Wesley Corpus

But what pains is he at to put a fair face on a black heart! to shake off his fears, or make head against them | Carnal reason suggests, If it be ill with him, it will be ill with many. When he is beat from this, and sees no advantage in going to hell with company, he resolves to leave his sins; but cannot think of breaking off so soon; there is time enough, and he will do it afterwards. When at length he is constrained to part with some sins, others are kept as right hands or right eyes. Nay, when he is so pressed, that he must needs say before the Lord, he is willing to part with all his idols, yet how long will his heart give the lie to his tongue, and prevent the execution of it ! “Thirdly. There is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil. Men are naturally ‘bent to backsliding from God;’ they hang (as the word is) towards backsliding. Leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will choose sin and reject holi ness; and that as certainly as water poured on the side of a hill will run downward and not upward. “1. Is not the way of evil the first way wherein the children of men go? Do not their inclinations plainly appear on the wrong side, while they have not cunning to hide them ? As soon as it appears we are reasonable creatures, it appears we are sinful creatures. ‘Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, till the rod of correction drives it from him.’ It is bound in the heart, woven into our very nature; nor will the knots loose; they must be broke asunder by strokes. Words will not do; the rod must be taken to drive it away. Not that the rod of itself will do this; the sad experience of many parents testifies the contrary. And Solomon himself tells you, “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. But the rod is an ordinance of God, appointed for that end; which, like the word, is made effectual, by the Spirit's accompanying his Dwn ordinance. “2. How easily men are led into sin persuaded to evil, though not to good.