1738–1791

John Wesley: Prevenient Grace, Assurance and Christian Perfection; Whitefield and the Moravians

On 24 May 1738 in Aldersgate Street, listening to Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, John Wesley felt that he trusted in Christ for salvation and received an assurance that Christ had taken away his sins; assurance – the witness of the Spirit – became, according to Lane, "the main doctrine of the Methodists". Accused of Arminianism, Wesley agreed, but asserted that neither he nor the Arminians denied original sin and justification by faith; the dispute, in his view, was in essence one – about predestination: election to eternal salvation is conditional and depends on faith. To avoid Pelagianism, he taught a universal prevenient grace that makes all able to receive the grace of faith. Sanctification is a process whose goal is entire sanctification, or Christian perfection; in place of the Calvinist perseverance of the saints there is assurance, which does not exclude the possibility of falling away.