Advice to an Oxford Man

Advice to an Oxford Man

@ nrricHt W Advice to an Oxford Man ot surprisingly, more letters survive addressed to S.W.s son John than to any

N other correspondent. His success as evangelist and organizer of "the people called Methodists" ensured that his literary remains would be privileged, closely followed by those of his family. Beyond this obvious observation, however, lie several other explanations for the large quantity of Susanna's correspondence with John.

First, like his brother Samuel, he adopted the habit of transcribing incoming letters into a notebook, giving us access to many that have otherwise disappeared.' Second was his editorial ability, coupled with the insight that the preparation and distribution of appropriate literature would enhance Methodism's success. In his published

Journal and in his Arminian Magazine he was as likely to include letters from his mother as extracts from the lives of saints or any other improving literature. Third, though the point is debatable, there is some indication that Susanna meant to pay special attention to the education of this son. Without denying the pedagogical energy she invested in her other children, her keen attention to John's formation does seem borne out in the correspondence that follows.'

The first batch of letters to John focuses on the end of his undergraduate career and his determination to pursue ordination. As in most of her correspondence, two types of discourse vie for attention here. Given pride of place—usually in beginning and concluding paragraphs—are family matters, including but not limited to the news from Epworth and Susanna's concerns for John. In terms of quantity, though, the prime topic is theology or "practical divinity," as Susanna would prefer it to be known and taught.

Money or the lack thereof is a continuing theme of family conversation. The issue of an overdue "college loan" is raised in the letter of 19 August 1724; further hopeful talk of financial salvation through Samuel Annesley Jr., the India merchant, crops up there and in the succeeding letter, that of 10 September. She keeps track of family travel: her own rare trip to Oxford and London (in the letter of 24 November) and young Charles's difficult journey to Epworth with his brother and bossy sister-in-law (described in the 23 February 1724/25, letter). She worries over various

Advice to an Oxford Man _ 103 personal tensions, among them her distrust of a suitor for her daughter Emily (in that same letter and those on 8 and 21 June 1725) and the barest hint of the melodramatic problem that was about to develop in the love life of Hetty, found in the cryptic postscript to the 23 February letter. Her own health occasionally intrudes (10

September, 23 February, and 21 June) but only briefly.

Her theological concerns begin very practically with her urging of John to seek ordination (10 September, reinforced 23 February) and continue with her helping him to work through various scruples as he prepares for that step. As she states in an oft-quoted passage from the 23 February letter, her concern (and she hopes it is her son's, as well) is with "practical divinity" rather than with the "critical studies" that her husband, the rector, favored. In that vein she knowledgeably discusses

Thomas a Kempis (8 June), Jeremy Taylor (21 June and 18 August), and the Anglican church's Article on Predestination (18 August). In each case she is not afraid to take issue with theological authority; nor does she flinch from contradicting her pupil, as her straightforward judgment in the 18 August letter ("you are somewhat mistaken in your notion of faith") amply illustrates.

In one sense, the family talk includes the theologizing: her love for Jacky (as previously for Sammy and in other instances for Suky, Emily, Charles, and the rest) drives her to participate in his spiritual formation, even as he studies at Christ Church

College. However, her theological pedagogy is qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, deserving of regard in its own right. The dialogues she pursues with her son, the about-to-be ordained Oxford graduate, push the boundaries of epistolary convention and point to the treatises she was fully capable of (see part III of this volume).

Readers interested in seeing her son's side of the correspondence may turn to Frank Baker's edition of John Wesley's letters, vol. I,* which also includes most (but not all) of the Susanna Wesley material brought together here. For convenience, citations from Baker's edition (FB) are included at the heading of each letter to John.

To John Wesley 19 August 1724 LB, pp. 24-25; FB, 1:148.

Wroot, August 19, 1724 Dear Jacky I am somewhat uneasy, because I've not heard from you so long and think you don't do well to stand upon points and write only letter for letter, since I decline apace, and 'tis more trouble for me to write one than for you to write ten times.

Therefore let me hear from you oftener, and inform me of the state of your health, how you go on, and whether you are easier than formerly, and have any reasonable hopes of being out of debt.

We have dismal weather, and can neither get hay, corn, nor firing,* which makes us apprehensive of great want. I am most concerned for that good, generous man

104 = Letters that lent you £10 and am ashamed to beg a month or two longer, since he was so kind to grant us so much time already. Give my service to him and thanks, however.

We were strangely amused with your uncle's coming from India, but I suppose those fancies are laid aside. I wish there had been anything in it; then perhaps it had been in my power to have provided for you. For if all these things fail, I hope

God will not forsake us: we have still his good providence to depend on, which has a thousand expedients to relieve us beyond our view

Dear Jacky, be not discouraged; do your duty, keep close to your studies, and hope for better days; perhaps, notwithstanding all, we shall pick up a few crumbs for you before the end of the year.

Dear son, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee!

Susanna Wesley To John Wesley 10 September 1724 LBS ppa2o7-26; Bal 14).

Wroot, September 10 [1724] Dear Jacky, 'Tis above a week since I received your kind letter, which has greatly revived my spirits; and though I should not have an ill opinion of you though there had really been some neglect on your side, yet I find I am much better pleased to think you do not grudge the pains of writing. has paid himself out of your exhibition.

I'm nothing glad that Mr.

Though I cannot hope, I do not despair of my brother's coming, or at least remembering me where he is; for I am persuaded God will yet order things so that either

I or mine shall sometime be the better for that man; though most of my family are of another opinion.

The smallpox has been very mortal at Epworth most of this summer. Our family have all had it besides me, and I hope God will preserve me from it, because your

father can't yet well [spare money to bury me]. . .

I heartily wish you were in Orders and could come and serve one of his cures.

Then I should see you often and could be more helpful to you than 'tis possible to be at this distance.

Dear Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee!

To John Wesley 24 November 1724 LB, pp. 26-27; FB, 1:152—-153.

Wroot, November 24 [1724] Dear Jacky, I have now three of your letters before me unanswered and take it very kindly that you would write so often though you heard not from me. Indeed I'm afraid of

Advice to an Oxford Man

being chargeable, or I should miss few posts, it being exceeding pleasant to me in this solitude to read your letters, but I believe they would be pleasing anywhere.

Your disappointment in not seeing us at Oxford® was not of such ill consequence as mine in not meeting my brother at London. Naught' but your wonderful curiosities might excite a person of greater faith than mine to travel to your museum on purpose to visit them. 'Tis almost pity that somebody does not cut the weson® of that keeper with Adam's sword, to cure his lying so enormously. . .

I wish you would save all the money you can conveniently spare, not to spend on a visit, but for a wiser and better purpose: to pay debts and make yourself easy.

I am not without hope of meeting you next summer, if it please God to prolong my worthless life. If then you will be willing and have time allowed you to accompany me to Wroot, I'll bear your charges, and do other ways for you, as God shall enable: me <is.0% The story of Mr. B[arnesley] has afforded me many curious speculations." I do not doubt the fact, but cannot conceive for what reason those apparitions should come unto us. If they were permitted to speak to us, and we had strength to bear such conversation; if they had commission to inform us of anything relating to their invisible world that would be of any use to us in this; if they could instruct us how to avoid any danger or put us in a way of being wiser and better, there would be sense in it. But to appear for no end that we know of unless to fright people almost out of their wits, seems altogether unaccountable.

. I hope at your leisure you will oblige me with some more verses, on any, but rather on a religious subject.

Dear Jacky, I beseech almighty God to bless thee!

To John Wesley 5 January 1725 LB, p. 27; FB, 1:157.

Janase (125 Dear Jacky, (About sending money) '° Your brother talks of coming hither at Whitsuntide; perhaps between this and that something may occur, or it may happen that you may come with him.

God bless thee!

I wish you a happy new year.

Letters To John Wesley 23 February 1724/25 Wesley's Chapel, London (holograph); EBs pp.' 239 245°FB, 1169-160:

Wroot Feb: 23, 1724[/5] Dear Jacky, I have received two letters from you, neither of which I've answered. Your father kept the first, it being included in one to him, and since the receipt of the last I have been very ill and confined to my chamber, but I thank God I'm much better.

Your last brings surprising news indeed about the pope, whom I doubt"' the conclave will not permit long to live. His justice to the young gentleman in restoring him the estate his bigoted father gave from him to the monks is really very commendable, but his allowing the scriptures to the laity and declaring against his own. infallibility are actions truly Christian. In the latter he has given a mortal wound to the infallibility of that see, and whether he were in the right or whether he was in the wrong, the matter is the same, for both horns of the dilemma strikes them. They must resign their more profitable than honest pretence to infallibility.

The king of Prussia talks often, but is not to be depended on for action. Emly has answered for herself. Tis strange Mr. Leybourne

'" should send any service to me, but I accept the compliment, and without one, wish him health and happiness.'*

The alteration of your temper has occasioned me much speculation. I, who am apt to be sanguine, hope it may proceed from the operations of God's Holy Spirit, that by taking off your relish of sensual enjoyments, would prepare and dispose your mind for a more serious and close application to things of a more sublime and spiritual nature. If it be so, happy are you if you cherish those dispositions and now in good earnest resolve to make religion the business of your life. For, after all, that is the one thing that strictly speaking is necessary; all things beside are comparatively little to the purposes of life. Dear Jacky, I heartily wish you would now enter upon a serious examination of yourself, that you may know whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation by Jesus Christ, that is, whether you are in a state of faith and repentance or not, which you know are the conditions of the gospel covenant on our part. If you are, the satisfaction of knowing it will abundantly reward your pains; if not, you'll find a more reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with in a tragedy. This matter deserves great consideration in all, but especially those designed for the clergy ought above all things make their calling and election sure, lest after they have preached to others, they themselves should be cast away.

Now I mention this, it calls to mind your letter to your father about taking orders. I was much pleased with it and liked the proposal well, but 'tis an unhappiness almost peculiar to our family that your father and I seldom think alike. I approve the disposition of your mind. I think this season of Lent the most proper for your preparation for orders, and I think the sooner you are a deacon the better, because it may be an inducement to greater application in the study of practical divinity, which of all other I humbly conceive is the best study for candidates for

Advice to an Oxford Man

orders. Mr. Wesley differs from me, would engage you, I believe, in critical learning

(though I'm not sure) which, though of use accidentally and by way of concomitance, yet is in no wise preferable to the other. Therefore I earnestly pray God to avert that great evil from you of engaging in trifling studies to the neglect of such as are absolutely necessary. I dare advise nothing. God Almighty direct and bless you.

Adieu, I have much to say but cannot write more at present. I even long to see you.

We hear nothing of H., which gives us some uneasiness. We have all writ, but can get no answer. I wish all be well.'*

To John Wesley 8 June 1725 LB, pp. 28-32; collated with AM 1:33-36 (1778), following FB, 1:164—-167. The first and last paragraphs, containing family references, appear only in LB. The intervening paragraphs, more theological in nature, were edited by Wesley for AM in a slightly expanded manner. Frank Baker believes that he was working from the now missing holograph and that the expansions sometimes represent

Susanna's original words (not fully transcribed in LB) and sometimes John's own editorial changes. See FB, 1:166—167.

Wroot, June 8, 1725 Dear Jacky, Whatever satisfaction you may think your brother Charles would find in his journey, I believe it did in no wise answer his expectation. They were at Mr. Berry's before they came hither, where he was much mortified with your sister Wesley's ungenteel'* usage of him, and for want of liberty [for eating and drinking].!° The case was somewhat mended here, for I would so far overrule in my own house as to let him [fill his belly],'' but we were none of us very easy. She resented my taking notice of him, and I her behaviour on the other side. To say truth, I never heard her once speak well of him all the time they were here; nor have I used the meanest servant I ever had in my life with less civility than she observed towards him. Not to mention the rest of the children, who were very unnecessarily provoked, in doing which she was very wrong.'®

I've Kempis te by me, but have not read him lately, and therefore cannot recollect the passages you mention. But believing you do him justice, I do very positively aver that he is extremely in the wrong in that impious, I was about to say blasphemous, suggestion, that God by an irreversible decree hath determined any man to be miserable in this world. His intentions, as himself, are holy, just, and good, and all the miseries incident to men here or hereafter proceed from themselves. The case stands thus. This life is a state of probation, wherein eternal happiness or misery are proposed to our choice, the one as the reward of a virtuous, the other as a consequence of a vicious life. Man is a compound being, a strange mixture of spirit and

Letters matter: or rather, a creature wherein those opposite principles are united without mixture, yet each principle after an incomprehensible manner subject to the influences of the other. The true happiness of man under this consideration consists in a due subordination of the inferior to the superior powers, of the animal to the rational nature, and of both to God. This was his original righteousness and happiness that was lost in Adam; and to restore man to this happiness by the recovery of his original righteousness was certainly God's design in admitting him to his state of trial in the world and of our redemption by Jesus Christ! And surely this was a design truly worthy of God! And the greatest instance of mercy that even Omnipotent Goodness could exhibit to us!

