Wesley Corpus

Paul (to which the Apostle probably alludes in these words) comprises all these three particulars. “I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” (here contracted into that one expression, “they were enlightened,”) “that they may receive forgiveness of sins,” (“the heavenly gift,”) “and an inheritance among them which are sanctified;” (Acts xxvi. 18;) which are made “partakers of the Holy Ghost,” of all the sanctifying influences of the Spirit. The expression, “They tasted of the heavenly gift,” is taken from the Psalmist, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm xxxiv. 8.) As if he had said, Beye as assured of his love, as of anything you see with your eyes. And let the assurance thereof be sweet to your soul, as honey is to your tongue. And yet those who had been thus “enlightened,” had “tasted” this “gift,” and been thus “partakers of the Holy Ghost,” so “fell away” that it was “impossible to renew them again to repentance.” “But the Apostle only makes a supposition, “If they shall fall away.’” I answer: The Apostle makes no supposition at all. There is no if in the original. The words are, ABuvalov rs; awa: 4alitéswlx;, xxi arapatsarowla; ; that is, in plain English, “It is impossible to renew again unto repentance those who were once enlightened” and have fallen away; therefore they must perish everlastingly. 24. “But if so, then farewell all my comfort.” Then your comfort depends on a poor foundation. My comfort stands not on any opinion, either that a believer can or cannot fall away, not on the remembrance of anything wrought in me yesterday; but on what is to-day; on my present knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling me to him self; on my now beholding the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; walking in the light as he is in the light, and having fellowship with the Father and with the Son. My comfort is, that through grace I now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that his Spirit doth bear witness with my spirit that I am a child of God.