Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/343

 ness. In order to prevent this, I will endeavour to shew,

I. What manner of persons those were, to whom the apostle says, Ye are in heaviness: II. What kind of heaviness they were in. III. What were the causes, and IV. What were the ends of it. I shall conclude with some inferences.

I. 1. I am in the first place to shew, what manner of persons those were, to whom the apostle says, Ye are in heaviness. And, first, It is beyond all dispute, that they were believers, at the time the apostle thus addrest them. For so he expresly says, ver. 5. Ye ''who are kept through the power of God by faith unto salvation: again, ver. 7. he mentions, the trial of their faith, much more precious than that of gold which perisheth''. And yet again, ver. 9, he speaks of their ''receiving the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls''. At the same time therefore that they were in heaviness, they were possessed of living faith. Their heaviness did not destroy their faith: they still endured, seeing him that is invisible.

2. Neither did their heaviness destroy their peace, the peace that passeth all understanding, which is inseparable from true, living faith, this we may easily gather from the second verse: wherein the apostle prays, Not that ''grace and peace'' may be given them, but only, that it may be multiplied unto them; that the blessing which