As the happiness of man consists in a due subordination of the inferior to the superior powers, so the inversion of this order is the true source of human misery.

There is in us all a natural propension towards the body and the world: the beauty, ease, and pleasures of the world strongly charm us; the wealth and honours of the world allure us; and all, under the manage of a subtle, malicious adversary, give a prodigious force to present things. And if the animal life once get the ascendant of our reason, it utterly deprives us of our moral liberty and by consequence makes us wretched.

Therefore for any man to endeavour after happiness in gratifying all his bodily appetites in opposition to his reason is the greatest folly imaginable, because he seeks it where God has not designed he shall ever find [it].*° Yet this is the case of most men. They live as mere animals, wholly given up to the interests and pleasures of the body; and all the use of their understanding is to 'make provision for their flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof',*! without the least regard to future happiness or misery. 'Tis true our eternal state lies under a vast disadvantage, in that it is future and invisible. And it requires great attention and application of mind, frequent retirement, and intense thinking to excite our affections and beget such an habitual sense of it as is requisite to enable [us]** to walk steadily in the paths of virtue, in opposition to our own corrupt nature and the vicious customs and maxims of the world. Our blessed Lord, who came from heaven to save us from our sins, as well as the punishment of them, as knowing we could not be happy in either world without holiness, did not intend by commanding us to "take up the cross"

*? that we should bid adieu to all joy and satisfaction [indefinitely],** but he opens and extends our views beyond time to eternity. He directs us where to place our joy, that it may be durable as our being; *° not in gratifying but retrenching our sensual appetites; not in obeying but correcting our irregular passions,*® bringing every appetite of the body and power of the soul under subjection to his laws, [if we would follow him to heaven].*" And because he knew we could not do this without great contradiction to our corrupt animality, therefore he enjoins us to take up this cross [and to fight under his banner against the flesh, the world, and the devil].*°

And when by the divine grace*" we are so far conquerors as that we never willingly offend, but still press after greater degrees of Christian perfection [sincerely endeavouring to plant each virtue in our minds that may through Christ render us pleasing to God]; *° we shall then experience the truth of Solomon's assertion, "The ways of virtue are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." *!

I take Kempis to have been an honest, weak man, that had more zeal than knowl-

Advice to an Oxford Man

edge, by his condemning all mirth or pleasure as sinful [or useless, in opposition to so many direct and plain texts of Scripture].** Would you judge of the lawfulness of unlawfulness of pleasure, [of the innocence of malignity of actions? Take this rule. | 33 Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind; that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself. And so on the contrary.

'Tis stupid to say nothing is an affliction to a good man. "That's an affliction that God makes an affliction,"

** man can thank God for present misery. Yet do I very well know what it is to rejoice either to good or bad. Nor do I understand how any in the midst of deep affliction: not in the affliction itself, for then it must necessarily cease to be one. But in this [we may rejoice],*° that we are in the hand of a God who never did, nor ever can exert his power in an act of oppression, injustice, or cruelty! In the power of that superior wisdom which disposes all events and has promised that all things shall work together for good (for the spiritual and eternal good) of those that love him! *° We may rejoice in hope that Almighty Goodness

"will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, [that we may be able to bear it]."*" In a word, we may and ought to rejoice that God has assured us he will never leave or forsake us; but if we continue faithful to him, he*® will take care to conduct us safely through all the changes and chances of this mortal life*? to those blessed regions of joy and immortality where sorrow and sin can never enter!

Your brother has brought us a heavy reckoning for you and Charles. God be merciful to us all. Prithee, Jacky, what reception did Mr. Leybourne*° give your sister Wesley? Or did you ever affront her? I have somewhat against that same man, but I hope he is good in the main, and I think humanity and good breeding are not among his wants.

Dear Jacky, I earnestly beseech Almighty God to bless you. Adieu.

To John Wesley 21 July 1725 MA; LB, pp. 32-34; FB, 1:172-173.

Wroot, July 21, [1725] Dear Jacky Whether Charles have given occasion for her contemptuous usage or no I can't determine; but his time of bondage is now near expired, and if it be n't his own fault, his future life may be easier .

. Tis well your sister has ever been civil to you, and would have you also so to her. But never put it in the power of that woman to hurt you; stand upon your guard and converse with caution; and I wish

Mr. L[eybourne] would take the same advice. He has in my opinion done much to oblige those that have not the most grateful sense of his kindness.

Though I have a great deal of unpleasant business, am infirm and but slow of understanding, yet 'tis a pleasure to me to correspond with you upon religious

Letters subjects; and if it may be of the least advantage to you, I shall greatly rejoice. May what is sown in weakness be raised in power! *'

I know little or nothing of Dr. Taylor's Holy Living and Dying,** having not seen it above twenty years; but I think 'tis generally well esteemed, therefore can't judge of the rules you suppose impracticable. Of humility I'll tell you my thoughts as briefly as I can.

What he calls humility is not the virtue itself, but the accidental effects of it, which may in some instances, and must in others, be separated from it.

Humility is the mean between pride or an overvaluing ourselves on one side and a base abject temper on the other. It consists in an habitual disposition to think meanly of ourselves, which disposition is wrought in us by a true knowledge of God, his supreme, essential glory, his absolute, immense perfection of being! A just sense of our dependence on and past offences against him, together with a consciousness of our present infirmities and frailty.

In proportion to the sense we have of God's infinite majesty and glory, and our own vileness and unworthiness, this disposition will be stronger or weaker. And those who are arrived to a great degree of Christian perfection, that know and are assured by reason and experience*? that there is none good but God, will be sure to hold him in the highest estimation, and are generally observed to be the most humble and mortified of men. Such persons as these make the glory of God the principal aim in all their actions; and to please him is to them more eligible™ than to enjoy the esteem of the whole universe.

They will be very well content "to be slighted or undervalued," +5 provided their conscience do not reproach them, and the honour of God be unconcerned in the case. But where it is concerned, none are more wary in their outward deportment, lest they give occasion of scandal to the profane, or of stumbling to the weak. None are more careful to observe, "Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report," *¢ and if through surprise or inadvertency they have said or done amiss, such slips commonly make them more watchful and humble ever after.

As we should not covet to be little esteemed, because a fair reputation is of excellent service in promoting the glory of God, so neither should we desire the praise of our good actions to terminate in ourselves; for of a right it belongs to him of whose grace it is that we either will or do according to his good pleasure.*"

If we are in disgrace,** either we deserve it or we do not. If we do, his caution is good; if not, he is wrong; for we certainly may, and I believe should be pleased with consciousness of our innocence.

I will not say we must judge of ourselves as he directs, but believe there are some who are much inclined to think themselves not only the worst in a particular company, but worse than any in the world. For being strongly pressed on by thirst after universal righteousness, they behold their own deficiencies with great severity: every mote in their own eye appears a beam, while every beam in their brother's eye seems to them as a mote.*"

"Weakness, deformity, and imperfection" °° of body are not moral evils, and may accidentally become good to us.°! Yet surely they are not to be desired, for strength and comeliness are valuable blessings, may be of great use, and ought to be enjoyed

Advice to an Oxford Man

with thankfulness. If they prove incentives to pride, 'tis our own fault: a humble man will improve all those advantages for God's service, anda. . .°"

To John Wesley 18 August 1725 LB, pp. 39-43. The beginning of the letter is in four pages of LB, missing by the time Wesley edited it for AM, pp. 36-38, concluding portions only; misdated as ferjay 17257 EB 121 738-180.

(. . .)but still insist on that single point in Dr. Taylor, of "thinking ourselves the worst in every company";°* though the necessity of thinking so is not inferred by my definition. But this I perceive much affects you, and you can't well digest it.

Therefore you employ your wit in making distinctions and formal arguments; which arguments I shall reply to after I've observed that we differ in our notions of the virtue itself.°* You will have it consist in thinking meanly of ourselves, I in an habitual disposition to think meanly of ourselves; which I take to be more comprehensive, because it extends to all the cases when that virtue can be exercised, either in relation to God, ourselves, or our neighbour, and renders the distinction of absolute and comparative perfectly needless.>°

We may in many instances think very meanly of ourselves without being humble.

Nay, sometimes our very pride will lead us to condemn ourselves, as when we have said or done anything which lessens that esteem of men we earnestly covet. As to what you call absolute humility with respect to God, what greater matter is there in that.

. Had we no more than a mere speculative knowledge of that Awful Being and only considered him as the Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe, yet since that first notion of him implies that he is a God of absolute and infinite perfection and glory, we can't contemplate that glory or conceive him present without the most exquisite diminution of ourselves before him!

The other part of your definition I can't approve, because I think all those comparisons are rather the effects of pride than humility.

The truth is the proper object of the understanding, and all truths, as such, agree in one common excellence; yet there are some truths which are comparatively of so small value, because of little or no use, that 'tis no matter whether ever we know them or not. Nay, in some instances 'tis better never to know them. Among those I rank the right answer to that question, whether our neighbour or we be worse. Of what importance can this enquiry be to us? Comparisons in this case are very odious or do most certainly proceed from some bad principle in those that make them. So far should we be from reasoning upon the case, that we must not permit ourselves to entertain such thoughts, but if they ever intrude, should reject them with abhorrence.

Suppose then in some cases the truth of that proposition "my neighbour is worse than me"°® .

. be ever so evident, yet what does it avail? Since two persons in different respects may be both better and worse than each other. As in your own instance. One who in company with a free-thinker or other person signally de-

112 = Letters bauched in faith and practice (we must suppose he is debauched in neither) can't avoid knowing himself to be the better of the two. He may be so in appearance; but if he trust in his own righteousness, and value himself upon it, he may appear more vile and contemptible in the sight of God than the other, merely on account of his self-idolizing pride. Though the Pharisee might speak very truly with respect to many of his neighbours when he said, "I am not as other men are,' °' and probably his outward behaviour was more regular and decent than the poor publican's had been, whom perhaps he despised because he knew he had been a scandalous offender; yet we find the humility of the publican

. rendered him acceptable to his Maker, while the Pharisee returned unjustified.

If we are not strictly obliged to think ourselves the worst in every company, I am perfectly sure that a man sincerely humble will be afraid of thinking himself the best in any, though it should be his lot (for it can never be his choice) to fall into the company of notorious sinners. "Who makes them to differ?" or "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" °® is sufficient, if well adverted to, to humble us, and silence all aspiring thoughts and self-applauses; and may instruct us to ascribe our preservation from enormous offences to the sovereign grace of God and not to our own natural purity or strength.

There's nothing plainer than that a free-thinker as a free-thinker, an atheist as an atheist, is worse in that respect than a believer as a believer. But if that believer's practice does not correspond with his faith

. he is worse than an infidel .

You are somewhat mistaken in your notion of faith. All faith is an assent, but all assent is not faith. Some truths are self-evident, and we assent to them because they are so. Others, after a regular and formal process of reason, by way of deduction from some self-evident principle, gain our assent; and this is not properly faith but science. Some again we assent to, not because they are self-evident, or because we have attained the knowledge of them in a regular method by a train of arguments, but because they have been revealed to us, either by God or man, and these are the proper objects of faith.

The true measure of faith is the authority of the revealer, the weight of which always holds proportion with our conviction of his ability and integrity. Divine faith is an assent to whatever God has revealed to us, because he has revealed it. And this is that virtue of faith which is one of the two conditions of our salvation by Jesus

Christ .

. But this matter is so fully and accurately explained by Bishop Pearson (under "I believe") that I shall say no more of it. .

. *"

I have often wondered that men should be so vain, to amuse themselves with searching into the decrees of God, which no human wit can fathom; and do not rather employ their time and powers in working out their salvation,°° and making their own calling and election sure.°' Such studies tend more to confound than inform the understanding, and young people had better let them alone. But since I find you've some scruples concerning our Articles of Predestination,®' I'll tell you my thoughts of the matter, and if they satisfy not, you may desire your father's direction, who is surely better qualified for a casuist than me.

The doctrine of predestination, as maintained by the rigid Calvinists, is very shocking and ought utterly to be abhorred, because it directly charges the most holy

God with being the author of sin. And I think you reason very well and justly

Advice to an Oxford Man

against it. For 'tis certainly inconsistent with the justice and goodness of God to lay any man under either a physical or moral necessity of committing sin and then punish him for doing it. "Far be this from thee, O Lord.

. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" °° I do firmly believe that God from eternity hath elected some to everlasting life.

But then I humbly conceive that this election is founded on his foreknowledge, according to that in the 8th of Romans: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son.

. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called .

