Why this truth matters
No one who believes the Scriptures to be the word of God can doubt the importance of a truth like this. It is a truth revealed there not once only, not obscurely, not in passing, but often, and in express terms. It is revealed solemnly, and on purpose, as marking one of the peculiar privileges of the children of God.
And it is the more necessary to explain and defend this truth, because there is a danger on the right hand and on the left. If we deny it, there is a danger that our religion will sink into mere formality. There is a danger that, having a form of godliness, we will neglect, if not deny, the power of it. If we allow it, but do not understand what we allow, we are liable to run into all the wildness of enthusiasm. It is therefore necessary in the highest degree to guard those who fear God from both these dangers, by a scriptural and rational illustration and confirmation of this momentous truth.
It may seem that something of this kind is the more needful, because so little has been written on the subject with any clearness. The exception is some discourses on the wrong side of the question, which explain it quite away. And it cannot be doubted that these were occasioned, at least in great measure, by the crude, unscriptural, irrational explanations of others, who did not know what they spoke, nor what they affirmed.
It more nearly concerns the Methodists, so called, to understand, explain, and defend this doctrine clearly, because it is one grand part of the testimony which God has given them to bear to all mankind. It is by his peculiar blessing upon them in searching the Scriptures, confirmed by the experience of his children, that this great evangelical truth has been recovered, which for many years had been very nearly lost and forgotten.
1771 text
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
I. 1. NONE who believes the scriptures to be the word of God, can doubt the importance of such a truth as this: a truth revealed therein, not once only, not obscurely, not incidentally; but frequently, and that in express terms; but solemnly and of set purpose, as denoting one of the peculiar privileges of the children of God.
2. And it is the more necessary to explain and defend this truth, because there is a danger on the right hand and on the left. If we deny it, there is a danger lest our religion degenerate into mere formality: lest having a form of godliness, we neglect, if not deny the power of it. If we allow it, but do not understand what we allow, we are liable to run into all the wildness of enthusiasm. It is therefore needful in the highest degree, to guard those who fear God from both these dangers, by a scriptural and rational illustration and confirmation of this momentous truth.
3. It may seem, something of this kind is the more needful, because so little has been wrote on the subject with any clearness: unless some discourses on the wrong side of the question, which explain it quite away. And it cannot be doubted, but these were occasioned, at least in great measure, by the crude, unscriptural, irrational explication of others, who knew not what they spake, nor whereof they affirmed.
4. It more nearly concerns the Methodists, so called, clearly to understand, explain and defend this doctrine, because it is one grand part of the testimony, which God has given them to bear to all mankind. It is by his peculiar blessing upon them in searching the scriptures, confirmed by the experience of his children, that this great evangelical truth has been recovered, which had been for many years well nigh lost and forgotten.