OCT. 1, Monday, and the three following days,[1] I spoke to the society one by one, and was much refreshed; as the love of many was not grown cold, and their number considerably increased.

 

Fri. 5.-I preached at noon in Keynsham, and the power of God was present in an uncommon degree; so it was when I met the children at Miss Bishop’s,[2] and afterwards those at

 

OCT. 1, Monday

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. v. 4, etc., class, tea, class; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 class; 4.15 prayed, tea, visited; 6.30 I Pet. v. 7, 8, the Committee; 8 at sister Joh[nson’s] supper, conversed, prayer; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 2[3]

 

4 Prayed, class; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 class; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 class; 4 visited; 5 prayer, tea, conversed; 6.30 I Pet. v. 10, the leaders, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 3

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 6 class, tea, class; 1dinner, conversed; 2 class; 4.45 tea, conversed, prayer, Jacob[‘s] Wells, tea, conversed, prayed; 5.30 Heb. iv. 7! class, chaise, prayed; 8 at sister Johnson’s, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 4[4]

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed; 9 class; 12.30 writ narrative; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 1.30 on business; 3 letters; 5 at Mr. Jones’s, walk, rain; 6 prayed; 6.30 2 Pet. i. 1-5, the bands, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30

 

Friday 5

 

4 Prayed, sermon, letters; 8 Brisl[ing]ton, tea, within, prayed, chaise; 10.30 at Miss Bishop’s; 11 Eph. ii. 8! the children, chaise; 1.15 Hannam, dinner, within! 4.30 at the School, read narrative; 5 tea.

 

       conversed, read narrative, prayed, supper; 8.30 2-Cor. v. 19; 10.

 

Mr. Simpson’s.[5] I verily think the spirit and behaviour of these two sets of children gradually affect the whole place; which now retains scarce anything of the brutality and savageness for which it was eminent some years ago. In the evening we had a watch-night at Kingswood. The weather was exceed­ing rough; yet the house was, filled, and few went away till after the noon of night.

 

Sun. 7.[6]- I preached morning and evening, and took a solemn leave of the affectionate people.

 

Mon. 8.-Having taken the whole mail-coach on Saturday,        I went to it on Monday between three and four; and found, to my great surprise, it was filled with other passengers; and the clerk faced me down I had taken the coach for Sunday. But, some of our friends speaking strong words, they thought good to provide us another coach; only it did not reach town quite so soon. I was, however, soon enough to meet a large congregation on Tuesday evening, and praise the Lord together.

 

Saturday 6

 

5 Prayed, the [children] ; 7 chaise, on business; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters; 2 at Mr. Gall’s, dinner, conversed; 3.30 visited some; 5 tea, conversed, prayer; 6 prayed, within to many; 7.30 Pen[ry], at sister Jo[hnson’s], supper, conversed; 9 prayer, on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 7

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, on business; 9.30 prayers, Matt. xxii. 34; 1.30 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 sleep, prayed, tea, conversed, 5 Matt. xxii. 35, society, singers; 8 supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 8

 

4 Prayed, Matt. xxii. 39! on business; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, letters, visited; 12 select society; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, on business; 4 coach; 5.30 Bath, tea; 6 coach, within, [-], sleep; 12 Thatcham.

 

Tuesday 9

 

6 Within; 10 tea, coach; 2 at home, dinner, on business; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed, on business; 6.30 prayers, Psa. xxi. I; 7.15 the leaders; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.15.

 

Wed. 10.-I retired, and spent the rest of the week in answering letters and preparing matter for the Magazine.

 

Sun. 14.-I preached in West Street Chapel morning and afternoon, and at St. Swithin’s Church in the evening.

 

Mon. 15.-I began a little tour, through Oxfordshire. I preached at Wallingford in the evening, with much enlargement of heart.

 

Wednesday 10

 

4 Prayed, writ narrative; 8 at T[homas] R[ankin’s], tea, prayer, sermon; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 Mag.; 5 tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Mag. ; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 11

 

4 Prayed, letters,[7] sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 sermon, Mag.; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 Mag.; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, prayed, sermon; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Friday 12[8]

 

4 Prayed, sermon, Mag.; 1 garden, Mag.; 2 dinner, conversed; 3 Mag.; 5 tea, conversed; 6 prayed, Mag.; 8 supper, conversed, prayer, on business; 10.

