_To Mr. J―――― H――――._
_London, March 25, 1741._
_My dear Sir_,
I Wrote to you immediately on my coming on shore. We arrived at
_Falmouth_ last _Wednesday_ was sevennight, and got here the _Sunday_
following.――Blessed be GOD, we had a summer’s passage. Many of our
friends, I find, are sadly divided, and, as far as I am able to judge,
have been sadly misled. Congregations at _Moorfields_, and _Kennington
Common_, on _Sunday_, were as large as usual.――On the following week
days, quite contrary: Twenty thousand dwindled down to two or three
hundred. It has been a trying time with me. A large orphan family,
consisting of near a hundred, to be maintained, about four thousand
miles off, without the least fund, and in the dearest part of his
Majesty’s dominions; also, above a thousand pounds in debt for them,
and not worth twenty pounds in the world of my own, and threatened to
be arrested for three hundred and fifty pounds, drawn for in favour of
the Orphan house, by my late dear deceased friend and fellow-traveller
Mr. _S――――_. My Bookseller, who, I believe, has got some _hundreds_
by me, being drawn away by the _M――――ns_, refuses to print for me; and
many, very many of my spiritual children, who, at my last departure
from _England_, would have plucked out their own eyes to have given
to me, are so prejudiced by the dear Messrs. _W._’s dressing up the
doctrine of Election in such horrible colours, that they will neither
hear, see, nor give me the least assistance: Yea, some of them send
threatening letters, that GOD will speedily destroy me. As for the
people of the world, they are so imbittered by my _injudicious_,
and _too severe expressions_ against Archbishop _Tillotson_, and the
Author of the old _Duty of Man_, that they fly from me as from a viper;
and what is most cutting of all, I am now constrained, on account of
our differing in principles, publicly to separate from my dear, dear
old friends Messrs. _J――――_ and _C―――― W――――y_, whom I still love as
my own soul: But, through infinite mercy, I am enabled to strengthen
myself in the LORD my GOD. I am cast down but not destroyed, perplexed
but not in despair. A few days ago, in reading _Beza’s Life of Calvin_,
these words were much pressed upon me, “_Calvin_ is turned out of
_Geneva_, but, behold a new church arises!”――JESUS, the ever loving,
altogether lovely JESUS, pities and comforts me. My friends are
erecting a place, which I have called a _Tabernacle_, for morning’s
exposition. I have not, nor can I as yet, make any collections; but
let us not fear.――Our heavenly Father, with whom the fatherless find
mercy, will yet provide; let us only seek first the kingdom of GOD,
and his righteousness, and all other necessary things shall be added
unto us. In about a fortnight, though I scarce know an oak from a
hickery, or one kind of land from another, I am subpœna’d to appear
before parliament, to give an account of the condition of the province
of _Georgia_, when I left it. This, I suppose, is occasioned by
the party, which hath been so inveterate against the honourable the
trustees, whom they accuse of misemploying the public monies. The
event, which undoubtedly will be in favour of the trust, you may know
hereafter. In the mean while, believe me to be
Yours most affectionately,
_G. W._