Wesley Corpus

I could sooner be a Turk, a Deist, yea an Atheist, than I could believe this. It is less absurd to deny the very being of God than to make Him an almighty tyrant. ‘The whole world and all its seasons are rich with our Creator's goodness. His tender mercies are over all His works.’ (Page 318.) Are they over the bulk of mankind Where is His goodness to the non-elect How are His tender mercies over them ‘His temporal blessings are given to them.’ But are they to them blessings at all Are they not all curses Does not God know they are that they will only increase their damnation Does not He design they should And this you call goodness; this is tender mercy! ‘May we not discern pregnant proofs of goodness in each individual object’ (Page 321.) No; on your scheme, not a spark of it, in this world or the next, to the far greater part of the work of His own hands. ‘Is God a generous benefactor to the meanest animals, to the lowest reptiles And will He deny my friend what is necessary to his present comfort and his final acceptance’ (Page 334.) Yea, will He deny it to any soul that He has made Would you deny it to any, if it were in your power But if you loved whom God abhorred, The servant were above his Lord. [Ibid. iii. 29.] ‘The “wedding garment” here means holiness’ (page 337). ‘This is His tender complaint, “They will not come unto Me !”’ (page 340). Nay, that is not the case; they cannot. He Himself has decreed not to give them that grace without which their coming is impossible. ‘The grand end which God proposes in all His favorable dispensations to fallen man is to demonstrate the sovereignty of His grace.’ Not so: to impart happiness to His creatures is His grand end herein. Barely to demonstrate His sovereignty is a principle of action fit for the great Turk, not the Most High God. ‘God hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servants. He is a boundless ocean of good.’ (Page 341.) Nay, that ocean is far from boundless, if it wholly passes by nine-tenths of mankind.