1752
Age 49
THE year 1752 is skipped by the whole of Wesley’s biographers; and yet it was not devoid of incident.
Charles Wesley was now on terms of intimate friendship with the Countess of Huntingdon, and frequently preached and administered the sacrament in her ladyship’s house, to personages of great distinction.[166]
Whitefield arrived from America in the month of May; in June set out on a tour to Wales and the west of England; and in August to the north and to Scotland. The last six weeks of the year he spent in London, and began to take steps towards the erection of the Tabernacle in Moorfields.
He was considerably annoyed at the publication of Wesley’s tract on final perseverance, and, on February 5, wrote as follows: “Poor Mr. Wesley is striving against the stream. Strong assertions will not go for proofs with those who are sealed by the Holy Spirit even unto the day of redemption.”[167]
Several of Wesley’s itinerants began to be disloyal to their chiefs; and this led to the following document being signed with the names appended.
“January 29, 1752. It is agreed by us whose names are underwritten,—
“1. That we will not listen, or willingly inquire after any ill concerning each other.
“2. That, if we do hear any ill of each other, we will not be forward to believe it.
“3. That, as soon as possible, we will communicate what we hear, by speaking or writing to the person concerned.