°* and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified." ©

Whom in his eternal prescience God saw would make a right use of their powers and accept of offered mercy, .

. he did predestinate, adopt for his children, his peculiar treasure. And that they might be conformed to the image of his Son, he called them to himself, by his external Word, the preaching of the gospel, and internally by his Holy Spirit. Which call they obeying by faith and repentance, he justifies them, absolves them from the guilt of all their sins, and acknowledges them as just persons, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. And having thus justified, he receives them to glory—to heaven.

This is the sum of what I believe concerning predestination, which I think is agreeable to the analogy of faith, since it neither®® derogates from God's free grace nor impairs the liberty of man. Nor can it with more reason be supposed that the prescience of God is the cause that so many finally perish, than that our knowing the sun will rise tomorrow is the cause of its rise.

I am greatly troubled at your increasing debts.°' Your brother writes for your father to get you sixty pounds before you stand for the fellowship

. Alas!

I shall not cease to pray for you, that God would sanctify all conditions and deliver you out of present distress.

Jacky, may God Almighty bless thee!

Notes 1. John Wesley kept his letter book by using abbreviations and a sort of primitive shorthand, which have been expanded without further notice. For example, from comparisons of the letter book and existing holographs, we know that "D. J." at the beginning of a letter should be read "Dear Jacky." Similarly (and obviously), "S. W." at the end may be expanded to "Susanna Wesley" and "W" just before the date indicates that the letter was written at Wroot, the small neighboring parish that Samuel Wesley had recently acquired and where the family occasionally lived. Wesley seems to use dashes to indicate material in the original that he has not felt necessary to copy. To indicate these occasions in this volume, I have used ellipses\aes)) 2. See the entry in her Devotional Journal, dated 17 May 1711, in part II of this volume, in which she vows to "be more particularly careful of the soul of this child that thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been, that I may do my endeavours to instil into his mind the disciplines of thy true religion and virtue." See Henry D. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast:

John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1989), p. 57, for a discussion of the issue.

3. Letters I: 1721-1739 in Frank Baker, ed., The Works of John Wesley, vol. 25 (Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1980); hereafter FB.

114 = Letters 4. That is, fuel for a fire.

5. Bracketed material in cipher, decoded from Wesley's private shorthand by Prof. Richard

Heitzenrater, in FB 1:149.

G.cly DB: "Oxon:

7. The MS reads "not."

8. Throat.

9. John Wesley's letter of November 1 had described Barnsley, an Oxford undergraduate, who saw a frightening apparition at the exact time, he later found out, that his mother had died in Dublin. The Wesley household's own experience of a poltergeist in 1716/17 was obviously still in the minds of the two correspondents.

10. Occasionally, Wesley uses a phrase in parentheses to indicate a section of a letter he has not transcribed.

11. Suspect.

12. Robert Leybourne (c. 1694-1759), friend of Samuel Wesley Jr. and at the time fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, had been mentioned as a match for Emily Wesley. Susanna and Samuel Jr. prevented it from happening. See FB 1:159, n. 4, and subsequent appearances of his name in later Susanna letters. Here she spells the name without the final "e".

13. John Wesley summarizes this paragraph in his letter book: "Of news, the pope, the King of Prussia, and of Mr. L."

14. These last lines (from "We hear nothing of H") are not found in the body of the Wesley Chapel holograph but unaccountably appear in LB. The reference is probably to Hetty, who was then in service and involved in a relationship that would lead to much anguish in the family. Susanna expressed her concerns more clearly as the story developed. See her letter to John, October 12, 1726.

15. In LB: "ungentile," that is, uncourteous, impolite, unobliging.

16. These words in cipher, translated in FB, 1:164.

17. Again in cipher.

18. Charles Wesley had been traveling with his elder brother Samuel and Samuel's wife,

Ursula. It was natural for Charles to be journeying with them, as he was then attending the Westminster School in London, where Samuel taught. Before visiting Wroot, they had stayed briefly with Ursula's father, the Rev. John Berry, vicar of Watton, Norfolk.

19. Thomas a Kempis, The Christian's Pattern; or a Divine Treatise of the Imitation of Christ (London:

John Williams, 1677). In contrast to the implication in FB, 1:162, n. 7, it was this edition, rather than the later translation of George Stanhope, The Christian's Pattern: Or, a Treatise of the Imitation of Jesus Christ.

To Which Are Added, Meditations and Prayers, for Sick Persons (London:

Gillyflower et al., 1698), that John Wesley later excerpted for his Christian Library in 1735. The material he was describing to his mother in his letter of 28 May 1725, is possibly bk. 1, chap.

22, titled in the Stanhope translation "The Miserable Condition of Man Considered," p. 52.

One of Stanhope's phrases may have stuck in Wesley's craw: "Since therefore so ordained it is, that all must suffer and be miserable.

." Significantly, the earlier anonymous translation Wesley followed in his abridgement skips over this pessimistic material, relieving him of the necessity of deleting it in his 1735 publication. See The Christians Patten

" (London: John Clark, 1659), p. 59, another edition of the translation (1677) Wesley refers to in the Preface of his 1735 edition, p. iii, n., and p. xxiv. Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), a member of the Canons Regular near Zwolle in Holland, wrote with a devotional spirit that has attracted readers on both sides of the Reformation divide ever since his lifetime.

20.

Not in LB, but supplied in AM.

21. Romans 13:14, paraphrased. LB has a beginning, but not a concluding quotation mark.

22. Supplied in AM.

23. Mark 10:21 and so on. Again, LB supplies a beginning but not a concluding quotation mark.

Advice to an Oxford Man

24. In AM only.

25. AM substitutes for this clause "how to seek satisfaction durable as our being."

26. In AM: "which is not to be found in gratifying, but retrenching our sensual appetites; not in obeying the dictates of our irregular passions, but in correcting their exorbitancy."

27. In AM only. LB does not indicate any omitted material.

28. In AM only; no ellipses in LB. For "the flesh, the world and the devil," see BCP, Litany.

29. In AM: "by the Grace of God's Holy Spirit."

30. In AM only; LB does not indicate an omission.

31. Proverbs 3:17, paraphrased in both LB and AM. The AV reads, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness" (my emphasis). It is Wisdom, not Virtue, that the writer of Proverbs is personifying.

32. In AM only; LB does in this case show a dash, indicating missing material.

33. In AM only; LB indicates material missing.

34. Aphorism attributed to Samuel Annesley in S.W's later letter to Charles Wesley, 29

November 1739, on the occasion of Samuel Jr.'s death. Quotation marks added.

35. In AM only; no ellipses in LB.

36. Loose paraphrase of Romans 8:28.

37. Close paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 10:13; my quotation marks. The last phrase is missing in LB but indicated by a dash; AM includes it.

38. Supplied in AM.

39. In AM; LB reads, "In a word, we may and ought to rejoice that we are assured he will never forsake us, but if we continue faithful to him will conduct us safely through this mortal life." FB, 1:166, n. 5, believes Wesley is reproducing the holograph in the longer AM version and that LB represents a summary.

40. See S. W. to John, 23 February 1724/25. Susanna was interested in Samuel and Ursula's visit at Oxford with Leybourne, a possible match for her daughter Emily. John reported details in his letter of 18 June 1725. See FB, 1:167—168.

41. Paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 15:43.

42. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), bishop of Down and Connor. John Wesley was reading the two books—first published in 1650 and 1651, respectively, but by the late seventeenth century often bound together—The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living.

. and The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying .

, 15th ed. (London: Luke Meredith, 1690). Wesley's letter to his mother, 18 June 1725 (FB, 1:168-169), raises the issue of whether Taylor's rules are not too legalistic and impractical, quoting several passages. Among these are the ones on humility (Rules, chap.

2, sect. 4) that S. W. comments on in the rest of this letter, as well as in her letter of 18

August.

43. Note the juxtaposition within two short clauses of several themes that were later to become prominent in Wesleyan theology: perfection, assurance, reason, and experience.

44. That is, desirable, suitable.

45. My quotation marks; this is Wesley's paraphrase (FB, 1:168) of Taylor's rule (Rules, p.

85) which begins, "Love to be concealed, and little esteemed: be content to want praise, never being troubled when thou art slighted or undervalued."

46. Philippians 4:8; beginning quotation mark in LB.

47. Paraphrase of Philippians 2:13.

48. Responding to Wesley's paraphrase: "Please not thyself when disgraced by supposing thou didst deserve praise, though they understood thee not, or enviously detracted from thee" (FB, 1:169). Cf Taylor, Rules, pp. 86-87: "Make no suppletories to thy self, when thou art disgraced or slighted, by pleasing thy self with supposing thou didst deserve praise, though they understood thee not, or enviously detracted from thee."

49. See Matthew 7:4—5 and Luke 6:41—42.

50. Quoting Wesley's close paraphrase of Taylor; quotation marks added (FB, 1:169):

Letters "Give God thanks for every weakness, deformity, or imperfection, and accept it as a favour and grace, an instrument to resist pride." Wesley has shortened the end of the original, which reads, "as a favour and grace of God, and an instrument to resist pride and nurse humility"

(Taylor, Rules, p. 88).

51. In editing Wesley's letter to his mother on 18 June 1725, Baker (FB 1:169, m. 3) found

S. W's written annotation added to the original: "Weakness, deformity, or imperfection of body are not evil in themselves, but accidentally become good or evil according as they affect us and make us good or bad."

52. The remainder of the letter, part of four pages torn from LB, is missing. See FB, 1:173, note on source. It probably dealt with the remainder of Wesley's other questions on Taylor, namely, the issue of repentance, raised in Rules, pp. 269-280.

53. Rule of Holy Living, p. 87; my quotation marks. Taylor's exact wording: "Never compare thy self with others, unless it be to advance them and to depress thy self. To which purpose we must be sure in some sense or other to think our selves the worst in every company where we come."

54. That is, humility; see the discussion in her previous letter to John, 21 July 1725.

55. In LB: "pfectl Us needl," possibly construed as "perfectly useless and needless."

56. Quotation marks added.

57. Luke 18:10. Beginning quotation mark in LB.

58. Quotation marks added.

59. John Pearson, An Exposition of the Creed, 6th ed., rev. (London: J. Williams, 1692). S. W. is referring to the opening section ("Article I. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth"), pp. 1-15. See especially p. 12: "To believe therefore as the word stands in the Front of the CREED.

. is to assent to the whole and every part of it, as to a certain and infallible truth revealed by God, (who by reason of his infinite knowledge cannot be deceived, and by reason of his transcendent holiness cannot deceive) and delivered unto us in the Writings of the blessed Apostles and Prophets immediately inspired, moved and acted by God." S. W. knew the work from a much earlier reading. See her letter to Samuel Jr., 27

November 1707, where she quotes directly from this section, and note her use of it in "The Apostles Creed explicated in a letter to her daughter Susanna," in Part III of this volume.

60. Philippians 2:12, paraphrased.

61. 2 Peter 1:10, paraphrased.

62. BCP, Articles of Religion, XVII, Of Predestination and Election. The article does not explicitly insist on predestination to damnation, and it acknowledges the harmful potential of the doctrine to "curious and carnal persons,' but it is at bottom a Calvinist, not an Arminian, statement: "Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation."

63. Genesis 18:25; first clause paraphrased, second phrase quoted exactly. Initial quotation mark in LB.

64. Dash in LB indicates omitted material, even though the verse in Romans continues directly at this point.

65. Verses 29-30, quotation marks in LB.

66. In LB: "nr"; FB has "never," probably following the force of Wesley's editorial change in AM, p. 38: "it in no wise derogates."

67. These two words are in cipher.

@ NINE W Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home oung John Wesley soon crossed clerical and academic thresholds. On 19 SeptemNie: 1725, Dr. John Potter, bishop of Oxford, ordained him deacon, and the following spring, 17 March 1725/26, he was elected fellow of Lincoln College, to the great delight and relief of the family. Susanna, for one, was ready with advice in her letter of 30 March 1726, about how her son should deal with his newfound

"riches." Nevertheless, despite these new attainments and responsibilities, he remained "Dear Jacky" to her, as she continued to fill her letters with theological counsel. Though the young don did not always put the details into his letter book, he did transcribe the authors she discussed for his benefit: Berkeley, Pearson, and Fiddes in the 10 November 1725, letter (in addition to an intriguing, but long, discourse on religious zeal) and Norris on love in the 30 March 1726 letter.

Occasionally, even in the Wesley family, life prevailed over theology. The news from Epworth (actually, from Wroot, Samuel Wesley's other parish, where the family now resided) was dominated in these letters by an ill-fated love affair followed by an ill-arranged marriage involving daughter Mehetabel, known to the family as Hetty. Finding suitable suitors for the bright and lively Wesley daughters from among the residents of the fen country was not easy. Hetty became infatuated with a lawyer (she had met him in the household where she was in service) and was in the process of eloping when she discovered that he was not really interested in a wedding. Her behavior (and the resulting pregnancy) scandalized the family, especially the rector, who set up a quick, unsuitable match with a local plumber. Only her sister Molly and her brother John sympathized in the least with the unfortunate young woman. The sad story cast a gloom over these letters that even for a time put the perennial concern about indebtedness in the shade.

