An Address to Perfect Christians
by John Fletcher
YE have not sung the preceding hymns in vain, O ye men of God, who have
mixed faith with your evangelical requests. The God, who says, "Open thy
mouth wide, and I will fill it;" the gracious God who declares, "Blessed are they
that hunger after righteousness, for they shall be filled;" that faithful,
covenant-keeping God has now filled you with all "righteousness, peace, and
joy in believing." The brightness of Christ's appearing has destroyed the
indwelling "man of sin." He who had slain the lion and the bear (he who had
already done so great things for you) has now crowned all his blessings by
slaying the Goliath within. Aspiring, unbelieving self is fallen before the
victorious Son of David. "The quick and powerful word of God, which is
sharper than any two-edged sword, has pierced even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit." The carnal mind is cut off: the circumcision of the heart,
through the Spirit, has fully taken place in your breasts; and now "that mind is in
you which was also in Christ Jesus; ye are spiritually minded:" loving God with
all your heart, and your neighbour as yourselves, "ye are full of goodness, ye
keep the commandments," ye observe the law of liberty, ye fulfil the law of
Christ. Of him ye have "learned to be meek and lowly in heart." Ye have fully
"taken his yoke upon you;" in so doing ye have found a sweet, abiding rest unto
your souls; and from blessed experience ye can say, "Christ's yoke is easy, and
his burden is light. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are
peace. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his
covenant and his testimonies." The beatitudes are sensibly yours: and the
charity, described by St. Paul, has the same place in your breasts which the
tables of the law had in the ark of the covenant. Ye are the living temples of the
trinity: the Father is your life; the Son your light; the Spirit your love; ye are
truly baptized into the mystery of God, ye continue to "drink into one spirit,"
and thus ye enjoy the grace of both sacraments. There is an end of your Lo here!
and Lo there! The kingdom of God is now established within you. Christ's
"righteousness, peace, and joy" are rooted in your breasts "by the Holy Ghost
given unto you, as an abiding guide, and indwelling comforter. Your introverted
eye of faith looks at God, who gently "guides you with his eye" into all the truth
necessary to make you "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your
God." Simplicity of intention keeps darkness out of your mind, and purity of
affection keeps wrong fires out of your breast: by the former, ye are without
guile; by the latter, ye are without envy. Your passive will instantly melts into
the will of God; and on all occasions you meekly say, "Not my will, O Father,
but thine be done!" Thus ye are always ready to suffer what you are called to
suffer. Your active will evermore says, "Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth: what
wouldst thou have me to do? It is my meat and drink to do the will of my
heavenly Father!" Thus are ye always ready to do whatsoever ye are convinced
that God calls you to do; and "whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat, or drink, or do
any thing else, ye do all to the glory of God, and in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ; rejoicing evermore; praying without ceasing; in every thing giving
thanks;" solemnly looking for and hasting unto the hour of your dissolution, and
the "day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved," and
your soul, being clothed with a celestial body, shall be able to do celestial
services to the God of your life.
In this blessed state of Christian perfection the holy "anointing, which ye have
received of him, abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, unless
it be as the same anointing teacheth." Agreeably, therefore, to that anointing,
which teaches by a variety of means, which formerly taught a prophet by an ass,
and daily instructs God's children by the ant, I shall venture to set before you
some important directions which the Holy Ghost has already suggested to your
pure minds: "for I would not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these
things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance," and giving you
some hints, which it is safe for you frequently to meditate upon.
I. Beware lest Satan cause you to lose the grace you now experience
I. Adam, ye know, lost his human perfection in paradise; Satan lost his angelic
perfection in heaven; the devil thrust sore at Christ in the wilderness, to throw
him down from his mediatorial perfection: and St. Paul, in the same epistles
where he professes not only Christian, but apostolic perfection also, (Phil. iii,
15; 1 Cor. ii, 6; 2 Cor. xii, 11,) informs us that he continued to "run for the
crown of heavenly perfection" like a man who might not only lose his crown of
Christian perfection, but become a reprobate, and be cast away, 1 Cor. ix, 25,
27. And, therefore, "so run ye also, that no man take your crown" of
Christian perfection in this world, and that ye may obtain your crown of
angelic perfection in the world to come. Still keep your body under. Still
guard your senses. Still watch your own heart, and, "steadfast in the faith, still
resist the devil that he may flee from you;" remembering that if Christ himself,
as Son of man, had conferred with flesh and blood, refused to deny himself, and
avoided taking up his cross, he had lost his perfection, and sealed up our original
apostasy.
