Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/294

 4. Indeed if man were not thus fallen, there would be no need of all this. There would be no occasion for this work of the heart, this ''renewal in the spirit of our mind''. The ''superfluity of godliness'' would then be a more proper expression than the superfluity of naughtiness. For an outside religion without any godliness at all, would suffice to all rational intents and purposes. It does accordingly suffice, in the judgment of those who deny this corruption of our nature. They make very little more of religion than the famous Mr. Hobbes did of reason. According to him, reason is only, "A well-ordered train of words:" according to them, religion is only a well-ordered train of words and actions. And they speak consistently with themselves: for if the inside be not full of wickedness, if this be clean already, what remains, but to ''cleanse the outside of the cup''? Outward reformation, if their supposition be just, is indeed the one thing needful.

5. But ye have not so learned the oracles of God. Ye know, that he who seeth what is in man, gives a far different account both of nature and grace, of our fall and our recovery. Ye know that the great end of religion is, to renew our hearts in the image of God, to repair that total loss of righteousness and true holiness, which we sustained by the sin of our first parent. Ye know that all religion which does not answer this end, all that stops short of this, the renewal