_To the same._
_London, May 15, 1742._ _My dear Friend_,
FRESH matter of praise; bless ye the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The battle that was begun on _Monday_, was not quite over till _Wednesday_ evening, though the scene of action was a little shifted. Being strongly invited, and a pulpit being prepared for me by an honest quaker, a coal merchant, I ventured on _Tuesday_ evening to preach at _Mary le bon fields_, a place almost as much frequented by boxers, gamesters, and such like, as _Moor-fields_. A vast concourse was assembled together, and as soon as I got into the field pulpit, their countenance bespoke the enmity of their hearts against the preacher. I opened with these words――“I am not ashamed of the gospel of CHRIST, for it is the power of GOD unto salvation to every one that believeth.” I preached in great jeopardy; for the pulpit being high, and the supports not well fixed in the ground, it tottered every time I moved, and numbers of enemies strove to push my friends against the supporters, in order to throw me down. But the Redeemer stayed my soul on himself, therefore I was not much moved, unless with compassion for those to whom I was delivering my master’s message, which I had reason to think, by the strong impressions that were made, was welcome to many. But satan did not like thus to be attacked in his strong-holds, and I narrowly escaped with my life: for as I was passing from the pulpit to the coach, I felt my wig and hat to be almost off. I turned about, and observed a sword just touching my temples. A young rake, as I afterwards found, was determined to stab me, but a gentleman, seeing the sword thrusting near me, struck it up with his cane, and so the destined victim providentially escaped. Such an attempt excited abhorrence; the enraged multitude soon seized him, and had it not been for one of my friends, who received him into his house, he must have undergone a severe discipline. The next day, I renewed my attack in _Moor-fields_; but would you think it? after they found that pelting, noise, and threatnings would not do, one of the _merry Andrews_ got up into a tree very near the pulpit, and shamefully exposed his nakedness before all the people. Such a beastly action quite abashed the serious part of my auditory; whilst hundreds of another stamp, instead of rising up to pull down the unhappy wretch, expressed their approbation by repeated laughs. I must own at first it gave me a shock; I thought satan had now almost outdone himself; but recovering my spirits, I appealed to all, since now they had such a spectacle before them, whether I had wronged human nature in saying, after pious _Bishop Hall_, “that man, when left to himself, is half a devil and half a beast;” or as the great Mr. _Law_ expressed himself, “a motley mixture of the beast and devil.”――Silence and attention being thus gained, I concluded with a warm exhortation, and closed our festival enterprizes, in reading fresh notes that were put up, praising and blessing GOD amidst thousands at the tabernacle, for what he had done for precious souls, and on account of the deliverances he had wrought out for me and his people. I could enlarge; but being about to embark in the _Mary and Ann_, for _Scotland_, I must hasten to subscribe myself,
Yours, &c.