“Sammy, beware of the impetuosity of your temper! It may easily lead you awry. It may make you evil affected to the excellent ones of the earth. Don’t expect propriety of speech from uneducated persons. The longer I live, the larger allowances I make for human infirmities. I exact more from myself, and less from others. Go thou and do likewise! I am, with love to Nancy,
“Your ever affectionate friend and brother,
“John Wesley.
“Take nothing, absolutely nothing, at second hand.”[491]
The next contains an invitation to Mr. Furley to meet Wesley at the conference about to be held in Leeds, and treats on, what was then the great topic of the time, Christian perfection.
“Dublin, July 30, 1762.
“Dear Sammy,—‘If I am unanswered, then I am unanswerable.’ Who can deny the consequence? By such an argument you carry all before you, and gain a complete victory. You put me in mind of the honest man, who cried out, while I was preaching, ‘Quid est tibi nomen?’ and, upon my giving no answer, called out vehemently, ‘I told you he did not understand Latin.’
“I do sometimes understand, though I do not answer. This is often the case between you and me. You love dispute, and I hate it. You have much time, and I have much work. Non sumus ergo pares. But if you will dispute the point with Nicholas Norton, he is your match. He has both leisure and love for the work.
“For me, I shall only once more state the case. There are forty or fifty people, who declare (and I can take their word, for I know them well), each for himself, ‘God has enabled me to rejoice evermore, and to pray and give thanks without ceasing. I feel no pride, no anger, no desire, no unbelief, but pure love alone.’ I ask, ‘Do you then believe you have no further need of Christ, or His atoning blood?’ Every one answers, ‘I never felt my want of Christ so deeply as I do now.’ But you think: ‘They cannot want the merit of His death, if they are saved from sin.’ They think otherwise. They know and feel the contrary, whether they can explain it, or no. There is not one, either in this city, or in this kingdom, who does not agree in this.
“Here is a plain fact. You may dispute, reason, cavil about it, just as long as you please. Meantime, I know, by all manner of proof, that these are the happiest and holiest people in the kingdom. Their light shines before men. They have the mind that was in Christ, and walk as Christ also walked. And shall I cease to rejoice over these holy, happy men, because they mistake in their judgment? If they do, I would to God you and I and all mankind were under the same mistake; provided we had the same faith, the same love, and the same inward and outward holiness!