2. “The Important Question. A Sermon, preached in Taunton, on September
12, 1775. Published at the Request of many of the Hearers, for the
Benefit of a Public Charity.” 12mo, 33 pages. This sermon was delivered
in the presbyterian chapel, and was made the means of converting Mrs.
Stone, in whose house Dr. Coke, shortly after, met Wesley’s preachers,
to confer with them about his religious scruples; and where he preached
his first sermon outside the precincts of a parish church.[251]
3. “A Concise History of England, from the earliest times to the death
of George II.” 12mo, 4 vols. Price, to subscribers, half a guinea.
Wesley says, his “volumes contain the substance of the English history,
extracted chiefly from Dr. Goldsmith, Rapin, and Smollett; only with
various corrections and additions.” Wesley made a profit of £200 by
this publication; but gave it all away the week he got it.[252]
For many years, William Pine of Bristol had been Wesley’s chief printer
and publisher, and had recently brought out a revised edition of
Wesley’s collected works, in thirty-two 12mo volumes. Henceforth, the
connection ceased. Pine became a red hot partisan of the rebellious
colonists. Wesley disliked this, and wrote as follows to his brother
Charles.
“LEEDS, _July 31, 1775_.
“DEAR BROTHER,--I must not delay answering your important question,
‘What can be done with William Pine?’ If he still, after my earnest
warning, ‘every week publishes barefaced treason,’ I beg you would
once more warn him, in my name and in your own; and if he slights or
forgets this warning, then give him his choice, either to leave us
quietly, or to be publicly disowned. At such a time as this, when our
foreign enemies are hovering over us, and our own nation is all in a
ferment, it is particularly improper to say one word which tends to
inflame the minds of the people.”[253]
Thus Wesley’s loyalty to King George severed his connection with
William Pine, the weekly publisher of the once popular _Felix Farley’s
Journal_. Mr. Pine died in 1803.[254]