To His Brother Samuel
Maricnhom, near Frankfort, July 7, (O. S.,) 1738. Dear Brother, — God has given me at length the desire of my heart. I am with a church whose conversalion is in heaveh, In whom is the mind that was in Christ, and who so walks as he walked. As they have all one Lord and one faith, so they are all partakers of one spirit, the spirit of meekness and love, which uniformly and continually animates all their conversation. O how high and holy a thing Christianity is! and how widely distant from that (I know not what) which is so called, though it neither piu-ilies the heart nor renews the life after the image of our blessed Redeemer.
I grieve to think how that holy name by which we are called must be blasphemed among the heathen, while they see discontented Christians, passionate Christians, resentful Christians, earthly-minded Christians; yea, (to come to what we are apt to count small things,) while they see Christians judging one another, ridiculing one another, speaking evil of one another, increasing, instead of bearing, one another’s burdens. How bitterly would Julian have applied to these, “See how these Christians love one another!” I know I myself, I doubt you sometimes, and my sister often, have been under this condemnation. O may God grant we may never more think to do him service by breaking those commands which are the very life of his religion! But may we utterly put away all anger, and wrath, and malice, and bitterness, and evil speaking
I believe in a week Mr. Ingham and I shall set out for Hernhuth, about three hundred and fifty miles from hence. O pray for us, that God would sanctify to us all those precious opportunities, that we may be continually built up more and more in the spirit of power, and love, and of a sound mind!
VII. — TO THE SAME.
London, October 30, 1738. Dear Brother, — With regard to my own character and my doctrine likewise, I shall answer you very plainly. By a Christian, I mean one who so believes in Christ “s that sin hath no more dominion over hiih: ’ and in this obvious sense of the word, I was not a Christian till May the 24 th, last past. For till then sin had the dominion over me, although I fought with it continually; but surely, then, from that time to this it hath not; — such is the free grace of God in Christ. What sins they were which till then reigned over me, and from which, by the grace of God, I am now free, I am ready to declare on the house-top, if it may be for the glory of God.
If you ask by what means I am made free, (though not perfect, neither infallibly sure of my perseverance,) I answer, By faith in Christ; by such a sort or degree of faith as I had not till that day. My desire of this faith I knew long before, though not so clearly till Sunday, January the 8th last, when being in the midst of the great deep, I wrote a few lines7 in the bitterness of my soul, some of which I have transcribed; and may the good God sanctify them both to you and me!
By the most infallible of all proofs, inward feeling, I am
convinced,
’ 1. Of unbelief; having no such faith in Christ as
I will prevent my heart’s being troubled; which it could
not be if I believed in God, and rightly believed also in
him.
2. Of pride throughout my life past; inasmuch as I i* thought I had what I find I had not. Lord, save, or I perish! Save me,
(1.) By such a faith in thee and in thy Christ as implies trust, confidence, peace in life and in death.
(2.) By such humility as may fill my heart, from this hour for ever, with a piercing, uninterrupted sense. Nihil est quod hactenus feci ;* having evidently built without a foundation.
(3.) By such a recollection, that I may cry to thee every moment, but more especially when all is calm, (if it should so please thee,)” Give me faith, or I die! Give me a lowly
* What I have been hitherto doing amounts to nothing. — Ed.
spirit, otherwise, mihi non sit suave vivere”* Amen! Come,
Lord Jesus! Tie AaCiSy E^eraov ^ot.f
Some measure of this faith, which bringeth salvation, or victory over sin, and which implies peace, and trust in God through Christ, I now enjoy by his free mercy; though in very deed it is in me but as a grain of mustard seed: for the vj7.i]po(^opia tjig-eug, — the seal of the Spirit, the love of God shed abroad in my heart, and producing joy in the Holy Ghost, “joy which no man taketh away; joy unspeakable and full of glory:” this witness of the Spirit I have not, but I patiently wait for it. I know many who have already received it; more than one or two in the very hour we were praying for it. And having seen and spoken with a cloud of witnesses abroad, as well as in my own country, I cannot doubt but that believers who wait and pray for it will find these scriptures fulfilled in themselves. My hope is, that they will be fulfilled in me: I build on Christ the Rock of Ages; on his sure mercies described in his word, and on his promises, all which I know are yea, and amen. Those who have not yet received joy in the Holy Ghost, the love of God, and the plerophory of faith, (any or all of which I take to be the witness of the Spirit with our spirit that we arc the sons of God,) I believe to be Christians in that imperfect sense wherein I may call myself such; and I exhort them to pray that God would give them also “to rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” and to feel “his love shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is, given unto them.”
O brother, would to God you would leave disputing concerning the things which you know not, (if indeed you know them not,) and beg of God to fill up what is yet wanting in you! Why should not you also seek till you receive “that peace of God which passeth all understanding?” Who shall hinder you, notwithstanding the manifold temptations, from” rejoicing with joy unspeakable, by rea-
* May life itself no longer be pleasant to me. — Ed. t Son of David, have mercy upon me. — Ed.
son of glory-?” Amen! Lord Jesus! May you, and all who are near of kin to you, (if you have it not already,) feel his love shed abroad in your heart by his Spirit which dwelleth in you; and be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of your inheritance.