Wesley Corpus

To the Moravians at Marienborn and Herrnhut Date: LONDON, September 1738. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1738) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- I cannot but rejoice in your steadfast faith, in your love to our blessed Redeemer, your deadness to the world, your meekness, temperance, chastity, and love of one another. I greatly approve of your conferences and bands, of your method of instructing children, and in general of your great care of the souls committed to your charge. But of some other things I stand in doubt, which I will mention in love and meekness. And I wish that, in order to remove those doubts, you would on each of those heads, (1) plainly answer whether the fact be as I suppose; and if so, (2) consider whether it be right. Do you not wholly neglect joint fasting Is not the Count all in all Are not the rest mere shadows, calling him Rabbi, almost implicitly both believing and obeying him Is there not something of levity in your behavior Are you in general serious enough Are you zealous and watchful to redeem time Do you not sometimes fall into trifling conversation Do you not magnify your own Church too much Do you believe any who are not of it to be in gospel liberty Are you not straitened in your love Do you love your enemies and wicked men as yourselves Do you not mix human wisdom with divine, joining worldly prudence to heavenly Do you not use cunning, guile, or dissimulation in many cases Are you not of a close, dark, reserved temper and behavior Is not the spirit of secrecy the spirit of your community Have you that childlike openness, frankness, and plainness of speech so manifest to all in the Apostles and first Christians