Wesley Corpus

* As to faith, you believe,--1. There are no degrees of faith, and that no man has any degree of it, before all things in him are become new, before, he has the full assurance of faith, the abiding witness of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ dwelleth in him. 2. Accordingly you believe, there is no justifying faith, or state of justification, short of this. 3. Therefore you believe, our brother Hutton, Edmonds, and others, had no justifying faith before they saw you. 4. And in general, that that gift of God, which many received since Peter Béhler came into England, viz. ‘a sure confidence of the love of God’ to them, was not justifying faith. 5. And that the joy and love attending it were from animal spirits, from Journa] I.--12. i nd po ’ ' Se ‘ Pe 174 REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL. [Dec. 1739. nature or imagination; not ‘joy in the Holy Ghost,’ and the real ‘'ove of God shed abroad in their hearts.’ “Whereas I helieve, 1. There are degrees in faith; and that a man may have some degree of it, before all things in him are become new; before he has the full assurance of faith, the abiding witness of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ dwelleth in him. 2. Accordingly, I believe there is a degree of justifying faith (and, consequently, a state of justification) short of, and commonly antecedent to, this. 3. And I believe our brother Hutton, with many others, had justifying faith long before they saw you. 4. And, in general, that the gift of God, which many received since Peter Bohler came into England, viz. ‘a sure confidence of the love of God to them,’ was justifying faith. 5. And that the joy and love attending it, were not from animal spirits, from nature or imagination; but a measure of ‘joy in the Holy Ghost,’ and of ‘the love of God shed abroad in their hearts.’