Wesley Corpus

“(4.) But whom then do you mean by ‘one that is perfect?’ We mean one in whom is ‘the mind which was in Christ,” and who so “walketh as Christ also walked;’ a man ‘that hath clean hands and a pure heart, or that is “cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; one in whom is “no occasion of stumbling, and who, accordingly, “does not commit sin.” To declare this a little more particularly: We understand by that scriptural expression, “a perfect man, one in whom God hath fulfilled his faithful word, “From all your filthiness and from all your idols I will cleanse you: I will also save you from all your uncleannesses. We understand hereby, one whom God hath “sanctified throughout in body, soul, and spirit; one who “walketh in the light as He is in the light, in whom is no darkness at all; the blood of Jesus Christ his Son having cleansed him from all sin.” “(5.) This man can now testify to all mankind, ‘I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ He is ‘holy as God who called him “is holy, both in heart and ‘in all manner of conversation.” He “loveth the Lord his God with all his heart, and serveth him ‘with all his strength.’ He ‘loveth his neighbour, every man, “as himself; yea, “as Christ loveth us;” them, in particular, that ‘ despitefully use him and persecute him, because they know not the Son, neither the Father.” Indeed his soul is all love, filled with “bowels of mercies, kindness, meekness, gentleness, longsuffering.’ And his life agreeth thereto, full of ‘the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love.” “And whatsoever” he “doeth either in word or deed,” he “doeth it all in the name, in the love and power, * of the Lord Jesus.’ ”In a word, he doeth ‘the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven.’ “(6.) This it is to be a perfect man, to be “sanctified through out; even ‘to have a heart so all-flaming with the love of God,' (to use Archbishop Usher's words,) “as continually to offer up every thought, word, and work, as a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God through Christ.’ In every thought of our hearts, in every word of our tongues, in every work of our hands, to ‘show forth his praise, who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.’ O that both we, and all who seek the Lord Jesus in sincerity, may thus ‘be made perfect in one !’” This is the doctrine which we preached from the beginning, and which we preach at this day.