From Moorfields, London, to S W in Charles Street, Bristol. The Methodists have allowed preachers to take out licenses as dissenters to avoid persecution and the attention of the press-gang. They still profess however to be loyal members of the Church of England - 'This is their sincerity & my brother applauds their skilfullness & his own'.
Great power has been given them to pray for the murderer [Lawrence Shirley, Earl Ferrers] 'till we have prayed him out of the Devil's hands'.
Charles has changed him mind with regard to death-bed repentences for he now believes that most will be saved.
He is not sorry for Mr Tucker's disgrace - the man's vanity was insufferable.
[The rest of this letter is badly damaged].
Notes
- Publication Record: Quoted by Dr Frank Baker in Charles Wesley - As Revealed by his Letters (1948), p.100.
- Lawrence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, was convicted in April 1760 of the murder of one of his servants, and was accordingly hanged at Tyburn the following month. He was first cousin to the Countess of Huntingdon. Source: Dictionary of National Biography.