; 8.15 Sevenoaks, tea; 9 chaise, Woodsgate; 1.15      walk, chaise; 2.30 Hawkhurst, dinner, within; 3 chaise; 6 Rye, tea, Conversed; 6.30 I Cor. i. 24! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

It is a noble building, much loftier than most of our houses and finely situated at the head of the town.[12] It was thoroughly; filled. Such a congregation I never saw at Rye before, and their behaviour was as remarkable as their number; which added to the peaceable, loving spirit they are now in, give reason to hope there will be such a work here as has not been heretofore.

 

Thur. 29. -I went over to Winchelsea,[13] once a large, flourishing city, but, ever since it was burnt by the Danes a little, inconsiderable town, though finely situated on the top of a range of hills. The new preaching-house was well filled with decent, serious hearers, who seemed to receive the truth in the love of it. I returned to Rye in the afternoon, and in the evening preached to another large and serious congregation.

 

Fri. 30.[14]-We made our way through miserable roads to Sevenoaks, where the congregation, both evening and morning, was uncommonly large. So (whether I see them again or not), I cheerfully recommended them to God, and the next morning returned to London.

 

Thursday 29

 

4 Prayed, Jo. iv. 24! Mag., tea, conversed, prayer, Mag.; 11.30 chaise, Winch[elsea]; 12.30 C. vi. 14! dinner, conversed, chaise; 3.30 Mag., prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Mark iii. 35! communion, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 30

 

4 Prayed, conversed; 4.30 chaise, Hawkh[urst], Mag., chaise; 11 Woods­gate; 11.30 chaise; 2 Sevenoaks, dinner, conversed, Mag., tea, prayed; 6; 8.30 society, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 31

 

4 Prayed Heb. ii. I tea, chaise, visited, chaise; 12 at brother Bick[-], Mag., dinner, Mag., 4 prayed, tea, 6 I Cor. xiii. 13! Communion. Supper, pen[ry], on business; 9.30.

  

---

 

[1] ‘It had been reported that Mr. Charles Wesley had said, a little before he died, that his brother would outlive him but one year.’ Henry Moore, who preserves this prophecy, adds that although Wesley himself considered such an event as highly probable, he did not allow it to make the least alteration in his manner of living or in his labours. He often laid to me, during that year, “What ought I to do, in case I am to die this year? I do not see what I can do but to go on in my labour just as I have done hitherto.” Another remark on the same subject Henry Moore preserves. ‘Before he left London he observed to me, “Mr. (afterward Sir) James Stonehouse said, many years ago, that my brother and I should die in the harness. My brother did not; but I believe I shall” (Moore’s Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 378). 

 

[2] Whilst Wesley, always an optimist, was thus writing, on the same day Robert Burns was writing his Elegy on the Year 1788.                 

 

[3] It is altered. See Paradise Lost, xi. 5, 54. The original reads: 

 

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou

 

 livest

 

 Live well: how long, or short, permit to 

 

Heaven. 

 

The words are spoken by Michael the Archangel. They occur in close connexion with Michael’s description of old age-the kind of old age that follows a temperate life. The whole passage should be read in the original if the student is to appreciate fully the beauty and appro­priateness of Wesley’s quotation. In W.H.S. vol. v. p. 158, Baxter’s hymn is quoted as parallel: ‘Lord, it belongs not to my care’ (Meth. Hymn-Book 1904­, No. 824); also Pope’s echo of this at the end of the Prologue to the Satires: ‘Thus far was right; the rest belongs to Heaven.’

 

[4] Two letters, otherwise undated, belong to the year 1789: one to Mr., Samuel Wood, of Coleraine, on mar­riage with or without a parent’s consent; the other to Mr. Walter Churchey on the revision of his brother’s Hymns on the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (new ed. of Wesley Letters and Works, vol. xii. p. 438).

 

[5] See below, p. 513.

 

[6] Sir Joshua’s Diary shows that Wesley sat to him in March 1755 (Leslie and Taylor’s Reynolds, vol. i. p. 144); but the painting has disappeared. It is be­lieved that it, together with the painting of the Countess of Mornington (mother of the great Duke of Wellington), were hanging in Dangan Castle when that estate was in the possession of the Earl of Mornington, and that when the castle was destroyed by fire these paintings perished. Writing in W.H.S. (vol. iii. p. 191), Mr. Wright says this explanation is accepted by the Rev. Wellesley Wesley and by the Duchess of Wellington.

