Wesley Corpus

To Mary Bishop Date: BRISTOL, September 19, 1773. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1773) Author: John Wesley --- MY DEAR SISTER,--It is certainly most profitable for us to have a variety of seasons. We could not bear either to be constantly in storms or constantly in a calm; but we are not certain, we cannot judge what proportion of one or the other is best for us. So it is well we are not left to our own wisdom, that we do not choose for ourselves. We should make strange work; but we know He that chooses for us orders all things well. There are excellent things in most of the Mystic writers. As almost all of them lived in the Romish Church, they were lights whom the gracious providence of God raised up to shine in a dark place. But they do not give a dear, a steady, or an uniform light. That wise and good man Professor Francke [August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) was professor at Halle 1692, and founded his famous Orphanage there in 1695] used to say of them, ‘ They do not describe our common Christianity, but every one has a religion of his own.’ It is very true: so that if you study the Mystic writers, you will find as many religions as books; and for this plain reason, each of them makes his own experience the standard of religion. Madame Guyon was a good woman and is a fine writer, but very far from judicious. Her writings will lead any one who is fond of them into unscriptural Quietism. They strike at the root, and tend to make us rest contented without either faith or works. It is certain the Scripture by ‘ prayer’ almost always means vocal prayer. And whosoever intermits this for any time will neither pray with the voice nor the heart. It is therefore our wisdom to force ourselves to prayer-- to pray whether we can pray or no. And many times while we are so doing the fire will fall from heaven, and we shall know our labor was not in vain.--I am, my dear Miss Bishop, Yours affectionately. PS.--It is on Wednesday sennight (the 29th inst.) that I purpose to preach at Bath (in my return from Bradford) at twelve o’clock.