Wesley Corpus

that his Spirit may give me under standing, and enable me to think and “speak as the oracles of God,” without going from them to the right hand or to the left November 30, 1756. BEFoRE we attempt to account for any fact, we should be well assured of the fact itself. First, therefore, let us inquire what is the real state of mankind; and, in the Second place, endeavour to account for it. I. First, I say, let us inquire, What is the real state, with regard to knowledge and virtue, wherein mankind have been from the earliest times? And what state are they in at this day? I. 1. What is the state, (to begin with the former branch of the inquiry,) with regard to knowledge and virtue, wherein, according to the most authentic accounts, mankind have been from the earliest times? We have no authentic account of the state of mankind in the times antecedent to the deluge, but in the writings of Moses. What then, according to these, was the state of mankind in those times? Moses gives us an exact and full account: God then “saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. vi. 5, 12, 13.) And this was not the case of only part of mankind; but “all flesh had cor rupted his way upon the earth: ” And accordingly God said, “The end of all flesh is come, for the earth is filled with vio lence through them.” Only Noah was “righteous before God.” (Gen. vii. 1.) Therefore only he and his household were spared, when God “brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly,” and destroyed them all from the face of the earth. “Let us examine the most distinguishing features in this draught. Not barely the works of their hands, or the works of their tongue, but “every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was evil.” The contagion had spread itself through the immer man; had tainted the seat of their principles, and the source of their actions. But was there not some mixture of good? No; they were only evil: Not so much as a little leaven of piety, unless in one single family. But were there no lucid intervals; no happy moments wherein virtue gained the ascendancy?