Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/185

 ther men will hear, or whether they will forbear: knowing that then alone can any minister of Christ be pure from the blood of all men, when he hath ''not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God''.

3. We may not therefore lay these expressions aside, seeing they are the words of God, and not of man. But we may, and ought to explain the meaning of them; that those who are sincere of heart, may not err to the right-hand or to the left, from the mark of the prize of their high calling. And this is the more needful to be done, because in the verse already repeated, the apostle speaks of himself as not perfect: not, saith he, as tho' I were already perfect. And yet immediately after, in the fifteenth verse, he speaks of himself, yea and many others, as perfect. Let us, saith he, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.

4. In order therefore to remove the difficulty arising from this seeming contradiction, as well as to give light to them who are pressing forward to the mark, and that those who are lame be not turned out of the way, I shall endeavour to shew.

First, In what sense Christians are not, and,

Secondly, In what sense they are perfect.

I. 1. In the first place I shall endeavour to shew, in what sense Christians are not perfect. And both from experience and scripture it ap