"We do not find," says Mr. Wesley, in his Plain Account of Christian
Perfection, "any general state described in Scripture, from which a man cannot
draw back to sin. If there were any state wherein this is impossible, it would be
that of those who are sanctified, who are fathers in Christ, who 'rejoice
evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks.' But it is not
impossible for these to draw back. They who are sanctified may yet fall and
perish, Heb. x, 29. Even 'fathers in Christ' need that warning, 'Love not the world' 1 John ii, 15. They who 'rejoice, pray, and give thanks without ceasing,'
may nevertheless 'quench the Spirit,' 1 Thess. v, 16, &c. Nay, even they who are
'sealed unto the day of redemption,' may yet 'grieve the Holy Spirit of God,' Eph.
v, 30."
The doctrine of the absolute perseverance of the saints is the first card which the
devil played against man:—"Ye shall not surely die, if ye break the law of your
perfection." This fatal card won the game. Mankind and paradise were lost. The
artful serpent had too well succeeded at his first game to forget that lucky card at
his second. See him "transforming himself into an angel of light on the pinnacle
of the temple." There he plays over again his old game against the Son of God.
Out of the Bible he pulls the very card which won our first parents, and swept
the stake—paradise—yea, swept it with the besom of destruction:—"Cast thyself
down," says he, "for it is written, [that all things shall work together for thy
good, thy very falls not excepted,] he shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy
foot against a stone." The tempter (thanks be to Christ!) lost the game at that
time, but he did not lose his card: and it is probable that he will play it round
against you all only with some variation. Let me mention one among a
thousand:—He promised our Lord that God's "angels should bear him up in their
hands, if he threw himself down;" and it is not unlikely that he will promise you
greater things still. Nor should I wonder if he was bold enough to hint, that when
you cast yourselves down, "God himself shall bear you up in his HANDS, yea,
in his ARMS of everlasting love." O ye men of God, learn wisdom by the fall of
Adam. O ye anointed sons of the Most High, learn watchfulness by the conduct
of Christ. If he was afraid to "tempt the Lord his God," will ye dare to do it? If
he rejected, as poison, the hook of the absolute perseverance of the saints,
though it was baited with Scripture, will ye swallow it down as if it were "honey
out of the rock of ages?" No: "through faith in Christ, the Scriptures have made
you wise unto salvation:" you will not only flee with all speed from evil, but
from the very appearance of evil: and when you stand on the brink of a
temptation, far from "entering into it," under any pretence whatever, ye will leap
back into the bosom of him who says, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation; for though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak." I grant that,
evangelically speaking, "the weakness of the flesh" is not sin; but yet the
"deceitfulness of sin" creeps in at this door: and in this way not a few of God's
children, "after they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the"
sanctifying knowledge of Christ, under plausible pretences, 'have been entangled
again therein and overcome." Let their falls make you cautious. Ye have "put on
the whole armour of God;" O keep it on, and use it "with all prayer," that ye may
to the last "stand complete in Christ, and be more than conquerors through him
that has loved you."
II. Remember that "every one who is perfect shall be as his Master."
Now if your Master was tempted and assaulted to the last; if to the last he watched and prayed, using all the means of grace himself, and enforcing the use
of them upon others; if to the last he fought against the world, the flesh, and the
devil, and did not "put off the harness" till he had put off the body; think not
yourselves above him; but "go and do likewise." If he did not regain paradise,
without going through the most complete renunciation of all the good things of
this world, and without meekly submitting to the severe stroke of his last enemy,
death, be content to be "perfect as he was:" nor fancy that your flesh and blood
can inherit the celestial kingdom of God, when the flesh and blood which
Emmanuel himself assumed from a pure virgin, could not inherit it without
passing under the cherub's flaming sword: I mean, without going through the
gates of death.
III. Ye are not complete in wisdom.
Perfect love does not imply perfect knowledge; but perfect humility, and perfect
readiness to receive instruction. Remember, therefore, that if ever ye show that
ye are above being instructed, even by a fisherman who teaches according to the
Divine anointing, ye will show that ye are fallen from a perfection of humility
into a perfection of pride.
