.

The storm now broke forth upon him. A complaint was entered to the
magistrates; an indictment filed, and a warrant issued, by which
he was brought before the Recorder, on the charges of Mr.
Williamson,--1st, That he had defamed his wife; and, 2dly, That he had
causelessly repelled her from the Holy Communion. Wesley denied the
first charge; and the second, being wholly ecclesiastical, he would
not acknowledge the authority of the magistrate to decide upon it. He
was, however, told that he must appear before the next court, to be
holden at Savannah, August term, 1737. In the mean time pains were
taken by Mr. Causton to pack and influence the jury. There were
debates and rude management in the court. No pleas of defence were
admitted. The evidence was discordant. Twelve of the grand jurors drew
up a protest against the proceedings. The magistrates, themselves,
after repeated adjournments, could come to no decision; and justice
was not likely to be awarded. Wearied with this litigious prosecution,
Wesley applied to his own case the direction given by our Lord to his
Apostles, "If they persecute thee in one place, flee unto another;"
and, shaking off the dust of his feet as a witness against them, he
fled to Charlestown, South Carolina; whence, on Thursday, the 22d of
December, 1737, he embarked for England. After a pleasant passage, he
landed at Deal, February, 1738, as he remarks, "on the anniversary
festival in Georgia, for Mr. Oglethorpe's landing there." As he
entered the channel, on his return, Mr. Whitefield sailed through it,
on a mission; not to be his coadjutor, as he expected, but, as it
proved, his successor.

II. The situation of CHARLES WESLEY was annoyed by like discomfitures,
and followed by still greater disappointment. He had received the most
flattering accounts of Georgia from the conversation of Oglethorpe,
with whom he had been for some time acquainted; and from the little
book which this gentleman had published. Implicitly confiding in the
high wrought descriptions which had been given him, and indulging
anticipations of a colonization of more than Utopian excellence, he
attended his brother to Georgia, and attached himself to Oglethorpe,
whose warm professions had won him to his service both as Secretary
and Chaplain.

His destination was to the new settlement at Frederica; and there he
arrived, with his patron, on the 9th of March, 1736. The first person
who saluted him, as he stept on shore,