Wesley Corpus

“‘That the human soul is propagated by the parents toge ther with the body, is further proved, 1. By the creation of Eve, whose soul is not said to have been breathed into her by God: 2. From the confession of David; Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me; (Psalm li. 5;) which words cannot possibly relate to the body only: 3. From our redemption: What Christ did not assume, he did not redeem; if, therefore, he did not assume his soul, together with his body, from the Virgin Mary, our souls are not redeemed by Christ; which is evidently false: 4. From similar expressions, Job x. 8, Thy hands have made and fashioned me; and Psalm cxxxix. 13, For thou hast possessed my reins; thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb ; where God is said to have formed us with his own hands, which yet is no otherwise done than mediately by generation: 5. From the nature of the begetter and the begotten: They are of one species; but the man who begets consisting of a soul and body, and a body without a soul, are not of one species. Nov. 1763.] JOURNAL. 155 “‘Again, supposing the soul to be infused by the Deity, either, 1. It will be free from sin, and so God himself will be accused as guilty of injustice, in condemning a pure spirit, and infusing it into an impure body; or, 2. He will be accounted the author of the soul’s pollution, by uniting it, a pure spirit, to an impure body, in order that it should be polluted: 3. A double absurdity will follow upon this supposition; viz., (1.) The organical parts of man only will be slaves to sin: (2.) The immortal spirit would be corrupted by the mortal body: (3.) Or if the soul, being thus infused, be polluted by sin, it will follow, that God is expressly assigned to be the cause of sin; which is the highest blasphemy.’” Fri. 28.--At the request of the little society there, I rode round by Braintree. Here I met with one who was well acquainted with the Honourable Mr. If he answers the character Mr. S gives, he is one of the most amiable men in the world. O, what keeps us apart?