One letter in particular rewards close study, that of 12 October 1726. Here Susanna recounts a visit with Hetty and her attempt to work out some reconciliation with her estranged daughter. It sheds considerable light on the mother-daughter relationship, on the Wesley marriage, and on that battle in Susanna's own mind between her sense of justice and mercy in the middle of a family crisis.

Vay

118 = Letters ¢ To John Wesley 10 November 1725 MA; addressed "For the Revd. Mr John Wesley, Commoner of Christ Church

Oxon"; LB, pp. 44-45; FB, 1:183-185, but with considerable material missing.

Wroot, Nov. 10th, 1725 Dear Jacky, I believe I've received three letters from you since I wrote to you; but the dismal situation of our affairs, which has found me full employment at home, and my unwillingness to burden you, prevented my writing hitherto. But I will now look over your letters, and reply to each if there be occasion.

Your first of August 4th requires no answer, only there's one passage in it which I don't well understand. You say Berkeley has convinced you "that there is no such thing as matter in the world, if by the real existence of matter is meant a subsistence exterior to the mind, and distinct from its being perceived." What does he mean by imperceptible matter? !

Your second bears date August 24th, wherein you are satisfied about humility, and I wish you had also a better notion of that faith which is proposed to us as a condition of salvation. I think Pearson's definition of divine or saving faith is good and no way defective." For though the same thing may be an object of faith as revealed and an object of reason as deducible from rational principles, yet I insist upon it that the virtue of faith, by which through the merits of our Redeemer we must be saved, is an assent to the truth of whatever God hath been pleased to reveal, because he hath revealed it, and not because we understand it. Thus St. Paul, "By faith we understand that the world was made" *

—q.d.,* rejecting the various conjectures of the heathen and not resting upon the testimony of natural reason but relying on the authority of God, we give a full assent to what he hath been pleased to reveal unto us concerning the creation of the world. Now the reason why this faith is required is plain, because otherwise we do not give God the glory of his truth, but prefer our weak and fallible understanding before his eternal word, in that we will believe the one rather than the other. If you will but read Bishop Beveridge on faith, and repentance, Vol. 7th,' you'll find him a better divine than Fiddes.°®

I can't recollect what book I recommended to you, but I highly approve your care to search into the grounds and reasons of our most holy religion, which you may do if your intention be pure, and yet retain the integrity of faith. Nay, the more you study on that subject, the more reason you will find to depend on the veracity of God; inasmuch as your perceptions of that awful Being will be clearer, and you will more plainly discern the congruity that there is between the ordinances and precepts of the gospel and right reason; nor is it a hard matter to prove that the whole system of Christianity is grounded thereon.

If it be a weak virtue that can't bear being laughed at, I am very sure 'tis a strong and well confirmed virtue that can stand the test of a brisk buffoonery. I doubt there are too many instances of people that, being well inclined, have yet made shipwreck

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

of faith and a good conscience, merely through a false modesty, and because they could not bear the raillery of their companions. Some young persons have a natural excess of bashfulness, others are so tender of what they call honour that they can't endure to be made a jest of. Nay, I've often observed that those very people which will on all occasions take the liberty to play upon their neighbours are of all living the worst able to bear being so used themselves. I would therefore advise young persons in their beginning of a Christian course to shun the company of profane wits as they would the plague or poverty; and let em never contract an intimacy with any but such as have a good sense of religion. And if 'tis their hap to live where few of that character can be found, let them learn the art of living alone; and when once they are masters of that rare secret, and know how to converse with God and themselves, they'll want no other company. For properly speaking no man wants what he can be happy without.

I now proceed to answer your last, of October 14th. And in this you desire me to speak on a subject above my comprehension. I do not mean as to the nature of zeal, for that is easily defined; but to assign precisely every instance wherein it is allowable or we are required to show that zeal to the world, needs a better head and pen than mine. However, I'll offer some hints, which you may correct or improve by your own meditation.'

Zeal or jealousy is an effect of love; and the more intense the love is, the greater is our desire of the good and possession of what we love, and the more vigorously shall we strive to repel and exclude everything that is repugnant to the belov'd object or may prevent our attainment or quiet enjoyment of what we so love. As we observe in friendship, whoever really loves his friend always desires the good of that friend, and if his love be strong, it moves him against everything that is contrary to it; and accordingly he is said to be zealous for his friend and for his reputation when he endeavors all he can to repel everything that is said or done against him.

Thus on account of the great love he bears to us, Almighty God is frequently in holy writ represented as zealous or jealous over us, lest we bestow that honour and love which is due to him on anything else—particularly in the Second Command where he says that as he will show mercy unto thousands of those that love him, so he will punish to the third and fourth generation those that hate linn en transfer their love from him to a creature. And the reason is because he is a jealous

God.

Zeal with respect to God consists in an awful regard and tender concern for his glory and will, and it ever holds proportion with the degree of our love towards him. If our love be cold, so will our zeal be, too; if fervent, we shall endeavor what is in Our power to advance his honour and service in the world, and shall feel much displicency° and grief when either we ourselves or any other is guilty of dishonouring or offending him and shall strive what we can to prevent or repel whatever is done against his honour and will. So Elijah says of himself, "I have been very jealous, or zealous, for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel had forsaken his covenant and thrown down his altars." !°

The habit of this zeal is always necessary, being indeed inseparable from our love to God; but the visible expressions of it must be ever under due restriction, always according to knowledge, and strictly guarded by prudence and Christian charity; for

Letters without restriction and such a guard 'tis the most pernicious thing in nature and has done more mischief in the world than even licentiousness or infidelity. These have slain their thousands, but zeal its ten thousands,'' as might be shown in many instances. This sacred fire must be kindled at the altar; nor should the perturbation arising from malice, revenge or any private interest or selfish regard presume to mingle with it. Otherwise we may fitly apply to zeal what St. James says of an unbridled tongue:

" 'Tis a fire, a world of iniquity, it setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." er

Now that the outward expressions of our zeal may be acceptable to God and useful to men, 'tis necessary in the first place that our intention be good, that the glory of God and good of others be really our aim without any private views or worldly consideration. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. And herein prudence is of great use in choosing such means and using them in such a manner as is most proper and worthy the ends we propose. For prudence ever has respect to time, place, persons and manner of speech or action. As to time it directs us to observe and improve that special season for speaking or acting which we call opportunity, when we are likely to do most service to God, i.e., to make him better known and loved in the world, as for instance if we have an opportunity of instructing the ignorant, to confirm the weak or reprehend'* the [?]sinner. Or if we would administer relief to our neighbor, it must be done when he stands most in need of it and when we can best spare it without injuring our dependents or creditors; the former must first be provided for, nor will God accept robbery for sacrifice.

Prudence also considers place, and in all these instances the most private is the best, unless in some exempt cases which I can't stay to mention particularly.

Persons also it regards, and here I must advise that if we sincerely desire to promote the glory of God or would successfully attempt anything for his service or the good of mankind, that we do first turn the point of our zeal against ourselves.

Let us be careful to sanctify the Lord God in our own hearts by holding him in the highest estimation, by bearing equal respect to all his commands, by purifying our minds from whatever is contrary to his will, and planting each virtue there that may through Christ render us acceptable to God. For [it is] in vain that we appear zealous for that glorious Being, if we do not inwardly esteem and revere him ourselves. In vain shall we attempt to serve him while we indulge ourselves in any known sin and do not vigorously proceed in our own reformation. For otherwise, instead of a plaudit we must expect to meet with that sad expostulation from God: "who hath required this at YOUR hand? Bring no more vain oblations; the incense of your service is an abomination unto me."'* Nor can we expect better success in instructing or reproving our neighbor who fail to observe the disproportion between our lives and professions; and instead of taking our good offices kindly they will, and may justly, retort upon us, "physician, heal thyself." '°

Again, prudence requires all persons with or without distinction to keep with their own sphere of action. The inferior magistrate must not intrench'® upon the prerogative of his prince, nor any private person assume the office of the magistrate.

Neither should any secular person of what degree soever invade the province of a priest. But princes, magistrates, husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants must all observe their several stations; nor will any pretense of zeal justify a man's

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

acting out!" of his own proper character. For our God is a God of order and not of confusion.!® Nor does he require ought of us but what is consistent with a due performance of relative duties. And indeed there's work enough for our zeal in accurately discharging the duties of each relation.

But in the last place prudence is more especially concerned in the manner of our speaking or acting either for God or our neighbor. For be our intention never so good, our zeal ever so fervent, unless we perform all after a due manner, we shall not compass our design. If we would serve Almighty God, we must do it with that vigor, that cheerful gravity and becoming reverence as [the] importance of the work requires. If we are about to instruct the ignor[ant let] us proceed with so much seriousness that they may see we are well appriz[ed of the] truths we teach, and are ourselves under the same impressions we endea[vour to] make on their minds. If we would confirm the weak, it should be done witho[ut any] reproach and with that tenderness and arguments so well adapted to their cas[e,| as may serve to convince them that we are really concerned in their safety and happiness. If we reprove the sinner, let us avoid pride and vainglory and be careful lest we fall into indecent passion or be guilty of unchristian revilings and contemptuous language, which would probably prove a greater sin in us than that we are about to reprehend in another. As we should never undertake a matter of this nature without desiring to do good, so we ought by all proper methods to make the person spoken to sensible of that desire; for we gain a great point if we can persuade them that we really bear them good will and have no design to upbraid, much less expose them, but merely to do 'em good.

The second thing mentioned as a guard of our zeal was charity, which I shall briefly speak of and so conclude.

Love to God and love to our neighbour, which often in scripture is called charity, is, or ought to be, the principle and rule of all our thoughts, words and actions with respect to either. And whatever we do for God or man that flows not from this principle and is not squared by this rule is wrong, as wanting a good foundation and a right conduct. Thus St. Paul: "Though I give my body to be burned and all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 3

I have not time to discourse on divine charity, but shall only mention a few instances wherein charity must correct our zeal in thought, word, and deed in relation to our neighbour.

And first we must never conclude any man so bad as 'tis possible for him to be; nor think because he is guilty of many sins, that therefore he must be guilty of all; nay, we should not judge that the most profligate sinner cannot possibly amend. For what are we that we should presume to limit the omnipotent mercy of God or consign any to eternal misery whom that almighty Goodness for ought we know may intend to save at last.

Secondly, our charity should strictly confine our zeal within the bounds of truth and soberness. We must not lie for God nor falsly accuse our brethren; nor in a pretended zeal run into censoriousness and evil-speaking, crimes utterly to be abhored of all good men.

Thirdly, no pretence of zeal should make us lay aside our humanity or exercize any act of injustice or cruelty towards our neighbour. Nor must we suffer a bad

122 = Letters man to perish for want of our relief. For we have no commission to slay the wicked or right to invade any man's property because he is a sinner. But we must be careful to do our duty to all men, let 'em be what they will.

Yet after all that can be said, though prudence and charity should correct the irregular motions of our zeal, they must by no means extinguish it. But we must keep that sacred fire alive in our breasts and carefully lay hold of all opportunities of serving God, nor should we tamely endure to hear his glorious name blasphemed in execrable oaths or impious discourses without expressing a just indignation against such offences. And if we happen to be in presence of those that either are so superlatively wicked or too much superior to admit of reproof, we may find some way to testify our dislike of such conversation and leave their company."°

I've room to add no more but that I send you my love and blessing.

5. W.

Your sisters send their love.

I've just received a letter from you, which I'll answer if I've leisure.

Your brother Wright fetches your sister Hetty from hence the end of this week.*!

To John Wesley 7 December 1725 LB, pp. 45-46; FB, 1:189-190.

Wroot, December 7th [1725] Dear Jacky, (Of Mr. Norris's Sermon on Divine Love) "?

Who but an atheist will deny that God, and God alone, is the supreme efficient cause of all things, the only uncreated good! But can it be inferred from hence that he hath imparted no degree of goodness to his creatures?

. We may full as well argue that because they are not self-existent, therefore they have no being at Bb te go Your sister Wright went with her husband about three weeks since to their house in Louth, with Molly to keep her company this winter."* Your sister Anne was married last Thursday at Finningley to John Lambert and goes this day home with him. He has hired the red house as we go to church, which they have made very pretty and comfortable, and we hope they will do well.**

Emly sends her love to you, as do all the rest. She goes not hence this winter, and greatly desires to hear from you.

