SANCTIFICATION
and
SECOND BLESSING
Here we include a selection of the letters of Hester Ann Roe (Mrs. Rogers ). She has much to say about sanctification, but in terms which reflect John Wesley's teaching, to whom she refers. We plan to include more of these letters on this website. These are a selection relating to this question.
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SPIRITUAL LETTERS,
(part way through a letter to her cousin, Robert Roe)
With respect to sanctification, I mean the instantaneous work, you have
the word of God: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall
be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I
cleanse you." Here is a full, free promise. Do you seek this
salvation by faith, or by works ? If by faith, then you have no need to
tarry for worthiness or fitness, but come now, just as you are. You must
embrace the promise, believe it, hang upon it, rejoice in it as your own,
trusting God to perform it. Soon as you cast your soul on, him by faith,
He will seal the blessing on your heart. May he reveal these things to you
by his Spirit, and fill you with all his fulness, prays
Your affectionate friend and cousin,
H. A. Roe.
LETTER X. (To the same,)
Nantwich, April 20, 1779.
DEAR COUSIN,
You are quite mistaken; - you do not try my patience at all; but you are
made a means of humbling my soul before God, when you think me capable of
answering in a proper manner the questions you ask: and yet, as far as the
Lord has taught me, I am willing to communicate. I believe your eye is
single. You are a child of God, and an heir of glory, - a well-beloved of
the eternal Trinity. For you the Father gave His only Son; Jesus the
Saviour bled for you: and the blessed Spirit hath applied the blood of
sprinkling to the pardon of your sins, and the comfort of your soul in all
your various trials.
I account it no strange thing that you should be assaulted, like your heavenly Master, with that suggestion, "If thou be a son of God." Surely you will not give way to reasoning, because Satan accosts you as he did the incarnate God. No: rather take comfort; for He that had no sin was tempted in this very point like as you are. A hypocrite may boast he is never tempted, - has no doubts or fears; but a child of God (some rare cases excepted) is seldom long together unassaulted by our vigilant adversary, who takes every possible method and opportunity to attack our confidence in the Lord, and to work upon all that remains of the carnal mind, or of unbelief: but he can only tempt; he cannot force us to give way either to sin or unbelief.
Neither think it strange that you are not inwardly as holy as you ought to be: every child of God feels the same till fully renewed in love by the power of the Holy Ghost: till then he has faith, but it is often mixed with unbelief; he has love, but, though he loves God above all things, yet the love of self, and of creature-comforts, often steals in; he has a blessed measure of humility, and yet he is constrained to acknowledge frequently, with tears, as Jane Cooper said, "Cursed pride, that busy sin, spoils all that I perform." His patience and resignation are not perfect: his will is not fully subdued to God at all times, nor are his affections and desires wholly spiritual. The Spirit of God does visit, but does not dwell; does at times ravish the soul with delight, thereby wooing it to cast away unbelief, and open the door to receive all the precious mind of Jesus, - all the stamp of love divine.
Now, when a soul is obedient to the voice of God, when it does open the door, and grasp the promises of holiness in the hand of faith, He will come into that soul, and plant His own nature there; then, when perfected in love, faith becomes constant and unmixed with unbelief. Love takes full possession of the soul, and humility, unmixed with pride, lays him at the Saviour's feet. His constant faith and perfect love now bring forth perfect patience and resignation. His deep-rooted humility having laid all self at the Saviour's feet, his will is now quite subject, and all his language is,
"All's alike to me, so I
In my Lord may live and die."
But even this state is consistent with many ignorances, weaknesses, and infirmities; with many temptations, trials, crosses, and bodily afflictions; and, on account of these, our joy may, at times, be small: yet our faith may be perfect, and our peace undisturbed. I believe our faith is often made manifest by following God blindfold; (if I may be allowed the expression;) - I mean, when our ignorance and blindness cannot account for His providential dispensations; when we are beset with trials, and see no way to escape. In this case, faith says, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." Being confident of this one thing, "what I know not now I shall know hereafter," I will trust in my God, and not be afraid, for He is my all.
I have not time, room, or expression, to tell a thousandth part of the
goodness of God to my soul. He is ever with me, and assures my heart, "All
that I have is thine." All my desires are satisfied in Him; I live in
Him, and walk in Him and He is my God. He is with me in sickness and in
health, - at home and abroad,-in public and in private. In reading or
writing I feel His presence: and, 0, when I am bowed before His throne, He
lets down a heaven of communicated bliss! Language fails when I speak of
His love, 0 may my every breath speak His praise!
