Wesley Corpus

3. Nay it were well if the charge rested here : But it is certain it does not. It cannot be denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his Creator. Have not thousands even of those that are called Christians, taken the liberty to call his mercy, if not his justice also, into question on this very account Some, indeed, have done this a little more modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner; but others have thrown aside the mask, and asked, "Did not God foresee that Adam would abuse his liberty And did he not know the baneful consequences which this must naturally have on all his posterity And why, then, did he permit that disobedience Was it not easy for the Almighty to have prevented it" -- He certainly did foresee the whole. This cannot be denied: For "known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world;" rather, from all eternity, as the words ap aivnos properly signify. And it was undoubtedly in his power to prevent it; for he hath all power both in heaven and earth. But it was known to him, at the same time, that it was best, upon the whole, not to prevent it. He knew that "not as the transgression, so is the free gift;" that the evil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the latter, -- not worthy to be compared with it. He saw that to permit the fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general; that abundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam by his fall; that if "sin abounded" thereby over all the earth, yet grace "would much more abound;" yea, and that to every individual of the human race, unless it was his own choice. 4. It is exceeding strange that hardly anything has been written or at least published, on this subject; nay that it has been so little weighed or understood by the generality of Christians; especially considering that it is not a matter of mere curiosity, but a truth of the deepest importance; it being impossible, on any other principle, To'assert a gracious Providence, And justify the ways of God with men;