{"id":"jw/letters/1748/28-to-john-bennet","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"28 To John Bennet","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-1748-28-to-john-bennet","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-000","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-001","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-002","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-003","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-004","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-005","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-006","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-007","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-008","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-009","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-010","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-011","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-012","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-013","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-014","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-015"],"word_count":5039,"themes_auto":["assurance","catholic-spirit","christology","free-will","justifying-grace","means-of-grace","pneumatology","prevenient-grace","reign-of-god","repentance","scriptural-authority","social-holiness","trinity","universal-redemption","works-mercy"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-000","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-001","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-002","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-003","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-004","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-005","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-006","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-007","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-008","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-009","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-010","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-011","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-012","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-013","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-014","jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-015"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To John Bennet Date: LONDON, November 25, 1748. I have received a bill for ten pounds from T. Colbeck, which will defray the present expense of the prosecution. See the previous three letters. You do extremely well in receiving subscriptions for paying that debt at Birstall. It will lay such an obligation on the Society as will make them much readier to submit to discipline. You see how needful it is for you to step over into Yorkshire at least once in a quarter. It would be well if you could reach Lincolnshire too, though but for one week. I beg you would largely show them at Halifax how absurd it is to expect I should be at a shilling expense for their lawsuit. They must not begin if they cannot carry it on. If Webster's spirit be not altered, and that speedily, I shall send him back to Plymouth Dock.Eleazer Webster was evidently a troublesome preacher. See letter of Feb. 9, 1750. I trust your own soul is not neglected in the multiplicity of business which comes upon you from other men. O be much in prayer! I am often concerned for you. The Spirit of God be your Guide, and His love your portion for ever. To a Friend NEWINGTON, December 10, 1748. DEAR SIR, 1. I have read your letter with attention, and much approve of the spirit with which it is wrote. You speak in love. I desire to do so too; and then no harm can be done on either side. You appear not to be wedded to your own opinion, but open to farther conviction. I would willingly be of the same temper; not obstinately attached to either side of the question. I am clearly satisfied of the necessity of this a willingness to see what as yet I see not. For I know an unwillingness to be convinced would utterly blind either you or me; and that if we are resolved to retain our present opinion, reason and argument signify nothing.","word_count":338,"source_url":null,"themes":["pneumatology","free-will","assurance"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309135"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"2. I shall not therefore think it is time or pains misemployed, to give the whole cause a second hearing; to recite the occasion of every step I have taken, and the motives inducing me so to do; and then to consider whatsoever either you or others have urged on the contrary side of the question. 3. Twenty-nine years since, when I had spent a few months at Oxford, having, as I apprehended, an exceeding good constitution, and being otherwise in health, I was a little surprised at some symptoms of a paralytic disorder. I could not imagine what should occasion the shaking of my hand, till I observed it was always worst after breakfast, and that, if I intermitted drinking tea for two or three days, it did not shake at all. Upon inquiry, I found tea had the same effect upon others also of my acquaintance; and therefore saw that this was one of its natural effects (as several physicians have often remarked), especially when it is largely and frequently drank; and most of all on persons of weak nerves. Upon this I lessened the quantity, drank it weaker, and added more milk and sugar. But still for above six-and-twenty years I was more or less subject to the same disorder. 