IV. Do not confound angelical with Christian perfection.
Uninterrupted transports of praise, and ceaseless raptures of joy, do not belong
to Christian, but to angelical perfection. Our feeble frame can bear but a few
drops of that glorious cup. In general, that new wine is too strong for our old
bottles; that power is too excellent for our earthen, cracked vessels; but weak as
they are, they can bear a fulness of meekness, of resignation, of humility, and of
that love which is willing to "obey unto death." If God indulge you with
ecstacies, and extraordinary revelations, be thankful for them: but be "not
exalted above measure by them;" take care lest enthusiastic delusions mix
themselves with them; and remember that your Christian perfection does not so
much consist in "building a tabernacle" upon Mount Tabor, to rest and enjoy
rare sights there, as in resolutely taking up the cross, and following Christ to the
palace of a proud Caiaphas, to the judgment hall of an unjust Pilate, and to the
top of an ignominious Calvary. Ye never read in your Bibles, "Let that glory be
upon you which was also upon St. Stephen, when he looked up steadfastly into
heaven, and said, Behold! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man
standing on the right hand of God." But ye have frequently read there, "Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no
reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a
man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross."
See him on that ignominious gibbet! He hangs—abandoned by his
friends—surrounded by his foes—condemned by the rich—insulted by the poor! He
hangs—"a worm and no man—a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people!
All that see him laugh him to scorn! They shoot out their lips and shake their
heads, saying, He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him,
if he will have him!" There is none to help him: one of his apostles denies,
another sells him; and the rest run away. "Many oxen are come about him: fat
bulls of Bashan close him on every side; they gape upon him with their mouths
as it were a ramping lion; he is poured out like water; his heart in the midst of
his body is like melting wax; his strength is dried up like a potsherd; his tongue
cleaveth to his gums; he is going into the dust of death; many dogs are come
about him; and the counsel of the wicked layeth siege against him; his hands and
feet are pierced; you may tell all his bones; they stand staring and looking upon
him; they part his garments among them, and cast lots for the only remains of
his property, his plain, seamless vesture. Both suns, the visible and the invisible,
seem eclisped. No cheering beam of created light gilds his gloomy prospect. No
smile of his heavenly Father supports his agonizing soul! No cordial, unless it be
vinegar and gall, revives his sinking spirits! He has nothing left except his God.
But his God is enough for him. In his God he has all things. And though his soul
is seized with sorrow, even unto death, yet it hangs more firmly upon his God by
a naked faith, than his lacerated body does on the cross by the clenched nails.
The perfection of his love shines in all its Christian glory. He not only forgives
his insulting foes and bloody persecutors, but, in the highest point of his passion,
he forgets his own wants, and thirsts after their eternal happiness. Together with
his blood, he pours out his soul for them; and, excusing them all, he says,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." O ye adult sons of God,
in this glass behold all with open face the glory of your Redeemer's forgiving,
praying love; and, as ye "behold it, be changed into the same image from glory
to glory, by the loving Spirit of the Lord."
V. God may call you to deep suffering.
This lesson is deep; but he may teach you one deeper still. By a strong sympathy
with him in all his sufferings, he may call you to "know him every way
crucified." Stern justice thunders from heaven, "Awake, O sword, against the
man who is my fellow!" The sword awakes; the sword goes through his soul; the
flaming sword is quenched in his blood. But is one sinew of his perfect faith cut,
one fibre of his perfect resignation injured by the astonishing blow? No; his God
slays him, and yet he trusts in his God. By the noblest of all ventures, in the
most dreadful of all storms, he meekly bows his head, and shelters his departing
soul in the bosom of his God. "My God, my God!" says he, "though all my
comforts have forsaken me, and all thy storms and waves go over me, yet 'into
thy hands I commend my spirit. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither
wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life, in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand [where I shall soon
sit] there are pleasures for evermore.'" What a pattern of perfect confidence! O
ye perfect Christians, be ambitious to ascend to those amazing heights of
Christ's perfection: for hereunto are ye called; because Christ also suffered for us; leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps, who knew no sin,
who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." If this is your high
calling on earth, rest not, O ye fathers in Christ, till your patient hope, and
perfect confidence in God have got their last victory over your last enemy—the
king of terrors.
