Wesley Corpus

To his Brother Samuel Date: BRISTOL, April 4, 1739. Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1739) Author: John Wesley --- DEAR BROTHER, -- I rejoice greatly at the temper with which you now write, and trust there is not only mildness but love also in your heart. If so, you shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God, though perhaps not by my ministry. To this hour you have pursued an ignoratio elenchi. Your assurance and mine are as different as light and darkness. I mean an assurance that I am now in a state of salvation; you an assurance that I shall persevere therein. The very definition of the term cuts off your second and third observation. As to the first, I would take notice: (1) No kind of assurance (that I know), or of faith, or repentance, is essential to their salvation who die infants. (2) I believe God is ready to give all true penitents who fly to His free grace in Christ a fuller sense of pardon than they had before they fell. I know this to be true of several; whether these are exempt cases, I know not. (3) Persons that were of a melancholy and gloomy constitution, even to some degree of madness, I have known in a moment (let it be called a miracle, I quarrel not) brought into a state of firm, lasting peace and joy.