[202] Toplady’s Posthumous Works, 1780, pp. 343-346. [203] _Lloyd’s Evening Post_, April 2, 1773. 1774. Age 71 References have been made to the state of Wesley’s health. His labours had been undiminished, and yet many of his friends had been anxious and alarmed. John Pawson, in an unpublished letter, dated Bristol, October 14, 1773, remarks: “Mr. Wesley has been with us for some time. He seems to be declining very fast; and I think there is great reason to fear that he will not be with us long.” There was sufficient cause for solicitude. Wesley’s pain, during the last three years, must have been acute; and it is perfectly marvellous how he managed, without a murmur, and without abatement, to do the whole of his accustomed work. At the beginning of 1774, the matter reached its crisis. He writes: “January 4--Three or four years ago, a stumbling horse threw me forward on the pommel of the saddle. I felt a good deal of pain; but it soon went off, and I thought of it no more. Some months after, I observed _testiculum alterum altero duplo majorem esse_. I consulted a physician; he told me it was a common case, and did not imply any disease at all. In May twelvemonth, it was grown near as large as a hen’s egg. Being then at Edinburgh, Dr. Hamilton insisted on my having the advice of Drs. Gregory and Munro. They immediately saw it was a hydrocele, and advised me, as soon as I came to London, to aim at a radical cure, which they judged might be effected in about sixteen days. When I came to London, I consulted Mr. Wathen. He advised me--(1) Not to think of a radical cure, which could not be hoped for, without my lying in one posture fifteen or sixteen days; and he did not know whether this might not give a wound to my constitution, which I should never recover. (2) To do nothing while I continued easy. And this advice I was determined to take. Last month, the swelling was often painful. So on this day Mr. Wathen performed the operation, and drew off something more than half a pint of a thin, yellow, transparent water. With this came out, to his no small surprise, a pearl of the size of a small shot; which he supposed might be one cause of the disorder, by occasioning a conflux of humours to the part.” Such is Wesley’s own simple statement. The disease was unquestionably a serious one; and, yet, it is a surprising fact, that, only a week after the surgical operation, he was again in harness, and as actively employed as ever. Hence the following: “Tuesday, January 11--I began, at the east end of the town, to visit the society from house to house. I know no branch of the pastoral office which is of greater importance than this. But it is so grievous to flesh and blood, that I can prevail on few, even of our preachers, to undertake it.”