 

Saturday 13

 

4.30 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 on business; 11.30 letters; 12 garden; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 letters, read narrative; 4.30 tea, within, prayer; 6 Mag., prayed; 7.30 supper, Pen[ry] ; 9 on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 14

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 chapel, meditation; 9.30 prayers, Dan. iii., com­munion; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, prayed; 2.30 sleep, the leaders; 3.30 prayers, Eph. iv. 30, tea, society; 6 St. Swithin’s, prayers, Matt. ix. 5, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.15.

 

Monday 15

 

4 Tea, within; 5 chaise, Brentf[ord], coffee, chaise, New Inn, tea, walk; 9.45 chaise, Wallingf[ord], within; 3 dinner, within; 3.30 sermon, tea, conversed; 6 2 Cor. viii. 9! prayed; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

­Tues. 16,-Mr. Pentycross[9]  called upon me in the morning. Calvinism and bitterness are fled away together, and we willingly gave each other the right hand of fellowship. About one I preached at Oxford to a very quiet, deeply serious con­gregation. The house at Witney would nothing near contain the people in the evening; it was well filled at five on Wednesday morning. I dearly love this people; they are so simple of heart, and so much alive to God. After dinner we returned to Oxford.[10] Half an hour before the hour of preaching, a heavy rain began; by this means the house was filled, and not overfilled. I found great liberty of speech in enforcing the first and great commandment; and could not but hope there will be a great work of God here, notwithstanding all the wisdom of the world.

 

Tuesday 16

 

4 Prayed, sermon; 8 tea, within, prayer; 9 chaise; 11.15 Oxon., read narrative, dinner, Mark iii. 35, chaise; 4 Witn[ey], read narrative, prayed, tea; 6 Isai. xxxv. 8! supper, within; 8.30 together, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wednesday 17

 

4 Prayed, Deut. v. 7! sermon; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 sermon; 11 within, Oxon., read narrative; 1 dinner, conversed; 2 chaise; 4 Oxon., walk; 4.30 tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Matt. xxii. 37! read narrative, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 18

 

4 Prayed, Matt. xxii. 39! tea; 6.30 chaise; 8.30 tea, within; 10 chaise; 12 Wycomb[e], sermon; 1 dinner, Mag., tea, conversed, prayed; 6 Mark iv. 3; 7.30 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thur. 18. -We went on to High Wycombe. The work of God is so considerably increased here that, although three galleries are added to the preaching-house, it would scarce contain the people. Even at five in the morning, Friday the 19th, it was thoroughly filled. Never before was there so fair a prospect of doing good at this place. I dined in London.

 

Sun. 21.-I preached in the morning at Spitalfields, with the usual success; in the afternoon at the new chapel, on the remarkable answer of Balaam to Balak’s question (Micah vi. 8). How clear light had Balaam at that time! But he soon turned back, and ‘loved darkness rather than light.’

 

Mon. 22.-I went to Canterbury, and preached in the evening on the first and great commandment; in the morning, Tuesday the 23rd, on the second. We then went on to Dover. In the evening I strongly applied the parable of the Sower to a crowded audience.

 

Friday 19[11]

 

4 Prayed, Gen. xvii. I, tea; 6.30 chaise, Pluche, Uxbri[dge]; 9 tea, chaise; 1 London, letters; 2 dinner, conversed, letters; 4.30 tea, conversed; 5.30 letters, prayed, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 20

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, prayer, letters; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2.30 letters, prayed, tea, conversed; 6 prayers, 7 Gal. vi. 15, communion, supper, Pen[ry], on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 21

 

4 Prayed, letters, Sp[italfields], tea, meditation, prayers, Eph. v. 15! com­munion; 1 dinner, within, sleep; 3 letter, the leaders, tea, prayed; 5 prayers, Mic. vi. 8, society, within, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Heb. ii. I.

 

Monday 22

 

4 Prayed; 5 chaise, read Pluche; 10 Chatham, tea, conversed; 11 coach; 3 Cant[erbury], dinner, conversed; 4 on business, tea; 5 prayed; 6.15 Matt. xxii. 37! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 23

 

4 Prayed, Mag.; 6 Matt. xxii. 39; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, visited; 10 chaise; 11.30 Dover; 1 dinner, conversed, Mag.; 3 walk; 4 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Mark iv. 3! communion; 8 supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Wed. 24.-I spoke equally plain in the morning. About noon (after an intermission of fifteen years[12]) I preached at Sandwich, to more than the house contained, on Luke ix. 62. God applied His word to many hearts, so that I have at length a hope for Sandwich also. In the evening I preached at Margate. The word was quick and powerful. So it was likewise in the morning, Thursday the 25th. A good work has been wrought here since I was here before.[13] Here is now a lively, loving society, who adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.

