Wesley Corpus

To Samuel Furly ST. IVES, September 15, 1762. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1762) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR SIR,-- Spectatum satis, ac donatum jam rude quaeris, Maecenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo Non eadem est aetas, non mens. [Horace's Epistles, 1. i. 2-4: 'Wherefore, Maecenas, would you thus engage Your bard, dismissed with honour from the stage Again to venture in the lists of fame, His youth, his genius, now no more the same'] I have entirely lost my taste for controversy. [See previous letter and that of Oct. 13.] I have lost my readiness in disputing; and I take this to be a providential discharge from it. All I can now do with a clear conscience is not to enter into a formal controversy about the new birth or justification by faith any more than Christian perfection, but simply to declare my judgement, and to explain myself as clearly as I can upon any difficulty that may arise concerning it. So far I can go with you, but no farther. I still say, and without any self-contradiction, I know no persons living who are so deeply conscious of their needing Christ both as Prophet, Priest, and King as those who believe themselves, and whom I believe, to be cleansed from all sin--I mean from all pride, anger, evil desire, idolatry, and unbelief. These very persons feel more than ever their own ignorance, littleness of grace, coming short of the full mind that was in Christ, and walking less accurately than they might have done after their divine Pattern; are more convinced of the insufficiency of all they are, have, or do to bear the eye of God without a Mediator; are more penetrated with the sense of the want of Him than ever they were before.