4. July was two years I began to observe that abundance of the people in London with whom I conversed laboured under the same and many other paralytic disorders, and that in a much higher degree; insomuch that some of their nerves were quite unstrung, their bodily strength quite decayed, and they could not go through their daily labour. I inquired, 'Are you not an hard drinker' and was answered by one and another and another, 'No, indeed, sir, not I; I drink scarce anything but a little tea, morning and night.' I immediately remembered my own case; and, after weighing the matter throughly, easily gathered from many concurring circumstances that it was the same case with them.","word_count":331,"source_url":null,"themes":["catholic-spirit","universal-redemption","trinity"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309278"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-002","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":2,"text":"5. I considered: 'What an advantage would it be to these poor enfeebled people, if they would leave off what so manifestly impairs their health, and thereby hurts their business also! Is there nothing equally cheap which they could use Yes, surely; and cheaper too. If they used English herbs in its stead (which would cost either nothing, or what is next to nothing), with the same bread, butter, and milk, they would save just the price of the tea. And hereby they might not only lessen their pain, but in some degree their poverty too; for they would be able to work (as well as to save) considerably more than they can do now. And by this means, if they are in debt, they might be more just, paying away what they either earned or saved. If they are not in debt, they might be more merciful, giving it away to them that want.' 6. I considered farther: 'What an advantage might this be, particularly in such a body of men as those are who are united together in these Societies, who are both so numerous and so poor! How much might be saved in so numerous a body, even in this single article of expense! And how greatly is all that can possibly be saved in every article wanted daily by those who have not even food convenient for them! '","word_count":233,"source_url":null,"themes":["justifying-grace","catholic-spirit","means-of-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309366"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-003","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":3,"text":"7. I soon perceived that this latter consideration was of a more general nature than the former, and that it affected many of those whom the other did not so immediately concern; seeing it was as needful for all to save needless expenses, as for some to regain the health they had impaired especially, considered as members of a Society, the wants of which they could not be unapprised of. They knew, of those to whom they were so peculiarly united, some had not food to sustain nature, some were destitute of even necessary clothing, some had not where to lay their head. They knew, or might know, that the little contributions made weekly did in no wise suffice to remove these wants, being barely sufficient to relieve the sick; and even that in so scanty a manner, that I know not if some of them have not with their allowance pined away, and at length died for want. If you and I have not saved all we could to relieve these, how shall we face them at the throne of God 8. I reflected: 'If one only would save all that he could in this single instance, he might surely feed or clothe one of his brethren, and perhaps save one life. What, then, might be done, if ten thousand, or one thousand, or only five hundred, would do it yea, if half that number should say, \"I will compute this day what I have expended in tea, weekly or yearly; I will immediately enter on cheaper food; and whatever is saved hereby I will put into that poor-box weekly, to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked \"! I am mistaken, if any among us need want either food or raiment from that hour.'","word_count":297,"source_url":null,"themes":["works-mercy","catholic-spirit","free-will"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309453"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-004","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":4,"text":"9. I thought farther: 'It is said nay, many tell me to my face I can persuade this people to anything. I will make a fair trial. If I cannot persuade them, there may be some good effect. All who do not wilfully shut their eyes will see that I have no such influence as they supposed. If I can persuade any number, many who are now weak or sick will be restored to health and strength; many will pay those debts which others, perhaps equally poor, can but ill afford to lose; many will be less straitened in their own families; many, by helping their neighbour, will lay up for themselves treasures in heaven.' 