FEBRUARY 15
Duty is all I consider. Trouble and reproach I value not.
Letter, 6th May, 1774
One charge remains, which you repeat over and over, and lay a peculiar stress upon. It is the poor old worn-out tale of “getting money by preaching”. … But blessed be God, my conscience is clear. My heart does not condemn me in this matter. I know, and God knoweth, that I have no desire to load myself with thick clay; that I love money no more than I love the mire in the streets; that I seek it not. And I have it not, any more than suffices for food and raiment, for the plain conveniences of life. I pay no court to it at all or to those that have it, either with cunning or without. For myself, for my own use, I raise no contributions, either great or small.
to John Downes, 1759