"The ground of a thousand mistakes," says Mr. Wesley, "is, the not
considering deeply that love is the highest gift of God, humble, gentle,
patient love: that all visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little
things compared to love."
It were well you should be thoroughly sensible of this; the heaven of heavens is
love. There is nothing higher in religion: there is, in effect, nothing else. If you
look for any thing but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are
getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, 'Have you
received this or that blessing?' if you mean any thing but more love, you mean
wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false
scent. Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from
all sin, you are to aim at nothing but more of that love described in the thirteenth
of the Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into
Abraham's bosom."
VI. Love is humble.
VI. Love is humble. "Be therefore clothed with humility," says Mr. Wesley: "let
it not only fill, but cover you all over. Let modesty and self diffidence appear in
all your words and actions. Let all you speak and do show that you are little, and
base, and mean, and vile in your own eyes. As one instance of this, be always
ready to own any fault you have been in. If you have at any time thought, spoke,
or acted wrong, be not backward to acknowledge it. Never dream that this will
hurt the cause of God: no, it will farther it. Be therefore open and frank when
you are taxed with any thing: let it appear just as it is; and you will thereby not
hinder, but adorn the Gospel." Why should ye be more backward in
acknowledging your failings, than in confessing that ye do not pretend to
infallibility? St. Paul was perfect in the love which casts out fear, and therefore
he boldly reproved the high priest: but when he had reproved him more sharply
than the fifth commandment allows, he directly confessed his mistake, and set
his seal to the importance of the duty, in which he had been inadvertently
wanting. Then Paul said, "I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it
is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." St. John was
perfect in the courteous, humble love which brings us down at the feet of all. His
courtesy, his humility, and the dazzling glory which beamed forth from a divine
messenger (whom he apprehended to be more than a creature) betrayed him into
a fault contrary to that of St. Paul: but, far from concealing it, he openly
confessed it, and published his confession for the edification of all the Churches:
"When I had heard and seen," says he, "I fell down to worship before the feet of
the angel who showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it
not, for I am thy fellow servant." Christian perfection shines as much in the
childlike simplicity with which the perfect readily acknowledge their faults, as it
does in the manly steadiness with which they "resist unto blood, striving against
sin."
by John Fletcher
YE have not sung the preceding hymns in vain, O ye men of God, who have
mixed faith with your evangelical requests. The God, who says, "Open thy
mouth wide, and I will fill it;" the gracious God who declares, "Blessed are they
that hunger after righteousness, for they shall be filled;" that faithful,
covenant-keeping God has now filled you with all "righteousness, peace, and
joy in believing." The brightness of Christ's appearing has destroyed the
indwelling "man of sin." He who had slain the lion and the bear (he who had
already done so great things for you) has now crowned all his blessings by
slaying the Goliath within. Aspiring, unbelieving self is fallen before the
victorious Son of David. "The quick and powerful word of God, which is
sharper than any two-edged sword, has pierced even to the dividing asunder of
soul and spirit." The carnal mind is cut off: the circumcision of the heart,
through the Spirit, has fully taken place in your breasts; and now "that mind is in
you which was also in Christ Jesus; ye are spiritually minded:" loving God with
all your heart, and your neighbour as yourselves, "ye are full of goodness, ye
keep the commandments," ye observe the law of liberty, ye fulfil the law of
Christ. Of him ye have "learned to be meek and lowly in heart." Ye have fully
"taken his yoke upon you;" in so doing ye have found a sweet, abiding rest unto
your souls; and from blessed experience ye can say, "Christ's yoke is easy, and
his burden is light. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are
peace. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his
covenant and his testimonies." The beatitudes are sensibly yours: and the
charity, described by St. Paul, has the same place in your breasts which the
tables of the law had in the ark of the covenant. Ye are the living temples of the
trinity: the Father is your life; the Son your light; the Spirit your love; ye are
truly baptized into the mystery of God, ye continue to "drink into one spirit,"
and thus ye enjoy the grace of both sacraments. There is an end of your Lo here!