10. Immediately it struck into my mind, 'But example must go before precept; therefore I must not plead an exemption for myself from a daily practice of twenty-seven years. I must begin.' I did so. I left it off myself in August 1746. And I have now had sufficient time to try the effects, which have fully answered my expectation. My paralytic complaints are all gone; my hand is steady as it was at fifteen, although I must expect that or other weaknesses soon, as I decline into the vale of years. And so considerable a difference do I find in my expense, that I can make it appear, from the accounts now in being, in only those four families at London, Bristol, Kingswood, and Newcastle, I save upwards of fifty pounds a year. 11. The first to whom I explained these things at large, and whom I advised to set the same example to their brethren, were a few of those who rejoice to assist my brother and me as our sons in the gospel. A week after, I proposed it to about forty of those whom I believed to be strong in faith; and the next morning to about sixty more, entreating them all to speak their minds freely. They did so; and in the end saw the good which might ensue, yielded to the force of Scripture and reason, and resolved (all but two or three) by the grace of God to make the trial without delay.","word_count":365,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","catholic-spirit","universal-redemption"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309563"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-005","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":5,"text":"12. In a short time I proposed it, but with all the tenderness I could, first to the body of those who are supposed to have living faith, and, after staying a few days (that I might judge the better how to speak), to the whole Society. It soon appeared (as I doubted not but it would) how far these were from calling me Rabbi, from implicitly submitting to my judgement, or implicitly following my example. Objections rose in abundance from all sides. These I now proceed to consider; whether they are advanced by you or by others, and whether pointed at the premises or directly at the conclusion. 13. 1. Some objected: 'Tea is not unwholesome at all; not in any kind prejudicial to health.' To these I reply: (1) You should not be so sure of this. Even that casual circumstance, related in Dr. Short's history Discourses on Tea, c. (1750, pp. 4, 17), by Thomas Short, M.D. (1690 -1772), a medical writer, who practiced at Sheffield. of it, might incline you to doubt namely, that 'while the Chinese dry the leaves, and turn it with their hands upon the tin plates, the moisture of them is so extremely corrosive, that it eats into the flesh, if not wiped off immediately.' It is not probable, then, that what remains in the leaves is quite friendly to the human body. (2) Many eminent physicians have declared their judgement that it is prejudicial in several respects; that it gives rise to numberless disorders, particularly those of the nervous kind; and that, if frequently used by those of weak nerves, it is no other than a slow poison (3) If all physicians were silent in the case, yet plain fact is against you. And this speaks loud enough. It was prejudicial to my health; it is so to many at this day. 14. 'But it is not so to me,' says the objector. 'Why, then should I leave it off' I answer: (1) To give an example to those to whom it is undeniably prejudicial. (2) That you may have the more wherewith to give bread to the hungry end raiment to the naked. 15. 'But I cannot leave it off; for it helps my health. Nothing else will agree with me.'","word_count":381,"source_url":null,"themes":["catholic-spirit","universal-redemption","reign-of-god"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309766"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-006","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":6,"text":"I answer: (1) Will nothing else agree with you I know not how to believe that. I suppose your body is much of the same kind with that of your great-grandmother. And do you think nothing else agreed with her or with any of her progenitors What poor, puling, sickly things must all the English then have been, till within these hundred years! But you know they were not so. Other things agreed with them; and why not with you (2) If, in fact, nothing else will, if tea has already weakened your stomach and impaired your digestion to such a degree, it has hurt you more than you are aware. It has prejudiced your health extremely. You have need to abhor it as deadly poison and to renounce it from this very hour. So says a drinker of drams: 'Nothing else will agree with me. Nothing else will raise my spirits. I can digest nothing without them.' Indeed! Is it so Then touch no more, if you love your life. (3) Suppose nothing else agrees with you at first; yet in a while many things will. When I first left off tea, I was half asleep all day long; my head ached from morning to night; I could not remember a question asked, even till I could return an answer. But in a week's time all these inconveniences were gone, and have never returned since. (4) I have not found one single exception yet; not one person in all England, with whom, after sufficient trial made, nothing else would agree. It is therefore well worth while for you to try again, if you have any true regard for your own health, or any compassion for those who are perishing all around you for want of the common necessaries of life.","word_count":301,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","catholic-spirit","universal-redemption"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309882"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-007","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":7,"text":"16. If you are sincere in this plea, if you do not talk of your health while the real objection is your inclination, make a fair trial thus: (1) Take half a pint of milk every morning, with a little bread, not boiled, but warmed only; a man in tolerable health might double the quantity. (2) If this is too heavy, add as much water, and boil it together, with a spoonful of oatmeal. (3) If this agrees not, try half a pint, or a little more, of water-gruel, neither thick nor thin; not sweetened, for that may be apt to make him sick, but with a very little butter, salt, and bread. (4) If this disagrees, try sage, green balm, mint, or pennyroyal tea, infusing only so much of the herb as just to change the colour of the water. (5) Try two or three of these mixed in various proportions. (6) Try ten or twelve other English herbs. (7) Try foltron, a mixture of herbs to be had at many grocers', far healthier as well as cheaper than tea. (8) Try cocoa. If, after having tried each of these for a week or ten days, you find none of them will agree with your constitution, then use (weak green) tea again; but at the same time know that your having used it so long has brought you near the chambers of death. 