{"id":"jw/letters/1738/01-to-lady-cox","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"01 To Lady Cox","title_alt":[],"text_basis":null,"date_composed":null,"date_precision":"unknown","date_note":null,"numbering":{"bicentennial":null,"jackson_running":null,"sugden":null},"source_edition":{"editor":null,"title":null,"edition":null,"place":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"volume":null,"pages":null,"scan_url":null,"scan_page_ids":null},"transcription":{"derived_from":null,"corrected_against_scan":false,"corrector":null,"corrected_on":null},"modernization":"none","license_text":"Public Domain Mark 1.0","license_apparatus":"CC BY 4.0","wikidata":null,"prev":null,"next":null,"part_of":"jw-letters","editorial_note":null,"source_id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-000","jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-001","jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-002"],"word_count":943,"themes_auto":["free-will","justifying-grace","pneumatology","reign-of-god","trinity","universal-redemption"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-000","jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-001","jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-002"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox","source_title":"01 To Lady Cox","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To Lady Cox Date: OXON, March 7, 1738. MADAM, Some days since, I was shown several queries Given at the close of the letter. which had been sent to Bath, and an answer to them, intended to have been sent likewise. But I could not approve of that answer, it seeming to me to savor too much of the wisdom of the world, which they will never know how to be enough afraid of who have seen what havoc it makes, even among the children of God. I will therefore answer them myself with all simplicity and without any regard to the judgment of the world; as knowing that, if my words do not appear foolishness to the world, it is because there is nothing of the wisdom of God in them. A plain account of the beginning of the sect inquired after was printed two or three years since. Probably the Defense mentioned in Green's Anti-Methodist Publications, No. 1. See p. 135. To which need only be added that, though some time after Mr. Morgan's death my brother and I were left alone, yet this loss was overbalanced the following year The same year. Morgan left Oxford on June 5, 1732, and died on Aug. 26. Wesley met Clayton on April 20, 1732, and asked him to his room at Lincoln College. 'At the first opportunity I acquainted him with our whole design, which he immediately and heartily closed with.' See letter of Oct. 18, 1732. by our acquaintance with Mr. Clayton. With him, several of his pupils, and afterward some of mine, joined together in the labor of love; to whom were soon added Mr. Broughton, Ingham, Whitefield, Hervey, whose zeal stirred up many others not to be ashamed of their Master or His words, even in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.","word_count":307,"source_url":null,"themes":["universal-redemption","reign-of-god","trinity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:40:44.362098"},{"id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox","source_title":"01 To Lady Cox","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"But in the beginning of the year 1735 it pleased God to break us in pieces again, and to scatter us, not only throughout England, but almost to the ends of the earth. My brother and I were first called into the country, and then sent with Mr. Ingham into America. Neither were we suffered to be long together there: one, before his return home, being driven to New England; another being called into Pennsylvania; and I only remaining in Georgia. Meanwhile Mr. Broughton, Whitefield, Hervey, and the rest of our friends were dispersed each a several way. So that, at my return to Oxon He was in Oxford for a day on Feb. 17, and again on March 4, where Charles was recovering from pleurisy. Peter Bhler was there, and on Sunday the 5th Wesley was 'clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved.' See Journal, i. 439, 442. this month, I found not one of those who had formerly joined with me; and only three gentlemen who trod in their steps, building up one another in the faith. To any one who asketh me concerning myself, or these, whom I rejoice to call my brethren, what our principles are, I answer clearly: We have no principles but those revealed in the Word of God; in the interpretation whereof we always judge the most literal sense to be the best, unless where the literal sense of one contradicts some other scripture.","word_count":249,"source_url":null,"themes":["justifying-grace","reign-of-god","trinity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:40:44.362164"},{"id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1738-01-to-lady-cox","source_title":"01 To Lady Cox","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"If it be asked whether they ' do not imagine themselves to have certain divine impulses, like the divine inspiration of the Apostles,' they answer: (1) There never was a good man without a divine impulse; and let those who will not believe this on St. Paul's assertion go to the heathen Cicero for the same information. Yet (2) They learn from the oracles of God that ' the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,' which every Christian is to expect, is different in kind as well as degree from the inspiration of the Apostles. It does not enable him to speak new tongues or to work outward miracles; therefore it is different in kind: neither does it give the same measure of holiness; therefore it is different in degree. But (3) They believe the change wrought by it in the heart to be equivalent to all outward miracles; as implying the selfsame power which gave eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and life to the dead. The language wherein they talk of these mighty works is that of the Spirit whereby they are wrought. They call, for instance, a person thus changed 'regenerated, born again, a new creature'; and in all other cases endeavor to express spiritual things in spiritual words, as being assured there are none like them, quick and powerful, full of light and life. Yet they are not ignorant that to the world, which knoweth not, neither can know, the hidden meaning of those expressions, they ever from the beginning did appear cant and jargon, and will do so to the end. If it be asked 'whether they do not talk of extraordinary notices and directions to determine their actions,' they say: Yes, they do. As to extraordinary directions, they do not doubt but in extraordinary cases, too difficult to be determined by reason, as perhaps depending on many future contingencies, and yet too important to be left undetermined, God will, if applied to by fervent prayer, ' give a perfect lot. And to extraordinary notices....' Here the manuscript breaks off. Other 'Queries Respecting the Methodists,' bearing date 1741, will be found in the Works, xiii. 509 - 11, which seems ultimately to have led to his Short History of the People called Methodists (pages 303 - 82 of the same volume).","word_count":387,"source_url":null,"themes":["pneumatology","free-will","reign-of-god"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:40:44.362228"}]}