Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

has it from its own direct witness. It may be said, "How can these things
be?" And it may be answered, "By the power, light, and mercy of God."
But that such things are, the Scriptures uniformly attest; and the
experience of the whole genuine church of Christ, and of every truly
converted soul, sufficiently proves. "As the wind bloweth where it
listeth," and we "cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is
every one that is born of the Spirit:" the thing is certain, and fully known
by its effects; but how this testimony is given and confirmed is
inexplicable. Every good man feels it, and knows he is of God by the
Spirit God has given him.
We may witness in the experience of multitudes of simple people, who
have been by the preaching of the gospel converted from the error of their
ways, such a strength of testimony in favour of the work of God in the
heart, and his effectual teaching in the mind, as is calculated to still, or
reduce to silence, every thing but bigotry and prejudice, neither of which
has either eyes or ears. This teaching and these changing or converting
influences come from God. They are not acquired by human learning: and
those who put this in the place of the divine teaching never grow wise to
salvation. To enter into the kingdom of heaven a man must become as a
little child.
There is nothing more usual among even the best educated and
enlightened of the members of the Methodist society, than a distinct
knowledge of the time, place, and circumstances, when and where, and
in which way, they were deeply convinced of sin, and afterward had a
clear sense of God's mercy to their souls, in forgiving their sins, and
giving them the witness in themselves that they were born of God.
The Methodists, in proof of the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit,
refer to no man, not to Mr. John Wesley himself: they appeal to
none—they appeal to the Bible, where this doctrine stands as
inexpugnable as the pillars of heaven. Nor do they need solitary instances
as facts, to prove that on this point they have not mistaken the Bible,
while they, by the mercy of God, have thousands of testimonies every