Wesley Corpus

I do not know (unless it unfits us for the duties of life) that we can have too great a sensibility of human pain. Me-thinks I should be afraid of losing any degree of this sensibility. I had a son-in-law (now in Abraham's bosom) who quitted his profession, that of a surgeon, for that very reason; because he said it made him less sensible of human pain. [Was this Noah Vazeille] And I have known exceeding few persons who have carried this tenderness of spirit to excess. I recollect but one who was constrained to leave off in a great measure visiting the sick because he could not see any one in pain without fainting away. Mr. Charles Perronet was the first person I was acquainted with who was favored with the same experience as the Marquis De Renty ['I bear in me ordinarily an experimental verity and a plenitude of the most Holy Trinity, which exalts me to a simple view of God.' (Wesley's Extract of the Life of Monsieur De Renty). See letter of Oct. 3, 1731.] with regard to the ever-blessed Trinity, Miss Ritchie was the second, Miss Roe (now Mrs. Rogers) the third. I have as yet found but a few instances; so that this is not, as I was at first apt to suppose, the common privilege of all that are 'perfect in love.' [Compare letters of June 11 1777 (to Hannah Ball), and July 4, 2787, and Lady Maxwell's letters to Alexander Mather in her Life, pp. 359-61.] Pardon me, my dear friend, for my heart is tenderly concerned for you, if I mention one fear I have concerning you, lest, on conversing with some, you should be in any degree warped from Christian simplicity. O do not wish to hide that you are a Methodist! Surely it is best to appear just what you are. I believe you will receive this as a proof of the sincerity with which I am, my dear Lady, Your ever affectionate servant. To Ann Bolton BRECON, August 15, 1788.