The Journal Of John Wesley

At one I went to the Cross in Bolton. There was a vast number of people, but many of them utterly wild. As soon as I began speaking, they began thrusting to and fro, endeavoring to throw me down from the steps on which I stood. They did so once or twice; but I went up again and continued my discourse. They then began to throw stones; at the same time some got upon the Cross behind me to push me down; on which I could not but observe how God overrules even the minutest circumstances. One man was bawling just at my ear, when a stone struck him on the cheek and he was still. A second was forcing his way down to me till another stone hit him on the forehead; it bounded back, the blood ran down, and he came no farther. The third, being close to me stretched out his hand, and in the instant a sharp stone came upon the joints of his fingers. He shook his hand and was very quiet till I concluded my discourse and went away.

Saturday, October 22. -- I spent an hour in observing the various works of God in the Physic Garden at Chelsea. It would be a noble improvement of the design if some able and industrious person were to make a full and accurate inquiry into the use and virtues of all these plants: without this, what end does the heaping them thus together answer, but the gratifying an idle curiosity?

Monday, November 21. -- I set out for Leigh, in Essex. It had rained hard in the former part of the night and was succeeded by a sharp frost, so that most of the road was like glass; and the northeast wind set just in our face. However, we reached Leigh by four in the afternoon. Here was once a deep open harbor; but the sands have long since blocked it up and reduced a once flourishing town to a small ruinous village. I preached to most of the inhabitants of the place in the evening; to many in the morning, and then rode back to London.