1754

To Ebenezer Blackwell [1]

BRISTOL January 5, 1754.

DEAR SIR -- If I write to my best friends first, I must not delay writing to you, who have been the greatest instruments of God’s hands of my recovery thus far. The journey hither did not weary me at all; but I now find the want of Lewisham air. We are (quite contrary to my judgement, but our friends here would have it so) in a cold bleak place, and in a very cold house. If the Hot Well water make amends for this, it is well. Nor have I any place to ride but either by the river-side or over the downs, where the wind is ready to carry me away. However, one thing we know -- that whatsoever is is best! O let us look to Him that orders all things well! What have we to do but to employ all the time He allots us, be it more or less, in doing and suffering His will My wife joins in tender love both to Mrs. Blackwell, Mrs. Dewal, and yourself, with, dear sir,

Your obliged and affectionate servant.

To Samuel Furly [2]

BRISTOL, March 30, 1754.

DEAR SIR, -- I received your letter and rejoiced to find that you are still determined to save yourself by the grace of God from this perverse generation. But this cannot possibly be done at Cambridge (I speak from long experience), unless you can make and keep one resolution -- to have no acquaintance but such as fear God. I know it may be some time before you will find any that truly bear this character. If so, it is best to be alone till you do, and to converse only with your absent friends by letter. [See next letter.] But if you are carried away with the stream into frequent conversation with harmless, good-natured, honest triflers, they will soon steal away all your strength and stifle all the grace of God in your soul.

With regard to your studies, I know no better method you could pursue than to take the printed Ruins of Kingswood School, [Printed in 1749. See Green’s Bibliography, No. 127.] and to read all the authors therein mentioned in the same order as they occur there. The authors set down for those in the school you would probably read in about a twelve-month, and those afterwards named in a year or two more; and it will not be lost labor. I suppose you to rise not later than five, to allow an hour in the morning and another in the evening for private exercises, an hour before dinner, and one in the afternoon for walking; and to go to bed between nine and ten.

I commend you to Him who is able to carry you through all dangers; and am, dear sir,

Your affectionate brother and servant.

To Samuel Furly

BRISTOL September 21, 1754.

MY DEAR BROTHER, -- It is necessary for me, if I would have a dean conscience, not to omit anything which I find by experience to be profitable to my soul. Therefore, if I find any particular preacher to be so profitable, or any particular acquaintance, it is necessary for me to make use of them. Otherwise my conscience would not be clear. If this be your case, you cannot innocently neglect any of the few opportunities that remain. When you are at Cambridge, you cannot enjoy them if you would. There, therefore, few acquaintance will be best. And probably these you will not find but make profitable. Till then the less you speak (unless to God) the better. --I am

Your affectionate brother.

To Ebenezer Blackwell [3]

BRISTOL September 24, 1754.

DEAR SIR, -- Although I hope to see you in about a fortnight, yet I could not be satisfied without sending you a few lines first. Since I left London I have had many thoughts concerning you, and sometimes uneasy ones. I have been jealous over you, lest you should not duly improve the numerous talents with which God has entrusted you; nay, I have been afraid lest your very desire of improving them should grow weaker rather than stronger. If so, by what means is it to be accounted for What has occasioned this feebleness of mind May it not partly be occasioned by your conversing more than is necessary (for so far as it is necessary it does not hurt us) with men that are without God in the world -- that love, think, talk of earthly things only partly by your giving way to a false shame (and that in several instances), which, the more you indulge it, increases the more and partly by allowing too large a place in your thoughts and affections even to so innocent an enjoyment as that of a garden If this leaves you fewer opportunities of hearing that word which is able to save your soul, may not you even hereby grieve the Holy Spirit and be more a loser than you are sensible of

I know both Mrs. Blackwell and you desire to please God in all things. You will therefore, I know, receive these hints as they are intended -- not as a mark of disesteem, but rather of the sincerity with which I am, dear sir,

Your ever affectionate servant.

To Sir James Lowther [4]

LONDON October 28, 1754.

SIR, -- Whether I see you any more in this life or no, I rejoice that I have seen you this once, and that God enabled you to bear with patience what I spoke in the simplicity of my heart.

