{"id":"jw/letters/1764/05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"05 To Samuel Furly Lewisham March 6 1764","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-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-000","jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-001"],"word_count":455,"themes_auto":["free-will","means-of-grace","sanctifying-grace","social-holiness","universal-redemption"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-000","jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-001"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764","source_title":"05 To Samuel Furly Lewisham March 6 1764","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To Samuel Furly LEWISHAM, March 6, 1764. DEAR SAMMY, After showing what is implied in 'gaining the whole world,' and what in 'losing our own soul,' See letter of Jan. 14. I ask, How is it possible that any man should consent to gain the whole world at the price of losing his own soul How amazing is it that any man living should do this! But, in order to abate this amazement, consider the suppositions on which he proceeds: (1) that a life of sin is a life of happiness; (2) that a life of religion is a life of misery; and (3) that he shall certainly live twenty, forty, or sixty years. Under the second of these articles you have a fair occasion of describing both false and true religion. For eight or ten weeks Mr. Maxfield has been laid up by a lingering illness. This has contributed not a little to the peace of our Society, who in general mind one thing to save their own souls, and seldom strike first, though they sometimes strike again, especially when they are attacked without fear or wit, which has generally been the case. You have encouragement to go on at Slaithwaite, seeing already your labour is not in vain. I hope you add private to public application, visiting the poor people from house to house, and distributing little books. By this means only that deplorable ignorance will be removed.","word_count":240,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","universal-redemption","means-of-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T20:02:16.869172"},{"id":"jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764-001","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1764-05-to-samuel-furly-lewisham-march-6-1764","source_title":"05 To Samuel Furly Lewisham March 6 1764","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":1,"text":"I doubt you had a dunce for a tutor at Cambridge, and so set out wrong. Did he never tell you that, of all men living, a clergyman should 'talk with the vulgar' yea, and write, imitating the language of the common people throughout, so far as consists with purity and propriety of speech See letter of Jan. 14. Easiness, therefore, is the first, second, and third point; and stiffness, apparent exactness, artificialness of style the main defect to be avoided, next to solecism and impropriety. You point wrong, Sammy: you aim at a wrong mark. If he was a standard for any one (which I cannot possibly allow), yet Dr. Middleton See letter of Jan. 4, 1749. is no standard for a preacher no, not for a preacher before the University. His diction is stiff, formal, affected, unnatural. The art glares, and therefore shocks a man of true taste. Always to talk or write like him would be as absurd as always to walk in minuet step. O tread natural, tread easy, only not careless. Do not blunder or shamble into impropriety. If you will imitate, imitate Mr. Addison or Dr. Swift. You will then both save trouble and do more good. I am, with love to Nancy, dear Sammy, Your ever affectionate brother.","word_count":215,"source_url":null,"themes":["free-will","social-holiness","sanctifying-grace"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T20:02:16.869232"}]}