To his Brother Samuel Date: LONDON, October 30, 1738. DEAR BROTHER, That you will always receive kindly what is so intended I doubt not. Therefore I again recommend the character of Susurrus, See letter of July 7, p. 251 both to you and my sister, as (whether real or reigned) striking at the root of a fault of which both she and you were, I think, more guilty than any other two persons I have known in my life. Oh may God deliver both you and me from all bitterness and evil-speaking, as well as from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism! 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 as that sin hath no more dominion over him; and in this obvious sense of the word I was not a Christian till May the 24th 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 lines in the bitterness of my soul, some of which I have transcribed Journal, i. 415-16. ; 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 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 thought I had what I find I had not. '3. Of gross irrecollection; inasmuch as in a storm I cry to God every moment; in a calm, 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 Kempis's Imitation, I. xix. I: 'What I have been hitherto doing amounts to nothing.'; 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 spirit, otherwise mihi non sit suave vivere" Terence's Heaut. III. i. 73: 'May life itself no longer be pleasant to me.' Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! e ad, s .' Luke xviii. 39: 'Son of David, have mercy upon me.'

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 pfa pste 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 are 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.'

On men I build not: neither on Matilda Chipman's word, Apparently the woman who dreamt that a ball of fire fell upon her, and burst and fired her soul. See Priestley's Letters, pp. 88-90. whom I have not talked with five minutes in my life; nor on anything peculiar in the weak, well-meant relation of William Hervey, A younger brother of the Rev. James Hervey, who in June 1737 was looking out for a trade and a master to set yourself to' in London. Hervey spent the winter of 1751-2 in Miles Lane, London, with William, who was with his brother when he died in 1758. See Tyerman's Oxford Methodists, pp. 213, 26o, 322-3; and letter of March 2o, 1739, to James Hervey. who yet is a serious, humble-acting Christian. But have you been building on these Yes; I find them more or less in almost every letter you have written on the subject. Yet, were all that has been said on 'visions, dreams, and balls of fire' to be fairly proposed in syllogisms, I believe it would not prove a jot more on one than on the other side of the question. 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 reason 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. I am Yours and my sister's most affectionate Brother.