Wesley Corpus

DEAR MISS STOKES,--I almost wonder, Have I found another Jenny Cooper [See letter of Sept. 11, 1765.] I take knowledge of her spirit in you. I doubt not God has begun a good work in your heart. He has given you a taste of the powers of the world to come. He has delivered you from the vain expectation of finding happiness in the things of earth; and I trust you will be entangled no more in that snare. You know where true joys are to be found. Now stand fast in that beginning of liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Yet do not stand still. This is only the dawn of day: the Sun of Righteousness will rise upon you in quite another manner than you have hitherto experienced. And who knows how soon Is He not near Are not all things now ready What hinders you from receiving Him now If thou canst believe.' Here is all the bar: only unbelief keeps out the mighty blessing! How many things have you been enabled to overcome since I saw you in the great garden But do not leave my poor Molly Jones behind,-- not that you can stay for her,--but bring her on with you. I have much hopes that nothing will stop Sally James or Miss Flower. [Mr. Stokes and Captain and Mrs. James were intimate friends of Charles Wesley. See letters of Feb. 11, 1772, and Nov. 29, 1774.] O bear one another's burthens! Then shall you be not almost but altogether Christians! Then shall you fulfil the joy of, my dear Miss Stokes, Yours affectionately. While I am in Ireland you need only direct to Dublin. To John Fletcher [11] PARKGATE, March 22,1771. I always did for between these thirty and forty years clearly assert the total fall of man and his utter inability to do any good of himself; the absolute necessity of the grace and Spirit of God to raise even a good thought or desire in our hearts; the Lord's rewarding no work and accepting of none but so far as they proceed from His preventing, convincing, and converting grace through the Beloved; the blood and righteousness of Christ being the sole meritorious cause of our salvation. Who is there in England that has asserted these things more strongly and steadily than I have done To Joseph Pilmoor [12]