Wesley Corpus

1729 To his Father [1] LINCOLN COLLEGE, December 19, 1729. DEAR SIR, -- As I was looking over the other day Mr. Ditton's Discourse on the Resurrection of Christ, [By Humphrey Ditton(1675-1715), Master of the new Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital: A Discourse concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ . . . with an Appendix concerning the impossible production of thought from matter and motion; the nature of human souls and of brutes; the animi mundi, &c. 1714.] I found, toward the end of it, a sort of essay on the Origin of Evil. I fancied the shortness of it, if nothing else, would make you willing to read it; though very probably you will not find much in it which has not occurred to your thoughts before. 'Since the Supreme Being must needs be infinitely and essentially good as well as wise and powerful, it has been esteemed no little difficulty to show how evil came into the world. Unde malum [‘Whence did evil arise?’] has been a mighty question.' There were some who, in order to solve this, supposed two supreme, governing principles; the one a good, the other an evil, one: which latter was independent on and of equal power with the former, and the author of all that was irregular or bad in the universe. This monstrous scheme the Manichees fell into, and much improved; but were sufficiently confuted by St. Austin, who had reason to be particularly acquainted with their tenets. But the plain truth is, the hypothesis requires no more to the confutation of it than the bare proposing it. Two supreme, independent principles is next door to a contradiction in terms. It is the very same thing, in result and consequence, as saying two absolute infinities; and he that says two, had as good say ten or fifty, or any other number whatever. Nay, if there can be two essentially, distinct, absolute infinities, there may be an infinity of such absolute infinities; that is as much as to say, none of them all would be an absolute infinite, or that none of them all would be properly and really infinite. ' For real infinity is strict and absolute infinity, and only that.' 'From the nature of liberty and free will we may deduce a very possible and satisfactory (perhaps the only possible just) account of the origin of evil.