“Long time I fought, with groans and tears, To drive this rebel from my home.”
I was told this was to be obtained; I was informed of many who really had obtained it, and was already perfect; why not I, _if_ I did but persevere. To work I went, and strove hard for it; not to gain the favor of God, I was better taught than that; but, that sin might trouble me no more, and that I might no more offend God by so much as a sinful glance of the eye. To this rubbing off the spot of the leopard; to this washing the black Moor white, I was encouraged by the above accounts of some _who had obtained_ perfection.
Mr. Wesley, and some of his preachers and hearers could _prove_ that they had known some who were perfect. I could not suppose these _holy_ creatures would tell lies. But then I wanted to know how far they might be perfect, and how far not; and to satisfy my mind, I obtained Mr. J. Wesley’s tract on Christian Perfection, a paragraph of which I will quote:—
“And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; such liberty, from the law of sin and death, as the children of this world will not believe, though a man declare it unto them. The son hath made them free who are thus born of God, from that great root of sin and bitterness, pride. They feel that all their sufficiency is of God; that it is he alone who is in all their thoughts, and worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure. They feel that it is not they that speak, but the Spirit of their Father who speaketh in them, and that whatsoever is done by their hands, the Father who is in them, he doeth the works. So that God is to them all in all, and they are nothing in his sight. They are freed from self-will, as desiring nothing but the holy and perfect will of God: _Not_ supplies in want, _not_ ease in pain, _nor_ life, or death, or any creature, but continually crying in their inmost soul, ‘Father, thy will be done.’ They are freed from evil thoughts, so that they cannot enter into them; no not for a moment. A foretime, when an evil thought came in, they looked up, and it vanished away. But now it does not come in, there being no room for this, in a soul which is full of God. They are free from wanderings in prayer. Whensoever they pour out their hearts in a more immediate manner before God, they have no thought of any thing past, or absent, or to come, but of God alone. In times past they had wandering thoughts darted in, which yet fled away like smoke: but now that smoke does not rise at all. They have no fear or doubt, either as to their state in general, or as to any particular action. The unction from the Holy One teacheth them every hour, what they shall do, and what they shall speak. Nor therefore have they any need to reason concerning it. They are, in one sense, freed from temptations: for though numberless temptations fly about them, yet they trouble them not. At all times their souls are even and calm, their hearts are steadfast and unmoveable: their peace, flowing as a river, passeth all understanding, and they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. For they are sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, having the witness in themselves, that there is laid up for them a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give them in that day—” What a collection of lies!