Wesley Corpus

For thou art ‘the servant of sin, and, therefore, free from righteousness; thou dost not, canst not, meddle with it. Thou art ‘under the dominion of sin a dominion where righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and a servant of the devil as long as thou artin a state of nature. But, to prevent any mistake, consider that Satan hath two kinds of servants. There are some employed, as it were, in coarser work. These bear the devil’s mark in their foreheads; having no form of godliness; not so much as per forming the external duties of religion; but living apparently as sons of earth, only minding earthly things. Whereas, others are employed in more refined work, who carry his mark in their right hand, which they can and do hide, by a form of religion, from the view of the world. These sacrifice to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh. Pride, unbelief, self-pleasing, and the like spiritual sins, prey on their cor rupted, wholly corrupted, souls. Both are servants of the same house, equally void of righteousness. “Indeed, how is it possible thou shouldest be able to do any thing good, whose nature is wholly corrupt? ‘Can an evil tree bring forth good fruit? Do men gather grapes of thorns?” If then thy nature be totally evil, all thou doest is certainly so too. “Hear, O sinner, what is thy case! Innumerable sins com pass thee about; floods of impurities overwhelm thee. Sins of all sorts roll up and down in the dead sea of thy soul; where no good can breathe, because of the corruption there. Thy lips are unclean; the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of a grave, full of stench and rottenness. Thy natural actions are sin; for ‘when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?” (Zech. vii. 6.) Thy civil actions are sin: ‘The ploughing of the wicked is sin.” (Prov. xxi. 4.) Thy religious actions Poe sin: ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomina tion to the Lord. The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart are ‘only evil continually. A deed may be soon done, a word soon spoken, a thought pass; but each of these is an item in thy accounts. O sad reckoning !