Your unworthy friend, but happy sister,
H. A. ROE.
LETTER XV. (To the same.) (A friend in Newcastle, Staffs.) Macclesfield, Dec. 15, 1778.
My DEAR SISTER,
YOUR letter caused great thanksgivings to God on your account: all glory
he to him who bath increased your desires after holiness. Fear not ; you
will surely attain if you follow on. That lovely Lamb that bled on Calvary
was slain for this, - " to redeem us from all iniquity." 0 look
to him ; behold the glory of God! See the God of angels ! 0 look at his
precious bleeding side, - his hands, his head, his feet ! Behold him
gasping, groaning, dying, that you might he made clean ! hear him cry, "It
is finished." How finished, if his blood cleanseth not from all sin !
Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." But, glory to his name, whoever steps into that fountain, which is expressly said to be for sin and uncleanness, shall he made perfectly whole. O let your faith venture in! Wash and be clean
"Sink into the purple flood,-..
Rise to all the life of God."
Open, my dear sister, open your willing, longing heart, and the King of glory will come in. And then he assured, "all evil before his presence shall fly." Sin cannot remain where Jesus fully dwells ; for He is holiness, and when he fills the soul, he leaves no room for any other guest. Whenever you can say, "Jesus, thou art my all, and I love my God the present moment with all my loving heart ;" you that moment possess the blessing of sanctification, and never need to lose it move. It is retained, as well as received, by simple faith. We can have no stock of grace in hand, but live moment by moment ; hanging and depending on the lovely Jesus. In him there is a full supply of all we want or can want.
This, blessed be God, I prove, and that continually. Every hour, every moment brings me fresh delight in God. He is an inexhaustible fountain of love
"Insatiate to this spring I fly;
I drink, and yet am ever dry"
I cannot express the sweet union I feel with God at this moment.
"My Jesus to know, and feel his blood flow,
`Tis life everlasting, ---`tis heaven below."
I am much blessed when I remember my dear friend at the throne of grace and often do I beseech my Lord to
"Fill her with all the life of love,--.
In mystic union join
Her to himself, and let her prove
The fellowship divine,"
Jesus is unspeakably precious while I write : may you catch the flame I feel; and
"When your cup with love runs o'er,
0 may sin ne'er enter more !"
So prays, my dear sister,
Yours, in divine bonds,
H. A Roe.
LETTER XVI.
To Miss R., before she received sanctification.)
Macclesfield, Nov. 21, 1778.
LAST Thursday evening 1 was pleasingly surprised by a letter from my dear Miss R., who, I sometimes feared, had forgotten all her purposes and promises and also all the blessings she so often received when we met in one Lord's name. I was glad to find my fears groundless; but much more pleased and thankful was I to find by the contents of your last, that your precious soul was still labouring up the hill of holiness. Go on, and prosper. Many are the trials we meet witb in the way ; yea, our Lord bath foretold us, that in the world we shall have tribulation, but in him, peace, which is the seal of cancelled sin.
I hope you keep a sense, yea, a clear sense, of pardon, at the worst of times. This is your privilege, and I am thankful you discern such beauty in holiness. 0 how sweet are those words, "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord !" You have cause to praise God for the knowledge he has given you of nature's depravity. It is very good and profitable to know our sinful tendencies. O my dear, be very watchful against little things, and "keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life and death." Let God have your first thoughts ; let him be first in your affections, so shall your words and works please him: for, what are all our works to him, unless they spring from love ? Daily entreat him to take away all opposition that remains in your will to his providential order ; so shall you find rest in those circumstances which otherwise would give you much uneasiness. The meditations of your heart leading to him ; the affections of your soul cleaving to Jesus ; your will sinking into his will : - here is the rest of the saints ! while all that is within you calls your Jesus king. " Whatsoever ye ask in my name," saith your adorable Redeemer, "you shall receive." Ask then, my dear friend, for a greater power of faith; for, as you believe, so will you increase in every grace of his Spirit ; and your soul will more and more centre in God, till you become one spirit with him, who is the life of all living yea, the very essence of heaven itself !
"To His meritorious Passion
All our happiness we owe;
Pardon, uttermost salvation,
Heaven above and heaven below;
Grace and glory from that open fountain flow."
