Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

Again he says:
"Not trusting to the testimony of others, I carefully examined most of these myself; and in London
alone I found six hundred and fifty-two members of our Society who were exceeding clear in their
experience, and whose testimony I could see no reason to doubt."
Mr. Wesley, who knew these witnesses, did not regard them as "undiscriminating" and
"unreliable," but he says their experience "was exceeding clear," that their testimony was given
"without hesitation," and "with the utmost simplicity," "fully persuading" him "that they did not
deceive themselves." And these were of the very kind of witnesses whose testimony we ought the
more readily to accept. They were honest, unsophisticated children of nature. They were not
confirmed theologians, having a pet theory to sustain, but were disinterested witnesses, who spoke
out of their hearts the things which they had experienced, and which were attested by their
consciousness. Like the man who had been healed of his blindness, they may not have been prepared
to discuss any abstruse theological question, but could in simplicity say that "whereas I was blind,
now I see." God has chosen such men for his witnesses, taking "the weak things of this world to
confound the mighty." "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength."
Whatever Dr. Mudge may say of these witnesses, he must admit that their examiner was not
"unreliable," "undiscriminating," nor incompetent. And he will hardly deny that Mr. Wesley used
every precaution to prevent mistake and deception. He "carefully examined most of them" himself,
"not trusting to the testimony of as to what these witnesses said, asking "them the most searching
questions" he "could devise." Of some of these witnesses Mr. Wesley says: "I can take their word,
for I know them well."
For one, we would much prefer the judgment of such a lawyer as John Wesley, who was on the
ground and carefully examined the witnesses Himself, to that of Dr. Mudge, who is more than a
century removed from the scene.
3. We call attention to the large number of these witnesses, examined separately and at different
times and places through so long a period. (1) Mr. Wesley says different witnesses testified during
a period of some forty-five years. (2) This testimony began in London, and extended to Bristol,
Kingswood, and "various parts of Ireland as well as England." (3) That it commenced with "two or
three persons in London," and ran up to six hundred and fifty-two at one time in that city alone. He
then adds: "I believe that no year has passed since that time [forty-five years ago] wherein God has
not wrought the same work in many others." In another place he speaks of his being "encompassed
with a cloud of witnesses" to the same thing, doubtless running the number up to many thousands.
4. The unanimity with which they testified to the same thing -- the instantaneousness of
sanctification. Mr. Wesley says:
"Every one of these (after the most careful inquiry, I have not found one exception in Great
Britain or Ireland) has declared that his deliverance from sin was instantaneous; that the change was
wrought in a moment. Had half of these, or one-third, or one in twenty, declared it was gradually
wrought in them, I should have believed this with regard to them, and thought that some were