{"id":"jw/letters/1771/53-to-his-brother-charles","corpus":"jw-letters","type":"letter","author":"john-wesley","title":"53 To His Brother Charles","title_alt":[],"text_basis":null,"date_composed":null,"date_precision":"unknown","date_note":null,"numbering":{"bicentennial":null,"jackson_running":null,"sugden":null},"source_edition":{"editor":null,"title":null,"edition":null,"place":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"volume":null,"pages":null,"scan_url":null,"scan_page_ids":null},"transcription":{"derived_from":null,"corrected_against_scan":false,"corrector":null,"corrected_on":null},"modernization":"none","license_text":"Public Domain Mark 1.0","license_apparatus":"CC BY 4.0","wikidata":null,"prev":null,"next":null,"part_of":"jw-letters","editorial_note":null,"source_id":"jw-letter-1771-53-to-his-brother-charles","passage_ids":["jw-letter-1771-53-to-his-brother-charles-000"],"word_count":310,"themes_auto":["experience","means-of-grace","scriptural-authority"],"open":true,"closed_reason":null,"legacy_ids":["jw-letter-1771-53-to-his-brother-charles-000"],"passages":[{"id":"jw-letter-1771-53-to-his-brother-charles-000","author":"john-wesley","source_id":"jw-letter-1771-53-to-his-brother-charles","source_title":"53 To His Brother Charles","source_type":"letter","year":null,"chunk_index":0,"text":"To his Brother Charles Date: KINGSWOOD, August 3, 1771. DEAR BROTHER, I will not throw away T. Rankin on the people of London. He shall go where they know the value of him. Rankin had been in London; he now went to Cornwall West. We cannot put out what we never put in. I do not use the word merit. See sect. 6 in letter of July 10. I never did. I never did, neither do now, contend for the use of it. But I ask you or any other a plain question; and do not cry 'Murder,' but give me an answer: What is the difference between merere and 'to deserve' or between 'deserving' and meritum I say still, I cannot tell. Can you Can Mr. Shirley or any man living In asking this question, I neither plead for merit nor against it. I have nothing to do with it. I have declared a thousand times there is no goodness in man till he is justified; no merit either before or after: that is, taking the word in its proper sense; for in a loose sense meritorious means no more than rewardable. As to Reprobation, seeing they have drawn the sword, I throw away the scabbard. I send you a specimen. Let fifteen hundred of them be printed as soon as you please. A Defence of the Minute of Conference (1770) relating to Calvinism. See Green's Bibliography, No. 273; and letters of July 10 and 20. Nothing was ever yet expended out of the Yearly Subscription without being immediately set down by the secretary. I never took a shilling from that fund yet. What you advise with regard to our behaviour toward opposers exactly agrees with my sentiments. My wife, I find, is on the high ropes still. I am full of business, as you may suppose. So adieu!","word_count":310,"source_url":null,"themes":["means-of-grace","experience","scriptural-authority"],"created_at":"2026-01-29T20:05:31.058495"}]}