17. II. 'I do not know,' says another, 'but tea may hurt me: but there is nothing saved by leaving it off; for I am sure other things cost full as much.' I pray, what other things Sack and sugar costs more; and so do ragouts, or pheasants, or ortolans. But what is this to the point We do not say all things are cheaper; but any of the things above mentioned are at least, if prudently managed. Therefore, if you really desire to save what you can, you will drink tea no more. 18. 'Well, I do not design to buy any more myself; but where others drink it, there is nothing saved by my abstaining.'","word_count":351,"source_url":null,"themes":["means-of-grace","assurance","justifying-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.309983"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-008","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":8,"text":"I answer: (1) Yes, something is saved, though but little; especially if you tell them before, 'I shall not drink tea.' And many a little, you know, put together will make a great sum. (2) If the whole saved were ever so little, if it were but two mites, when you save this for God and your brethren's sake, it is much. (3) Your example in saving a little now may occasion the saving of more by-and-by. (4) It is not a little advantage which you may reap even now to your own soul, by habituating yourself not to be ashamed of being singular in a good thing; by taking up your cross, and denying yourself even in so small an instance; and by accustoming yourself to act on rational grounds, whether in a little matter or a great. 19. 'But what is saved will be no better employed.' Do you say this with regard to yourself or others If with regard to yourself, it will be your fault if you do not employ it better. I do not say you will, but I am sure you may; and if you do not, it is your own sin and your own shame. If with regard to others, how do you know that it will not be employed better I trust it will. It cannot be denied that it often has and that it always may be. And it is highly probable all who save anything from the best motive will lay it out to the best purpose. 20. 'As to example,' you say, 'I have lately been without hopes of doing any good by it.'","word_count":275,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","justifying-grace","assurance"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310059"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-009","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":9,"text":"I suppose you mean, because so exceeding few will follow either your example or mine. I am sorry for it. This only gives me a fresh objection to this unwholesome, expensive food viz. that it has too much hold on the hearts of them that use it; that, to use a scriptural phrase, they are 'under the power of' this trifle. If it be so, were there no other reason than this, they ought to throw it away at once; else they no more regard St. Paul than they do you or me: for his rule is home to the point, 'All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.' Away with it, then, however lawful (that is, though it were wholesome as well as cheap), if you are already brought 'under the power of' it. And the fewer they are who follow this rule the greater reason there is that you should add one example more to those few. Though (blessed be God) they are not so few as you suppose. I have met with very many in London who use less of it than they had done for many years, and above an hundred who have plucked out the right eye and cast it from them, who wholly abstain from it. 21. You add, 'But I am equally, yea abundantly, more concerned to set an example in all Christian behaviour.' I grant it: this, therefore, 'ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.' 22. But 'one day,' you add, 'I saw your brother drink tea, which he said was for fear of giving offence.'","word_count":278,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","catholic-spirit","pneumatology"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310130"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-010","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":10,"text":"I answer: (1) Learn from hence to follow neither his nor my practice implicitly; but weigh the reason of each, and then follow reason, wheresoever it stands. But (2) Examine your heart, and beware inclination does not put on the shape of reason. (3) You see with your own eyes I do not drink it at all, and yet I seldom give offence thereby. It is not, then, the bare abstaining, but the manner of doing it, which usually gives the offence. (4) There is therefore a manner wherein you may do it too, and yet give no more offence than I. For instance: If any ask you, simply reply, 'I do not drink tea; I never use it.' If they say, 'Why, you did