112. What is the rest which the sanctified soul enjoys?
The Saviour says,"My peace I give unto you." "The work of righteousness [holiness] shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever."
1. It is not a state in which we do not sympathize with the joys and sorrows of others.
2. It is not a state of exemption from physical or mental suffering.
3. It is not a state of exemption from the Christian warfare, or a state of inglorious ease from labor and Christian duty.
4. It is a state of settled and complete satisfaction in God, he being "all in all " to the soul.
5. It is a state of rest from the former servitude to doubts, fears, and inbred sin.
6. It is a state of rest, in which the tumult of the heart has been hushed into calmness; and fear, and discord, and doubt have given place to quietness and assurance.
7. It is a state of deep and permanent quietude and assurance in respect to all our interests, temporal and eternal.
8. It is a state of sweet rest from all conflict between the will and the conscience. "The body of sin has been destroyed," and the soul has peace with itself inward quietude. "It will feast your souls with such peace and joy in God (says Wesley) as will blot out the remembrance of everything that we called peace or joy before."
"Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fixed on this blissful center, rest;
Nor ever from thy Lord depart
With him of every good possessed."
113. What are the natural and necessary indications of a pure heart?
A pure heart differs vitally from an impure one in the fact that its expressions of goodness are natural and spontaneous, the fruit of a gracious nature, and not unnatural and forced.
The Saviour says, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." The streams partake of the nature of the fountain. The heart gives character to the life by a law of necessity. It breathes itself through all our activities, and a pure heart will be indicated,
1. By pure and holy conversation. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." If the heart is right, the conversation will be sweet, truthful, humble, heavenly, and holy.
2. By opposition to all impurity. A pure heart loathes sin, and has no affinity for it. It shrinks from it instinctively as a worm would from a fire.
3. By watchfulness. The love of purity begets watchfulness against impurity. The pure heart is watchful instinctively.
4. By reluctance to mingle with the gay, the vain, and the worldly. It has no moral affinity for such society, and no taste for such associations. The charm of the world has been broken. The pure heart has tastes, motives, communings, and enjoyments totally dissimilar to the worldling.
This perfect love is a foretaste of the bliss of heaven. Thomas Moore refers to it:
Go, wing thy flight from star to star,
From world to luminous world,
As far as the universe spreads its flaming wall,
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,
One minute of Heaven is worth them all!
114. Is it not very difficult to retain the clear light of full salvation?
We answer, No. It is less difficult than to retain the continuous light of justification and neglect full salvation. In order to retain justification, we have to live obediently, and that can he done more easily with a pure heart than with an impure one. All things considered, the easiest religious life is the fullest and least obstructed religious life. A little religion is more difficult to retain than a heart full. Full salvation includes clear light, a submissive will, strong faith, nearness to God, intense spiritual affinities, worldly charms broken, and healthful activities, all of which combine in making the religious life natural and easy by the grace of God.
A purely religious life is more of a sweet divine charm than a tedious service, and more easy than difficult to the soul fully saved. The nearer we get to Christ, the more strongly we are attracted toward him, and the difficulty or easiness of a Christian life is as we follow Christ closely or afar off.
115. Does entire sanctification secure the "full assurance of faith"?
It does; and is we believe, the only grounds for "the full assurance of faith." It cuts the knots of doubt and uncertainty, and makes the evidences of Christian experience strong, and the path of duty plain.
Inbred sin -- the discordant antagonism of grace in the partially purified heart -- is fruitful of more darkness, doubts, and uncertainty than all other causes. The heart, when cleansed from all vile and degrading passions, such as leanings to pride, envy, jealousy, impatience, and unsanctified fear and uneasiness, has rest and abiding assurance. This assurance is greatly important. Massilon, the French bishop and pulpit orator, said: "You cannot God with pleasure, only when you serve him without reservation. From the moment you make him entire master of your heart, hope, confidence, and joy will spring up in the depths of your soul."
"To be assured of our salvation," (said St. Augustine) "is in arrogant stoutness; it is faith; it is no pride; it is devotion. It is in presumption; it is God's promise." With this experience and assurance, we can say with Rev. James Brainerd Taylor, "I have been in the fountain and am clean; " or, like Alfred Cookman, "Alfred Cookman washed in the blood of the Lamb." Bishop Latimer said to Ridley, "When I have the assurance of faith, I am as bold as a lion. I can laugh at trouble. Without it, I am so fearful a spirit that I would run into a very mouse-hole." This assurance has been illustrated by saints in all ages. The martyrs, standing in this clear light, and gazing on the glories of Christ, forgot the fagots and fires kindling at their feet. St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, a disciple of St. John the evangelist, was full of this assurance and of the Holy Ghost. His zeal was as quenchless as an angel's, and his faith triumphed over death in its most appalling forms. While the wild beasts were ready to be let loose upon him to tear him in pieces, he boldly declared to Trajan, the Roman emperor, "that he would rather die for Jesus Christ than rule to the ends of the earth."
Mary Dyer, who was hung in Boston, in 1660, for being a Quaker, was so filled with assurance, that on her way to the gallows she said:
"This is to me an hour of the greatest joy I could enjoy in this world. No eye can see, no ear can hear, no tongue can utter, and no heart can understand, the sweet incomes, or influence, and the refreshings of the Spirit of the Lord, which now I feel."
116. Is an entirely sanctified state a blissful one?
Holiness is bliss itself! -- conscious purity -- soul harmony! Supreme delight in God, and the object of its delight always present. Loving God with all the heart and soul is the highest bliss of which our nature is capable. The pure heart can triumphantly say
"I love thee so, I know not how,
My transports to control
Thy love is like a burning fire
Within my very soul. "
In reading the gospels and epistles we are struck with the joyousness, hope, and triumph, mentioned of believers everywhere. The words which we see most frequently are "Love," "Joy," "Peace," "Praise," "Thanksgiving," "Joy unspeakable and full of Glory." The primitive church was a "royal priesthood," "a holy nation," going to Mount Zion with songs and triumph and not a company of weeping, doubting, fearing, trembling, groaning professors.
O the blessedness of full communion with Christ, and his lovely image shining upon our hearts! Holiness secures a moral standpoint, where "Immanuel," "God with us," "The Rose Of Sharon," "The Lily of the Valley," "the brightness of the Father's glory" is clearly apprehended, and his charming glories are poured upon the soul. The life of Christ in the entirely sanctified, is a life of love, pure, boundless, changeless love. This experience once possessed and established in the soul, carries the peace, the triumph, the serenity of heaven with it. It has been beautifully said, "The opening of the streets of heaven are upon the earth." Even here we may enjoy many a sweet foretaste of coming bliss.
"God is love," -- infinite love! Who can fathom it?
"Yes, measure love, when thou canst tell
The lands where seraphs have not trod,
The heights of heaven, the depths of hell,
And lay thy finite measuring rod
On the infinitude of God."
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