1.A 05. LETTER V
LETTER V.
Definition of the word perfection Anything is perfect which answers its end The sanctified Christian answers the end for which he was made and redeemed In what sense he is not perfectly what sense he is perfect In love Does not commit sin Tims Christ saves his people Proved from Scripture. MY DEAR M : A few words in explanation of the word perfection, may serve to obviate some objections to the doctrine we are considering. This is a word with which many are offended, more especially its use in Christian theology. But an accurate definition of the term will, I think, tend to remove all just cause of offence, and present the subject in such a point of light, as to induce sincere Christians to embrace the doctrine the word represents.
Anything is perfect which answers the cud for which it is made.
Thus a watch is a perfect watch which keeps the time exactly; otherwise it is imperfect, and its maker is pronounced unfit for his work. Hence, everything which God has made is perfect, not only because it answers its end, but because it was the production of an infinitely wise, powerful, and good Being. Man, in his present depraved state, is imperfect, because he does not answer the end of his creation. His blinded judgment, his corrupted passions, and his perverted will, lead him astray from the path of uprightness, and plunge him into numerous errors and sins, and finally, if not rescued by Divine grace, into perdition. This very fact, namely, that he does not answer the end of his creation, proves that he is not now in the state in which God created him, otherwise his Creator was an imperfect workman, which supposition is blasphemous in itself. To rescue man from this state of thraldom, this manifest imperfection, and to restore him to that state in which he might answer the end for which he was brought into being, Jesus Christ came into our world, suffered, died, rose again, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. The very design for which he did and does all this is, that he " might save his people from their sins," to "perfect them in love," and thereby fit them to answer the end for which he redeemed them here, and then to take them to glory hereafter.
All this preparation, this redemption, this conviction, justification, sanctification, this preservation in holiness, is God’s work, and Moses says, " All his works are perfect." If, therefore, it be, as it unquestionably is, God’s work to convict the sinner of his sinfulness, to justify the penitent believer, to sanctify the persevering Christian, and to keep him in holiness and righteousness all the days of his life, he is perfectly convicted, perfectly justified, perfectly sanctified, perfectly kept in the path of obedience to His commands, for " all God’s works are perfect." To say otherwise is to say, either that the sinner convicts himself of sin, that the penitent justifies himself, that the persevering believer sanctifies himself, and keeps himself in the path of obedience, or that God does his work imperfectly; both of which suppositions reflect injuriously upon the character of God and the plan of redemption and salvation, and therefore must be rejected as impious, if, indeed, not blasphemous. When a man is restored by justification and sanctification to the favour and image of God, he is thereby fitted to answer the end for which he was made, and for which he was redeemed by the death of Christ, and for which the risen, ascended Lord Jesus ever liveth to make inter cession for him; he is now, therefore, a perfect Christian a living, active believer in Jesus Christ exemplifying, in the inward tempers of his mind, as well as in his external conduct, the purity of inward religion, and the regularity and holiness of the commandments. That the reader may see what is meant by this perfection, I give the following quotations from Mr. Wesley :
" (1.) In what sense they are not. They are not perfect in knowledge. They are not free from ignorance, no, nor from mistake. We are no more to expect any living man to be infallible, than to be omniscient. They are not free from infirmities, such as weakness or slowness of understanding, irregular quickness or heaviness of imagination. Such in another kind are impropriety of language, ungracefulness of pronunciation; to which one might add, a thousand nameless defects, either in conversation or behaviour. From such infirmities as these none are perfectly freed till their spirits return to God; neither can we expect till then to be wholly freed from temptation; for the servant is not above his master. But neither in this sense is there any absolute perfection on earth. There is no perfection of degrees, none which docs not admit of a continual increase.
"(2.) In what sense then arc they perfect? Observe, we are not now speaking of babes in Christ, but adult Christians. But even babes in Christ are so far perfect as not to commit sin. This St. John affirms expressly; and it cannot be disproved by the examples of the Old Testament. For what if the holiest of the ancient Jews did sometimes commit sin? We cannot infer from hence, that all Christians do and must commit sin as long as they live.
" A Christian is so far perfect, as not to commit sin.
" This is the glorious privilege of every Christian, yea, though he be but a babe in Christ. But it is only of grown Christians it can Ixj affirmed they arc in such a sense perfect, us, Secondly, to be freed from evil thoughts and evil tempers. First, from evil or sinful thoughts. Indeed, whence should they spring! Out of the heart of man, if at all, proceed evil thoughts. If, therefore, the heart be no longer evil, then evil thoughts no longer proceed out of it : for a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
"And as they are freed from evil thoughts, so like wise from evil tempers. Every one of these can say, with St. Paul, I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; words that manifestly describe a deliverance from inward as well as from outward sin. This is expressed both negatively, I live not, my evil nature, the body of sin is destroyed; and positively, Christ liveth in me, and therefore all that is holy, and just, and good. Indeed, both these, Christ liveth in me, and, I live not, are inseparably connected. For what communion hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial?
" He, therefore, who liveth in these Christians hath purified their hearts by faith; insomuch that every one that has Christ in him, the hope of glory, purifieth himself, even as he is pure. He is purified from pride; for Christ was lowly in heart : he is pure from desire and self-will; for Christ desired only to do the will of his Father; and he is pure from anger in the common sense of the word; for Christ was meek and gentle. I say, in the common sense of the word; for he is angry at sin, while he is grieved for the sinner. He feels a dig- plaecncy at every offence against God, but only tender compassion to the offender.
" Thus doth Jesus save his people from their sins; not only from outward sins, but from the sins of their hearts. True, say some. but not till death, not in this world. Nay, St. John says, Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because, as he is, so are we in this world. The Apostle here, beyond all contradiction, speaks of himself and other living Christians, of whom he flatly affirms, that, not only at or after death, but in this world, they are as their Master.
" Exactly agreeable to this are his words in the first chapter : God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And again : If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, it is evident, the Apostle here speaks of a deliverance wrought in this world : for he saith not, The blood of Christ will cleanse, (at the hour of death, or in the day of judgment,) but it cleanseth, at the time present, us living Christians from all sin. And it is equally evident, that if any sin remain, we are not cleansed from all sin. If any unrighteousness remain in the soul, it is not cleansed from all unrighteousness. Neither let any say that this relates to justification only, or the cleansing us from the guilt of sin : first, because this is confounding together what the Apostle clearly distinguishes, who mentions, first, to forgive us our sins, and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Secondly, because this is asserting justification by works, and in the strongest sense possible; it is making all inward, as well as all outward, holiness, necessarily previous to justification. For if the cleansing here spoken of is no other than the cleansing us from the guilt of siu, then we are not cleansed from guilt, that is, not justified, unless on condition of walking in the light, as he is in the light. It remains, then, that Christians are saved in this world from all sin, from all un righteousness; that they are now in such a sense perfect, as not to commit sin, and to be freed from evil thoughts and evil tempers." Wesley’s Works, vol. vi, pp. 489-491.
You are requested, my dear M., to read the above extracts with attention, and weigh well their import, and if you have leisure, to turn to the pages in Mr. Wesley’s Works, and consult the connexion of these passages, in which he answers sundry objections, which I omit for the sake of brevity.