[281] Ibid., p. 176.
[282] C. Wesley’s Journal, vol. i., p. 129.
[283] The remainder of the letter refers to some arrangements to render assistance to Mr. Fox, who accompanied Kinchin and Wesley to Manchester. By Wesley’s advice, he had settled at Oxford; and it was now proposed to subscribe £30, to pay his rent, and to establish him in business, as a vendor of “fowls, pigs, and cheeses.”
[284] Another entry in the same Register is as follows:—“The parish church of Thorp-Arch was rebuilt in 1756, and finished in 1762. William Sisset, Esq., gave the stone. The Rev. Mr. Atkinson gave fifteen guineas, and paid for the plastering. His mother, Mrs. Agnes Atkinson, gave the font. Lady Hastings gave five pounds for the pulpit. Mr. Sisset built his own and servants’ seats, and gave the painting of the pews. The rest was done by the parishioners.”
[285] Even now, the united value of the two livings is not more than about £400 a year.
[286] Wesley’s text on this occasion, was, “Unto him that worketh not,” etc.; “the great truth,” he writes, “so little understood in what is called a Christian country.” Whitelamb evidently understood it not.
[287] Wesley adds, “on my father’s tombstone.”
[288] The rich farmer, who married Wesley’s sister Susannah,—a brutal fellow, who was reduced to poverty, and ultimately lived on alms, which Wesley obtained for him, through Mr. Ebenezer Blackwell. The Rector of Epworth used to speak of him as “the wen of my family.”
[289] Arminian Magazine, 1778, p. 184.
[290] Wesley says, Whitelamb offered it.