Wesley Corpus

To James Barry Date: NEAR BATH, September 26, 1787. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1787) Author: John Wesley --- My DEAR BROTHER, -- I think you misunderstood what a Papist at Lisbon asked a Protestant, ‘Do you say I can’t be saved in my religion’ He replied, ‘I say, Possibly you may be saved in that religion. But I could not.’ So I say in the present case to one that asks, ‘Can’t I be saved if I dance or play at cards’ I answer, ‘Possibly you may be saved though you dance and play at cards. But I could not.’ So far you may safely speak; but no further. So much and no more I advise our preachers to speak. But I cannot advise them to speak this to unawakened people. It will only anger, not convince them. It is beginning at the wrong end.[ Barry lived at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. See letter of July 3, 1784.] A plain preacher in London used to say, ‘If you take away his rattles from the child, he will be angry; nay, if he can, he will scratch or bite you. But give him something better first, and he will throw away the rattles of himself.’ Yet I do not remember that I call these things ‘innocent amusements.’ And you know we do not suffer any that use them to continue in our Society. Yet I make allowance for those that are without. Else I might send my own father and mother to hell, though they not only lived many years, but died in the full assurance of faith. You do not seem to observe that it has pleased God to give such a measure of light to the Methodists as He has hardly given to any other body of men in the world. And He expects us to use all the light we have received, and to deal very tenderly with those who have not received it. I do not wonder that Dr. Walter is not clear with regard to the doctrine of the New Birth. Neither was I when I had been in Orders many years. Bear with him, and he may see more clearly by-and-by. I see no reason why you should not communicate with Brother Garrettson and with him too. I receive the Lord's supper in every church that I can.--I am Your affectionate brother.