Wesley Corpus

To 1776

AuthorJohn Wesley
Typejournal
YearNone
Passage IDjw-journal-1773-to-1776-004
Words397
Assurance Religious Experience Prevenient Grace
Some months after I observed, testiculum alterum altero duplo majorem esse. I consulted a Physician: He told me it was a common case, and did not imply any disease at all. In May twelvemonth it was grown near as large as a hen's egg. Being then at Edinburgh, Dr. Hamilton insisted on my having the advice of Drs. Gregory and Munro. They immediately saw it was a Hydrocele, and advised me, as soon as I came to London, to aim at a radical cure, which they judged might be effected in about sixteen days: When I came to London, I consulted Mr. Wathem. He advised me, 1. Not to think of a radical cure, which could not be hoped for, without my lying in one posture fifteen or sixteen days. And he did not know whether this might not give a wound to my constitution, which I should never recover. 2. To do nothing while I continued easy. And this advice I was determined to take. Last month the swelling was often painful. So on this day, Mr. Wathen performed the operation, and drew off something more than half a pint of a thin, yellow, transparent water. With this came out (to his no small surprise) a pearl of the Feb. 1774. JOURNAL, 7 size of a small shot; which he supposed might be one cause of the disorder, by occasioning a conflux of humours to the part. Wednesday, 5. I was as perfectly easy, as if no operation had been performed. -I began at the east end of the town to visit the society from house to house. I know no branch of the pas toral office, which is of greater importance than this. But it is so grievous to flesh and blood, that I can prevail on few, even of our Preachers, to undertake it. −Mr. Pentycross assisted me at the chapel. O what a curse upon the poor sons of men is the confusion of opinions ! Worse by many degrees than the curse of Babel, the confusion of tongues. What but this could prevent this amiable young man from joining heart and hand with us? I was desired by Mrs. Wright, of New-York, to let her take my effigy in wax-work. She has that of Mr. Whitefield and many others; but none of them, I think, comes up to a well-drawn picture. Fri.