The substance of what I took the liberty to mention to you this morning was: You are on the borders of the grave, as well as I; shortly we must both appear before God. When it seemed to me, some months since, that my life was near an end, I was troubled that I had not dealt plainly with you. This you will permit me to do now, without any reserve, in the fear and in the presence of God.

I reverence you for your office as a magistrate; I believe you to be an honest, upright man; I love you for having protected an innocent people from their cruel and lawless oppressors. But so much the more am I obliged to say (though I judge not; God is the judge), I fear you are covetous, that you love the world. And if you do, as sure as the Word of God is true, you are not in a state of salvation.

The substance of your answer was: That many people exhort others to charity from self-interest; that men of fortune must mind their fortune; that you cannot go about to look for poor people; that when you have seen them your-self, and relieved them, they were scarce ever satisfied; that many make an ill use of what you give them; that you cannot trust the account people give of themselves by letters; that nevertheless you do give to private persons by the hands of Colonel Hudson and others; that you have also given to several hospitals an hundred pounds at a time, but that you must support your family; that the Lowther family has continued above four hundred years; that you are for great things -- for public charities and for saving the nation from ruin; and that others may think as they please, but this is your way of thinking, and has been for many years.

To this I replied (1) Sir, I have no self-interest in this matter; I consult your interest, not my own; I want nothing from you, I desire nothing from you, I expect nothing from you. But I am concerned for your immortal spirit, which must so soon launch into eternity. (2) It is true men of fortune must mind their fortune; but they must not love the world. ‘If any man love the world, the love of the Father h not in him.’ (3) It is true likewise you cannot go about to look for poor people; but you may be sufficiently informed of them by those that can. (4) And if some of these are never satisfied, this is no reason for not relieving others. (5) Suppose, too, that some make an ill use of what you give, the loss falls on their own head. You will not lose your reward for their faults. What you laid out, God will pay you again. (6) Yet certainly you do wall to have all the assurance you can that those to whom you give are likely to make a good use of it; and therefore to expect a stronger recommendation of them than their own, whether by letter or otherwise. (7) I rejoice that you have given to many by so worthy a man as Colonel Hudson, whose word is certainly a sufficient recommendation. (8) I rejoice likewise that you have given some hundreds of pounds to the hospitals, and wish it had been ten thousand. (9) To the support of the family I did not object; but begged leave to ask, whether this could not be done without giving ten thousand a year to one who had as much already and whether you could answer this to God in the day wherein He shah judge the world (10) I likewise granted that the family had continued above four hundred years; but observed meantime that God regarded it not one jot the more for this, and that four hundred or one thousand years are but a moment compared to eternity. (11) I observed likewise that great things may be done and little things not left undone. (12) And that if this or any other way of thinking be according to Scripture, then it is sound and good; whereas, if it be contrary to Scripture, it is not good, and the longer we are in it so much the worse.

Upon the whole, I must once more earnestly entreat you to consider yourself and God and eternity. (1) As to yourself, you are not the proprietor of anything -- no, not of one shilling in the world. You are only a steward of what another entrusts you with, to be laid out not according to your will but His. And what would you think of your steward if he laid out what is called your money according to his own will and pleasure (2) Is not God the sole proprietor of all things And are you not to give an account to Him for every part of His goods And oh how dreadful an account, if you have expended any part of them not according to His will but your own! (3) Is not death at hand And are not you and I just stepping into eternity Are we not just going to appear in the presence of God, and that naked of all worldly goods Will you then rejoice in the money you have left behind you or in that you have given to support a family, as it is called -- that is, in truth, to support the pride and vanity and luxury which you have yourself despised all your life long O sir, I beseech you, for the sake of God, for the sake of your own immortal soul, examine yourself whether you do not love money. If so, you cannot love God. And if we die without the fear of God, what remains Only to be banished from Him for ever and ever! -- I am, with true respect, sir,

Your servant for Christ’s sake.

To Samuel Furly

LONDON, December 7, 1754.

MY DEAR BROTHER, -- For the present it does not appear to be necessary for you to enter into any dispute with your instructor. [See letter of Feb. 19, 1755.] But perhaps he would read a short tract; suppose, The Nature and Design of Christianity. [Wesley’s abridgement of the first chapter of William Law’s Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection (1740, 19 pp.). See Green’s Bibliography, No. 17.] If at any time he should be touched by what he reads, it would then be a seasonable time to speak.

