Wesley Corpus

5. But I ask, First, What is the sin unto death And, Secondly, What is the death which is annexed to it (1) And, First, what is the sin unto death It is now many years since, being among a people the most experienced in the things of God of any I had ever seen, I asked some of them, What do you understand by the "sin unto death," mentioned in the First Epistle of St. John They answered, "If anyone is sick among us, he sends for the elders of the Church; and they pray over him, and the prayer of faith saves the sick, and the Lord raises him up. And if he hath committed sins, which God was punishing by that sickness, they are forgiven him. But sometimes none of us can pray that God would raise him up. And we are constrained to tell him, We are afraid that you have sinned a sin unto death;' a sin that God has determined to punish with death; we cannot pray for your recovery. And we have never yet known an instance of such a person recovering."