By the end of 1739 Susanna Wesley had moved into what was to be her final home, her son John’s newly acquired and renovated Methodist headquarters, the Foundery. There her last four extant letters (and doubtless a number of others that haven’t survived) were written. Not always in the best of health, Susanna nevertheless continued to be a lively correspondent. To the familiar themes of her sons’ work and her own spiritual and temporal condition are added here a hint of her role in the community at the Foundery and a unique perspective on her personality in a letter to the countess of Huntingdon.
The first letter (to Charles, 2 October 1740) continues in the mode of previous ones she has wrtten to him: a sparring but loving spiritual conference. To his “accusations” she pleads guilty, assuring him that she knows he is writing with her eternal well-being in mind. But the deference is only temporary; she comes back at what appears to be his own self-effacement. “I cannot conceive why you affirm yourself to be not Christian,” she replies, and she expresses her offense at people who go on and on about their sins with very little to say thankfully about God’s grace.
The 13 December 1740 letter to John, then on one of his trips to Bristol, illustrates her pastoral concern for a Methodist who has been committed to a madhouse in Chelsea. Susanna is convinced the crisis is more spiritual than medical and begs the prayers of both her sons for the unfortunate man.
The recently recovered letter to Charles (28 April 1741) begins with a point of practical theology that he has raised and turns it into another opportunity to retell the story of Christ’s passion and death—in this case as a way of fully convicting an individual of sin. The second part, however, delves into the theological politics of the young revival movement and speaks as an insider about the twin dangers that Satan has used to oppose the awakening her sons have helped sponsor: the Moravians and the Calvinists. The “practical atheism” of the one and the “pernicious controversy” of the other must be fought; John has already valiantly entered the fray, and Charles is urged to do his part as well. Though she docs not mention it, her similarly incisive critique of Whitefield and the Calvinists would soon be (perhaps already was) in print, albeit anonymously. Some Remarks on a Letter from the Reverend Mr. Whitefield … appeared in the same year and is reprinted in its entirety in part III of this volume.
In early adulthood Susanna had written a noblewoman on a point of conscience; the letter to Lady Yarborough is the first of her letters we still have. At 72 she wrote another member of the nobility, though for different purposes, in what we now may regard as her last letter. Selina, countess of Huntingdon, an early patron of the revival, followed Whitefield in his Calvinism and eventually founded her own “connexion.” At this point, though, she was on friendly terms with John Wesley and, it appears from this letter, with Susanna.
Susanna writes to thank the countess for “her generous benefaction.” A bottle of Madeira is specifically mentioned, but much more (perhaps a financial contribution toward her expenses) is broadly hinted at. Again, the twofold strategy. While she clearly writes to indicate she knows her place, both vis-à-vis nobility (she praises the countess’s “condescension” and employs all appropriate courtesies) and the divine-human hierarchy (“I am the greatest of sinners”), she proudly basks in the work of her sons, who compare favorably, in her humble opinion, to two lords spiritual, the archbishops of Canterbury and York. Moreover, she plunges forward with candid revelations of her “own little affairs.” Her Ladyship is the first person she has ever asked anything of; she hides her wants from John and Charles, who are already doing what they can for her. Boldness in the context of careful respect typifies this last letter, as it does so much of the rest of her writing.
To Charles Wesley
2 October 1740
No MS seems to exist. Stevenson, pp. 220–221 closing sentence lost.
Foundry, London, October 2nd, 1740
Dear Charles,
I do heartily join with you in giving God thanks for your recovery. He hath many wise reasons for every event of providence, far above our apprehension, and I doubt not but his having restored you to some measure of health again will answer many ends which as yet you are ignorant of.
I thank you for your kind letter. I call it so, because I verily believe it was dictated by a sincere desire of my spiritual and eternal good. There is too much truth in many of your accusations; nor do I intend to say one word in my own defence, but rather choose to refer all things to him that knoweth all things. This I must tell you: you are somewhat mistaken in my case. Alas, it is far worse than you apprehend it to be! I am not one of those who have never been enlightened or made partaker of the heavenly gift or of the Holy Ghost, bat have many years since been fully awakened, and am deeply sensible of sin, both original and actual. My case is rather like that of the church of Ephesus: I have not been faithful to the talents committed to my trust, and have lost my first love.1 “Yet is there any hope in Israel concerning this thing?”2 I do not, and by the grace of God I will not, despair; for ever since my sad defection, when I was almost without hope, when I had forgotten God, yet I then found he had not forgotten me. Even then he did by his Spirit apply the merits of the great atonement to my soul, by telling me that Christ died for me. Shall the God of truth, the Almighty Saviour, tell me that I am interested in his blood and righteousness, and shall I not believe him? God forbid. I do, I will believe; and though I am the greatest of sinners, that does not discourage me: for all my transgressions are the sins of a finite person, but the merits of our Lord’s sufferings and righteousness are infinite! If I do want anything without which I cannot be saved (of which I am not at present sensible), then I believe I shall not die before that want is supplied.
You ask many questions which I care not to answer; but I refer you to our dear Lord, who will satisfy you in all things necessary for you to know. I cannot conceive why you affirm yourself to be not Christian; which is, in effect, to tell Christ to his face that you have nothing to thank him for, since you are not the better for anything he hath yet done or suffered for you. Oh, what great dishonour, what wondrous ingratitude, is this to the ever-blessed Jesus! I think myself far from being so good a Christian as you are, or as I ought to be; but God forbid that I should renounce the little Christianity I have: nay, rather let me grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.3
I know not what other opinion people may have of human nature, but for my part I think that without the grace of God we are utterly incapable of thinking, speaking, or doing anything good: therefore, if in any part of our life we have been enabled to perform anything good, we should give God the glory. If we have not improved the talents given us, the fault is our own. I find this is a way of talking much used among this people, which has much offended me, and I have often wished they would talk less of themselves, and more of God. I often hear loud complaints of sin, etc., but rarely, very rarely, any word of praise and thanksgiving to our dear Lord, or acknowledgment of his infinite… .
To John Wesley
13 December 1740
MA; FB, 2:629, notes the letter but does not transcribe it. Nehemiah Curnock, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M… 8 vols. (London: Epworth, 1912–1916 [Reprint, 1938]), 8:273, includes a facsimile. Address torn: “To … The Rev. Mr … at the school … Horse-fair Br[istol]. Endorsed in Wesely’s hand: “m[y] mr Dec. 13. 1740/ad to b Humph!/& Mrs Maccune.”
Sa[turday]: Dec: 13 1740
Dear Son,
I hope this will find you safe at Bristol, and if you would be so kind as to write as soon as conveniently may be, I should rejoice.
The reason of my writing so soon is I’m somewhat troubled at the case of poor Mr. MacCune. I think his wife was ill-advised to send for that4 wretched fellow Monroe, for by what I hear, the man is not lunatic, but rather under strong convictions of sin; and hath much more need of a spiritual, than bodily physician.5 However be it as ‘twill, Monroe last night sent him to a mad-house at Chelsea, where he is to undergo their usual methods of cure in case of real madness; notwithstanding in their treatment of him he behaved with great calmness and meekness, nor ever but once swore at them, for which he presently condemned himself and said, “Lord, what a sin have I been guilty of,” 6 and cried to God for mercy and pardon. This probably may confirm the doctor in the opinion of his madness, but to me ’tis a proof of his being in a right mind.
I am sure that our blessed Lord is superior to all the powers of evil angels and men and that, if he hath begun to awaken and call this poor sinner to himself, neither men nor devils can be able to stand before him!
Dear son, I desire you and your brother would pray for this poor afflicted man.7
My love and blessing to ye both.
[signature missing]
To Charles Wesley
28 April 1741 (with an earlier section possibly written on 7 September 1739) Private collection of Mr. Peter Conlan, Bromley, Kent.
Copy in United Church Archives, Toronto. Address in John Wesley’s hand: “To The Revd. Mr. Wesley in Bristol.” Endorsement in Charles Wesley’s hand: “April 1741/My Mother on/Xt Crucified/the [indecipherable word or words].” See MH, 28.3 (April 1990); 202–209, for more detailed introduction and notes.
Dear Son,
Your brother8 hath more than once desired me to write to you, but as I knew there was a constant correspondence between ye, I thought he would inform of anything relating to me which was necessary for you to know.
I rejoice in your being so much employed in the service of our Lord and that he is pleased to set his seal to your ministry. May you ever retain the same humble thoughts of yourself and continue to ascribe all the glory of your usefulness to him to whom it properly belongs.
I don’t well understand what you mean by the baptism which remains for us to be baptized with,9 but suppose by what follows you think we are not yet fully convinced of sin. I hope we are in good measure convinced already that we do feelingly10 know we are poor sinners—but to be fully apprized of the evil of sin in its nature and consequences it is, I humbly conceive, necessary that we have a more full and perfect knowledge of God. The sight of our sins may humble us indeed, but when by the eye of a strong faith we behold him that is invisible to the eye of sense; when we clearly apprehend that he is almighty power, justice and purity and yet almighty love (demonstrated by sending his only son to die for us), then we may say as Job, “We have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now our eye seeth thee, wherefore we abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes.” 11 Then we feelingly believe the exceeding sinfulness of sin, then true contrition springs up in the soul and the utmost self abhorrence—we stand amazed and confounded at the view of our own vileness and base ingratitude against God! That God which gave us being, that hath upheld us and fed and clothed us and by his blessed providence hath preserved us from innumerable evils all our life long, notwithstanding we have in no wise answered the end of our creation. But if reflection on our ingratitude for these temporal blessings (though exceeding valuable) renders us vile in our own eyes, how much viler do we appear when we consider we have all this while been sinning against redeeming love. If anyone would be deeply convinced of the evil of sin, if we would be more strongly affected with a sense of our own guilt, let us behold ourselves in the sufferings of the Son of God for the sins of mankind, more particularly for our own. Let us, my son, attend our Lord from the Passover to the Garden in which his soul was made an offering for sin. That as in a Garden the first Adam by his disobedience lost himself and all his posterity (which were then virtually included in him), so a principal part of the sufferings of the second Adam for sin were undergone in a Garden. It seems as if there was a gradual withdrawing of the light of God’s countenance from the time of eating the Passover—he “began to be sorrowful and. very heavy,” saith St. Matthew, “sore amazed and very heavy,” saith St. Mark.12 Again that strange request to his three disciples, “Tarry ye here and watch with me,”13 argued an astonishing weight of horror and grief in his soul! But how can we behold him in the Garden, prostrate on the earth agonizing to that strange height as far surpassed the power of human nature to sustain, insomuch that an angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him, after which we find that he prayed more earnestly till his sweat was in great drops of blood falling to the ground!14 I do humbly conceive that our dear Lord at that time did sustain the whole weight of the grief, anguish and sorrow which is due to divine justice for the sins of all mankind;15 and then was his spotless soul made an offering for sin indeed! He knew God, the infinite purity of the divine nature! He perfectly knew the nature and felt the full weight and guilt of sin, as far as was possibly consistent with his unity with the Godhead!
’Tis certain our blessed Lord had a perfect foreknowledge of every article of his suffering long before and at that time had them all in view. But what does the Apostle mean by these words: “In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death; and was heard in that he feared.” 16 If this is a right translation, what was it our Lord feared? It was not contempt and shame or pain or death; all this he patiently suffered—and therefore if it had been these things he deprecated, how was he heard? I humbly conceive then that what our Saviour deprecated was the terrible insupportable hiding of the Father’s face: at the zenith of his passion, having probably some diffidence of his own human ability to finish the great work of man’s redemption if the Godhead remained quiescent.17 Set me right in this.
To your prayer that we may never rest till we rest in God, I say a hearty Amen.
Sept [ember J 7.[17]3918
The present state of the Christian Church affords but a melancholy prospect. Great numbers of the clergy as well as laity have cither never known the gospel of Jesus Christ or else hath forgot it. There hath of late been such a strange awakening throughout the Kingdom as has not been in my time before, as if our Saviour now made his last effort to bring people out of their carnal security before he comes to judgment; for in my apprehension that awful time draws very near. Satan has taken the alarm too, and perceiving that many are become obedient to the faith by which means he feels his kingdom strongly shaken, he hath exerted all his power in making opposition to the success of the gospel; he soon found the wicked too weak to serve his interest and therefore hath transformed himself into an angel of light 19(under which disguise he is ever most formidable) and has prevailed with many that had been led into the way of truth to turn out of it. And now again our dearest Lord is wounded in the house of his friends.20 First the little Moravian foxes attempted to spoil our vines and destroy the tender grapes.21 These endeavoured to lead people into practical atheism, by teaching them (out of a pretence of greater purity) that when they were regenerated and born again, they were at liberty to lay the ordinances22 aside as useless: not considering that thereby they denied their Lord in setting aside his authority which appointed [them and refusing]23 to do him that public honour which he requires and has told us beforehand that such as will not confess him before men, the same will he deny before his father at the last judgment.24 Further, they have taught that we are not to obey God’s commands because he hath commanded us so to do, but because the doing, or forbearing such or such a thing, is agreeable and pleasing to spiritual self (a shameful contempt of divine authority again), whereas in truth, if when after we have been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, we decline from a pure intention of glorifying God by an entire sacrifice of self, and make either peace of conscience or the pleasure we find in any religious actions, the principal end of those actions; we exalt self into the place of God and are guilty of idolatry (more refined and spiritual, indeed) but as [?]flat idolatry as if we fell down and worshiped a graven image. This practical atheism their principles naturally lead men into.
