given a plain and simple account of the manner
Christian Perfection "They never before had so deep, so unspeakable a conviction of the need of Christ in all His offices as they have now.
"Therefore, all our preachers should make a point of preaching perfection to»believers constantly, strongly, and explicitly; and all believers should mind this one thing, and continually agonize for it."
27. I have now done what I proposed. I have given a plain and simple account of the manner wherein I first received the doctrine of perfection, and the sense wherein I received, and wherein I do receive, and teach it to this day. I have declared the whole and every part of what I mean by that scriptural expression. I have drawn the 'picture of it at full length, without either disguise or covering. And I would now ask any impartial person, What is there so frightful thereinP Whence is all this outcry which for these twenty years and upward has been made throughout the kingdom, as if all Christianity were destroyed and all religion torn up by the roots? Why is it that the very name of perfection has been cast out of the mouths of Christians, yea, exploded and abhorred as if it contained the most pernicious heresy? Why have the preachers of it been hooted at, like mad dogs, even by men that fear God, nay, and by some of their own children, some whom they, under God, had_be-
John Wesley ae gotten through the gospel? What reason is there for this, or what pretense? Reason, sound reason, there is none. It is impossible there should.
But pretenses there are, and those in great abundance. Indeed, there is ground to fear that, with some who treat us thus, it is mere pretense; that it is no more than a copy of their countenance, from the beginning to the end. They wanted, they sought occasion against me, and here they found what they sought. "This is Mr. Wesley's doctrine! He preaches perfection!" He does; yet this is not his doctrine any more than it is yours or anyone else's that is a minister of Christ. For it is His doctrine, peculiarly, emphatically His; it is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Those are His words, not mine: " Eceode otv tyeis TéXEvoLr oo 6 TATHP buav 6 obpdvios TeAeLbs Eottv— Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." And who says, "Ye shall not,' or, at least, not till your soul is separated from the body? It is the doctrine of Saint Paul, the doctrine of Saint
James, of Saint Peter, and Saint John; and no otherwise Mr. Wesley's than as it is the doctrine of everyone who preaches the pure and the whole gospel. I tell you, as plain as I can speak, where and when I found this. I found it in the oracles of God, in the Old and New Testaments when I read them with no other view or desire but to save my own soul. But whosesoever this doctrine