Wesley Corpus

That scripture, ‘We have received, not the spirit that is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we may know the things which are freely given us of God.” (1 Corinthians ii. 12.) “Now surely sanctification is one of ‘the things which are freely given us of God.’ And no possible reason can be assigned why this should be excepted, when the Apostle says, “We receive the Spirit” for this very end, ‘that we may know the things which are’ thus ‘freely given us.” “Is not the same thing implied in that well-known scripture, “The Spirit itself witnesseth with our spirit, that we are the children of God?’ (Romans viii. 16.) Does he witness this only to those who are children of God in the lowest sense? Nay, but to those also who are such in the highest sense. And does he not witness, that they are such in the highest sense ? What reason have we to doubt it? “What, if a man were to affirm, (as indeed many do,) that this witness belongs only to the highest class of Christians? Would not you answer, “The Apostle makes no restriction; therefore doubtless it belongs to all the children of God?” And will not the same answer hold, if any affirm, that it belongs only to the lowest class? “Consider likewise 1 John v. 19: ‘We know that we are of God. How? ‘By the Spirit that he hath given us.” Nay, “hereby we know that He abideth in us.” And what ground have we, either from Scripture or reason, to exclude the witness, any more than the fruit, of the Spirit, from being here intended? By this then also ‘we know that we are of God,” and in what sense we are so; whether we are babes, young men, or fathers, we know in the same manner. “Not that I affirm that all young men, or even fathers, have this testimony every moment. There may be inter missions of the direct testimony that they are thus born of God; but those intermissions are fewer and shorter as they grow up in Christ; and some have the testimony both of their justification and sanctification, without any intermission at all; which I presume more might have, did they walk humbly and closely with God. “Q. 20.