and Lo there! The kingdom of God is now established within you. Christ's
"righteousness, peace, and joy" are rooted in your breasts "by the Holy Ghost
given unto you, as an abiding guide, and indwelling comforter. Your introverted
eye of faith looks at God, who gently "guides you with his eye" into all the truth
necessary to make you "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your
God." Simplicity of intention keeps darkness out of your mind, and purity of
affection keeps wrong fires out of your breast: by the former, ye are without
guile; by the latter, ye are without envy. Your passive will instantly melts into
the will of God; and on all occasions you meekly say, "Not my will, O Father,
but thine be done!" Thus ye are always ready to suffer what you are called to
suffer. Your active will evermore says, "Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth: what
wouldst thou have me to do? It is my meat and drink to do the will of my
heavenly Father!" Thus are ye always ready to do whatsoever ye are convinced
that God calls you to do; and "whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat, or drink, or do
any thing else, ye do all to the glory of God, and in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ; rejoicing evermore; praying without ceasing; in every thing giving
thanks;" solemnly looking for and hasting unto the hour of your dissolution, and
the "day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved," and
your soul, being clothed with a celestial body, shall be able to do celestial
services to the God of your life.
In this blessed state of Christian perfection the holy "anointing, which ye have
received of him, abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, unless
it be as the same anointing teacheth." Agreeably, therefore, to that anointing,
which teaches by a variety of means, which formerly taught a prophet by an ass,
and daily instructs God's children by the ant, I shall venture to set before you
some important directions which the Holy Ghost has already suggested to your
pure minds: "for I would not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these
things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I
think it meet to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance," and giving you
some hints, which it is safe for you frequently to meditate upon.
I. Beware lest Satan cause you to lose the grace you now experience
I. Adam, ye know, lost his human perfection in paradise; Satan lost his angelic
perfection in heaven; the devil thrust sore at Christ in the wilderness, to throw
him down from his mediatorial perfection: and St. Paul, in the same epistles
where he professes not only Christian, but apostolic perfection also, (Phil. iii,
15; 1 Cor. ii, 6; 2 Cor. xii, 11,) informs us that he continued to "run for the
crown of heavenly perfection" like a man who might not only lose his crown of
Christian perfection, but become a reprobate, and be cast away, 1 Cor. ix, 25,
27. And, therefore, "so run ye also, that no man take your crown" of
Christian perfection in this world, and that ye may obtain your crown of
angelic perfection in the world to come. Still keep your body under. Still
guard your senses. Still watch your own heart, and, "steadfast in the faith, still
resist the devil that he may flee from you;" remembering that if Christ himself,
as Son of man, had conferred with flesh and blood, refused to deny himself, and
avoided taking up his cross, he had lost his perfection, and sealed up our original
apostasy.
"We do not find," says Mr. Wesley, in his Plain Account of Christian
Perfection, "any general state described in Scripture, from which a man cannot
draw back to sin. If there were any state wherein this is impossible, it would be
that of those who are sanctified, who are fathers in Christ, who 'rejoice
evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks.' But it is not
impossible for these to draw back. They who are sanctified may yet fall and
perish, Heb. x, 29. Even 'fathers in Christ' need that warning, 'Love not the world' 1 John ii, 15. They who 'rejoice, pray, and give thanks without ceasing,'
may nevertheless 'quench the Spirit,' 1 Thess. v, 16, &c. Nay, even they who are
'sealed unto the day of redemption,' may yet 'grieve the Holy Spirit of God,' Eph.
v, 30."
The doctrine of the absolute perseverance of the saints is the first card which the
devil played against man:—"Ye shall not surely die, if ye break the law of your
perfection." This fatal card won the game. Mankind and paradise were lost. The
artful serpent had too well succeeded at his first game to forget that lucky card at
his second. See him "transforming himself into an angel of light on the pinnacle
of the temple." There he plays over again his old game against the Son of God.
