Wesley Corpus

safe in the way of life, above Death, earth, and hell we rise; Me find, when perfected in love, Our long-sought paradise. ') that I now the rest might know, Believe, and enter in : Now, Saviour, now the power bestow, And let me cease from sin | Remove this hardness from my heart, This unbelief remove : To me the rest of faith impart, The sabbath of thy love. Come, O my Saviour, come away Into my soul descend! No longer from thy creature stay, My author and my end. The bliss thou hast for me prepared, No longer be delay'd : Come, my exceeding great reward, For whom I first was made. Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, And seal me thine abode : Let all I am in thee be lost : Let all be lost in God! Can anything be more clear, than, (1.) That here also is as full and high a salvation as we have ever spoken of? (2.) That this is spoken of as receivable by mere faith, and as hindered only by unbelief? (3.) That this faith, and consequently the salvation which it brings, is spoken of as given in an instant? (4.) That it is supposed that instant may be now? that we need not stay another moment? that “now,” the very “now, is the accepted time? now is the day of” this full “ salvation?” And, Lastly, that, if any speak otherwise, he is the person that brings new doctrine among us? 15. About a year after, namely, in the year 1742, we published another volume of Hymns. The dispute being now at the height, we spoke upon the head more largely than ever before. Accordingly abundance of the hymns in this volume treat expressly on this subject. And so does the preface, which, as it is short, it may not be amiss to insert entire : “(1.) Perhaps the general prejudice against Christian perfection may chiefly arise from a misapprehension of the nature of it. We willingly allow, and continually declare, there is no such perfection in this life, as implies either a dispensa tion from doing good, and attending all the ordinances of God, V or a freedom from ignorance, mistake, temptation, and a thou sand infirmities necessarily connected with flesh and blood. “(2.) First.