To James Wheatley Date: BRISTOL, June 25 1751. Because you have wrought folly in Israel, grieved the Holy Spirit of God, betrayed your own soul into temptation and sin, and the souls of many others, whom you ought, even at the peril of your own life, to have guarded against all sin; because you have given occasion to the enemies of God, whenever they shall know these things, to blaspheme the ways and truth of God: We can in no wise receive you as a fellow laborer till we see clear proofs of your real and deep repentance. Of this you have given us no proof yet. You have not so much as named one single person in all England or Ireland with whom you have behaved ill, except those we knew before. The last and lowest proof of such repentance which we can receive is that: that, till our next Conference (which we hope will be in October), you abstain both from preaching and from practicing physic. If you do not, we are clear; we cannot answer for the consequences. Wheatley's immorality 'put my brother and me,' says Charles Wesley, 'upon a resolution of strictly examining into the life and moral behavior of every preacher in connection with us; and the office fell upon me.' He set out for this purpose on June 29. His brother wrote frequently to him during these anxious weeks. Dr. Whitehead has preserved some fragments of Wesley's letters which show how jealously the brothers watched over their band of helpers. See Whitehead's Wesley, ii. 266 70. July 17. I fear for C.S. Charles Skelton. He left Wesley in April 1754, intending to settle at Bury, but became an Independent minister in Southwark. See Journal, iii. 403, 470; iv. 93, 295. and J.C. Joseph Cownley, one of Wesley's best preachers. He died on Oct. 8, 1792. See Wesley's Veterans iv. 122-69; and letter of Sept. 20, 1746. more and more. I have heard they frequently and bitterly rail against the Church. On this Charles puts the following query: What assurance can we have that they will not forsake it, at least when we are dead Ought we to admit any man for a preacher till we can trust his invariable attachment to the Church

July 20. The Societies both must and shall maintain the preachers we send among them, or I will preach among them no more. The least that I can say to any of these preachers is, 'Give yourself wholly to the work, and you shall have food to eat and raiment to put on.' And I cannot see that any preacher is called to any people who will not thus maintain him. Almost everything depends on you and me: let nothing damp or hinder us: only let us be alive, and put forth all our strength. July 24. As to the preachers, my counsel is, not to check the young ones without strong necessity. If we lay some aside, we must have a supply; and of the two I prefer grace before gifts. Charles Wesley asks: Are not both indispensably necessary Has not the cause suffered, in Ireland especially, through the insufficiency of the preachers Should we not first regulate, reform, and bring into discipline the preachers we have before we look for more Should we not also watch and labor, to prevent the mischief which the discarded preachers may occasion July 27. What is it that has eaten out the heart of half our preachers, particularly those in Ireland Absolutely idleness; their not bring constantly employed. I see it plainer and plainer. Therefore I beg you will inquire of each, 'How do you spend your time from morning to evening' And give him his choice, 'Either follow your trade, or resolve before God to spend the same hours in reading, c., Wesley did his utmost to rouse and help his preachers to cultivate their minds. In Lent 1749 he met seventeen of them at Kingswood, and read lectures to them as he used to do to his pupils at Oxford. which you used to spend in working.'

London, August 3. I heartily concur with you in dealing with all, not only with disorderly walkers, but also triflers, aa, ppa, the effeminate and busybodies, as with M. F. See C. Wesley's Journal, ii. 90-1. He heard Michael Fenwick preach at Leeds () on Aug. 5. 'It was beyond description.... I talked closely with him, utterly averse to working, and told him plainly he should either labor with his hands or preach no more. He hardly complied, though he confessed it was his ruin, his having been taken off his business. I answered I would repair the supposed injury, by setting him up again in his shop.' See letter of Sept. 12, 1755. See also ibid. p. 94: 'I heard J. J., the drummer, again, and liked him worse than at first' I spoke to one this morning, so that I was even amazed at myself. London, August 8. We must have forty itinerant preachers, or drop some of our Societies. You cannot so well judge of this without seeing the letters I receive from all parts. London, August 15. If our preachers do not, nor will not, spend all their time in study and saving souls, they must be employed dose in other work or perish. London, August 17. C. S. pleads for a kind of aristocracy, and says you and I should do nothing without the consent of all the preachers; otherwise we govern arbitrarily, to which they cannot submit. Whence is this Cullompton, August 24. Oh that you and I may arise and stand upright! See next letter for Charles Wesley's verdict. I quite agree with you: let us have but six, so we are all one. I have sent one more home to his work. We may trust God to send forth more laborers; only be not unwilling to receive them, when there is reasonable proof that He has sent them. Wesley says on Aug. 21 that in Wiltshire and Devonshire he 'found more and more proof that the poor wretch Wheatley whom we had lately disowned was continually laboring to poison our other preachers' See Journal, iii. 535.