Friday, August 26, 2011

JW saves a critic from severe beating

Fri 26 Aug 1743: I set out for Cornwall. In the evening I preached at the cross in Taunton, on ‘The kingdom of God is not meats and drinks, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ A poor man had posted himself behind, in order to make some disturbance. But the time was not come. The zealous wretches who ‘deny the Lord that bought them’ had not yet stirred up the people. Many cried out, ‘Throw down that rascal there! Knock him down! Beat out his brains!’ So that I was obliged to entreat for him more than once, or he would have been but roughly handled.