Letter

To Samuel Furly (October 14, 1757)

https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/letters/1757_10-14—ToSamuelFurly

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To Samuel Furly Kingswood
October 14, 1757

Dear Sammy,

In the sermon on ‘Justification by Faith’ (in the first volume of Sermons

1I.e., Sermon 5, ‘Justification by Faith’, 1:182–99 in this edn.

) my sentiments are expressed at large. There is certainly no such assertion in Scripture as ‘The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us’. Yet we will not deny it if men only mean thereby that ‘we are accepted through his merits’ or ‘for the sake of what 102he has done and suffered for us’. If they mean anything more, we cannot but deny it.

Mr. Hervey

2Rev. James Hervey; on whom, see 25:581 in this edn.

is a deeply-rooted antinomian, that is, a Calvinist consistent with himself (which Mr. Whitefield is not, nor Robert Bolton,

3Robert Bolton (1572–1631); JW included a number of Bolton’s writings in Christian Library, 7:160–9:193.

nor any Calvinist who is not an antinomian). But in truth ornatus est pro suis instratibus,

4‘He is adorned by his own trappings.’

by the Scotch writer of the Letters to the Author of ‘Theron and Aspasio’,

5In June 1757 Robert Sandeman published (under a pseudonym ‘Palaemon’) a set of Letters on ‘Theron and Aspasio’. JW had just read this volume and was busy preparing a Sufficient Answer; see 13:345–56 in this edn.

a man of admirable sense and learning, but a Calvinist and antinomian to the bone, as you may judge from his vehement anger at Messrs. Erskine,

6John Erskine (1721–1803), an evangelical clergyman of the Church of Scotland, staunchly Calvinist in theology; see JW’s letter to Erskine of Apr. 24, 1765. See ODNB.

Cudworth,

7William Cudworth (1717–63), a preacher associated with George Whitefield and the Calvinist Methodists for a time, before turning Independent.

and Hervey for their legality!

I am,
Your affectionate brother,
J. Wesley

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Entry Title: To Samuel Furly (October 14, 1757)

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