Wesley Corpus

Ovid said no more concerning both, near two thou sand years since, than is evidently true at this day. Of the natural world he says, (whether this took place at the fall of man, or about the time of the deluge,) Jupiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris, Perque hyemes, astusque, et indequales autumnos, Et breve ver, spatiis exegit quatuor annum. “The God of nature, and her sovereign King, Shorten’d the primitive perennial spring: The spring gave place, no sooner come than past, To summer's heat, and winter's chilling blast, And autumn sick, irregular, and uneven : While the sad year, through different seasons driven, Obey'd the stern decree of angry Heaven.” And a man may as modestlv deny, that spring and summer, autumn and winter, succeed each other, as deny one article of the ensuing account of the moral world: Irrupit vena pejoris in aevum Omne nefas: Fugere pudor, verumque, fidesque ; In quorum subiere locum, fraudesque, dolique, Insidiaque, et vis, et amor sceleratus habendi. “A flood of general wickedness broke in At once, and made the iron age begin: Wirtue and truth forsook the faithless race, And fraud and wrong succeeded in their place; Deceit and violence, the dire thirst of gold, Lust to possess, and rage to have and hold.” What country is there now upon earth, in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, be the inhabitants Pagans, Turks, or Christians, concerning which we may not say?-- Vivitur ex rapto: Non hospes ab hospite tutus: Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos; Victa jacet pietas ; et Virgo cade madentes Ultima caelestum terras Astraa reliquit. *They live by rapine. The unwary guest Is poison’d at the inhospitable feast. The son, impatient for his father's death, Numbers his years, and longs to stop his breath: Extinguish’d all regard for God and man; And Justice, last of the celestial train, Spurns the earth drench’d in blood, and flies to heaven again.” 14. