The Bosanquet / Fletcher Letters Project

Letter: MB to John Wesley, 1 Apr. 1761

May Jesus now stand as a wall of salvation round me, and enable me in his light to see light! Indeed I shall need it more than ever. I had no intent of drawing you to speak more freely: but feeling a strong desire for your soul’s prosperity, I just spoke what was uppermost in my heart, with much prayer, that it might not be productive of any evil: I still find my soul cast on Jesus, and can truly say from the centre of my heart,

            ‘Would ought on earth my wishes share?

                        Though dear as life the idol be,

            The idol from my breast I’d tear,

                        Resolv’d to seek my All in Thee.’[1]

And I can appeal to him and say, Shew me but any thing, and I will give it up without hesitation. But if my Lord does for a time please to unite me to any of his creatures, or help me, through them, I dare not throw the blessing away. Only let us fix our eye on God alone, and write nothing but what we can spread before him, and call him to witness, ‘My aim is thy glory:’ then we may commit it into his hands and fear nothing.

                                                I remain, dear Sir, yours, &c.

                                                            M. B.

[JW appended the following lines at the end of this letter when he published it in the AM] I cannot doubt in the least, but those mentioned in the following aLetter, were real instances of the mighty power of god: and that the persons mentioned therein, did truly experience what they then professed. But if so, what dreadful proofs have we before us, that men may fall even from perfect love?