Wesley Corpus

(1.) The nature: It is not a partial, but a total, change. Thy whole nature is corrupted; therefore, the whole must be renewed. “All things’ must “become new.” If a man who had received many wounds were cured of all but one, he might still bleed to death. It is not a change made by human industry, but by the almighty Spirit of God. A man must be ‘born of the Spirit.’ Our nature is eorrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Man may pin a new life to an old heart, but he can never change the heart. (2.) The necessity: It is absolutely necessary in order to salvation. ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” No unclean thing can enter ‘the new Jerusalem: But thou art by nature wholly unclean. Deceive not thyself: No mercy of God, no blood of Christ, will bring an unregenerate sinner to heaven. For God will never open a fountain of mercy to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood to blot out the truths of God. Heaven! What would you do there, who are not born again? A holy Head, and corrupt members! A Head full of treasures of grace, members filled with treasures of wicked ness! Ye are no ways adapted to the society above, more than beasts to converse with men. Could the unrenewed man go to heaven, he would go to it no otherwise than now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leaving his heart behind him. “We may apply this doctrine, Secondly, for lamentation. Well may we lament thy case, O natural man; for it is the sad dest case one can be in out of hell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou art dead already, dead while thou livest. Thou carriest about a dead soul in a living body; and because thou art dead, canst not lament thy own case. Thou ‘hast no good in thee; thy soul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vile ness, before God. Thou ‘canst do no good;’ thou canst do nothing but sin. For thou art ‘the servant of sin, and, therefore, free from righteousness; thou dost not, canst not, meddle with it.