An early Wesley sermon, written at Oxford five years before his Aldersgate experience, but later endorsed by him as expressing his mature doctrine of perfect love.
Sermon 17 of 44 · 1733 · Romans 2:29
The Circumcision of the Heart
A passage from the sermon
It is that habitual disposition of soul which, in the sacred writings, is termed holiness; and which directly implies the being cleansed from sin, 'from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit;' and, by consequence, the being endued with those virtues which were also in Christ Jesus; the being so 'renewed in the image of our mind,' as to be 'perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.'
This is the very essence of religion. This is what we should chiefly desire — not any outward thing, not the praise of men, not riches, not health, but only this: a heart given wholly unto God. A heart that hath in it no other will but His, that loves him with all its strength, and walks in all his ways.
The full sermon is in the public domain and freely available from CCEL and other archives.