Twenty years after Sermon 10, Wesley revisits the doctrine of assurance — clarifying, qualifying, and answering objections that had arisen in the intervening years.
Sermon 11 of 44 · 1767 · Romans 8:16
The Witness of the Spirit, II
A passage from the sermon
By the testimony of the Spirit, I mean an inward impression on the soul of believers, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to their spirit that they are the children of God. I do not mean that there are not several other ways by which we may know that we are the children of God; for many ways there are. But this is the most plain, the most direct, the most easy, and the most satisfactory.
The assurance that I am a child of God is not the work of nature, nor of education, nor of the human will. It is the immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit. And whosoever hath received this witness, hath received also that other witness — the testimony of his own spirit — for the fruits of the Spirit are plainly seen in his heart and life.
The full sermon is in the public domain and freely available from CCEL and other archives.