The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)Tyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., founder of the Methodists. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Methodism; Wesley, John, 1703-1791
The widow, therefore, went on
to Bristol without seeing him. Here there were mutual explanations.
She related to Wesley what had passed between Bennet and herself, and
seemed to think, that the contract was binding. Wesley, on the other
hand, reminded her of what had passed between himself and her; and she
professed herself quite convinced, that her engagement with Bennet was
not binding; and, accordingly, she and Wesley went off to Ireland.
Here they passed several months together. “She examined all the women
in the smaller societies, and the believers in every place. She settled
all the women bands, visited the sick, prayed with the mourners, more
and more of whom received remission of sins, during her conversation
or prayer.” To Wesley himself “she was both a servant and a friend, as
well as a fellow labourer in the gospel. She provided everything he
wanted; and told him, with all faithfulness and freedom, if she thought
anything amiss in his behaviour. The more they conversed together, the
more he loved her; and, at Dublin, they contracted by a contract _de
præsenti_. All this while she neither wrote to Bennet, nor he to her.”
At the end of July, they returned to Bristol. Here she heard some idle
tales concerning Wesley and Molly Francis. Jealousy took possession of
her, and she addressed a loving letter to forsaken Bennet, and received
an answer, that he would meet her in her journey to the north.
In August, she came with Wesley to London. Here a friend advised her to
abandon the thought of marrying Wesley, on the ground, that the London
Methodists would never treat her with the respect which Wesley’s wife
ought to have; and, that she had not sufficient humility and meekness
to bear the slights that would be cast upon her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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