The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 10 (of 32)Wesley, John
Religion
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 10 (of 32)
Wesley, John
Methodist Church; Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- 18th century
*He replied: “As a lost and undone sinner, I have laid hold on Jesus
Christ by faith: I rest the whole of my salvation upon him: I have
believed in him: and he hath adopted me into his family: the Spirit of
God bears witness with my spirit, that I am a child of God. Thus I know
that all my sins are pardoned, and let death come when it will, I am
ready; for I am assured, as soon as this body is dead, my soul will be
with Jesus in paradise.”
One present said, “That we need be cautious of deceiving our own souls,
and advised him to be modest in his expressions: for many who had made
a great profession for many years, could not speak with such confidence
as he did.”
He answered, “I speak it from a certainty of the thing; that which I
_see_ and _feel_, I testify unto you.”
*“Sir, If these heavy irons were removed from me, should not I be
sensible of it; and could not I by experience declare to others
that my irons were removed, and my legs were at liberty? Would not
the alteration I felt, be a sufficient foundation to assert the
satisfaction I found by the removal of them? Why thus it was lately
with my soul: it was fettered down to sin: I was a slave to my lusts,
and I could no more get rid of my sins, than I can of these irons. But
while I was fearing and expecting to be cast into hell every moment,
Jesus Christ came and knocked off my irons, my sins: he shut the doors
of hell, and opened the doors of heaven; and set my soul at liberty.
God has made me, who was a slave of the devil, to be a subject of
Christ. I am brought from my lusts and pleasures, which I loved,
to love nothing else but Jesus Christ. And can such an alteration
be wrought in my soul, and I be ignorant thereof?――――O blessed be
God, this change fills me with joy: I am full of joy: joy, not to be
expressed: for Christ loves me, and I love Christ, and I shall shortly
be with him for ever.”
One saying, he had a heavy pair of irons on, “Oh! (says he) these
are the cursed fruits of sin: this is the honour the devil’s servants
have: these are the badges that declare to whom I did belong, and tell
what dirty work I have been engaged in. Ah, cursed sin, that exposes
us to such misery here, and to ten thousand times ten thousand worse
hereafter! *It was my sins that brought me here; and my sins made me
liable to be the devil’s prisoner, in the dreadful prison of hell for
ever: but the Lord hath spread all my sins before my face, that I may
see the magnitude and the multitude of them; and then he blowed them
away with a blast of his Holy Spirit. All my sins appeared before me,
and they looked like the devil from whence they came: but then Jesus
Christ cast them all behind his back, and made me whiter than driven
snow in his presence.”
Being advised to plead, not guilty, when called to the bar, and told,
perhaps it might save his life:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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