Wesley Corpus

These are your arguments to prove that Christ is in every man -- a blessing which St. Paul thought was peculiar to believers. He said, ‘Christ is in you except ye be reprobates,’ unbelievers. You say, Christ is in you whether ye be reprobates or no. ‘If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His,’ saith the Apostle. Yea, but ‘every man,’ saith Mr. Law, ‘hath the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ is in every soul’ (Spirit of Prayer, Part I. p. 63). ‘He that hath not the Son of God hath not life,’ saith St. John. But Mr. Law saith, ‘Every man hath the Son of God.’ Sleep on, then, ye sons of Belial, and take your rest; ye are all safe: for ‘he that hath the Son hath life.’ There can hardly be any doctrine under heaven more agreeable to flesh and blood; nor any which more directly tends to prevent the very dawn of conviction, or at least to hinder its deepening in the soul and coming to a sound issue. None more naturally tends to keep men asleep in sin and to lull asleep those who begin to be awakened. Only persuade one of this, ‘Christ is already in thy heart; thou hast now the inspiration of His Spirit; all the peace and joy of God are within thee -- yea, all the holy nature, tempers, and Spirit of Christ’; and you need do no more: the siren-song quiets all his sorrow and fear. As soon as you have sewed this pillow to his soul he sinks back into the sleep of death. 6. But you have made an ample amends for this by providing so short and easy a way to heaven; -- not a long, narrow, troublesome, round-about path, like that described in the Bible, but one that will as compendiously save the soul as Dr. Ward's ‘pill and drop’ heal the body [Joshua Ward (1685-1761), a quack doctor, made a fortune by his ' drop and pill' remedy, a compound of antimony. See Dic. Nat. Biog.]; a way so plain that they who follow it need no Bible, no human teaching, no outward means whatever, being every one able to stand alone, every one sufficient for himself!