reflection, he did not hope to go to heaven without it: but now, he is, or will be taught, that let him only have a right faith, (that is, such and such notions,) and add thereunto such and such externals, and he is quite safe. He may indeed roll a few years in purging fire, but he will surely go to heaven at last! Therefore, you and my dear ***, have great need to weep over him but have you not also need to weep for yourselves? For have you given God your hearts? Are you holy in heart? Have you the kingdom of God within you? Righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? The only true religion under heaven! O cry unto Him that is mighty to save, for this one thing needful: earnestly and diligently use all the means which God hath put plentifully into your hands! Otherwise, I should not at all wonder, if God permit you also to be given up to a strong delusion: but whether you were, or were not;-whether you are Protestants or Papists, neither you nor he can ever enter into glory, unless you are now cleansed from all pollution of flesh and spirit, and perfect: holiness in the fear of God! I am, your affectionate, JOHN WESLEY. MY DEAR SISTER, TO MISS FULLER. YOU did well in giving me a plain and circumstantial account of the manner wherein God has dealt with your soul. Your part is now to stand fast in the glorious liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. There is no need that you should ever be entangled again in the bondage of pride, or anger, or desire. God is willing to give always what he grants once. Temptations, indeed, you are to expect. But you may tread them all under your feet: his grace is sufficient for you. And the God of all grace, after you have suffered awhile, shall establish, strengthen, and settle you. I am, my dear Sister, yours, affectionately, TO MISS B. DEAR MISS B WE have had a society in Bath for about thirty years, sometimes larger, and sometimes smaller. It was very small this autumn, consisting only of eleven or twelve persons, of whom Michael Hemmings was leader. I spoke to these one by one, added nine or ten more, divided them into two classes, and appointed half of them to meet with Joseph Harris. But if you are willing to cast in your lot with us, I had rather that the single women in both classes who desire it, should meet with you, and any others who are not afraid of the reproach of Christ. In that little tract, A Plain Account of the People called Methodists, you see our whole plan. We have but one point in view. To be altogether Christians, scriptural, rational Christians. For which we well know, not only the world, but the almost Christians will never forgive us. From these, therefore, if you join heart and hand with us, you are to expect neither justice nor mercy. If you are determined, let me know. But consider what you do. Can you give up all for Christ. The hope of improving your fortune, a fair reputation, and agreeable friends? Can he make you amends for all these? Is he alone a sufficient portion? I think you will find him so. And if you were as entirely devoted to God as Jenny Cooper was, you would never have cause to repent of your choice, either in time or in eternity. The more freely you write, the more agreeable it will be to your affectionate Brother, JOHN WESLEY. TO MISS B MY DEAR SISTER, Nov. 22, 1769. IT is exceedingly strange. I should really wonder, (if I could wonder at any weakness of human nature,) that so good a woman as and one who particularly piques herself on her Catholic spirit, should be guilty of such narrowness of spirit. Let us not vary in thought or word from the Methodist principle, "Whosoever doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." We have other instances of persons who now enjoy the peace of God, and yet do not know the time when they received it. And God is sovereign: he may make what exceptions he pleases to his general rule. So this objection is easily set aside; and so is that of your age. The Spirit of the Lord can give understanding, either in a longer or in a shorter time. And I doubt not but he will give you favour in the eyes of your sisters. You have only to go on in simplicity, doing the will of God from the heart, and trusting in the anointing of the Holy One, to teach you of all things. I am glad you are acquainted with Miss Owens. Encourage each other to be altogether Christians. Defy fashion and custom, and labour only to "Steer your useful lives below, Let not the gentlewoman intrench upon the Christian. But be a simple follower of the Lamb. At present you are exactly in your place, and I trust no temptation, inward or outward, shall ever induce you to depart from the work to which God has called you. You must expect to be pushed to both extremes by turns; and you need all the power of God to save you from it. And he will save you to the uttermost, provided you still retain the sense of your poverty and helplessness. It is a good prayer, "Show me as my soul can bear, The depth of inbred sin." And just so he will deal with you, for he remembers that you are but dust. But you should not wait to be thus and thus convinced, in order to be renewed in love. No pray now for all the mind which was in Christ; and you shail have more and more conviction as it pleases him. Mr. Spencer and Glynn are of excellent spirits, notwithstanding their opinion. I hardly know their fellows. Love is all we want: let this fill our hearts, and it is enough. Peace be with your spirit. I am your affectionate Brother, JOHN WESLEY. THE following letter was written by Mr. Wesley twenty-nine days before his death, and is supposed to be the last that he wrote to America. TO THE REV. EZEKIEL COOPER, OF PHILA MY DEAR BROTHER, DELPHIA. Near London, Feb. 1, 1791. THOSE that desire to write, or say any thing to me, have no time to lose, for time has shaken me by the hand, and death is not far behind. But I have reason to be thankful for the time that is past: I felt few of the infirmities of old age for four-score and six years. It was not till a year and a half ago that my strength and my sight failed. And still I am enabled to scrawl a little, and to creep, though I cannot run. Probably I should not be able to do so much, did not many of you assist me by your prayers. I have given a distinct account of the work of God, which has been wrought in Britain and