Wesley Corpus

To Miss J. C. March WHITEHAVEN, June 24, 1764. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1764) Author: John Wesley --- You give me an agreeable account of the state of things in London, and such as calls for much thankfulness. From different letters I find that there is at length a calm season, God having rebuked the wind and the seas. But I am concerned for you. I cannot doubt a moment but you was saved from sin. Your every act, word, thought was love, whatever it be now. You was in a measure a living witness of the perfection I believe and preach--the only perfection of which we are capable while we remain in the body. To carry perfection higher is to sap the foundation of it and destroy it from the face of the earth. I am jealous over you: I am afraid lest, by grasping at a shadow, you should have let go the substance--lest, by aiming at a perfection which we cannot have till hereafter, you should cast away that which now belongs to the children of God. This is love filling the heart. Surely it did fill yours, and it may do now, by simple faith. O cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward! Converse much with those who are all alive, who strive not to pull you down but to build you up. Accursed be that humility by which shipwreck is made of the faith. Look up and receive power from on high. Receive all you had once, and more than all. Give no place to evil reasoning. You have need to be guarded by a steady and yet tender hand. Be as a little child. The Lord is at hand. He is yours; therefore shall you lack nothing.--I am, &c.[See letter of March 4, 1760.]