Wesley Corpus

I could not advise our people to hear Mr. Shirley, [The Hon. Walter Shirley. See letter of Jan. 27, to John Whitehead.] but still less to hear the Moravians. Their words are smoother than oil, but yet they are very swords. I advise them by all means to go to church. Those that leave the Church will soon leave us. I know not that you have anything to do with fear. Your continual prayer should be for faith and love. I admired an holy man in France who, considering the state of one who was full of doubts and fears, forbade him to think of his sins at all, and ordered him to think only of the love of God in Christ. The fruit was, all his fears vanished away and he lived and died in the triumph of faith. Faith is sight--that is, spiritual sight: and it is light, and not darkness; so that the famous Popish phrase, 'The darkness of faith,' is a contradiction in terms. O beware of all that talk or write in that unscriptural manner, or they will perplex if not destroy you. I cannot find in my Bible any such sin as legality. Truly we have been often afraid where no fear was. I am not half legal enough, not enough under the law of love. Sometimes there is painful conviction of sin preparatory to full sanctification; sometimes a conviction that has far more pleasure than pain, being mixed with joyful expectation. Always there should be a gradual growth in grace, which need never be intermitted from the time we are justified. Don't wait, therefore, for pain or anything else, but simply for allconquering faith. The more freely you write, the more satisfaction you will give to, my dear Molly, Yours affectionately. PS.--I should think she [Lady Huntingdon. See letter of March 8, 1771.] would not be so unwise as to give any copy of that letter. To Miss Bishop, Near the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, In Bath. To Walter Churchey [25] LONDON, November 29, 1770. MY DEAR BROTHER,--You have done well in showing your respect to the memory of that blessed man. His works shall follow him, and his name will be had in remembrance unto many generations, were it only for that excellent institution the Orphan House in Georgia.