Wesley Corpus

To Mrs. Crosby NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, July 1, 1757. MY DEAR SISTER, -- Certainly you judge right. Do not entangle yourself with the things of this world; neither give occasion to any to speak reproachfully. Therefore accept of no deed or writing whatsoever which should tie her down to do anything for you one day longer than she would do without it. [Probably Miss Bosanquet, whom she had met in May. See letter of June 14.] What she will do day by day without hurting herself or any one else is liable to no exception. O stand fast in glorious liberty; and be subject to no creature, only so far as love constrains. By this sweetest and strongest tie you are now subject to, dear Sally, Your affectionate friend and brother. I shall look for a letter at York. To Min. Crosby, At Mr. Kent’s Bricklayer, In the Tenter Ground, Near Upper Moorfields, London. To Dorothy Furly York, July [11], 1757. DEAR MISS FURLY, -- I cannot write to you now so fury as I would; but I must send a few fines. Mere temptation certainly does not weaken without yielding to temptation. Yet an heaviness and soreness may remain upon the spirit till there is a fresh discovery of the love of God. A jealous fear of offending God is good. But what have you to do with any other fear Let love cast it all out, and at the same time make you tenfold mere afraid of doing anything small or great which you cannot offer up as an holy sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. All who are without this fear (and much more all who call it legal, who revile the precious gift of God, and think it an hindrance to ‘the growing up in Christ’) are Antinomians in the inmost soul. Come not into their secret, my dear Miss Furly; but pray for more and more of that ‘legal spirit,’ and you will more and more rejoice Your affectionate servant. To Samuel Furly YORK, July 12, 1757.