 

George Romney, a native of Dalton, Lancashire (b. 1734. d. 1802), was the son of a builder; disliking his father’s business, and having a taste for drawing, he studied painting under a country

 

artist, came to London in 1762, and in 1763 Won a prize in Art. He visited France, studied in Italy, and on his return to England became a rival of Sir Joshua Reynolds as a portrait-painter. He was celebrated also for his historical pictures. He painted pictures for Boydell’s Shake­speare. His life was written by Hayley. His rapidity in work, in contrast to Sir Joshua’s slowness, appealed to Wesley, who always regarded time as more valuable than money. In 1902 Mr. Joseph G. Wright contributed an article to the W.H.S. (vol. iii. p, 185) on ‘Some Portraits of John Wesley.’ Of the Romney portrait (see frontispiece to this volume) he says:

 

The present writer once heard the late Rev, John Hickling (1788-1858) say, when looking at a Romney-Ward engraving, ‘That is John Wesley as I knew him sixty years ago.’ The portrait bears all the semblance of reality, . . . There is, however, one fault; Wesley is painted of much more bulky bodily form than he really was. This may be due, in part, to amplitude of gown; or it may be that the short time Wesley sat for the painting was devoted to securing an exact representation of the features, while the body was afterwards developed at leisure, without its proportions having been so carefully noted. . . . It is well known that he was of small stature, being only 5ft. 3in. in height and spare in build. His weight was only nine stone. (See above, vol. vi. P.462.] This portrait was engraved in 1789 by Jona­than Spilsbury and by William Ward, A.R.A. See W.M. Mag. 1825, p. 704.

 

The artists who have produced the most reliable portraits of Wesley are (I) John Michael Williams (1743), now in Didsbury College; (2) Nathaniel Hone, R.A. (1765), in the National Portrait Gallery; (3) George Romney, R.A., 1789 (but only of the head and face); (4) to these may be added the Enoch Wood bust (1781).

 

The late Dr. George Osborn, shortly before his death, gave the Editor of this edition of Wesley’s Journal the following reminiscence:

 

Henry Moore, in whose house at City Road, as a young preacher, I lived, once took me to see a review by the Duke of Wellington in Hyde Park. During an interval the Duke, dismounting, stood by his horse near Mr. Moore and myself. Pointing to the Duke (for he was short of stature), Henry Moore said, ‘ That is John Wesley as I knew him’.

 

[7] On Jan. 7 he wrote from near London to Benjamin Rhodes, the Assistant at Redruth, approving his change of stewards. ‘The trustees and leaders will soon trample underfoot if you let them’(Works, vol. xiii. p. 123). The next day he wrote the Preface to his ‘Extract from an Account of the Pelew Islands’ (Works vol. xiv. p. 294); and on the 9th a letter to Miss Bolton (Works, vol. xii. p. 486).

 

[8] This is hut one of many indications of his conviction that his long day of service had reached its eventide. Another indication is a tendency to rise later. Cf. Diary, Jan. 14, 16, 17, 21. His Journal he continued until Oct. 24, 1790.

 

[9] The account was entitled The Shipwreck of the Antelope, East India packet, H. Wilson, commander (1788). See W.H.S. vol. iv. p. 237. Prince Lee Boo, of the Pelew Islands, died of small-pox in London, in 1784, aet.20, and was buried in St. Mary’s, Rother­hithe. See Old and New London, vol. vi. p. 136;see also Arm .Mag.1790, P 545; and below, Dec.1, 1789.

 

[10] He wrote from London to Duncan McAllum, whom he had ordained in 1787, and on the 24th to Freeborn Garrettson (Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. pp. 565-6).

 

[11] In his Diary the accounts for 1788 occupy six pages. He seems to have struck a balance quarterly. The account for the whole year is thus summarized on the last page:

 

                                                                  ₤     s.    d.

 

 Recd. myself.                .   .     .        circa        220    0      0

 

Expended in travelling  .     .     .              45    16    0

 

The rest (save some shillings) I gave away.

 

                                                                    ₤     s.     d.

 

B J[ohn] A[tlay]’s Account .    .           0564    0      0

 

To my brother’s family .     .     .             210    0     0

 

To my sister’s hall and Nieces  .   .           81   10    0

 

The preaching Houses .     .    .                145   0      0

 

The preachers and wives   .    .    .             36   0      0

 

To several

 

The rest

 

The accounts show that he had been helping his brother Charles’s widow more liberally than the state of his finances permitted.

 

[12] This, the second preaching-house, was erected at the expense of Mr. John Haddock, for whom see Meth. Mag 1799, p. 328, W.H.S. vol. iv. p. 163, and Meth. Rec. Oct. 5, 1905. See also below, Oct. 5, 1790. Twenty-five years later this ‘noble building’ was pulled down, and on the same site a new and still larger building was erected. This is still in use. See W.M. Mag. 1909, p. 278.

 

         [13] In 1785 Wesley opened a new chapel there. This building still stands, and is now used as a Sunday school. Wesley’s reference to Winchelsea is not quite accurate. The height of its prosperity was not reached until William I made it a Cinque Port. Its decay dates from the great storms of 1236 and 1250, which washed away hundreds of houses and several churches. Evelyn gives an in­teresting description of Winchelsea. 

 

[14] On Jan. 31 he wrote from Loudon to Thomas Rutherford (new ed. Wesley Letters).