Ireland, for more than half a century. We want some of you to give us a connected relation of what our Lord has been doing in America, from the time that Richard Boardman accepted the invitation, and left his country to serve you. See that you never give place to one thought of separating from your brethren in Europe. Lose no opportunity of declaring to all men, that the Methodists are one people in all the world, and that it is their full determination so to continue, "Though mountains rise, and oceans roll, To sever us in vain." To the care of our common Lord I commit you, and am, your affectionate Friend and Brother, JOHN WESLEY. TO MISS H WITHOUT doubt it seems to you, that your's is a peculiar case. You think there is none like you in the world. Indeed there are. It may be, ten thousand persons are now in the same state of mind as you. I myself was so a few years ago. I felt the wrath of God abiding on me. I was afraid every hour of dropping into hell. I knew myself to be the chief of sinners. Though I had been very innocent, in the account of others, I saw my heart to be all sin and corruption. I was without the knowledge and the love of God, and therefore an abomination in his sight. But I had an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so have you. He died for your sins. And he is now pleading for you at the right hand of God. O look unto Him, and be saved! He loves you freely, without any merit of your's. He has atoned for all your sins. See all your sins on Jesus laid! His blood has paid for all. Fear nothing; only believe. His mercy embraces you: it holds you in on every side. Surely you shall not depart hence, till your eyes have seen his salvation. I am, Madam, your affectionate Brother, JOHN WESLEY.. MY DEAR SISTER, TO MISS B. Nov. 5, 1770. I AM glad you had such success in your labour of love: in all things you shall reap, if you faint not. And the promise is, "They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." How does the little society prosper? Are you all united in love? And are you all aware of that bane of love, tale-bearing and evil-speaking? Do you retain that little spark of faith? Are you going forward, and have you as strong a desire as ever, "to increase with all the increase of God?" "See the Lord, thy Keeper, stand, Omnipotently near! Lo, He holds thee by thy hand, O trust him, love him, and praise him. I know not that you have any thing to do with fear. Your continual prayer should be for faith and love. I admired a holy man in France, who, considering the state of one who was full of doubts and fears, forbade him to think of his sins at all, and ordered him to think only of the love of God in Christ. The fruit was, all his fears vanished away, and he lived and died in the triumph of faith. Faith is sight; that is, spiritual sight: and it is light and not darkness: so that the famous Popish phrase, “The darkness of faith," is pare of all who talk in that unscripa contradiction in terms. tural manner, or they will perplex, if not destroy you. I cannot find in my Bible any such sin as legality. Truly we have been often afraid, where no fear was. I am not half legal enough, not enough under the law of love. Sometimes there is painful conviction of sin, preparatory to full sanctification: sometimes a conviction that has far more pleasure than pain, being mixed with joyful expectation. Always there should be a gradual growth in grace; which need never be intermitted from the time we are justified. Do not wait, therefore, for pain or any thing else, but simply for all-conquering faith. The more freely you write, the more satisfaction you will give to your affectionate Brother, JOHN WESLEY. MY DEAR SISTER, TO MISS B Feb. 16, 1771. YOU look inward too much, and upward too little. "Christ is ready to impart, Life to all, for life who sigh: Encourage yourself to trust in him: that is your point. Then he will do all things well. Legality, with most who use that term, really means tenderness of conscience. There is no propriety in the word, if one would take it for seeking justification by works. Considering, therefore, how hard it is to fix the meaning of that odd term, and how dreadfully it has been abused, I think it highly advisable for all the Methodists to lay it quite aside. If Mr. S. could find any other doctrine which he thought was peculiarly mine, he would be as angry at it as he is at Christian Perfection. But it is all well, we are to go forward, whoever goes back or turns aside. I hope your class goes on well, and that you are not weary of well-doing. The Lord is at hand. In praying with the children, you have only to ask for those things which you are sensible they want, and that in the most plain, artless, and simple language which you can devise. Perhaps we may see a new accomplishment of Solomon's words, "He that reproveth a man, shall afterward find more favour than he who flattereth with his tongue." But, be that as it may, I have done my duty, I could no otherwise have delivered my own soul: and no offence at all would have been given thereby, had not pride stifled both religion and generosity. But my letter is now out of date, it is mentioned no more, there is a more plausible occasion found: namely, those eight terrible Propositions which conclude the Minutes of our Conference.* At the instance of some who were sadly frightened thereby, I have revised them over and over: I have considered them in every point of view: and truly, the more I consider them, the more I like them. The more fully I am convinced, not only that they are true, agreeable both to Scripture and to sound experience. but that they contain truths of the deepest importance, and such as ought to be continually inculcated by those who would be pure from the blood of all men. The imagination which Mr. borrowed from another good man, "That he is not a believer who has any sin remaining in him," is not only an error, but a very dangerous one, of which I have seen fatal effects. Herein we divided from the Germans near thirty years ago: and the falseness and absurdity of it is shown in my second Journal, and in my sermon on that subject. Your experience reminds me of these lines: So many tender joys and woes, Have o'er my quiv'ring soul had power; * The Minutes of the year 1770, which gave occasion to Mr. Fletcher to write his Checks. |