Wesley Corpus

To the first of these propositions you object, “that justi fication is not only two-fold, but manifold. For a man may possibly sin many times, and as many times be justified or for given.” (Remarks, pp. 37-39.) I grant it. I grant also, that justification sometimes means a state of acceptance with God. But all this does not in the least affect my assertion, that “that justification which is spoken of by St. Paul to the Romans, and by our Church in the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Articles, is not our acquittal at the last day, but the present remission of our sins.” You add, “You write in other places so variously about this matter, that I despair to find any consistency. Once you held ‘a degree of justifying faith short of the full assurance of faitk, the abiding witness of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ abideth in him;’ and yet you afterwards “warned all not to think they were justified before they had a clear assur ance, that God had forgiven their sins. What difference there is between this clear assurance, and the former full assurance and clear perception, I know not.” (Page 40.) Let us go on step by step, and you will know. “Once you held ‘a degree of justifying faith, short of the full assurance of faith, the abiding witness of the Spirit, or the clear perception that Christ abideth in him.’” And so I hold still, and have done for some years. “And yet you afterwards warned all not to think they were justified before they had a clear assurance that God had forgiven their sins.” I did so. “What difference there is between this clear assurance, and that full assurance and clear perception, Iknow not.” Sir, I will tell you. The one is an assurance that my sins are forgiven, clear at first, but soon clouded with doubt or fear. The other is such a plero phory or full assurance that I am forgiven, and so clear a per ception that Christ abideth in me, as utterly excludes all doubt and fear, and leaves them no place, no, not for an hour. So that the difference between them is as great as the difference be tween the light of the morning and that of the mid-day sun. 9.