Finish Thy great work of grace,
Cut it short in righteousness.
Speak the second time, ‘Be clean!’
Take away my inbred sin;
Now the stumbling-block remove,
Cast it out by perfect love.
This doctrine of what has been called ‘the second blessing’ is often met with in Charles Wesley, but he used expressions which John disapproved, and would not repeat in his Collection, as in the second verse of the great hymn, ‘Love divine, all loves excelling,’ which reads—
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast;
Let us all in Thee inherit,