I suppose the election at Lincoln College draws near, and your father gives me small encouragement to hope for your success*®

. Our crop at Wroot was almost destroyed by floods; and of the small remains your sister Nancy has the best part in dowry, besides near if not quite £30 for hers and Hetty's clothing, which I've yet to pay. What then can I do for you? Nothing but pray for you; nothing but lift my helpless eyes and hands to heaven and beseech Almighty God, to whom all power belongs, to do that for you which I cannot: to appoint some expedient for your relief and raise you some friend in this time of distress. And who can tell? Perhaps

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

he may condescend to hear the unworthiest of his creatures .

. I will not despair, but against hope, believe in hope: for I know that often man's extremity is God's opportunity, wherein he delights to manifest his mercy to such as call upon him.

Dear Jacky, I send you my love and blessing. Adieu!

To John Wesley 30 March 1726 LB, pp. 46-47; FB, 1:193-194.

Wroot, March 30, 1726 Dear Jacky, I think myself obliged to return great thanks to Almighty God for giving you good success at Lincoln.** Let whoever he pleased be the instrument, to him, and him alone, the glory appertains. For as the best concerted measures often prove ineffectual, so sometimes things that carry little probability in them shall succeed beyond expectation. And why is this? But because God prospers the one, and (as his Spirit expresses it) blows upon the "labour of the other." *"

I am much more pleased and thankful because I have observed sometime that the Holy Jesus (to whom the whole manage of our salvation is committed) seems to have taken the conduct of your soul into his own hand, in that he has given you a true notion of saving faith and, I hope, an experimental knowledge of repentance.

Therefore I trust that he will be pleased to direct your intentions, and assist you in the exercise of your*® ministerial office, that he will incline your heart to the love of justice, so that you will not look on the small addition to your fortunes as given you to make provision for the flesh, but as a talent committed to your charge: to pay your debts in the first place, and the residue to be employed as religion and prudence direct.""

(Of Norris's distinction between compla[cenc]e and goodwill.) °° Many and great are the trials it has pleased God to exercise us with; and though that is not the reason of my not writing so long, yet I must say they have found me sufficient employment to keep my mind from utter*! fainting. And your father being displeased at my writing so often, because of the expense it was to you, our pressures disposed me to a more implicit obedience than perhaps I should otherwise have paid him.** I would not inform you of anything that might grieve, but Dr.

Morley advising your coming into the country, 'tis not probable any unhappy circumstances or practices of some of our family should remain concealed from you.**

Dear Jacky, I hope you are a good Christian, and as such do firmly believe that no events happen but by the commission, or rather at least permission of divine Providence. Therefore do not much afflict yourself, let what will befall. God hath promised, "All things shall work together for good to those that love him." **

(Of my father's getting money for me.) How or when do you intend to come hither? It will be necessary to let us have timely notice of your intentions. Dear Jacky, all send their love, I my love and blessing.

124 = Letters To John Wesley 9 April 1726 PB ep by bel O83 Apr. 9 [1726] Dear Jacky, .

| thought to send a servant the 25th of this month with two horses .

Send now a speedy answer, that we may give them a little food extraordinary.*° Dear

Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless Thee!

To John Wesley 16 April 1726 LB, pp. 47-48; FB, 1:198.

Apr. 16 [1726] Dear Jacky, .

. Your father has ordered his servant, Alexander Clark, to set out hence on the 18th instant.

. One thing I suppose needful to admonish you of, that you do not propose to yourself too much satisfaction in coming hither; for what the world calls joy lives not within these walls. But if your heart be right and you can rejoice in God whether you have or have not anything else to rejoice in; if he be the pleasure of your mind, so that you can feel delight in each perception of his presence, though encompassed with [poverty, reproach] and shame,°*° then you may spend a few months in Wroot as happily as in any place of the world.

Dear Jacky, God bless thee!

To John Wesley 27 August 1726 Priestley, pp. 1527155:

This is not a letter but John Wesley's written account of Susanna's "testimony" concerning the rectory hauntings in 1716/17. See chapter 5 in part I of this volume, where it is printed as an addendum to her more timely record of Old

Jeffrey.

To John Wesley 28 September 1726 LB, p. 48 (one-line summary); FB, 1:199.

Sept. 28 [1726] Dear Jacky, (Of my father's mare, left ill at Banbury, and my plaid*' nightgown)

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

To John Wesley 12 October 1726 ED pp: +o 47, FD tt 9-200.

Oct. 12 [1726] [Dear Jacky, | (Of my father's mare, and my nightgown) I greatly rejoice that your lot is cast among such agreeable companions, nor am

1 a little pleased with the hopes of your being [out of debt].°* Would Almighty God now permit me the satisfaction of being so myself and seeing my children [clear] *" in the world, with what pleasure could I leave it!.

Your brother and sister Wright are now in Wroot at John Lambert's.*? By your father's permission I went to see her and was surprised to find that she met me without the least emotion of joy or grief. I desired a private conference, which she could not deny, though I found she was not pleased with it. I spoke what I thought proper for the occasion, but observed she was on the reserve, nor could I prevail with her to speak freely on anything. To induce her to it I used as much mildness as I am mistress of, told her I freely forgave all her offences against me, and spake more than perhaps was required on my part. She heard me with great indifference, made no acknowledgment of my proffered kindness, but seemed rather not pleased that I supposed she stood in need of my pardon. I then proposed a reconciliation between her and Mr. Wesley and asked her if she would not see him if he were willing to see her. She told me she had no desire to see him, because she knew he would reproach her with what was past, and that she could not bear. I replied, he would certainly put her in mind of her faults, which I thought he was obliged to do, as a father and as a clergyman; and that she was not to call the just rebukes of a parent reproaches, but submit herself to him, which she would certainly do if she were truly penitent. She repeated her not desiring to see him and added she wished for no reconciliation with him till one of 'em came to die. What effect my discourse had on her I know not, but I'm sure I returned home strangely mortified, neither pleased with her nor myself. I hoped from Molly's representation of matters to have found her in a different temper from what I did. Therefore I did not say enough to convince her of her duty and was troubled to find her averse from her father, whom

I take to be as well disposed to be reconciled to her as man can be. For he seemed pleased that I went to her and never restrains any of the children from being with her as much as they will. I verily believe that I could by a few words speaking reconcile him to her, but God forbid those few words should be spoken by me till she is better disposed. What her inward frame of mind is, is best known to the Searcher of hearts, to whose mercy I leave her, beseeching him to give her true repentance, without which I desire to see her face no more.

Charles is greatly to blame in not writing to Sam .

Dear Jacky, I pray God to bless thee!

I desire what I've spoken of Hetty may be concealed. I have not spoken so freely of her to our folks, nor is it necessary they should know my thoughts. Let all think as they please.

Letters To John Wesley 29 November 1726 LB, p. 50; FB, 1:200.

Nov. 29. Tues. 1726

Dear Jacky, _ . The mare cost £4.10s.9d before we got her home. (Of the money I left at Wroot.) Dear Jacky, I must say unto thee as Naomi to her daughters, "It grieveth me much for your sake that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me." *!

This has withheld me from writing, though I had a great desire to hear from you and poor starving Charles. For it seemed a palpable piece of cruelty to make you pay for a letter unless I could send money too. But [as] I can't fix a time of payment, I now think it better to write, lest you should impute my silence to a worse cause.

. Let us know how you like your plaid ..

I heartily wish your converse with your friend** may prove innocent and useful; but old folks are scrupulous and much given to fear consequences. May God preserve you from sin and danger.

Dear Jacky, I pray God bless thee.

Mr. Wesley is this day gone to Mr. Farmery's (late Minister of Blighton's) funeral.

Notes 1. John Wesley summarizes this and the following paragraph with a brief phrase in LB, p.

44: "Of Hylas and Philonous and the nature of faith." His letter of 4 August no longer seems to be extant. This early work of Berkeley is titled Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. The Design of Which Is Plainly to Demonstrate the Reality and Perfection of Humane Knowlege, the Incorporeal Nature of the Soul, and the Immediate Providence of a Deity: In Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists. Also, to Open a Method for Rendering the Sciences More Easy, Useful, and Compendious (London: Henry Clements, 1713).

Wesley was reading the second edition, 1725. See FB, 1:186, n. 1. George Berkeley (1685—

1753) was a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, when he published this work. He later became dean of Derry and, in 1734, bishop of Cloyne. In 1752 he retired to Oxford. Though she responds intelligently to some of the issues raised, S. W. appears not to have read the book.

2. For Pearson's view of faith, see chapter 8, note 59, on S. W's letter of 18 August 1725.

3. Paraphrase of Hebrews 11:3. In the AM MS the passage begins with a quotation mark and ends with a dash. I have added the final quotation mark.

4. Quasi dicat: "as if he were to say."

5. Probably his two sermons, "Repentance and Faith, the Two Great Branches of the Evangelical Covenant" (nos. 88 and 89), Theological Works (1844), 4:185—-224. The texts for both discourses is Mark 1:15, "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel"; the first sermon emphasizes repentance, the second faith. Beveridge's handling of these two imperatives interestingly anticipates Wesley's later insistence on both faith and works: "as they err on the one hand, who are altogether for faith without repentance, and good works; so they err too on the other hand, who are altogether for repentance and good works, without faith. And therefore, if we desire to go to Heaven, we must be sure to keep the middle betwixt these two extremes: and what Christ hath joined together in His preaching, we must not put asunder in our practice"

(pp. 210-211). The definition of faith that $. W. is recommending includes both assent to

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

certain propositions, a familiar element in the rational theology of the day, as well as a deeper element of trust in Christ: "Faith, therefore, or belief in general, is nothing else but the assent of the mind to what is attested by another, grounded upon the authority of him that doth attest it" (p. 215). "In matters Divine," this means assenting "to any truth only upon the testimony of God Himself; which is most certainly the highest kind of faith which we can possibly exert, because it hath an infallible testimony for the ground and foundation of it"

(pp. 216-217). But this assent leads to something more: "For he that firmly and steadfastly assenteth unto this proposition, that God upon our repentance will pardon, accept, and save us, in and through Jesus Christ; cannot but trust and confide in the same Jesus Christ.

And in this, doubtless, consisteth the very essence of saving or justifying faith; even in trusting and relying upon Christ alone for pardon and Salvation, so as to expect it from Him, and from none but Him .

. the faith which our Saviour requires, is not such a light assent which swims only in the brain, but such a firm and solid assent as sinks into the heart, and there moves and inclines the will to Christ, and resting upon Him for pardon and acceptance with the Most High God" (p. 218).

6. Wesley had been reading Richard Fiddes (167-1725) and was mulling over his definition of faith, in Wesley's paraphrase, "an assent to any truth upon rational grounds." See his letter to S. W, 29 July 1725; FB, 1:175, n. 3. V. H. H. Green, The Young Mr. Wesley

. (New York: St. Martin's, 1961), pp. 70, 305, believes he was reading Fiddes' A General Treatise of Morality

(London: S. Billingsley, 1724).

7. This paragraph and the following 14 are omitted in LB and summarized with the phrase

"Of the nature, properties and expressions of zeal." FB, 1:184-185, includes only a few excerpts of this long section.

8. Paraphrase of Exodus 20:5—6. Quotation marks erroneously placed in the MS between "says" and "that" have been omitted.

9. Dissatisfaction.

10. Close paraphrase of 1 Kings 19:14. The MS has quotation marks at the beginning of the verse and a dash after "Hosts" and "altars." Susanna added the words "or zealous" in the middle of her quotation. I have set the whole verse apart with quotation marks.

11. She is playing off 1 Samuel 18:7.

12. Close paraphrase, though with several phrases omitted, of James 3:6; S. W.'s quotation marks.

13. Reprove.

14. Paraphrased from Isaiah 1:12-13; quotation marks added. "Your" is emphasized in the MS with large lowercase letters.

15. Luke 4:23; my quotation marks.

16. Encroach.

17. Outside.

18. Echoes of 1 Corinthians 14:33, 40.

19. 1 Corinthians 13:3, paraphrased; quotation marks added.

20. Note S. W's interest in the subject in her letter to John, 14 March 1726/27. There she recommends a sermon on the subject by Bishop Sprat of Rochester. Her thoughts here, though similarly concerned with guarding against excesses, do not seem to be dependent on that discourse.

21. Hetty Wesley was married to William Wright, a plumber, on 13 October 1725 in the parish church of nearby Haxey. By the time of this letter he would have been ready to take her to his home in Louth, a town some 40 miles to the southeast. Baker has determined from baptismal records in the Louth parish registers that she was by then likely to be five months pregnant, probably by the lawyer that she had gone away with (against her father's wishes) on a mistaken promise of marriage. The match with the rather coarse Wright was promoted

Letters by her mortified father. For brief details, see Frank Baker, "Investigating Family Traditions," in MH 26.3 (April 1988): 157-158. For a retelling of the entire episode, see Frederick Maser,

The Story of John Wesley's Sisters, or Seven Sisters in Search of Love (Rutland, Vt.: Academy Books, 1988), pp. 51-71. The Cambridge don Arthur Quiller-Couch was so taken by the story that he converted it into a novel, Hetty Wesley (London and New York: Macmillan, 1903).

