Evidences of Perfect Love Part 3

99. Is the witness of the Spirit to regeneration and to entire sanctification different?

They differ only in the facts to which the Spirit give his testimony in the two cases. In the one case, it is a delightful and decisive persuasion that God has pardoned our sins and converted our souls. In the other, it is a delightful and decisive persuasion that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.

Bishop Foster says: "the difference of the Spirit's witness in the work of justification and entire sanctification is not in the manner so much as the thing which is witnessed to. It is given in which the same way; it is the same Spirit the phenomena are much the same but the testimony itself differs. -- Christian Purity. p.148

100. Is the evidence of sanctification, or the witness of the Spirit, always clear at first?

"Indeed, the witness of Sanctification is not always clear at first, (as neither is that of justification:) neither is it afterward always the same, but, like that of justification, sometimes stronger and sometimes fainter. Yea, and sometimes it is withdrawn. Yet, in general, the latter testimony of the Spirit is both clear and as steady as the former." Plain Account. p. 119.

101. Is it our privilege to possess the witness of the Spirit without any intermission?

"Some have the testimony both of their justification and sanctification, without any intermission at all, which, I presume, more might have, did they walk humbly and closely with God" -- Wesley's "Plain Account." p. 122.

102. Is true evangelical faith usually accompanied with the witness of the Spirit?

It is. When real faith is exercised, and the work of entire sanctification fully wrought, the witness of the Spirit may be expected, and it is usually apprehended then with greater or less distinctness. Although the witness of the Spirit is usually given in connection with saving faith, yet it may not always be distinctly apprehended as such at the time. It may please the Lord to withhold it temporarily sometimes in order to teach important lessons, and discipline and test the faith of the believer. St. John says, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself."

103. Can the witness of the Spirit be retained while any sin is committed or allowed?

Mr. Wesley says: "It is inevitably destroyed, not only by the commission of any outward sin, or the omission of any known duty, but by giving way to any inward sin; in a word, by whatever grieves the Holy Spirit of God." Sermons, vol. i. p. 94.