“On Thursday, the 7th inst., I was at Leominster. During the time ofmy preaching, the people behaved tolerably well; but, soon after I had done, a man came to press me. He took me to the justice’s house, and there left me. The justice being absent, I knew not what to do; but, seeing myself surrounded by a large and turbulent mob, I got upon the justice’s steps, and spake of their illegal proceedings, and then returned, without any hurt, to Brother K——’s, and sang a hymn of praise to our great Deliverer. Soon after this, I was pressed again, by another constable, who took me before the commissioners in a public-house. By this time the town was in an uproar. The commissioners ordered the constable to take me to a private room. I was confined about four hours; and was then called before the commissioners, who asked me if I was exempted from the present Act. I told them I was. Justice H—— said, ‘By what?’ I answered, ‘I have £3 a year freehold in the parish of Old Radnor.’ ‘Where are your writings?’ said they. I said, ‘At home.’ They then asked me if I had any friend, in Leominster, who would satisfy them of the account I had given of myself. ‘I have,’ said I; and, soon after, the man came in, and confirmed what I had said. Then the gentlemen were pleased to condescend to do me justice, and I was discharged immediately. They ordered an officer to guard me to my friends, to whom I was safely brought; and we joined in praises to God for His mercies to me His sinful child.”
Wiltshire.—On November 15, 1744, E. Godwin writes:—
“Wiltshire is surely a garden of the Lord. Last week I was chiefly about Longley and Brinkworth. Last Monday I went to Blunsdon. It was their revel; so I preached out of doors, and a great power seemed to attend the word, some crying, who had hardly ever wept since they were children.”
The preacher, at this time appointed to the Wiltshire circuit, was George Cook, of whom E. Godwin had said, only a few weeks before, “Brother Cook’s preaching is much blessed in Wiltshire, though his gifts are not enlarged enough for a city.” On December 8, Cook wrote to Cennick:—
“On the 22nd day of last month I went to Wickwar. As soon as I began preaching, the mob came with sheep-bells tied to a stick, and so they did ring them. They had also frying-pans, horse-rugles, a salt-box, and a post-horn. Some of the mob did put their mouths to the window, and made a noise like that of dogs; and they called me false prophet, and all manner of names they could think of; but Satan can go no farther than his chain. The Lord gave me an uncommon power to speak of His blood; and many of the people were greatly refreshed in their souls. Pray for me, dear sir.
“I am your little, weak, sinful, simple brother, in the wounds of the Lamb,
“George Cook.”
Within a month afterwards, this “weak and simple brother” was dead. John Cennick writes:—
“January 7, 1745. I rode round by Avebury, where brother Cook sickened of the small-pox. The minister of Avebury behaved very ill while he was sick, and threatened he would remove him, bad as he was, out of the place, and would treat him as a vagabond. He was not willing that brother Cook should be buried at Avebury; and, therefore, in the dead of the night, the friends brought him to Tytherton upon a horse; and, about two o’clock on Sunday morning last, they laid him by the side of three other bodies of the saints.”
Eight months after this strange interment, John Edwards came to Avebury, where George Cook had died. Edwards shall tell his own story.