22. Susanna Wesley has probably been commenting on "A Discourse concerning the Measure of Divine Love, with the Natural and Moral Grounds Upon Which It Stands." in John

Norris, [Practical] Discourses upon Several Divine Subjects, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (London: S. Manship, 1701),

3:1-68. The sermon, based on Matthew 22:37—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'—seeks to demonstrate "that God is the only Author or Cause of our Love" and "that he is also the only proper Object of it" (p.

10). Note S. Ws continuing interest in Norris, expressed in another reference in the letter of 30 March 1726. For details on Norris (rector of Bemerton and sometime collaborator with Samuel Wesley on the Athenian Mercury), see Richard Acworth, The Philosophy of John Norris of Bemerton (1657-1712) (Hildesheim, Ger., and New York: Georg Olms, 1979), especially chap.

7, "The Theory of Love," pp. 154-183.

As in other letters for which our only source is LB, the ellipses and the summaries in parentheses represent material that Wesley himself has omitted.

23. See note 21.

24. Anne Wesley ("Nancy") married John Lambert, a fairly well-off land surveyor, on 2

December 1725. As indicated here, they set up houskeeping in Wroot, though later they moved to the London area, where Anne met with Charles and John and was present at her mother's death. Apart from her husband's slight drinking problem and some financial ups and downs, Anne appears to have had one of the happier marriages of any of the Wesley children. For additional details, see Maser, John Wesley's Sisters, pp. 72-78.

25. A fellowship had become open, it was restricted to a native of the diocese of Lincoln, and Samuel Wesley Sr. pulled out all the ecclesiastical political stops to ensure his son's selection. See Green, Young Mr. Wesley, pp. 76-80.

26. Wesley had been elected a fellow on 17 March 1725/26.

27. Quotation marks in LB, probably misplaced; I have been unable to find a direct scriptural reference, although there are resonances of Psalm 90:17 (BCP)—" prosper thou the work of our hands"—and Isaiah 40:24 (AV)—"he shall blow upon them, and they shall whither."

28. FB has "the."

29. His income as a fellow would vary but run somewhere in the neighborhood of £30 per annum. See Green, Young Mr. Wesley, pp. 320-321. S. W. here reinforces a lesson in personal stewardship that would stick with her son throughout his life.

30. The one-line parenthetical summary of this paragraph in LB (or Susanna in the first place) may not have it right. "Complae-GWill" in the MS probably does stand for "complacence and goodwill." But if Susanna is referring to The Theory and Regulation of Love, A Moral Essay in Two Parts. To Which Are Added Some Letters Philosophical and Moral, between the Author and Dr. Henry More,

2nd ed. (London: S. Manship, 1694), the primary distinction there is between "concupiscence and benevolence." Samuel Wesley (or one of his literary friends) favorably reviewed the book in The Compleat Library (London: John Dunton, 1694), 3:92—97, calling attention to these two main branches in Norris's taxonomy of love. Concupiscence is "a Simple tendency of the Soul to Good," that is, good in general (p. 93), and benevolence is "a willing of Good to some Being or another" (p. 94). In a later work Norris distinguished between the "love of benevolence" (appropriate toward our neighbor, whose good we can selflessly will) and the "love of desire" (appropriate toward God, whom we cannot hope to wish any good, from whom we can only seek the fulfillment of our want). Desire, even when used in this theological sense, seems better represented by "concupiscence" than "complacence." See his "Dis-

Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home

course concerning the Excellence of Praise and Thanksgiving," in [Practical] Discourses, 2:92—94.

It is possible that the mislabeling of the distinction is attributable to Susanna—she certainly used the same terms when writing to Samuel Jr. on 11 March 1704. If she were remembering it without the book in hand, "good will" would be a plain English equivalent of the Latinate

"benevolence," and "complacence" (OED, def: 3, "disposition to please') is a word that a rusty memory might substitute for the slightly racier "concupiscence." Compare the related discussion in her "Obedience to the Laws of God: A Brief (Unfinished) Exposition on the Ten Commandments," in part III of this volume. The related Platonic distinction between the "concupisciple" and the "irascible" affections is also alluded to in S. W's devotional journal, entry 73.

31. FB omits.

32. For her role vis-a-vis Samuel, see my article, " "Some State Employment of Your Mind'.

." Church History, 58.3 (September 1989): 354-366.

33. John Morley was rector of Lincoln College, 1719-1731, and also resided occasionally in Scotten, his parish, near Gainsborough, not far from Epworth. The family difficulties S. W. refers to probably centered on Hetty's forced marriage. The whole process had estranged her from the family in general and her father in particular. John, home during the summer vacation, was later to take Hetty's part in a sermon he preached at Wroot in August. See his letter to his brother Samuel, defending his stand, in FB, 1:201-205. Susanna, on having the MS read to her, noted, "You writ this sermon for Hetty; the rest was brought in for the sake of the last paragraph" (p. 205).

34. Nearly exact quotation of Romans 8:28; quotation marks in LB.

35. That is, over and above what is usual.

36. "Poverty" and "reproach" in cipher. S. W. is taking pains to warn her son what he is coming back to. On leave from Lincoln College, he in fact walked home, arriving 23 April and remaining until 19 September.

Si ADeL Bs) plad) sin. EB. plain:

38. In cipher.

39. In cipher.

40. Not particularly welcome at the rectory while visiting from her new home in Louth, the disgraced Hetty found sanctuary of a sort with her sister Anne and her husband. See preceding letters of 10 November and 7 December 1725 (and notes). The visit set the stage for the rather remarkable mother-daughter interview described in this letter.

41. Ruth 1:13; quotation marks in LB.

42. Most likely Sarah (Sally) Kirkham, daughter of a Cotswold rector, to whom Wesley had been attracted. Despite the fact that she had by now married a local schoolmaster, John continued a slightly more than platonic correspondence with her. She was probably the friend who had recommended both Thomas a Kempis and Jeremy Taylor to his attention. See Green,

Young Mr. Wesley, pp. 205-211. There is explicit mention of her in the letter of 31 January 1726/

27. Susanna's scruples doubtless reflect the family's recent experience vis-a-vis Hetty.

@ TEN W A Continuing Cure of Souls usanna maintained her regular correspondence with her son John, whose career

was continuing apace. A year later (14 February 1727) he took his master of arts degree, and in August of the same year a leave of absence—to become his father's curate with a special charge for the parish of Wroot. Apart from the brief visit for his ordination as priest (22 September 1728), he did not return to Oxford for good until the fall of 1729.

These letters, primarily from late January until late July 1727, were written to John at Oxford before his return to the family. The last three in the set frame his time at Epworth and Wroot: two from the time of his ordination and a final one after leaving for Oxford for good in late summer of 1729.

Not surprisingly, there is a continuing focus on John's ecclesiastical career; Susanna still writes to him as his tutor in "practical divinity" and is keenly interested in his prospects, including, she hopes, a stint at home helping his father. However, more than in the previous correspondence with her son, these letters reveal a wider care for, as she says in the letter of 9 January 1727, "the state of my family." John would have his ecclesiastically sanctioned curacy over the parishioners of Wroot;

Susanna's cure of souls continued to be her family, the young women and men who had been committed to her care through birth.

The children were coming of age, and their mother shouldered multiple burdens: helping them through the life crises of vocation and marriage; facing her (and her husband's) advancing age; experiencing the loneliness of a rapidly emptying nest— all in the context of the family's perennial debts. The sons needed to be worried through university, ordination, search for preferment, and marriage. Her daughters, especially, required a good match or, failing that, an appropriate placement "in service.

Thus we find Susanna the practical theologian writing about Sherlock on Providence or Sprat on zeal (in the 14 March 1727 letter) and about zeal and love (and preaching) in the letter of 14 May. But pastoral and parental issues predominate:

John's platonic relationship with a married woman (9 January and 14 March), his

A Continuing Cure of Souls

health (14 May), the hope that he lead a "regular course of life" (22 April), and the possibility of his coming home as curate (22 April, 14 May, 26 July); Charles, as well as John, not getting enough to eat (22 April); the children all leaving home

(22 April); an allusion to Hetty's problems; a desire to see the Lamberts' fortunes improve (11 August 1729); Emily's moving to Lincoln as a schoolteacher (9 January

1727).

It is not unusual for women in patriarchal situations to use indirect, manipulative approaches to gain desired ends. Such a premise might help us understand the guilt she seems to be putting on her son for not rushing to Epworth immediately (14

May) as well as at least part of her speculation about her own death and whether her children would grieve and whether it could be useful for them (26 July).

To John Wesley 31 January 1726/27 LB, pp. 51-53; collated with AM, 1778, pp. 38-39; FB, 1:209—211. Ellipses indicate missing material in LB. Bracketed material comes from the fuller AM version.

Jane 32," L727 Dear Jacky, .

. Emly can have no time to work the chairs, having given her promise to Mrs. T. to go with her at Lincoln at May Day. The small interval between this and that is hardly sufficient to prepare for her removal. I would gladly have kept her here, but it cannot be: our seas run high, and each succeeding wave impairs her health, so that I plainly perceive she has not strength to ride out the storm; but must either make some other port, or shortly leave the world. For which reason I am content to part with her, however pleasing or useful she might otherwise be to me.'

. L often revolve the state of my family and the wants of my children over in my mind. And though one short reflection on the sins of my youth and the great imperfection of my present state solves all the difficulty of Providence relating to myself, yet when I behold them struggling with misfortunes of various kinds, some without sufficiency of bread, in the most literal sense, all destitute of the conveniences or comforts of life, it puts me upon the expostulation of David, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done?" z Though thus the tenderness of a mother pleads their cause, yet I dare not dispute God's justice, wisdom, or goodness. I know that to allot all men such a sphere of action as all things considered is best for them is the proper exercise of his providence, as it is what none but he can do. We yesterlings* do not know whether prosperity or adversity, health or sickness, honour or disgrace, would most conduce to our good

. What then to desire for myself or children I wot not. One thing I know, that the unsearchable wisdom of God is a good reason why we should not censure those mysterious methods of Providence which we cannot comprehend, but rather vigorously apply ourselves to do our duty in our several stations, leaving all things else to be disposed of by that almighty Goodness which was exhibited to us in the

132 = Letters redemption of the world by Jesus Christ. Only let us join in this petition to our

Incarnate God, that as our day is, so our strength may be!* Amen!

(Of my father's borrowing money for brother Charles, detained by brother Sam.) I have many thoughts of the friendship between Varanese* and thee, and the more I think of it, the less I approve it. The tree is known by its fruits,® but not always by its blossoms; what blooms beautifully sometimes bears bitter fruit

(Against the continuing the acquaintance with Varanese.) I often muse on the prodigious force of present things and am grieved to observe with what a strong impetus passion and appetite bear us in pursuit of sensitive' enjoyments, contrary to our best informed understandings.

. We would freely serve God with what costs us naught, but if he require a costly sacrifice, a right eye, or a right hand, we are ready to say, "These are hard saying, Who can bear them?"® We are apt to think heaven too dear a purchase if our favourite must be given for it .

. [I am verily persuaded that]" the reason why so many "seek to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but are not able," '° is because there is some [Delilah, some one]'' beloved vice, they will not part with; hoping that by a strict observance of other duties that one fault will be dispensed with. But [alas!]'* they miserably deceive themselves. The way to heaven is so narrow, the gate we must enter in so strait,'* that it will not permit a man to pass with one known unmortified sin about him. Therefore let everyone in the beginning of a Christian course seriously weigh what it will cost to finish it.'* "For whosoever having put his hand to the plough, looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of God!"

[I am nothing pleased we advised you to have your plaid; though I am, that you think it too dear, because I take it to be an indication that you are disposed to thrift, which is a rare qualification in a young man who has his fortune to make. Indeed, such an one can hardly be too wary, or too careful.]'® Not that he should take thought for the morrow,'' any farther than is needful for his improvement of today, in a prudent manage of the talents God has committed to his trust. So far I think

'tis his duty; '® I heartily wish you may be well apprised of this, while life is young.

Believe me, youth, for I am read in cares, And bend beneath the weight of more than fifty years.'"

Believe me, dear son, old age is the worst time we can choose to mend either our lives or our fortunes. If the foundations of solid piety are not laid betimes in sound principles and virtuous dispositions and if we neglect, while strength and vigour last, to lay up something ere the infirmities of age overtake us, 'tis a hundred to one odds but we shall die both poor and wicked.

