Wesley Corpus

MY DEAR PHILLY,--None are or can be saved but those who are by faith made inwardly and outwardly holy. But this holy faith is the gift of God; and He is never straitened for time. He can as easily give this faith in a moment as in a thousand years. He frequently does give it on a death-bed, in answer to the prayer of believers, but rarely if ever to those who had continued unholy upon the presumption that He would save them at last. But if He did, what unspeakable losers must they be! Could grief be in heaven, they would grieve to eternity! seeing every one there must receive his own reward according to his own labour. And he will perplex you more than enough if you listen to his sallies of imagination: 'Every one has some pursuit; therefore a man cannot be always in communion with God.' I deny the consequence. While Mr. De Renty was serving the poor he was in constant communion with God. So was Gregory Lopez while he was writing books. 'At first, indeed,' as Lopez observed, 'large manifestations from God were apt to suspend the exercise of his senses as well as of his understanding. But after some time they made no difference at all, but left him the full exercise both of his understanding and senses.' I remember a much later instance of the same kind: an old clergyman [Mr. Fraser, Chaplain to St. George's Hospital. Wesley read the Life of Boehm in Georgia, and his Sermons in 1776. See Journal, i. 175d, vi. 98; and letter of Dec. 10, 1777. ] told me, some years since, 'I asked Mr. Boehm (Chaplain to Prince George of Denmark), "Sir, when you are in such an hurry of business, surrounded with a crowd of people, hearing one and dictating to another at the same time, does it not interrupt your mental prayer" He answered immediately, "All that hurry no more hinders my communion with God than if I was all the time sitting alone in my study or kneeling at the altar."' No business, therefore, of any kind, no conversation, need hinder one that is strong in faith from rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, and in everything giving thanks. Follow after this, and you will surely attain it.--I am, my dear Philly, Yours affectionately.