Wesley Corpus

They are free from wanderings in prayer. Whensoever they pour out their hearts in a more immediate manner before God, they have no thought of anything past,f or absent, or to come, but of God alone. In times past, they had wandering thoughts darted in, which yet fled away like smoke; but now that smoke does not rise at all. They have no fear or doubt, either as to their state in general, or as to any particular action. The ‘unction from the Holy One’ teacheth them every hour what they shall do, and what they shall speak;$ nor therefore have they any need to reason concerning it.' They are in one sense freed from temptations; for though * This is too strong. Our Lord himself desired ease in pain. He asked for it, only with resignation: “Not as I will,” I desire, “but as thou wilt.” + This is far too strong. See the sermon “On Wandering Thoughts.” # Frequently this is the case; but only for a time. § For a time it may be so ; but not always. | Sometimes they have no need; at cther times they have. numberless temptations fly about them, yet they trouble them not.* At all times their souls are even and calm, their hearts are steadfast and unmovable. Their peace, flowing as a river, ‘passeth all understanding, and they ‘rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. For they “are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, having the witness in themselves, that “there is laid up for them a ‘crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give’ them “in that day.’t “Not that every one is a child of the devil, till he is thus renewed in love: On the contrary, whoever has “a sure con fidence in God, that through the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven, he is a child of God, and, if he abide in him, an heir of all the promises. Neither ought he in anywise to cast away his confidence, or to deny the faith he has received, because it is weak, or because it is ‘tried with fire, so that his soul is ‘in heaviness through manifold temptations.” “Neither dare we affirm, as some have done, that all this salvation is given at once.