Wesley Corpus

3. They perish for want of knowing that we as well as the heathens ‘are alienated from the life of God’; that ‘every one of us,’ by the corruption of our inmost nature, ‘is very far gone from original righteousness’ -- so far, that ‘every person born into the world deserveth God’s wrath and damnation’; that we have by nature no power either to help ourselves or even to call upon God to help us, all our tempers and works in our natural state being only evil continually. So that our coming to Christ as well as theirs must infer a great and mighty change. It must infer not only an outward change, from stealing, lying, and all corrupt communication, but a thorough change of heart, an inward renewal in the spirit of our mind. Accordingly ‘the old man’ implies infinitely more than outward evil conversation, even ‘an evil heart of unbelief,’ corrupted by pride and a thousand deceitful lusts. Of consequence the ‘new man’ must imply infinitely more than outward good conversation, even ‘a good heart, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness’ -- an heart full of that faith which, working by love, produces all holiness of conversation. 4. The change from the former of these states to the latter is what I call The New Birth. But you say I am not content with this plain and easy notion of it, but fill myself and others with fantastical conceits about it. Alas, sir, how can you prove this And if you cannot prove it, what amends can you make, either to God or to me or to the world, for publicly asserting a gross falsehood