 

In returning to Canterbury, I called upon Mr. Kingsford, a man of substance as well as piety. He informed me: ‘Seven years ago I so entirely lost the use of my ankles and knees that I could no more stand than a new-born child. Indeed, I could not lie in bed without a pillow laid between my legs, one of them being unable to bear the weight of the other. I could not move from place to place but on two crutches. All the advice I had profited me nothing. In this state I continued above six years. Last year I went on business to London, then to Bristol and Bath. At Bath I sent for a physician; but before he came, as I sat reading the Bible, I thought, “Asa sought to the physicians, and not to God; but God can do more for me than any physician.” Soon after I heard a noise in the street; and, rising up, found I could stand. Being much surprised, I walked several times about the room; then I walked into the Square, and afterwards on the Bristol road. And from that time I have been perfectly well, having as full a use of all my limbs as I had seven years ago.’

 

Wednesday 24

 

4 Prayed, I Cor. xiii. 31 Mag.; 8 tea, conversed, prayer; 9 chaise; 11.30 Sandw[ich]; 12 Lu. ix. 62; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer; 2 chaise; 4 Margate, prayed; 5 tea, conversed; 6 2 Cor. v. 191 prayed, Mag., supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Thursday 25

 

4 Prayed, Mag.; 6 Deut. v. 7, on business, tea, conversed, prayer; 9.30 chaise, visited; 1 Cant[erbury], dinner, conversed, prayer; 3 prayed, tea, conversed; 6 Matt. xx. 16! communion; 8 supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

 

We had a comfortable opportunity in the evening, and early in the morning; and I left Canterbury, Friday the 26th, with a strong hope that the work of God will flourish here as it has not done for many years. In the evening I preached to a lovely congregation at Chatham, and on Saturday returned to London.

 

Mon. 29.-I looked over all the manuscripts which I had collected for the Magazine, destroyed what I did not think worth publishing, and corrected the rest.

 

Tues. 30.-I went down to Miss Harvey’s, at Hinxworth, in Hertfordshire. Mr. Simeon,[14] from Cambridge, met me there, ­who breathes the very spirit of Mr. Fletcher. The chapel was quite crowded in the evening. I preached on that inexhaustible text, and with much liberty of spirit, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith.’ In the morning, Wednesday the 3Ist,[15] I preached on the Woman of Canaan; and in the afternoon went over to Mr. Hicks’s, at Wrestlingworth, through such roads as no chaise could pass. So we had the pleasure of riding on a farmer’s cart. It was such a motion as I never felt before; but, to make amends, the church was so filled as I never had seen it, and I was enabled to speak with unusual plainness. Surely some received the truth in the love thereof!

 

Friday 26

 

4 Prayed; 5.30 Heb. ii. 11 tea, prayer; 8 coach; 12 Chatham, Journal; 1.30 dinner; 3 Journal, prayed, tea, 

 

        conversed; 5.30 Mark iii. 35! society, supper, conversed, prayer; 9.30.

 

Saturday 27

 

4 Prayed, Heb. ii. I, tea; 6.15 coach; 12 at home, on business; 1.30 dinner, within, prayer; 2 Mag., letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayer, letters, supper, Pen[ry]; 9 on business; 9.30.

 

Sunday 28

 

4 Prayed, letters; 8 Chapel, tea, Charles? 9.30 prayers; Eph. vi. 10, 11; 11.30 communion; 1 dinner, conversed, prayer, sleep; 3 the leaders, prayers, Eph. vi. I2! 5 tea, society, coach, society, within, supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

Monday 29

 

4 Prayed, I Pet. iii. 9, select society, Mag.; 8 tea, conversed, prayer, at T[homas] O[liver’s], Mag.; 1 N[orth] Green, dinner, conversed; 3.30 letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayed, letters; 8 supper; 9 prayer; 9.30.

 

Tuesday 30

 

4 On business, tea; 5.30 chaise, with T[homas] R[ankin; 7.30 Barnet, tea, conversed; 8 chaise; 9.30 Hatf[ield], Miss Harv[ey], chaise; 1.30 Hinxw[orth], dinner, conversed, letters; 5 tea, conversed, prayed, Eph. ii. 8 ! supper, prayer; 9.30.

