Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/264

 ingly the scripture speaks of God's giving sometimes light, sometimes a power of discerning it. So St. Paul. God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. And elsewhere the same apostle speaks, of the eyes of our understanding being opened. By this twofold operation of the Holy Spirit, having the eyes of our soul both opened and enlightened, we see the things which the natural eye hath not seen, neither the ear heard. We have a prospect of the invisible things of God: we see the spiritual world, which is all round about us, and yet no more discerned by our natural faculties, than if it had no being: and we see the eternal world, piercing through the veil which hangs between time and eternity. Clouds and darkness then rest upon it no more, but we already see the glory which shall be revealed.

2. Taking the word in a more particular sense, faith is a divine evidence and conviction, not only that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; but also that Christ loved me, and gave himself for me. It is by this faith, (whether we term it, the essence, or rather a property thereof) that we receive Christ, that we receive him in all his offices, as our prophet, priest, and king. It is by this that he is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.