having received this blessing. I clearly saw, that I did love God with all my heart; but that this was wanting still, that every thought should be brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. This I expected to receive at the Lord’s table, but did not. Then, I prayed the Lord to show me the hindrance. And He did show me; I had been seeking it, as it were, by the works of the law. I then pleaded the blood of Jesus Christ, and cast myself upon Him, believing. And I felt His power delivering me, I think, more clearly than when He took the root of bitterness out of my heart. The deadness to all things, which I have found since then, is more than I can express.”
Hannah Harrison gives an account of obtaining this entire freedom from sin; but adds:
“For some time, all the evidence I could produce arose from the nature of the change. I found the want of a clear and direct witness. This I received about February 1759; and this I have never lost, but can acknowledge, to the glory of God, that it is as clear now as at the first. I know not how to describe the difference between the witness and the work itself; but this I know; many, in whom we believe the work is wrought, are often in doubt concerning it; whereas, the testimony of the Spirit enables the soul to rise superior to those doubtful disputations, which sometimes hinder the progress of those who are really saved from sin. I neither have, nor desire to have a witness, that ‘sin will never enter more;’ for my everlasting life depends upon patiently continuing in well doing. I feel great love to Jesus Christ; but when I think of God the Father, I can find nothing but boundless inconceivables. Many unnecessary things are presented to my imagination; but, as soon as they appear to be such, I can as easily dismiss them as I can move my hand. ‘Tis long since I had the shadow of a doubt of my final acceptance with God; but yet, I cannot say, that I am sealed to the day of redemption. Though I am possessed of every natural passion, it is long since I felt a desire, inordinate either in kind or degree.”
John Fox testified that he “knew he was saved from sin, and loved God with all his heart; yet his mind was not always stayed upon Him. But he saw, that this, as well as the former blessing, was to be received by simple faith. From this time, he continually prayed for an increase of faith; and it was not long before his soul was brought as into the immediate presence of God, who, from that hour, did every moment keep his heart and his mind also.”
Daniel Carney said:
“Mr. M—— spoke some time since, concerning the necessity of watching over the wandering of the eye and ear. This struck me exceedingly; for I remembered how often, when I was happy in God, my eye was nevertheless wandering, to look at my child, or something else that did not profit. I cried mightily to be delivered from this; and one morning pleaded that promise, ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,’ I said, ‘Why not now, Lord? Thou canst give it me now!’ Immediately it was to me according to my faith. I have found no wanderings since.”
Carney adds:
“Brother Biggs and Calvert received the same blessing about the same time. This morning, Sarah Guildford, and another of our brethren, testified the same thing. And they all declare, this is as different from what they received before, as that is from justification.”
These testimonies might be multiplied; but enough has been adduced, to show that great excitement existed. All agreed that the second blessing, as it was often termed, was to be obtained by simple faith; but, on other matters, there was much confusion. Some speak of a direct witness of entire sanctification; others speak of persons entirely sanctified who were without such witness. Some speak not only of a second, but a third blessing; not only of the sanctification of the heart, but of the mind; and speak of them as distinct acts, experienced at different times, though both obtained by faith.
Wesley was a student of the Bible. He drew his theology from that; but he was always anxious to have his theology confirmed by the experience of Christians. For this purpose, when he, in 1738, embraced the doctrine of justification by faith only, he went to Herrnhuth to make himself acquainted with the views and feelings of the people in that Moravian settlement; and now, in 1761, when the doctrine of entire sanctification from sin, attainable in an instant, by simple faith, was becoming popular among the Methodists, he not only weighed the doctrine in the balances of holy Scripture, but did his utmost to ascertain what those who professed to experience it had to say concerning it. There was much to be disapproved; but there was also much to be encouraged. In the midst of the agitation, Wesley wrote, “Otley, July 7, 1761:”