Wesley Collected Works Vol 8
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-wesley-collected-works-vol-8-246 |
| Words | 366 |
Many of these were in a short time deeply convinced of the
number and heinousness of their sins. They were also made
throughly sensible of those tempers which are justly hateful
to God and man, and of their utter ignorance of God, and entire
inability, either to know, love, or serve him. At the same time,
they saw in the strongest light the insignificancy of their out
side religion; nay, and often confessed it before God, as the
most abominable hypocrisy. Thus did they sink deeper and
deeper into that repentance, which must ever precede faith in
the Son of God. And from hence sprung “fruits meet for repentance.” The
drunkard commenced sober and temperate; the whoremonger
abstained from adultery and fornication; the unjust from
oppression and wrong. He that had been accustomed to curse
and swear for many years, now swore no more. The sluggard
began to work with his hands, that he might eat his own
bread. The miser learned to deal his bread to the hungry, and
to cover the naked with a garment. Indeed, the whole form
of their life was changed: They had “left off doing evil, and
learned to do well.”
5. But this was not all. Over and above this outward change,
they hegan to experience inward religion. “The love of God
was shed abroad in their hearts,” which they continue to enjoy
to this day. They “love him, because he first loved us,” and
withheld not from us his Son, his only Son. And this love
constrains them to love all mankind, all the children of the
Father of heaven and earth; and inspires them with every holy
and heavenly temper, the whole mind that was in Christ. Hence it is that they are now uniform in their behaviour, un
blamable in all manner of conversation. And in whatsoever
state they are, they have learned therewith to be content; in
somuch that now they can “in every thing give thanks.” They
more than patiently acquiesce, they rejoice and are exceeding
qlad, in all God’s dispensations toward them. For as long
as they love God, (and that love no man taketh from them,)
they are always happy in God.