April 28, 1741 25
Thus these little foxes have endeavoured to destroy our Lord’s vineyard and throw it open to common; but now, “the wild boar out of the wood” is labouring “to root it up: and the wild beasts of the field to devour it.”26 ‘Tis an old maxim of Satan’s, “Divide that you may destroy.” 27 In order to practice his own rule, he hath thrown a bone of contention among the brethren about a point which hath been formerly much controverted in the Christian world, but of late years hath been very wisely laid aside.28 The bait has taken among the weaker sort of people and numbers are greatly shaken, and no doubt but the Grand Adversary triumphs in his success and exults to see that he hath prevailed so far over our men as to engage them in a pernicious controversy which will effectually divert them from working out their own salvation with fear and trembling.29 I am fully persuaded that if Whitfefield] could live more years than he will live, he will never do so much good as he has done harm since his return to England. God forgive him.30
Your brother hath made a noble defence against the enemies; has given them no quarter indeed! But continues daily to serve the Predestinarians as Samuel did Agag—he hews them in pieces before the Lord.31 I admire his zeal and so much more as it is tempered with great meekness and patience and longsuffering—and though he strenuously opposes their doctrine, he does it always in the true spirit of Christian charity! Before they beset and [?]assaulted him so furiously on every side, he was very weak, and having no assistant, was often ready to faint under his labours. But our dear Lord hath had compassion on him and hath renewed his strength to such a degree as is truly astonishing! Asher’s blessing is fallen on him: as is his day, so is his strength.32 Glory be to God!
I have had many thoughts about you, because I knew the weakness of your body, I was under some apprehension of its being cast down by incessant labours;33 but now I see the power of our Lord so plainly manifested in your brother and consider that his God and Saviour is yours also, my fears are at an end, and I need not desire you to join hand and heart with your brother in vindicating the glory and honour of our ever blessed Redeemer! Proclaim his universal love and free grace to all men. And that ye may go on in [the power of the Lord and in]34 the strength of his might and be preserved from yielding place to those bold blasphemers so much as for an hour is the hearty prayer of your loving mother. I send thee my love and blessing.
To the Countess of Huntingdon35
1 July 1741
MA. Addresed “To/ The Right Honble./ The Countess of Huntington.” No postmark visible; possibly hand-delivered or never delivered.
Madam,
Your ladyship’s great condescension in writing so kindly to such a one as I am had been sooner acknowledged, but I have not had opportunity, neither knew how to direct till last Sunday night. And now I have leisure, I really do not know what to say. Your goodness utterly confounds me, but the infinite goodness of God much more! Your ladyship doth not know me; you write as to one that is an heir of eternal glory (I am not without hope), but our Lord knoweth I am the greatest of sinners.36 Yet, Christ came into the world to save sinners!37 Therefore, I have no fear.
I do indeed rejoice in my sons and am much pleased that they have in any measure been serviceable to your ladyship. You’ll pardon the fondness of a mother, if I exceed in commending them, but I’ve known few (if any) that have laboured more diligently and unweariedly in the service of our dear Lord. And, blessed be his great name, he hath set his seal to their ministry and hath made them instrumental in bringing many souls to God. And though in the eye of the world they appear despicable, men of no estate or figure, and daily suffer contempt, reproach and shame among men, yet to me they appear more honourable than they would do if the one were Archbishop of Canterbury and the other of York; for I esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures in England.
Give me leave, my lady, to speak freely now of my own little affairs. I had it once in my mind to have given your ladyship some account of many incidents in my life, to which you are a stranger; but upon second thoughts it appeared presumption to trouble you too much. It may, therefore, be sufficient to say that your ladyship is the first person that ever I asked anything of in my life. For I rarely, if ever, complain, nor ask anything but of God. Some weeks before I heard from your ladyship, I had been in somewhat more than usual distress and had earnestly begged of God to open some door of hope, to send some relief by the hand of some person whom he would send. A few days after, Mrs. [?]Mott came hither and told me she came by your ladyship’s order, who was so good as to order me some madeira, a welcome present, indeed, for which I return humble thanks. It came into my mind to speak freely to her, which accordingly I did, and find by what followed that I was not mistaken when I thought that you was the person, Madam, by whom God would answer my prayer, and I can never be too thankful to him and your ladyship; for never was a more seasonable charity. If the giving only a cup of cold water38 entitles to a reward, how ample will be their recompense, Madam, that give such generous benefactions as yours!
