Part 3 — 1766. (continued 2)
Reading edition
“Lord, I believe a rest remains;”
and containing the following stanzas.
“Oh that I now the rest might know, Believe and enter in! Now, Saviour, now, the power bestow, And let me cease from sin! Remove this hardness from my heart, This unbelief remove; To me the rest of faith impart, The sabbath of Thy love!”
The question here raised is not whether Wesley’s doctrine be true, or whether it be false; but simply when he began to preach it. He says, from the beginning; Dr. Whitehead says otherwise. He writes: “Though Mr. Wesley had so long held the doctrine of Christian perfection, he had not always held, that this state of mind might be attained in one moment; much less, that a person might attain it in his novitiate; nor do I know, that there were any professors of it before 1760, except when death was approaching.”[685]
Who will decide this question? It is full of interest, and is not without importance.