This constitutes the direct witness of the Spirit.
The indirect witness, or the witness of our own spirit, including the fruit of the Spirit, is subsequent to this direct witness. The one is the tree, and the other its fruit.
VI. Final Perseverance of the Saints.
While Calvinism has modified its faith in regard to many things, it still adheres to its original belief in this dogma. It is stated in these words in their Confession of Faith: "They whom God has accepted in his beloved, effectually called, sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end, and be eternally saved." It is further declared that "this perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election," etc. They say, also, that "the perseverance of the saints is one of the Articles by which the creed of the followers of Calvin is distinguished from that of Arminius."
Mr. Wesley as well as Mr. Fletcher opposed this doctrine. They declared with all the force of scriptural authority that "if the righteous turn away from his righteousness and commit iniquity, his righteousness shall no longer be remembered, but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it." They insisted that if "every branch in Christ that did not bear fruit was to be cut off and cast into the fire and burned," the apostasy of a believer may be final. They insisted that "if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," etc.; that we might so far backslide as that another "might take our crown." They went everywhere declaring that the only safeguard against final apostasy was to be "faithful unto death."
VII. Entire Sanctification or Christian Perfection.
Mr. Wesley declared that this was "the grand depositum which God had lodged with the people called Methodists, and for the sake of propagating this chiefly he appears to have raised them up." His opponents charged him with preaching perfection. They said, derisively, "This is Mr. Wesley's doctrine! He preaches perfection!" "He does," responds Wesley, "yet this is not his doctrine any more than it is yours, or anyone's else that is a minister of Christ. For it is his doctrine, peculiarly, emphatically his; it is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. These are his words, not mine: 'Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.' And who says ye shall not; or, at least, not till your soul is separated from your body?"
It is true Wesley used the term "perfection," but it was not the only word he used to set forth this truth, but such terms as "perfect love," "full salvation," "full sanctification," "the whole image of God," "second change," "clean heart," "pure heart," "loving God with all the heart," etc. He says: "I have no particular fondness for the term perfection. It seldom occurs in my preaching or writing. It is my opponents who thrust it upon me continually, and ask what I mean by it. I do not build any doctrine thereupon, nor undertake critically to explain it." "What is the meaning of perfection? is another question. That it is a scriptural term is undeniable; therefore none ought to object to the term, whatever they may as to this or that explication of it." "But I still think that perfection is only another term for holiness, or the image of God in man. 'God made man perfect,' I think, is just the same as 'He made him holy,' or 'in his own image.'"
It does not come within our plan or purpose to give a detailed exposition of Christian perfection, but simply to call the reader's attention to the truth as the central doctrine in Mr. Wesley's system of religious faith. With him it was deliverance from inbred, as well as actual, sin. It was not sin repressed, but sin exterminated, deliverance from sin. His standing definition was the following: "Sanctification, in a proper sense, is an instantaneous deliverance from all sin, and includes an instantaneous power, then given, always to cleave to God. Yet this sanctification does not include a power never to think a useless thought, nor ever speak a useless word. I myself believe that such a perfection is inconsistent with living in a corruptible body; for this makes it impossible always to think aright. While we breathe we shall more or less mistake. If, therefore, Christian perfection includes this, we must not expect it until after death." He says again that "the perfection he believes in is 'love dwelling alone in the heart.'" It is "deliverance from evil desires and evil tempers" as well as from "evil words and works." "I want you to be all love. This is the perfection I believe and teach. And this perfection is consistent with a thousand nervous disorders, which that high-strained perfection is not. Indeed, my judgment is (in this case particularly) to overdo is to undo; and that to set perfection too high (so high as no man that we ever heard or read of attained) is the most effectual (because unsuspected) way of driving it out of the world."[J] "Nor did I ever say or mean any more by perfection than the loving God with all our heart, and serving him with all our strength; for it might be attended with worse consequences than you seem to be aware of. If there be a mistake, it is far more dangerous on the one side than on the other. If I set the mark too high, I drive men into needless fears; if you set it too low, you drive them into hell fire."[B]