I am far advanced in the decline of life and can’t live now as I could have done forty or fifty year ago. I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. My sons, indeed, are very good to me, even beyond their proper power. Therefore I am careful to hide all wants from them. God in his good time will either call me home or appoint me sufficiency of food convenient, which is all I desire.
Though what your ladyship hath done for me may seem now like casting your bread upon the waters, yet be assured, Madam, you will find it again, though perhaps it may be after many days.39
I am,
Madam,
From the Foundry
July. First. 1.7.4.1.
Your Honour’s
MostOblig’d
&
Most Obedient Servt:
Susanna Wesley
1. See Revelation 2:4.
2. Ezra 10:2, rearranged as a question; quotation marks in Stevenson.
3. Paraphrase of 2 Peter 3:18, the letter’s final verse.
4. Crossed out: “perni,” perhaps meaning pervnicious.
5. I find no reference to this particular case in John Wesley’s Journal, but the confusion of madness with conviction of sin was not uncommon in early Methodism. See, for example, his entry for 21 September 1739. Dr. Monroe, who figures there and also in the entry for 17 September 1740, seems to have been the eighteenth-century equivalent of a psychiatrist, making decisions on who needs institutionalization.
6. My quotation marks.
7. Her letter had an additional effect: according to his diary, John acted on the notes made when endorsing the letter and “writ to … Mrs. MacCune … Humphreys.” See W. Reginald Ward and Richard E Heitzenrater, eds., The Works of John Wesley: Vol. 19. Journals and Diaries, II (1738–42) (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990), p. 444. Joseph Humphreys was one of Wesley’s first “assistants,” working with him in the early days at the Foundery but eventually leaving to follow Whitefield in 1741.
8. That is, John.
9. See such passages as Matthew 20:22–23, Luke 3:16, and Acts 1:5.
10. That is, consciously.
11. Job 42:5–6, substituting the second person plural. S. W’s quotation marks.
12. Matthew 26:37 and Mark 14:33; my quotation marks. Note the same citations in her long letter to her daughter Susanna, 13 January 1709/10, expounding the Apostles’ Creed, in part III of this volume.
13. Matthew 26:38; my quotation marks.
14. See Luke 22:43–44.
15. Phrasing close to another sentence in the same 1709/10 letter. See note 12.
16. Hebrews 5:7; my quotation marks. Underlined in MS.
17. In the letter to young Susanna on the Creed, cited in note 12, see a similar reference under the word “crucified”: “There was, but after what manner we cannot conceive … a sensible withdrawing of the comfortable presence of the Deity, which caused that loud and passionate exclamation, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.’”
18. This date is a bit mysterious. It may indicate that the first part of the letter was indeed written at this earlier time, then laid aside unfinished until April 1741.
19. Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 11:14.
20. Paraphrase of Zechariah 13:6.
21. Song of Solomon 2:15. While John had come to a new assurance of salvation through the agency of the Moravians he had met during his mission to Georgia, he broke away from their influence when he discovered their quietist and antinomian tendencies. As he notes in his Journal, 18 July 1740, Susanna had some part in the proceeding: “A few of us joined with my mother in the great sacrifice of thanksgiving; and then consulted how to proceed with regard to our poor brethren of Fetter-Lane… .”
22. That is, the sacraments.
23. Bracketed words are reasonable guesses. Only the tops of several words are visible at the bottom of the MS page.
24. See Matthew 10:32–33.
25. This date runs top to bottom in the left-hand margin near the end of the preceding paragraph at the top of the letter’s third page.
26. Nearly exact quotation from Psalm 80:13, BCP; my quotation marks.
27. S. W’s quotation marks.
28. That is, predestination, the source of the Wesleys’ dispute with Whitefield.
29. See Philippians 2:12.
30. George Whitefield departed for his second trip to North America in August 1739 and returned March 1741, at which point he joined the controversy by publishing A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley …, the reply to Wesley’s sermon, Free Grace. See Iain Murray, ed., George Whitefield’s Journal (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1960), pp. 564–568. Cf. Susanna’s rather positive assessment of Whitefield in the letter of 8 March 1739.
31. See 1 Samuel 15:33.
32. Paraphrase of Deuteronomy 33:25.
33. Or “labour.”
34. Bracketed words added in left margin; probable reading.
35. Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791), was an early supporter of John Wesley and the evangelical revival. During the dispute over Calvinism, however, she sided with George Whitefield and.eventually created her own Nonconformist denomination, “The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.”
36. This last declaration is written in slightly larger script.
37. 1 Timothy 1:15 and BCP, “Comfortable Words” following the absolution in Holy Communion.
38. See Matthew 10:42.
39. A paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 11:1.