To the bosom of our Almighty Jesus I commend you. 0 may his face always
shine upon you, and his loving Spirit fill your soul. Pray touch, and you
shall attain all the salvation you desire.
I am yours, in bonds of divine love,
H. A. Roe.
LETTER XVII. To a Preacher of the Gospel, in answer to some
inquries relating to the state of her soul.)
Macclesfield, Dcc. 6, 1778
Dear SIR,
To tell you one thousandth part of the preciousness of Jesus is a task
impossible to men or angels. To my soul, he is truly the altogether
lovely, - the one object in which all my desires, expectations, and
aflections centre, - the Alpha and the Omega. To him my more than all I
owe, being snatched, by his grace, a brand from the everlasting burnings
My surety He is ; my life, my peace, my treasure, my husband, brother,
friend, - my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification ; my all in all,
for time and for eternity. him, and him alone, I desire ; him, and him
alone, I love. etc
LETTER XXVII. To Mrs. Condy
Cork, Oct. 11, 1789,
MY DEAR FRIEND AND SISTER,
I BELIEVE you are well able to answer your own questions. However, as you
desire it, I will freely tell you my thoughts on what we call Christian
perfection. We do not mean hereby the perfection of God, of angels, of
disembodied spirits, or of Adam while innocent. But we mean that
perfection of which our nature is capable, through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the second Adam. We are under the law to Christ ; that is
the law of love, the law of liberty; or, in other words, the covenant of
grace. Whosoever loveth the Lord his God with all his heart and mind and
soul and strength, and his neighbour as himself, fulfilleth this law. The
lowest degree of this salvation is, to have all contrarieties to this love
cast out of the soul. We may be said thus to love him with a pure heart,
when proud self and great I are slain, and we feel only humility : when
anger, fretfulness, or impatience are no more but we ever feel a meek and
quiet spirit: when I will, and I will not, are all brought into subjection
to the will of our heavenly Father ; and our will is that he should reign
over us : when He really does regulate and govern our passions,
affections, and desires; inordinate desires, and inordinate creature-love
being no more and, lastly, unbelief (and consequently all tormenting fear
and painful anxiety) is wholly cast out. But after all this, it remains
that we go foreward ; that we grow in grace, till we be not only emptied
of sin, but filled with all the fulness of God.
The moment a soul is justified, it is freed from the power or dominion of outward and of inward sin ; and many hold fast that blessed freedom to the end. But, supposing a person does this, such a one will feel a mixture of evil propensities, tempers, affections, and desires ; which defilement is so rooted our nature, that none but Jehovah Jesus can cast out "the strong man armed, and spoil all his armour wherein he trusted." It is true we may mortify, resist, and keep under those evils ; but Jesus alone can pluck up and destroy every plant and root which his Father planted not. We may gradually grow in grace and holiness, and hereby increase in victoriously subjecting the enemy within ; but Jesus alone can slay the man of sin.
All salvation, too, is by faith alone, as the instrument. If, then, we must be saved by faith, it is in a moment, and the present moment, if not our own fault ; for what wait we for, who are the children and heirs of God l and, therefore, heirs of the promises, which are all to us "yea attd anien its Christ Jesus." If we wait for more w orthimiess, to suffer mitore, to do more, to be more fit, then we are seekitig to be sanctified by these thiings, that is, by works. But if we believe that we can only obtain the blessitig by grace through faith, atid that this salt atioti is the free gift of God, then let us be consistemit with ourselves ; let us expect it by faith, expect it in a moment and expect it now ; which are one and the same thing, and are inseparable. To be dying, and to be, indeed, dead unto sin, are two things. Be not you, my sister, content with the former. " A man may be dying for some time," says Mr. Wesley "yet, properly speaking, he does not die till the moment the soul is separated from the body, and in that instant he begins to live the life of eteritity ; in like manner, a man may be dying unto sin for soime time ; yet he is not dead indeed unto sin till sin be separated from the soul ; and in that instant he begins to live the life of pure love." O be you " dead indeed unto sin, and I alive unto God, through Jesus Christ your Lord."