Out of the Bible he pulls the very card which won our first parents, and swept
the stake—paradise—yea, swept it with the besom of destruction:—"Cast thyself
down," says he, "for it is written, [that all things shall work together for thy
good, thy very falls not excepted,] he shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy
foot against a stone." The tempter (thanks be to Christ!) lost the game at that
time, but he did not lose his card: and it is probable that he will play it round
against you all only with some variation. Let me mention one among a
thousand:—He promised our Lord that God's "angels should bear him up in their
hands, if he threw himself down;" and it is not unlikely that he will promise you
greater things still. Nor should I wonder if he was bold enough to hint, that when
you cast yourselves down, "God himself shall bear you up in his HANDS, yea,
in his ARMS of everlasting love." O ye men of God, learn wisdom by the fall of
Adam. O ye anointed sons of the Most High, learn watchfulness by the conduct
of Christ. If he was afraid to "tempt the Lord his God," will ye dare to do it? If
he rejected, as poison, the hook of the absolute perseverance of the saints,
though it was baited with Scripture, will ye swallow it down as if it were "honey
out of the rock of ages?" No: "through faith in Christ, the Scriptures have made
you wise unto salvation:" you will not only flee with all speed from evil, but
from the very appearance of evil: and when you stand on the brink of a
temptation, far from "entering into it," under any pretence whatever, ye will leap
back into the bosom of him who says, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation; for though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak." I grant that,
evangelically speaking, "the weakness of the flesh" is not sin; but yet the
"deceitfulness of sin" creeps in at this door: and in this way not a few of God's
children, "after they had escaped the pollutions of the world, through the"
sanctifying knowledge of Christ, under plausible pretences, 'have been entangled
again therein and overcome." Let their falls make you cautious. Ye have "put on
the whole armour of God;" O keep it on, and use it "with all prayer," that ye may
to the last "stand complete in Christ, and be more than conquerors through him
that has loved you."
II. Remember that "every one who is perfect shall be as his Master."
Now if your Master was tempted and assaulted to the last; if to the last he watched and prayed, using all the means of grace himself, and enforcing the use
of them upon others; if to the last he fought against the world, the flesh, and the
devil, and did not "put off the harness" till he had put off the body; think not
yourselves above him; but "go and do likewise." If he did not regain paradise,
without going through the most complete renunciation of all the good things of
this world, and without meekly submitting to the severe stroke of his last enemy,
death, be content to be "perfect as he was:" nor fancy that your flesh and blood
can inherit the celestial kingdom of God, when the flesh and blood which
Emmanuel himself assumed from a pure virgin, could not inherit it without
passing under the cherub's flaming sword: I mean, without going through the
gates of death.
III. Ye are not complete in wisdom.
Perfect love does not imply perfect knowledge; but perfect humility, and perfect
readiness to receive instruction. Remember, therefore, that if ever ye show that
ye are above being instructed, even by a fisherman who teaches according to the
Divine anointing, ye will show that ye are fallen from a perfection of humility
into a perfection of pride.
IV. Do not confound angelical with Christian perfection.
Uninterrupted transports of praise, and ceaseless raptures of joy, do not belong
to Christian, but to angelical perfection. Our feeble frame can bear but a few
drops of that glorious cup. In general, that new wine is too strong for our old
bottles; that power is too excellent for our earthen, cracked vessels; but weak as
they are, they can bear a fulness of meekness, of resignation, of humility, and of
that love which is willing to "obey unto death." If God indulge you with
ecstacies, and extraordinary revelations, be thankful for them: but be "not
exalted above measure by them;" take care lest enthusiastic delusions mix
themselves with them; and remember that your Christian perfection does not so
much consist in "building a tabernacle" upon Mount Tabor, to rest and enjoy
rare sights there, as in resolutely taking up the cross, and following Christ to the
palace of a proud Caiaphas, to the judgment hall of an unjust Pilate, and to the
top of an ignominious Calvary. Ye never read in your Bibles, "Let that glory be
upon you which was also upon St. Stephen, when he looked up steadfastly into
heaven, and said, Behold! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man
standing on the right hand of God." But ye have frequently read there, "Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no
reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a
man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross."
See him on that ignominious gibbet! He hangs—abandoned by his
friends—surrounded by his foes—condemned by the rich—insulted by the poor! He
hangs—"a worm and no man—a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people!
All that see him laugh him to scorn! They shoot out their lips and shake their
heads, saying, He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him,
if he will have him!" There is none to help him: one of his apostles denies,
another sells him; and the rest run away. "Many oxen are come about him: fat
bulls of Bashan close him on every side; they gape upon him with their mouths
as it were a ramping lion; he is poured out like water; his heart in the midst of
his body is like melting wax; his strength is dried up like a potsherd; his tongue
cleaveth to his gums; he is going into the dust of death; many dogs are come
about him; and the counsel of the wicked layeth siege against him; his hands and
feet are pierced; you may tell all his bones; they stand staring and looking upon
him; they part his garments among them, and cast lots for the only remains of
his property, his plain, seamless vesture. Both suns, the visible and the invisible,
seem eclisped. No cheering beam of created light gilds his gloomy prospect. No
smile of his heavenly Father supports his agonizing soul! No cordial, unless it be
vinegar and gall, revives his sinking spirits! He has nothing left except his God.
