Discover yourself! If you are one of the poor self-deceived, awake! Is your confidence a self-confidence that you have the witness in yourself that you are a child a God, and thus defy all your enemies?
Alas! You are weighed in the balance and found lacking. The Word of the Lord has tried your soul and proved it to be reprobate silver. You are not lowly of heart, therefore you have not received the Spirit of Jesus. You are not gentle and meek, even tempered. Therefore, your joy is worth nothing; it is not joy in the Lord. You do not keep His commandments; therefore, you do not love Him, nor are you a partaker of the Holy Spirit. It is as certain and as evident as the Word of God can make it: His Spirit does not bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.
Cry unto Him that the scales may fall off your eyes, that you may know yourself as He knows you: a poor, undeserving, hell-bound sinner. Pray that you may receive the sentence of death within yourself, until you hear the voice that raises the dead, saying, "Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace; your faith has made you whole"; and His Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you are His child.
John Wesley, How to Pray: the best of John Wesley on prayer, "Praying Oneself Awake," p. 10
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