Wesley Corpus

(4) “‘But whom then do you mean by one that is perfect P” We mean one in whom ‘is the mind which was in Christ,’ and who so “walketh as Christ 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 ‘doth 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 will I cleanse you: I will also save you from all your unclean nesses. We understand hereby one whom God hath “sancti fied 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 cru cified 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 loved us;’ them, in particular, that “despite fully 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, longsuffer ing. 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.