Ah! My dear Jacky,*°® did you with me stand on the verge of life and see before your eyes a vast expanse, an unlimited duration of being, which you were obliged shortly to enter upon, you can't conceive how all the inadvertencies, mistakes, and sins of youth would rise to your view. And how different [the]*! sentiments [of sensitive pleasures, the desire of sexes, and pernicious friendships of the world]

A Continuing Cure of Souls

would be then .

. from what they are now, while health is entire, and seems to promise many years of life!

My love and blessing attends you and your brother. Dear Jacky, adieu!

To John Wesley 14 March 1726/27 CBW ODIO. ot pep wie? tl 212:

March 14 [1726/27] Dear Jacky, pap) .

Lcongratulate your good success in taking your Master's degree.

I'm greatly pleased with your reflections on the methods of divine providence relating to our family and am entirely of your mind, that less violent motives would not have prevailed (on me at least) to make us seriously apply ourselves to the study and practice of the virtues you mention.

(Commendation of Sherlock on Providence.) ** The relation I have to your friend Theod[osius]** made me think it my duty to speak freely on his friendship to V[aranese]; which having done, I have no more to say or do, but only earnestly to pray for him; and to commit the conduct of his soul to that superior Wisdom which alone can guide it into the ways of truth and peace. I have a good opinion of the honesty of his intention and believe he proposes to himself no happiness at present but what appears to him solid, rational, and Christian. But age has less fire and more caution than youth and may perhaps sometimes be afraid where no fear is. But I hope it is excusable, and that no offence will be taken, where none was intended.

(Of Bishop Sprat's Sermon on Zeal.) *° .

| wish I had that funeral sermon you preached; but if that can't be, prithee send me the text, and bring the sermon, if you should come again ere I die.

Dear Jacky, I beseech Almighty God to bless you!

To John Wesley 22 April 727 LB, pp. 54-56; FB, 1:215-216.

Aprile 21727) Dear Jacky, I have so much to say that I verily believe I shall forget at least one half of it.

Therefore 'tis the best way to begin with that which seems of most importance.

(Of my cutting off my hair; reasons for it.)

134 = Letters Your drawing up for yourself a scheme of studies highly pleases me, for there is nothing like a clear method to save both time and labour in anything. 'Tis a pretty observation of Seneca's, "Most people pass through the world like straws upon a river, which are carried on by the wind or stream without having any proper action of their own." *° Whether it proceed from mere impotence of mind, intemperate love of pleasure, want of*' courage, or indolence, 'tis certain there are very few that will persevere in a regular course of life, and 'tis as certain that without such a course a man must necessarily spend most of his days in doing nothing, or nothing to the purpose .

. I know very well that if a man .

. will resolutely break through the foolish customs and maxims of that world .

. he must submit to be often the sport, perhaps the scorn, of the profane and the witty; but Slight those that say, amidst their sickly healths,

Thou liv'st by rule. What does not so, but man?"* A little well-timed neglect or a prudent withdrawing from such company is the best answer in those cases; and the inward peace that results from a well-ordered life is an ample recompense for all its difficulties.

There is another thing in your last letter that almost equally pleases me, and that is your wise and honest resolution of not being trusted again by anyone. I heartily wish, Dear Jacky, that God may enable you to keep it.

., and that his merciful providence will ever grant you all things that are necessary for life and godliness without your being compelled to live the life that I have done; and that you may have such power over yourself as to be able to live cheerfully without such things as his wisdom thinks fit to withhold from you...

How you account for your being weak and little I know not; but I believe the true cause of your being so is want of sufficiency of food for ten or twelve years when you were growing and required more nourishment. If your contracting any ill habit was a means of your acquiring or confirming any good ones, the reason of God's permitting you to contract it is very clear. He often demonstrates the power of his mercy toward us by bringing good out of sin, the greatest evil; and his not hearing our prayers proves sometimes, in the event, the greatest instance of his favour.*?

I am not sorry that you missed the school.*® That way of life would not agree with your constitution, and I hope God has better work for you to do.

. I would not have you leave making verses .

. Rather make poetry sometimes your diversion, though never your business.

I must own I vehemently suspect your doctrine and practice did not well agree.

I know Mr. Griffiths was a favourite on more accounts than one or two. Be that as it will, I am glad you are better; though I verily believe you will never have any good state of health while you keep your hair.*!

My Lliord] Nottingham has given Mr. Pennington a small living, about £74 a year, paid in money, to which he goes the tenth of May**.

. 'Tis your father's intention to serve both his cures for a year, which (beside that I think it too much for him) I know would satisfy neither parish. Now I think if it will be no great prejudice to your affairs, and you can submit to live as we must do in his absence,

A Continuing Cure of Souls

it will be a charitable thing to come hither and supply his place during that time. I am persuaded that if it be in your power to help us, you will doit...

Thus far I had written when Mr. William Hume, who succeeds his father in Laughton living, sent a servant to tell Mr. Wesley that his third brother, Daniel, enters into Holy Orders on Trinity Sunday; and that he desires, since Mr. Pennington is preferred,** he would accept of him for a curate. On Thursday next the two young gentlemen are to meet here about it. I shall not fail to inform you of what they resolve, as soon as it comes to my knowledge.

Your sister Emly is upon the point of leaving us, and we intend, if God permit, to put Molly to trade at midsummer. So we shall have only Patty and Kezzy at home.** Dear Jacky, I beg of you to leave drinking green tea. It ill agrees with a weak constitution. If you drink sage, be sure you make it of sage well dried

I beg Almighty God to bless and guide you in your ways.

Dear Jacky, adieu.

I have abundance more to say, had I time.

Jacky, do you really think Charles has [victuals] ** enough? He writ me a mighty kind letter, with an air of great sincerity; but yet I am sometimes afraid he represented his case rather too well, out of mere goodness, to make me easy.

To John Wesley 14 May 1727 LB, pp. 56-59; collated following FB, 1:217-218, with AM, 1778, pp. 78-79

(which leaves much out and adds several sentences).

Wroot May 14 [1727] Dear Jacky, I wrote some [time] since to your brother Charles and you, but have not yet heard whether either of you received my letter. Yours, dated the 7th of April, found me engaged in much business, and if I had not I should have made no great haste to answer it, because you told K[ezzy] you were to be absent from College for some time .

. And now I am about to answer it, I don't know how to do it to your satisfaction; for I've very little to say on zeal more than I've said already. Yet I can deny you nothing that is in my power to grant, though I write to no purpose. (Of zeal.) °° The difficulty of separating the ideas of things that nearly resemble each other, and whose properties and effects are much the same, has made some think that we have *" no passion but love and that what we call hope, joy, fear, etc.,** are no more than various modes of it.*? This notion carries some show of reason, though I can't acquiesce in it. I must confess I never yet met such a definition of love*® as fully satisfied me. "Tis indeed commonly defined, "a desire of union with a known or apprehended good."*! But this directly makes love and desire the same thing, which** I conceive they are not, for this reason: desire is strongest and acts most

Letters vigorously when the beloved object is distant, absent, or apprehended unkind or displeased; whereas when the union is attained,* delight and joy fills [sic] the ** lover, while desire lies quiescent; which plainly shows *> that desire of union is an effect of love, not love itself.

What then is love? How shall we define its strange, mysterious essence? It is—I don't know what: a powerful something; source of our joy and grief! Felt by everyone, yet unknown to all! Nor shall we ever comprehend what it is till we are united to our First Principle and there read its wondrous nature in the clear mirror of Uncreated Love! [Till which time it is best to rest satisfied with such apprehensions of its essence as we can collect from our observation of its effects and properties; for other knowledge of it in our present state is too high and wonderful for us, neither can we attain unto it.]*° Dear Jacky,*" suffer now a word of advice. However curious you may be in searching into the natures or distinguishing the properties of the passions or virtues

[of humankind] for your own private satisfaction, be very cautious of giving nice definitions in public assemblies, for it does not answer the true end of preaching, which is to mend men's lives, not to fill their heads with unprofitable speculations

48 [And after all that can be said, every affection of the soul is better known by experience than any description that can be given of it. An honest man will more easily apprehend what is meant by being zealous for God and against sin when he hears what are the properties and effects of zeal, than by the most accurate definitions of its essence.]*? And it is of incomparably greater concern to every individual soul of your auditory to be well instructed how to temper zeal than to have the most accurate definition of its essence .

I've now received yours dated May 8th and find by it you have my last. If you are so averse from parting with your hair.

. I've no more to say.

. I wish you health, and, if it please God, a long life .

Your being subject to frequent bleedings at the nose is no sign of the fluids being too thick, but .

. of the contrary .

. The cramp is a nervous distemper and proceeds from some obstruction that prevents the regular circulation of the spirits.

Tis no wonder you should be afflicted with it, when your father has had it so violently, especially when he was young. One of the best remedies in this case is eight or nine hours of sleep and moderate exercise, avoiding as much as possible the being abroad after sunset .

. Water does certainly increase the fluids, but whether it corrects their viscidity°° or no I cannot tell

(A r[ecipe] for viscidity or sharpness in the blood.) What curate your father will hire I don't know. I think Mr. Hume will be the man. Till Martinmas he designs to serve both cures himself.

. I did once with some degree of earnestness wish you here, but I don't now; rather I am glad that there is no occasion for your coming at all. For 'tis best for me to have as few attachments to the world as possible.

Dear Jacky,°' the conclusion of your letter is very kind. That you were ever dutiful

I very well know, but I know myself enough to rest satisfied with a moderate share *" of your affection. Indeed it would be unjust of me to desire the love of anyone.

A Continuing Cure of Souls

Your prayers I want and wish; nor shall I cease while I live to beseech Almighty

God to bless you! Adieu! °° I congratulate your composure of mind; for sure 'tis a happy temper and can never make you unfit for good conversation. Tis my simple opinion that no man is so well qualified for converse in the world as he that most despises it.

Charles has writ a letter to your father which much pleases him.

Em is gone to Lincoln.

To John Wesley Sulyal727 MA and LB, p. 59; FB, 1:226—-227. This is part of a double letter from Samuel and Susanna.

[Wroot}; Jule Sait72 7] Dear Jacky, I had answered your letter but was prevented by an unusual illness, which I thank God is pretty well over. When I wrote last I thought your father had laid aside his design of sending for you hither, but perceive now he has altered his purpose and has desired you to come. He does certainly want an assistant, though I believe if you stay a little longer ere you come hither he will want none. How Charles can get to Wroot I can't tell. "Tis impossible for us to send horses farther than Nottingham, and I suppose he may scruple coming so far with the carrier.°*

In great haste I send ye both my love and blessing.

S. W.

To John Wesley 26 July 1727 LB, pp. 59-61; collated with AM, 1778, pp. 79-80; following FB, 1:228—229.

July 26,i[ 727)?

Dear Jacky, The very ill health I have had this two or three last months makes me much indisposed to write, or I should have answered yours of the 15th instant sooner.

'Tis certainly true that I have had large experience of what the world calls ill*® fortune; but as I have not made those improvements I ought to have made under the discipline of Providence, I humbly [conceive] °' myself to be unfit for an assistant to another in affliction.°* But blessed be God you are at present in pretty easy circumstances,

. >' [which I thankfully acknowledge is a great mercy to me, as well as you. | 6° Yet if hereafter you should meet with troubles of various sorts, as 'tis very probable you will in the course of life, the best preparative I know of for suffering is a [regular and exact]°' performance of present duty. For this will surely make°? a

Letters man pleasing to God and put him directly under his protection, so that no evil shall befall him but what he will certainly be the better for.

Tis incident to all men to regard the past and the future, while the present moments pass unheeded; whereas in truth neither [the]°* one nor the other is of use to us any farther than they put us upon improving the present time

You did well to correct that fond desire of dying before me, since you do not know what work God may have for you to do ere you leave the world. And besides, as you observed, I ought surely to have the pre-eminence in point of time, and go to rest before you. Whether you could see me die without any motion of grief I know not; perhaps you could. 'Tis what I've often desired of the children, that they would not weep at our parting, and so make death more uncomfortable than it would otherwise be to me. If you, or any other of my children, were like to reap any spiritual advantage by being with me at my exit, [I]°* should be glad to have you with me. But as I have been an unprofitable servant®? during the course of a long life, I have no reason to hope for [so great an honour, ]°° so high a favour, as to be employed in doing our Lord any service in the article of death. It were well if you spoke prophetically, and that joy and hope might have the ascendant over my other passions at that important hour. But I dare not presume, nor do I despair, but leave it to our Almighty Saviour to do with me both in life and death just what he pleases; for I have no choice.

.°"

The family you mention under some affliction I suppose to be that of Varanese.