drink it'; answer, 'I did so; but I have left it off a considerable time.' Those who have either good nature or good manners will say no more. But if any should impertinently add, 'Oh, but why did you leave it off' answer mildly, 'Because I thought watergruel (suppose) was wholesomer as well as cheaper.' If they, with still greater ill-manners and impertinence, go on, 'What, you do it because Mr. Wesley bids you'; reply calmly, 'True; I do it because Mr. Wesley, on good reasons, advises me so to do.' If they add the trite cant phrase, 'What, you follow man!' reply, without any emotion, 'Yes, I follow any man, you or him or any other, who gives me good reason for so doing.' If they persist in cavilling, close the whole matter with, 'I neither drink it nor dispute about it.'","word_count":268,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","scriptural-authority","catholic-spirit"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310178"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-011","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":11,"text":"23. If you proceed in this manner, with mildness and love, exceeding few will be offended. 'But you ought,' say some, 'to give up an indifferent thing, rather than give an offence to any. So St. Paul: \"I will eat no flesh whilst the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.\"' I reply: This is not an indifferent thing, if it affects the health either of myself or my brethren. Therefore that rule relating wholly to things indifferent is not applicable to this case. Would St. Paul have said, 'I will drink drams while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend' 'But tea is not so hurtful as drams.' I do not believe it is. But it is hurtful; and that is enough. The question does not turn on the degree of hurtfulness. 'However, it is but a small thing.' Nay, nothing is small if it touches conscience; much less is it a small thing to preserve my own or my brother's health, or to be a faithful steward even of the mammon of unrighteousness. O think it not a small thing whether only one for whom Christ died be fed or hungry, clothed or naked! To conclude the head of offence: You must at least allow that all this is no plea at all for your drinking tea at home. 'Yes, it is; for my husband or parents are offended if I do not drink it.' I answer: (1) Perhaps this in some rare cases may be a sufficient reason why a wife or a child should use this food that is, with them, but nowhere else. But (2) Try, and not once or twice only, if you cannot overcome that offence by reason, softness, love, patience, longsuffering, joined with constant and fervent prayer. 24. Your next objection is, 'I cannot bear to give trouble; therefore I drink whatever others drink where I come, else there is so much hurry about insignificant me.'","word_count":329,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","universal-redemption","social-holiness"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310237"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-012","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":12,"text":"I answer: (1) This is no plea at all for your drinking tea at home. Therefore touch it not there, whatever you do abroad. (2) Where is the trouble given, even when you are abroad, if they drink tea, and you fill your cup with milk and water (3) Whatever trouble is taken is not for 'insignificant me,' but for that poor man who is half starved with cold and hunger; for that miserable woman who, while she is poisoning herself, wipes her mouth and says she does no evil who will not believe the poison will hurt her, because it does not (sensibly at least) hurt you. O throw it away! Let her have one plea less for destroying her body, if not her soul, before the time! 25. You object farther, 'It is my desire to be unknown for any particularity, unless a peculiar love to the souls of those who are present.' And, I hope, to the souls of the absent too; yea, and to their bodies also, in a due proportion, that they may be healthy, and fed, and clothed, and warm, and may praise God for the consolation. 26. You subjoin: 'When I had left it off for some months, I was continually puzzled with, Why, What, c.; and I have seen no good effects, but impertinent questions and answers and unedifying conversation about eating and drinking.'","word_count":232,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","justifying-grace","prevenient-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310297"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-013","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":13,"text":"I answer: (1) Those who were so uneasy about it plainly showed that you touched the apple of their eye. Consequently these, of all others, ought to leave it off; for they are evidently brought 'under the power of' it. (2) Those impertinent questions might have been cut short by a very little steadiness and common sense. You need only have taken the method mentioned above, and they would have dropped in the midst. (3) It is not strange you saw no good effects of leaving it off where it was not left off at all. But you saw very bad effects of not leaving it off viz. the adding sin to sin; the joining much unedifying conversation to wasteful, unhealthy self-indulgence. (4) You need not go far to see many good effects of leaving it off. You may see them in me. I have recovered thereby that healthy state of the whole nervous system, which I had in a great degree, and I almost thought irrecoverably, lost for considerably more than twenty years. I have been enabled hereby to assist in one year above fifty poor with food or raiment, whom I must otherwise have left (for I had before begged for them all I could) as hungry and naked as I found them. You may see the good effects in above thirty poor people just now before you, who have been restored to health through the medicines bought by that money which a single person has saved in this article. And a thousand more good effects you will not fail to see, when her example is more generally followed. 