Faith...And Peace

By John Wesley

And he (Jesus) said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Luke 7:50

Now, faith (supposing the Scripture to be of God) is “the demonstrative evidence of things unseen,” the supernatural evidence of things invisible, not perceivable by eyes of flesh, or by any of our natural senses or faculties. Faith is that divine evidence whereby the spiritual man discerns God, and the things of God. It is, with regard to the spiritual world, what sense is with regard to the natural. It is the spiritual sensation of every soul that is born of God.

Perhaps you have not considered it in this view. I will, then, explain it a little further.

Faith, according to the scriptural account, is the eye of the newborn soul. Hereby every true believer in God “seeth him who is invisible.” Hereby (in a more particular manner, since life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel) he “seeth the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”; and “beholdeth what manner of love it is which the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we,” who are born of the Spirit, “should be called the sons of God.”

It is the ear of the soul, whereby a sinner “hears the voice of the Son of God, and lives”; even that voice which alone wakes the dead, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.”

It is (if I may be allowed the expression) the palate of the soul for hereby a believer “tastes the good word, and the powers of the world to come”; and “hereby he both tastes and sees that God is gracious,” yea, “and merciful to him a sinner.”

It is the feeling of the soul, whereby a believer perceives, through the “power of the Highest overshadowing him” both the existence and the presence of him in whom “he lives, moves, and has his being”; and indeed the whole invisible world, the entire system of things eternal. And hereby, in particular, he feels “the love of God shed abroad in his heart.”

Compiled by Al Bryant, "The John Wesley Reader", Word Books. This book is currently available on the used book market. Please check the used book venders for this book at IMARC.