“The perfection I teach, is perfect love; loving God with all the heart: receiving Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King, to reign alone over all our thoughts, words, and actions. The papists neither teach nor believe this; give even the devil his due. They teach there is no perfection here, which is not consistent with venial sins; and among venial sins they commonly reckon fornication. Now this is so far from the perfection I teach, that it does not come up to any but Mr. Relly’s perfection. To say, Christ will not reign alone in our hearts, in this life, will not enable us to give Him all our hearts. This, in my judgment, is making Him half a Saviour; He can be no more, if He does not quite save us from our sins.”[456]
In another letter, dated “December 26, 1761,” he says:
“I know many who love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. He is their one desire, their one delight, and they are continually happy in Him. They love their neighbour as themselves. They feel as sincere, fervent, constant a desire for the happiness of every man, good or bad, friend or enemy, as for their own. They rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. Their souls are continually streaming up to God in holy joy, prayer, and praise. This is plain, sound, scriptural experience. And of this we have more and more living witnesses.
“But these souls dwell in a shattered, corruptible body, and are so pressed down thereby, that they cannot exert their love as they would, by always thinking, speaking, and acting precisely right. For want of better bodily organs, they sometimes inevitably think, speak, or act wrong. Yet, I think, they need the advocacy of Christ, even for these involuntary defects; although, they do not imply a defect of love, but of understanding. However that be, I cannot doubt the fact. They are all love; yet they cannot walk as they desire. ‘But are they all love while they grieve the Holy Spirit?’ No surely: they are then fallen from their steadfastness; and this they may do even after they are sealed. So that, even to such, strong cautions are needful. After the heart is cleansed from pride, anger, and desire, it may suffer them to re-enter. Therefore, I have long thought, some expressions in the hymns are abundantly too strong; as I cannot perceive any state mentioned in Scripture from which we may not, in a measure at least, fall.”[457]
As already stated, much loose language on the subject of entire sanctification was employed; though, for this, Wesley can hardly be held responsible. Still it gave offence, and created disquietude. Grimshaw wrote to Wesley a letter, dated “July 23, 1761,” complaining, that even some of the preachers had said: “He is a child of the devil, who disbelieves the doctrine of sinless perfection; and he is no true Christian, who has not attained to it.” Grimshaw adds:
“Brother Lee declared, (and I could not but believe him,) that you did, and would utterly reject any such expressions. Sinless perfection is a grating term to many of our dear brethren; even to those who are as desirous to be holy in heart and life, as any perhaps of them who affect to speak in this unscriptural way. Should we not discountenance the use of it, and advise its votaries to exchange it for terms less offensive, but sufficiently expressive of true Christian holiness? By this, I mean all that holiness of heart and life, which is literally, plainly, abundantly taught us all over the Bible; and without which no man, however justified through faith in the righteousness of Christ, can ever expect to see the Lord. This is that holiness, that Christian perfection, that sanctification, which without affecting strange, fulsome, offensive, unscriptural expressions, I ardently desire and strenuously labour to attain. This is attainable: for this let us contend; to this let us diligently exhort and excite all our brethren daily; and this the more as we see the day—the happy, the glorious day—approaching.”[458]
Wesley acted upon Grimshaw’s hint; and, before the conference in London broke up, preached from the text, “In many things we offend all;” from which he took occasion to observe—(1) That, as long as the soul is connected with the body, it cannot think but by the help of bodily organs. (2) As long as these organs are imperfect, we shall be liable to mistakes, both speculative and practical. (3) For all these we need the atoning blood, as indeed for every defect or omission. Therefore, (4) All men have need to say daily, forgive us our trespasses.[459]
About the same time, he preached and published his sermon on “Wandering Thoughts,” in which he lays it down, that every man, either in sleep, or from some other cause, is, more or less, innocently delirious every four-and-twenty hours; and that the only “wandering thoughts,” which are sinful, and from which we should pray to be delivered, are—(1) All those thoughts which wander from God, and leave Him no room in the mind; (2) all which spring from sinful tempers; (3) all which produce or feed sinful tempers. In summing up the whole, he writes: “To expect deliverance from wandering thoughts, occasioned by evil spirits, is to expect that the devil should die or fall asleep. To expect deliverance from those which are occasioned by other men, is to expect, either that men should cease from the earth, or that we should be absolutely secluded from them. And to pray for deliverance from those which are occasioned by the body, is, in effect, to pray that we may leave the body.”
The sermon is well worth reading; and, at the time, was of the utmost importance, in checking the fanaticism of the London Methodists respecting what they called the sanctification of the mind.
Conference being ended, Wesley “spent a fortnight more in London, guarding both the preachers and people against running into extremes on the one hand or the other”; and then, on Sunday, September 20, set off, by coach, to Bristol, where he employed the next six weeks. “Here likewise,” he writes, “I had the satisfaction to observe a considerable increase in the work of God. The congregations were exceeding large, and the people hungering and thirsting after righteousness; and every day afforded us fresh instances of persons convinced of sin, or converted to God. Indeed, God was pleased to pour out His Spirit this year, on every part both of England and Ireland; perhaps, in a manner we had never seen before; certainly not for twenty years. Oh what pity, that so many even of the children of God did not know the day of their visitation!”