Wesley Corpus

To Benjamin Ingham Date: September 8, 1746. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1746) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR BROTHER, -- On Tuesday last I light upon a letter of yours in Devonshire, which I understand has been a great traveler. I think it is the part of brotherly love to mention to you some points therein wherein I doubt whether you are not a little mistaken; if I mistake, you will set me right. You say, -- 1. ‘First, as to stillness: The thing meant hereby is that man cannot attain to salvation by his own wisdom, strength, righteousness, goodness, merits, or works; that therefore, when he applies to God for it, he is to cast away all dependence upon everything of his own, and, trusting only to the mercy of God through the merits of Christ, in true poverty of spirit to resign himself up to the will of God, and thus quietly wait for His salvation.’ I conceive this to be the first mistake. I have nothing to object to this stillness. I never did oppose this in word or deed. But this is not ‘the thing meant thereby,’ either by Molther, or the Moravians, or the English Brethren, at the time that I (and you at Mr. Bowers’s) opposed them. 2. ‘That the Brethren teach that people who are seeking after salvation are all the while to sit still and do nothing --that they are not to read, hear, or pray -- is altogether false.' This I apprehend to be a second mistake. Whatever the Brethren do now, they did teach thus, and that explicitly, in the years 1739 and 1740. In particular, Mr. Brown, Mr. Bowers, Mr. Bell, Mr. Bray, and Mr. Simpson,[John Simpson. See Journal, ii. 343, iii-243, iv. 231.] then with the Moravians. Many of their words I heard with my own ears; many more I received from those who did so. And Mr. Molther himself, on December 31, 1739, said to me, in many and plain words, that the way to attain faith is ‘to be still -- that is: ‘Not to use (what we term) the means of grace; ‘Not to go to church; ‘Not to communicate; ‘Not to fast; ‘Not to use so much private prayer; ‘Not to read the Scriptures; ‘Not to do temporal good; and ‘Not to attempt to do spiritual good.’