Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

"An influential and constantly increasing majority of modern Methodists, however, answer this
question negatively. They feel that the doctrine of instantaneous sanctification lacks that Scripture
proof which alone can justify its being regarded as a part, least of all as an essential part, of the true
Bible doctrine of holiness."
At present we only dissent from the statement that "an influential and constantly increasing
majority of modern Methodists answer this question negatively." We may notice this statement more
fully later on. The Rev. Dr. Daniel Steele, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in His Defense of
Christian Perfection (1896), states the matter a little differently. He says:
"The Wesleyan doctrine of evangelical perfection [entire sanctification] is assailed at three special
points: its entireness, its instantaneousness, and its certification. These are so related that they stand
or fall together."
Dr. Steele, in speaking of the views of the leading and best-known Methodist authors down to the
present, adds:
"While our theologians differ on minor points, there is a complete unanimity as to the possibility
of instant and entire purification in this life, in answer to a faith fully developed and adequate."
The principal proposition which it is proposed to establish in this and succeeding chapters is
substantially the affirmative of the question stated in the first quotation from Dr. Tillett, with a few
slight modifications and explanations.
1. The first qualification of his theory which we make is the concession that this thorough
cleansing or entire sanctification may, under the most favorable conditions, be simultaneous with
regeneration. This concession has often been made. It was made by Mr. Wesley and other fathers of
Methodism down to Dr. Summers and others of our day. Dr. Summers says:
"In the new birth the tone, temper, and tendency of our minds are changed -- the current of our
feelings is made to run in a different channel, and a capacity to do the will of God is imparted. But
the holiness which is then realized is proportioned to our faith. If it be possible before regeneration
to discover all the depravity of our nature in its diversified features and operations; if we are made
thoroughly sensible of its presence, and are as much concerned for its removal as we are for the
pardon of our guilt and the repeal of our condemnation; if, in addition, we have a faith proportional
to such repentance, a faith which is not embarrassed by any doubt, but which covers over the vast
extent of the broad commandment and the gracious promise of entire sanctification -- we know no
reason in the divine economy to prevent the fulfillment of that promise, so that we may be perfectly
sanctified in the very moment when we are freely justified. Our faith being free from doubt, our hope
would be unmixed with despondency, and our love would be unadulterated with any of the earthly,
sensual, or devilish elements, the removal of which is the work of sanctifying grace. We should,
indeed, still have to exercise our senses to discern both good and evil -- to avoid the latter and to
practice the former -- in order to acquire a confirmed habit of holiness, to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ -- a progression in piety which constitutes the
positive perfection of our moral nature.