It is the blood of Jesus alone that cleanseth front all sin ; not penal sufferings, not mortifications of any kind, not any thing we have, not grace already recieved, not any thing we are or I can be, not death, ner purgatory ; no, not the purgatory of all our doings, and sufferings, and strivings, put together. No, no Christ is the procuring, meritorious cause of all our salvation. He alone forgiveth sins, and he alone cleanseth from all umirighteousness. Faith is the only condition, and it shares in the omnipotence it dares to trust. " All things are now ready," is the Gospel message ; and Jesus saveth all them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him. " I wil, be thou clean," is His language to every seeking, leprous soul ; - to you, if not already cleansed.
Joy in the Holy Ghost is a blessed fruit of this salvation. But divine
joy is not always rapturous: we may be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ;
and there is suffering love, as well as exulting love. A person saved as
above, may experience a degree of heaviness or dulness, for a season,
through bodily infirmities, close trials, or sundry temptations ; but such
a one cannot walk in darkness. Likewise, many mistakes are consistent with
this state ; I mean errors in judgement, and failures in memory ; yet, the
will stands firm for God and the intention is always single. involuntary
sins (as some will call them.) or sins of ignorance, (except the ignorance
be wilful,) are not breaches of the law of love : for these things we have
an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our
propitiation, and washes our holiest duties in his own blood : to whom we
will ever give honour and glory. I am, my dear sister,
Yours in the bonds of pure love.
H. A. Rogers
LETTER XXVIII. to Mr. H. of Sheffield
Cork, March 12, 1790.
DEAR SIR,
I HAVE been so long silent that I am almost ashamed to write at all. I can
only say, I am more fully engaged than you can easily imagine; and more so
every day. As to further apologies, I really have not time to make them,
and must rely on your good nature to excuse mine. It gave time real
pleasure to hear of the prosperity of your soul. I cannot doubt, from the
description you give, but the Lord hath put you in possession of what you
so long desired, and you can now love Him with all your heart, or, in
other words, from moment to moment, with all your Present powers. What,
with all your strivings, you could not do before, that is, keep your mind
from sinful wanderings, and the rising of evil tempers, - fix your eye on
things above, fix your affections there, this you now find is done by the
power of God through faith. It is not you that now live, but Christ liveth
in you ; and your tempers, will, affections, passions, and desires, move
in the will of God ; sweetly attracted and governed by divine love. You
feel you are helpless; but Jesus is almighty, and faith makes all his
omnipotence your own. You are tempted; but sin, though offered with a
pleasing bait, can find no entrance; for, lo! the Lord your keeper stands
omnipotently near, and till our will give way we have not sinned. What
some called involuntary sins, or sins of ignorance, we know would be
breaches of that perfect law, adapted and suitable to the perfect body and
perfect soul of Adam, while innocent his perfect knowledge gave him, at
one glance, to see how he ought to act in all things and if he acted
contrary to this perfect knowledge he sinned.
But we, even when sanctified, are not perfect in knowledge ; and therefore an all-wise and gracious God hath put us under a law or covenant, adapted to our capacity, and which our renewed nature is capable of ; even the law of love, love to God, and every soul of man. To keep this is Christian perfection. Love is the fulfilling of the law: involuntary sins, therefore, or sins of ignorance, are not sins, in the Gospel sense ; but to him that believeth any thing to be sin, (though otherwise unessential,) to him it is sin. This you know; and while you keep the law of liberty, the law of love, you feel your many weaknesses and short comings are all atoned for by tbe all- prevailing ever pleading blood of Jesus: and in this sense it is
"we every moment need
The merit of His death."
I have had a touch of the fever and sore throat, lately so very
prevalent in this city ; but how tenderly hath the Lord sweetened all my
pain, by the divine consolations of his love and constant preence I tbink
affliction was never so sweet before : He continually spoke to my heart, "
All that I have is thine ;" so that every moment I was swallowed up
in love and praise. My dear partner joins me in Christian love, and
believe me, dear Sir, to be
Your sincere sister and friend in Jesus,
H. A. Rogers.
LETTER XXIX. (To a Friend.)
London, Dec. 5, 179-2.
MY DEAR SISTER,
As our blessed Lord has again restored to me a little strength, I feel
renewed desires to devote it all to him. Wishing to be of some little use
to the afflicted anxong his dear saints in this city, in the course of my
visits yesterday morning I called on Mrs. Jacques, (a poor woman, only
three doors from our Spitalfields chapel,) and I was thankful I did so.
She gave me a pleasing, affecting account of her husband, who died a month
ago. Hoping and praying it may prove a great a blessing to your soul as it
March 2002