John Wesley Sermon: “Christian Perfection.”
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved,” both in the Law and in the Prophets, and having the prophetic word confirmed unto us in the Gospel, by our blessed Lord and his apostles; “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” [2 Cor. 7:1]. “Let us fear, lest” so many “promises being made us of entering into his rest,” which he that has entered into, has ceased from his own works, “any of us should come short of it” [Heb. 4:1]. “This one thing let us do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, let us press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” [Phil. 3:13–14]; crying unto him day and night, till we also are “delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God!” [Rom. 8:21].