“When men _feel_ in themselves the heavy burthen of sin, see damnation to be the reward of it, behold with the eye of their mind, the horror of hell: they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart, and cannot but accuse themselves, and open their grief unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all desire of meat and drink is laid apart, and loathing of all worldly things and pleasure cometh in place. So that nothing then liketh them more, than to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words and behaviour of body, to shew themselves weary of life.”
Now permit me to ask, what if before you had observed, that these were the very words of our own church, one of _your_ acquaintance or parishioners had come and told you, that ever since he heard a sermon at the _Foundery_, he _saw damnation before him, and beheld with the eye of his mind the horror of hell_? What, if he had _trembled and quaked_, and been so taken up, _partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from the danger of hell and damnation_, as to _weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words and behaviour, to shew himself weary of life_? Would you have scrupled to say, Here is another _deplorable instance_ of the _Methodists driving men to distraction_! See, _into what excessive terrors, frights, doubts and perplexities, they throw weak and well-meaning men! Quite over-setting their understandings and judgments, and making them liable to all these miseries._
I dare not refrain from adding one plain question, which I beseech you to answer, not to me, but to God. Have you ever experienced this _repentance_ yourself? Did you ever _feel in yourself that heavy burthen of sin_? Of sin in general; more especially, inward sin? Of pride, anger, lust, vanity? Of (what is all sin in one) that carnal mind, which is enmity, essential enmity against God? Do you know by experience what it is, _To behold with the eye of the mind, the horror of hell_? Was _your mind_ ever so _taken up, partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that even all desire of meat and drink_ was taken away, and you _loathed all worldly things and pleasure_? ――――Surely if you had known what it is, to have the _arrows of the Almighty_ thus _sticking fast in you_, you could not so lightly have condemned those who now cry out, _The pains of hell come about me: the sorrows of death compass me, and the overflowings of ungodliness make me afraid_.
5. Concerning the gate of religion (if I may be allowed so to speak) the true, Christian, saving faith, we believe it implies abundantly more than an assent to the truth of the bible. “Even the devils believe, that Christ was born of a virgin; that he wrought all kind of miracles; that for our sakes he suffered a most painful death to redeem us from death everlasting. These articles of our faith the very devils believe, and so they believe all that is written in the Old and New Testament. And yet for all this faith, they be but devils. They remain still in their damnable estate, lacking the very true Christian faith.
“The right and true Christian faith is. Not only to believe that the holy scriptures and the articles of our faith are true, but also to have a sure trust and confidence to be saved from everlasting damnation through Christ.” Perhaps it may be expressed more clearly thus, “A sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God.”
For giving this account of Christian faith (as well as the preceding account of repentance, both which I have here also purposely described, in the very terms of the homilies) I have been again and again, for near these eight years past, accused of _enthusiasm_; sometimes by those who spoke to my face, either in conversation, or from the pulpit: but more frequently by those who chose to speak in my absence; and not seldom from the press. I wait for those who judge this to be enthusiasm, to bring forth their strong reasons. Till then, I must continue to account all these, the words of truth and soberness.