27. Neither is there any need that conversation should be unedifying, even when it turns upon eating and drinking. Nay, from such a conversation, if duly improved, numberless good effects may flow. For how few understand, 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God'! And how glad ought you to be of a fair occasion to observe that, though the kingdom of God does not consist in 'meats and drinks,' yet, without exact temperance in these, we cannot have either 'righteousness or peace or joy in the Holy Ghost'! It may therefore have a very happy effect if, whenever people introduce the subject, you directly close in, and push it home, that they may understand a little more of this important truth.","word_count":401,"source_url":null,"themes":["reign-of-god","works-mercy","catholic-spirit"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310355"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-014","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":14,"text":"28. But 'I find at present very little desire to change either my thoughts or practice.' Shall I speak plain I fear, by not standing your ground, by easiness, cowardice, and false shame, you have grieved the Spirit of God, and thereby lost your conviction and desire at once. Yet you add: 'I advise every one to leave off tea, if it hurts their health or is inconsistent with frugality; as I advise every one to avoid dainties in meat and vanity in dress from the same principle.' Enough, enough! Let this only be well pursued, and it will secure all that I contend for. I advise no persons living to leave it off, if it does not hurt the health either of them or their brethren, and if it is not inconsistent with the Christian frugality of cutting off every needless expense. 29. But 'to be subject to the consequences of leaving it off again! This I cannot bear.' I answer: (1) It may be so. You cannot easily bear it. For, by your giving up the point once, you have made it much harder to stand your ground now than it was at first. Yet still it is worth all your courage and labour; since the reasons for it are as strong as at the beginning. (2) As to the consequences you fear, they are shadowy all; they are a mere lion in the streets. 'Much trouble to others.' Absolutely none at all, if you take the tea-kettle and fill your cup with water. 'Much foolish discourse.' Take the preceding advice, and it will be just the reverse. 'Nothing helpful toward the renewal of my soul in the image of Jesus Christ.' What a deep mistake is this! Is it not helpful to speak closely of the nature of His inward kingdom to encourage one another in casting off every weight, in removing every hindrance of it to inure ourselves to the bearing His cross to bring Christianity into common life, and accustom ourselves to conduct even our minutest actions by the great rules of reason and religion","word_count":350,"source_url":null,"themes":["catholic-spirit","universal-redemption","christology"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310432"},{"id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet-015","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1748-28-to-john-bennet","source_title":"28 To John Bennet","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":15,"text":"30. Is it 'not of any importance' to do this I think it is of vast importance. However, 'it is a very small circumstance in self-denial.' It is well if you find it so. I am sure I did not. And I believe the case is the same with many others at this day. But you say, 'I have so many other assaults of self-indulgence, that this is nothing.' 'It is nothing,' said one to a young woman, 'to fast once or twice a week, to deny yourself a little food. Why do not you deny yourself as to anger and fretfulness, as to peevishness and discontent' She replied, 'That I want; so I deny myself in little things first, till I am able to do it in greater.' Neither you nor I can mend her reply. Go thou and do likewise. 31. I have done what I proposed; and, indeed, in many more words than I at first intended. I have told you the occasions of every step I have taken, and the motives inducing me thereto; and have considered what either you or others have urged on the contrary side of the question. And now, the advice I would give upon the whole is this: First, pray earnestly to God for clear light; for a full, piercing, and steady conviction that this is the more excellent way. Pray for a spirit of universal self-denial, of cheerful temperance, of wise frugality; for bowels of mercies; for a kind, compassionate spirit, tenderly sensible of the various wants of your brethren; and for firmness of mind, for a mild, even courage, without fear, anger, or shame. Then you will once more, with all readiness of heart, make this little (or great) sacrifice to God; and withal present your soul and body a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God through Jesus Christ.","word_count":309,"source_url":null,"themes":["christology","repentance","pneumatology"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T18:43:03.310480"}]}