But his God is enough for him. In his God he has all things. And though his soul
is seized with sorrow, even unto death, yet it hangs more firmly upon his God by
a naked faith, than his lacerated body does on the cross by the clenched nails.
The perfection of his love shines in all its Christian glory. He not only forgives
his insulting foes and bloody persecutors, but, in the highest point of his passion,
he forgets his own wants, and thirsts after their eternal happiness. Together with
his blood, he pours out his soul for them; and, excusing them all, he says,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." O ye adult sons of God,
in this glass behold all with open face the glory of your Redeemer's forgiving,
praying love; and, as ye "behold it, be changed into the same image from glory
to glory, by the loving Spirit of the Lord."
V. God may call you to deep suffering.
This lesson is deep; but he may teach you one deeper still. By a strong sympathy
with him in all his sufferings, he may call you to "know him every way
crucified." Stern justice thunders from heaven, "Awake, O sword, against the
man who is my fellow!" The sword awakes; the sword goes through his soul; the
flaming sword is quenched in his blood. But is one sinew of his perfect faith cut,
one fibre of his perfect resignation injured by the astonishing blow? No; his God
slays him, and yet he trusts in his God. By the noblest of all ventures, in the
most dreadful of all storms, he meekly bows his head, and shelters his departing
soul in the bosom of his God. "My God, my God!" says he, "though all my
comforts have forsaken me, and all thy storms and waves go over me, yet 'into
thy hands I commend my spirit. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither
wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life, in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand [where I shall soon
sit] there are pleasures for evermore.'" What a pattern of perfect confidence! O
ye perfect Christians, be ambitious to ascend to those amazing heights of
Christ's perfection: for hereunto are ye called; because Christ also suffered for us; leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps, who knew no sin,
who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." If this is your high
calling on earth, rest not, O ye fathers in Christ, till your patient hope, and
perfect confidence in God have got their last victory over your last enemy—the
king of terrors.
"The ground of a thousand mistakes," says Mr. Wesley, "is, the not
considering deeply that love is the highest gift of God, humble, gentle,
patient love: that all visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little
things compared to love."
It were well you should be thoroughly sensible of this; the heaven of heavens is
love. There is nothing higher in religion: there is, in effect, nothing else. If you
look for any thing but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are
getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, 'Have you
received this or that blessing?' if you mean any thing but more love, you mean
wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false
scent. Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from
all sin, you are to aim at nothing but more of that love described in the thirteenth
of the Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into
Abraham's bosom."
VI. Love is humble.
VI. Love is humble. "Be therefore clothed with humility," says Mr. Wesley: "let
it not only fill, but cover you all over. Let modesty and self diffidence appear in
all your words and actions. Let all you speak and do show that you are little, and
base, and mean, and vile in your own eyes. As one instance of this, be always
ready to own any fault you have been in. If you have at any time thought, spoke,
or acted wrong, be not backward to acknowledge it. Never dream that this will
hurt the cause of God: no, it will farther it. Be therefore open and frank when
you are taxed with any thing: let it appear just as it is; and you will thereby not
hinder, but adorn the Gospel." Why should ye be more backward in
acknowledging your failings, than in confessing that ye do not pretend to
infallibility? St. Paul was perfect in the love which casts out fear, and therefore
he boldly reproved the high priest: but when he had reproved him more sharply
than the fifth commandment allows, he directly confessed his mistake, and set
his seal to the importance of the duty, in which he had been inadvertently
wanting. Then Paul said, "I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it
is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." St. John was
perfect in the courteous, humble love which brings us down at the feet of all. His
courtesy, his humility, and the dazzling glory which beamed forth from a divine
messenger (whom he apprehended to be more than a creature) betrayed him into
a fault contrary to that of St. Paul: but, far from concealing it, he openly
confessed it, and published his confession for the edification of all the Churches:
"When I had heard and seen," says he, "I fell down to worship before the feet of
the angel who showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it
not, for I am thy fellow servant." Christian perfection shines as much in the
childlike simplicity with which the perfect readily acknowledge their faults, as it
does in the manly steadiness with which they "resist unto blood, striving against
sin."