Wesley Corpus

‘A. We apprehend not; “seeing God” being the very essence of faith, love and obedience the inseparable properties of it.’ ‘August 2, 1745. ‘QUESTION. Is an assurance of God’s pardoning love absolutely necessary to our being in His favor Or may there possibly be some exempt cases ‘ANSWER. We dare not positively say there are not. ‘Q. Is it necessary to final salvation in those (as Papists) who never heard it preached ‘A. We know not how far invincible ignorance may excuse. “Love hopeth all things.” ‘Q, But what if one who does hear it preached should die without it ‘A. We determine nothing. We leave his soul in the hands of Him that made it. ‘ Q. Does a man believe any longer than he sees a reconciled God ‘A. We conceive not. But we allow there may be very many degrees of seeing God, even as many as are between seeing the sun with the eyelids closed and with the eyes open.’ The doctrine which I espouse, till I receive farther light, being thus explained and limited, I observe, -- (1) A divine conviction of my being reconciled to God is, I think, directly implied, not in a divine evidence or conviction of something rise, but in a divine conviction that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, and still more clearly in the Spirit’s bearing witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. (2) I see no reason either to retract or soften the expression ‘God’s mercy in some cases obliges Him to act thus and thus.’ Certainly, as His own nature obliges Him (in a very clear and sound sense) to act according to truth and justice in all things; so in some sense His love obliged Him to give His only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish. So much for the phrase. My meaning is, The same compassion which moves God to pardon a mourning, broken-hearted sinner moves Him to comfort that mourner by witnessing to his spirit that his sins are pardoned.