I should not advise you by any means to enter upon anything like teaching or exhorting a company of people. If any poor townsman who is sick desires your assistance, you need not scruple to visit him. But farther than this it seems you are not called to go at present.

The main point is now to improve your time in private, to keep dose to God in prayer, and to fix your eye on Him in whatever you do. Then the unction of the Holy One will teach you of all things. --I am

Your affectionate brother.

Editor’s Introductory Notes

[1] This is the first letter written after his serious illness. Wesley went to The Limes (Blackwell’s house in Lewisham) on November 26, and that evening wrote his own epitaph. He was able to ride on the 29th, and did so every day till January 1. The contrast in the whether at Bristol was striking. At Lewisham his ride was not once hindered, ‘it being always tolerably fair (however it was before) between twelve and one o’clock.’ He returned to London on the 1st and set out for Bristol the next day. The day before he wrote to Blackwell he ‘began drinking the water at the Hot Well, having a lodging at a small distance from it.’

[2] Whilst Wesley was at Bristol, Henry Venn wrote, on his appointment as curate at Clapham, asking for ‘a personal charge, to take heed to feed the flock commuted unto me’ (Arminian Magazine, 1797, p. 569. Furly was Venn’s friend, and also turned to Wesley for counsel He became a steadfast ally and correspondent. He was now twenty-two, and had recently begun his course at Queens’ College (see letter of December 7). The following letter from Mrs. Lefevre would probably be to Furly:

Wednesday, March 25, 1754.

MY DEAR, -- I thank you for the good account you have given me of Mr. V.’s sermon; he himself called this afternoon. I read your letter to him, and he was highly pleased with the attention which he said you must have given to remember the heads of it so exactly. I think it was an excellent one, and doubt not but the grace of God accompanied words so sincerely spoken, as his are, to the hearts of the hearers; and I hope it was so to you in particular. I think you will be quite right to go to the --- now and then on a Sunday evening, when you can do it without danger of Mr.-- knowing it.... Do you know that your master has lately invited Mr.--- to dine with him Let us trust in God that something good may arise from this.

Furly’s sister showed much kindness to Mary Bosanquet. ‘Indeed, I was in some sense commuted to her care by my parents, who have for years been acquainted with her family.’ See Moore’s Mrs. Fletcher, p. 3x; and for Mrs. Lefevre’s interest in Furly, letter of September 12, 1755, to Ebenezer Blackwell.

John Thornton, of Clapham, presented Furly to the living of Roche in 1766. He died in 1795.

[3] Wesley had left London on August 12, and returned on October 4. He watched over his friend’s spiritual life with godly jealousy.

[4] The Journal for October 28 says: ‘I delivered my own soul by one more conversation with Sir. James Lowther, the substance of which I wrote to him the next day in the following letter.’ It is an extraordinary piece of faithful dealing with a man who died a few weeks later, and whom Wesley had good reason to honor; and the fact that it had been on his conscience during his serious illness is an illustration of his own zeal and devotion.

Sir James Lowther of Whitehaven, was the second son of Sir John Lowther who died in January 1706. His elder brother was a reckless spendthrift, and was disinherited by his father in 1700. James was so penurious that he was called ‘Farthing Jemmy’ to distinguish him from Sir James Lowther of Lowther. Wesley (in Works vii. 355) quotes a person of note who resented a sermon on Riches: ‘Why does he talk about riches here There is no rich man at Whitehaven but Sir James Lowther’ Wesley adds: ‘It is true there was none but he that had forty thousand pounds a year and some millions in ready money.’ See letter of October 2, 1749, for Sir James’s action as a magistrate during a riot in September at Whitehaven, when he ‘sent and took down the names of the chief rioters.’

In January 1755 the estates of Sir James of Whitehaven passed to Sir William Lowther of Holkar, who only held them for twelve months (see Journal iv. 314-i5); when they passed to Sir. James Lowther who made electioneering a fine art. He introduced the younger Pitt to the House of Commons as Member for Appleby. He was created the first Earl of Lonsdale in 1784.

Edited by Michael Mattei 2000 Wesley Center for Applied Theology. All rights reserved. No for-profit use of this text is permitted without the express, written consent of the Wesley Center for Applied Theology of Northwest Nazarene College, Nampa, Idaho 83686 USA. Contact the webmaster for permisson.