 

 Wednesday 31

 

 4 Prayed, letters; 8 tea, conversed, Matt. xv. 28! letters; 1 dinner; 3 cart; 4.30 Wrestl[ing]wor[th]; 5 tea, conversed; 6 read prayers, Isa. Iv. 6! supper, within, prayer; 9.30.

---

 

[1] John Valton writing in his Journal a week later, remarks: ‘I accompanied him the last week in giving out tickets.’

 

[2] See an account of Miss Bishop’s school in her letter to Wesley, dated Keynsham, Aug. 10, 1784 (Arm. Mag. 1792).

 

[3] On Oct. 2 he wrote from Bristol to Mrs. Tighe, who, in later years, painted a Copy of the very fine portrait of Wesley by Romney, which is now hanging in the hall of Mr. T. W. Webber’s house near

 

Stradbally. Mr. Webber, who is a great grandson of Mrs. Tighe, also has three letters, which are published in W.H.S. vol. vii. p. 122.

 

[4] On Oct. 4 he wrote from Bristol to Miss Ball (W.M. Mag. 1861, p. 441); and on the 6th to Miss Mallet, of Long Stratton (Taft's Holy Women, vol. i. p. 85).

 

[5] Thomas Simpson, M.A., had been headmaster at Kingswood from 1771 to 1783 (Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 397; History of Kingswood School. p. 74)

 

[6] He wrote to Mr. Isaac Brown (Works, vol. Xii. P.523)

 

[7] One that he wrote on this day was the fine letter to Granville Sharp pro­testing his ‘perfect detestation of the horrid slave-trade,’ and firmly suggesting a ‘more honourable means’ of procuring information than the hiring and paying informers. (Original in possession of Mr. George Stampe, Grimsby.)

 

[8] On Oct. 12 he wrote from London to Miss Roe (Works, vol. xiii. p.85).

 

[9] See above, vol. vi. p. 9. He had disagreed with Lady Huntingdon on the subject of Calvinism. One of her chapels was built in his parish in con­sequence of his disagreement with her. See Life of the Countess of Huntingdon, vol. ii. p. 61.

 

[10] Joseph Entwisle and Richard Reece were in the Oxfordshire circuit at this time. Thomas Rankin was Wesley’s travelling companion, but the two preachers rode with him either singly or together during some of the journeys. Both preserved the memory of incidents that occurred. Entwisle, a young preacher of twenty riding on horseback, was thrown suddenly. Making a somer­sault, he alighted on his feet unhurt.  ‘Well done, Joseph!’ cried Wesley, ‘I could not have done better than that myself’ (Joseph Entwisle’s Memoirs, p. 36). Richard Reece was with Wesley and Rankin when they came to Oxford.

 

[11] On Oct. 19 he wrote from London to an unnamed leading preacher respecting the Epworth appointment and the Dewsbury case, authorising him, in consultation with Pawson, Thompson, Allen, and Goodwin, to settle it, remembering that it is a ‘Leading Case’ (new ed. Wesley Letters) ; and on the 20th he wrote to Robert Carr Brackenbury (Works, vol. xiii. p. 7).

 

[12] It was really only ten years since his last visit (Jan. 16, 1777). See below, p. 449.

 

        [13] See above, p. 128.

 

 [14]  This was Wesley’s second meeting with Charles Simeon of Cambridge. About three years had elapsed since their first interview. To the sketch of this saintly man given above (p. 39), it may be added that his greatest service to evangelical religion was the influence he wielded over the young men at Cambridge University. Chief amongst those was Henry Martyn, the senior wrangler of his year, renowned as a scholar and a saint, the most dis­tinguished of the chaplains of the East India Company, who gave to Persia the Holy Scriptures in the tongue of that ancient empire. Simeon died in 1836, the senior fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and, at his own request, was buried in the chapel of his college. For fifty-four years he was also a Vicar of trinity church, Cambridge, without emolument. He refused every living in the gift of his college, all of which had been offered to him in succession as they became vacant. See Life and correspondence of the Rev. Charles Simon, M.A., edited by Rev. W. Carus, M.A.; See above p. 39

 

[15] On Oct. 31 he wrote from near London to John King, and on Nov. 1 to Zechariah Yewdall (Works, vol. Xii p.332; vol. xiii. P.16)