The Bosanquet / Fletcher Letters Project
Letter: MB to John Wesley, 23 Aug. 1773
Reference: M[ary] B[osanquet], 'Letter CCCCIII. From Miss B. to the Rev. J. Wesley [23 Aug. 1773]', AM (1786), 518.Bath, Aug. 23, 1773
Rev. Sir,
Of late I have had no very remarkable seasons, either of suffering, or consolation. Perhaps the Lord may see it needful to keep me in a quiet state, that I may be the more capable of going through my increasing employment. But I am afraid of indulging this too much, lest I sink into unscriptural quietism.
I have lately read a new translation of Lady Guion’s Life,*and fear it has a tendency to betray the upright in heart into a state of comparative Darkness, and unresisted Unbelief, under the mask of pure Faith, Passiveness, and Resignation; till they are at last content to live under the hidings of his face. What they say on the blessedness of a pure Intention, Self-denial, and habitual attention to the presence of God, I have often found animating. Their discourses on prayer are not so clear to me. Need a continued state of mental prayer, exclude that which is vocal, and social? When the soul is not inclined to the latter, and is blessed in the former, may it safely rest? or ought it to do violence to itself, that it may pray always with all prayer?
I remain, Rev. Sir,
Your affectionate Servant,
M. B.