I hope no branch of it has proved so bad as Hetty. If it has, I pray God to comfort the rest of them, for they have trouble enough

I have writ so often to my sister Annesley and have received no answer, that I believe she either never got my letters, or has forgotten me.°® I wish you would see her.

. and enquire whether my sister Richardson ©' be alive and how she lives.

Your father, I suppose, is for your coming hither presently. But what becomes of poor Charles? I'm ill, and can't write to him.

I shall be glad if your coming to Wroot may be to your satisfaction. We are under some pressures, but will endeavour to make things as easy to you as possible.

'Tis well you've left [drinking tea];'° for 'tis doubtful whether I shall be able to get you any.

Dear J[acky], God bless thee!

Your sisters Patty and Kezzy, who are both recovering from a fever that has brought them very low, send their love to you; and do humbly petition that if you have any [old shirts],'' you would give 'em to them.

Once more, Adieu!

This'* letter was not sent till the 15th of August. We have been sick, and I could not finish it.

A Continuing Cure of Souls

To John Wesley 12 August 1728 LB, pp. 61-62; FB, 1:232. The gap between this and the last letter represents the initial period of John's service as his father's curate. With her son living at home, she had no need to write to him.

Epworth, August 12, 1728 Dear Jacky, I had not failed to give you advice of your box sending, but that I have been ill ever since you went hence. Within these few days the fever left me, and now, I thank God, I'm pretty well .

. My sickness, and somewhat worse, has made our work here go on very slowly; and when you return you'll not find the house much better than you left it.

I am glad you met with so good a reception at London and that the place of your residence is so pleasing to you. Whatever my circumstances are, or wherever it seems good to Infinite Wisdom to cast my lot, Iam greatly delighted to hear that others are more easy in their fortunes, company, or habitation; and have as true a taste of what they enjoy as they have themselves. Were it in my power to make all men happy I should not fail of being so too. Though, blessed be God, as it is I am far from miserable.

You did well to visit poor Tim; 'tis a little hearty mortal, and I dare say was very glad to see you. If you happen to see him again, pray return his services

(R[ecipe]s for Syrup of Mulberries, Mulberry Wine, or Wine and Shrub).

If there be anything else in which I can serve you, let me know. I beseech Almighty

God to bless thee!

To John Wesley September 1728 LB, p. 62 (two-line summary); FB, 1:233.

September [17]28 Dear Jacky, (Of my brother's coming to Epworth) If he come, he must not think of returning till after winter.

Letters To John Wesley 11 August 1729 LB, p. 62; FB, 1:239-240. Again, the long gap between letters represents a long period of residence with his family, as his father's curate.

August 11, [17]29 Dear Jacky, I need not tell you I should be glad to see you, because you know it already; and so I should to see poor Charles too; but what to say to his coming I know not.

J[ohn] L[ambert], his w[ife] and ch[ild],"* we are still like to keep, for we hear no news of a place for him; though I would fain hope it would please God to provide for him some way ere winter and take off their w[eigh]t, which really grows very heavy.

I wrote with some earnestness to your brother Sam Wesley to persuade him to come to Epworth; but I find I can't prevail

. He will be here toward the end of the month .

. He sent me a pound of Bohea tea'* and two pounds of chocolate, which were very acceptable; for none could I buy, and I was somewhat ill for want

Oiitear peers I think you had better contrive to meet your brother at Lincoln and then come all together .

. I have a bad arm and write in much pain, or I have a deal to say else.

. Perhaps I may live to see you.

May Almighty God bless and preserve you!

Notes 1. Emilia, the eldest Wesley daughter, had already had her relationship with a young man broken up by the family. That same winter she found herself in near total charge of the family during the indisposition of Susanna. Finally, she left home for a teaching position in a Lincoln boarding school for five years. After another brief stint at home (this time, Wroot), she again became a teacher in Lincoln, this time in the school of Mrs. Taylor (the Mrs. T. mentioned in this letter). Though Susanna would have preferred to keep her daughter with her, she seems to have acquiesced to her leaving. See the letter of 20 January 1722, in this volume, chapter 7, and two of Emily's in Stevenson, pp. 263-267.

2. Nearly exact quotation of 2 Samuel 24:17; quotation marks in LB.

3. Not in OED; perhaps colloquial or dialect.

4. Deuteronomy 33:25, paraphrased.

5. The name John used in correspondence with his friend Sally Kirkham, now Mrs. Chapone. See S. Ws letter of 29 November 1726.

6. Cf. Matthew 7:20.

7. That is, sensuous.

8. John 6:60 reads, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" Quotation marks are in LB.

9. This is the beginning of the extract Wesley published in the AM.

10. A summary, not a direct quotation, of Matthew 7:21—23; quotation marks are in LB but not AM.

11. In AM only. A pointed personification of vice, given her disapproval of Wesley's relationship with "Varanese" only a few lines above! If this is John's interpolation, it is no less interesting. See Judges 16:4—21.

A Continuing Cure of Souls

12. In AM only.

13. Paraphrase of Matthew 7:14.

14. AM substitutes, ".

. weigh what our Lord says in St. Luke xiv. ver. 27, 28, 29, 30, Bis 15. Nearly exact quotation of Luke 9:62; quotation marks in LB.

16. LB begins the paragraph. "One who has his fortunes to make, can hardly be too careful." The reference to a seemingly insignificant detail (the plaid nightgown) strengthens the argument that Wesley left material out of LB and in 1778 was editing from the holograph, which he occasionally transcribes in his AM edition.

17. See Matthew 6:34.

18. In AM: "I would not recommend taking Thought for the Morrow any further than is needful, for our improvement of present opportunities, in a prudent manage of those talents

God has committed to our trust. And so far I think it is the Duty of all, to take Thought for the Morrow. And...

19. I have not been able to trace the source of this couplet.

20. In AM: "my dear Son."

24: IneEBP your'

22. Conferred February 14.

23. S. W. is not referring to Thomas Sherlock (1678-1761), at this time not yet embarked on his episcopal career (bishop of Bangor, 1728; Salisbury, 1734; and London, 1748), but to his father, William Sherlock (1641?-1707). The elder Sherlock, a Cambridge graduate whose clerical career culminated in the deanship of St. Paul's in 1691, was a noted controversialist.

He wrote against Dissenters, Catholics, and Socinians and for the divine right of kings. Like

S. W. he was initially a Nonjuror but soon backed off from that position, recognizing William and Mary as governing de facto—thereby avoiding deprivation and assuring further preferment. His a Discourse Concerning the Divine Providence (London: William Rogers, 1694) is dedicated to the Queen, invoking the "same Good Providence, which has advanced Your Majesties to the Throne." Among other things that would interest S$. W., Sherlock argues that God's "Praescience does not destroy [human] Liberty" (p. 181); that people should "take care of the Religious and Vertuous Education of their Children" (p. 337); and that we ought "humbly to acquiesce in what God does, and faithfully to discharge the duties which belong to that state, and condition, and circumstances of life, which the Providence of God has placed us in" (p.

354). Samuel Wesley (or one of his close literary associates) gave the book a long favorable review in The Compleat Library (London: John Dunton, 1694), 3:3—-14.

24. The name given to another of the Cotswold circle in which the the young Wesley moved. His own appellation in the group was Cyrus.

25. "A Sermon Preached before the King at White-Hall, December 22, 1678," in Sermons

Preached on Several Occasions (London: R. Bonwicke et al., 1722), pp. 143-190. Sprat (1635-1713) was dean of Westminster and then bishop of Rochester, in which latter capacity he ordained

Samuel Wesley Sr. a deacon in 1688. Preaching on Galatians 4:18 ("It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing"), he both commends "true religious zeal" and shows the "due limitations of such zeal" (pp. 144-145) Note S. Ws disquisition on this subject in her letter to John, 10 November 1725 (chapter 9, this volume). A test of true zeal is "First, That which is guided by a good Light in the Head. Secondly, That which consists of good and innocent Affections in the Heart. Thirdly, That which employs the Head and the Heart about good Things, and those only" (p. 157). Sprat's desire is to show the Stuart king that true religious zeal does not mean violence, resistance, or open rebellion against those in authority

(pp. 188-189); with this political point S. W. is in accord, but she may be commending the sermon to John in hopes that he will be careful to temper in this instance his "natural passions,' that is, with respect to Varanese (p. 153).

142 =' Letters 26. Quotation marks in LB. I have been unable to locate the passage in Roger L Estrange, ed., Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract, 7th ed. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1699).

LB ane 28. George Herbert, "The Church-Porch," stanza 23, lines 133-135, from The Temple, in F. E.

Hutchinson, ed., The Works of George Herbert (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), p. 12. See note to S. W's letter to Samuel Jr., 11 October 1709, where it is also quoted.

29. S. W. is answering a query John made in his letter to her, 19 March 1727. FB, 1:212— v4 Tes 30. John had indicated that he was in the running for the headmastership of a school in Skipton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, not too far from Epworth (FB, 1:213-214). By the time of her writing, S. W. had heard it had not come through, probably from another letter from her son that does not survive. See FB, 1:714.

31. An answer to details in a letter that seems not to have survived. The reference may be to John (Robin) Griffiths, an undergraduate friend of Wesley, who died suddenly during the previous Christmas vacation.

32. With his curate's departure, Samuel Wesley was left to minister alone in both Epworth and Wroot. See his letter to John, 6 June, 1727, in Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Rev.

Samuel Wesley .

. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1866), p. 400.

33. That is, elevated to a parish of his own.

34. Emily was going to her teaching post at Lincoln. Charles had come up to Christ

Church College in 1726. Suky had made a bad match, c. 1719, with Richard Ellison, a rich but boorish and irreligious landowner. Hetty and Anne, as we've seen, were married; Samuel

Jr. was teaching school; and John, for a few more months at least, was at Oxford.

35) Inscipher, 36. This paragraph is found only in LB.

37. In AM: "the human soul has.

38. In AM: "and that all those Passions or Affections, which we distinguish by the names obhoper we?

5) 39. In AM: "of Love."

40. In AM: "such an accurate definition of the passion Love.

41. Quotation marks in LB; I have not uncovered this reference.

42. AM adds, "upon a close inspection.

43. AM adds, "and Fruition perfect, Complacency.

44. AM adds, "soul of the.

45. AM adds, "at least to me.

46. Added from AM, following FB; the last clause is a paraphrase of the AV version of Psalm 139:6.

47. Omitted in AM.

48. Dash in LB indicating omitted material; material that follows from AM, added here in brackets, seems to fill that gap.

49. The following material, down through "as few attachments to the world as possible," appears only in LB.

50. Stickiness, glutinousness.

51. "Dear Son" in AM.

52. In AM: "degree."

53. AM version ends here.

54. In LB: "I can't tell.

. perhaps he may scruple coming by the carrier." poten; 56. In AM: "adverse."

57. Missing in LB; supplied in AM.

A Continuing Cure of Souls

AM substitutes, "but I have not made those improvements in piety and virtue, under bo: the discipline of Providence, that I ought to have done; therefore I humbly conceive myself to be unfit for an assistant to another in affliction, since I have so ill performed my own duty."

LB indicates material missing, probably that supplied by AM.

AM.

AM, Tn (LB: "anexact, 2.

So:

60.

" ol.

In AM: "render." LB mistakenly reads, "will surely will make a man.

. . .

AM.

62.

63.

Left out in LB; supplied by AM.

64.

See Matthew 25:30.

Added in AM.

AM version ends here.

65.

66.

67.

Probably either her unmarried sister Ann, born 1661, or her younger brother Benja68. min's wife, Mary. See Betty Young, "Sources for the Annesley Family," PWHS, 45.2 (September

1985): 46-57. None of these letters seems to have survived, though on the evidence of the following letter, MA, dated 12 August, 1731, S. W. seems finally to have gotten through to her sister via her sons:

Dear Sister I am sorry the providence of God has placed us at such a distance that we can't hope to meet in this world or have one hour's chat to talk over our past lives before we die.

But be that as it will, we must submit to what we can't help, for though I have neither money nor friends, yet I live as happy as anyone in my circumstances can do, for I never grieve at [?]inevitable things. I hope to hear better news when my nephews return to London, for they told me you had a very ill state of health, but the sight of them, I believe, will so revive you that they will do you more good than a doctor. Pray give my love to my brother and all my nieces, and be assured I am,

Dear Sister, your affectionate Sister and Servant Anne Annesley 69. Mary Annesley, one of Susanna's older sisters, married Nathaniel Richardson in 1671.

No record of her death has been found; if she was alive at the time she would have been near 80. See Young, "Sources for the Annesley Family," p. 51.

In cipher.

70.

In cipher.

Baker misreads as "your."

JDM ype VES Susanna's son-in-law, the surveyor, and her daughter Anne and child had not yet moved to London.

74. Black tea from China.

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