Wesley Corpus

It appears to have been sent as a private letter to Mr. Dodd, before he had become a Doctor of Divinity; and not to have been published till the year 1782, when it was inserted in the Arminian Magazine.-EDIT. think that perfection is only another term for holiness, or the image of God in man. “God made man perfect,” I think is just the same as, “He made him holy,” or “in his own image;” and you are the first person I ever read of or spoke with, who made any doubt of it. Now this perfection does certainly admit of degrees. Therefore, I readily allow the propriety of that distinction,-perfection of kinds, and perfection of degrees. Nor do I remember one writer, ancient or modern, who excepts against it. 4. In the sermon of Salvation by Faith, I say, “He that is born of God sinneth not,” (a proposition explained at large in another sermon, and everywhere either explicitly or virtually connected with, “while he keepeth himself,”) “by any sinful desire; any unholy desire he stifleth in the birth.” (Assuredly he does, “while he keepeth himself”) “Nor doth he sin by infirmities; for his infirmities have no concurrence of his will; and without this they are not properly sins.” Taking the words as they lie in connexion thus, (and taken otherwise they are not my words but yours,) I must still aver, they speak both my own experience, and that of many hundred children of God whom I personally know. And all this, with abundantly more than this, is contained in that single expres sion, “the loving God with all our heart, and serving him with all our strength.” Nor did I ever say or mean any more by perfection, than thus loving and serving God. But I dare not say less than this; for it might be attended with worse consequences than you seem to be aware of. If there be a mistake, it is far more dangerous on the one side than on the other. If I set the mark too high, I drive men into needless fears; if you set it too low, you drive them into hell-fire. 5.