Wesley Corpus

I believe it not; nor Michael Linner neither; to clear whom entirely, one need only read his own words: “About fourteen years ago, I was more than ever convinced that I was wholly different from what God required me to be. I consulted his word again and again; but it spoke nothing but condemnation; till at last I could not read, nor indeed do any thing else, having no hope and no spirit left in me. I had been in this state for several days, when, being musing by myself, those words came strongly into my mind, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ I thought, ‘All ! Then I am one. Then He is given for me. But I am a sinner: And he came to save sinners.’ Immedi ately my burden dropped off, and my heart was at rest. “But the full assurance of faith I had not yet, nor for the two years I continued in Moravia. When I was driven out thence by the Jesuits, I retired hither, and was soon after received into the Church. And here, after some time, it pleased our Lord to manifest himself more clearly to my soul; and give me that full sense of acceptance in him, which excludes all doubt and fear. “Indeed, the leading of the Spirit is different in different souls. His more usual method, I believe, is, to give, in one and the same moment, forgiveness of sins, and a full assurance of that forgiveness. Yet in many he works as he did in me; giving first the remission of sins, and after some weeks, or months, or years, the full assurance of it.” (Vol. I. p. 128.) All I need observe is, that the first sense of forgiveness is often mixed with doubt or fear. But the full assurance of faith excludes all doubt and fear, as the very term implies. Therefore, instead of, “He may not know that he has peace with God till long after,” it should be, (to agree with Michael Linner’s words,) “He may not have, till long after, the full assurance of faith, which excludes all doubt and fear.” “I believe a man is justified at the same time that he is born of God.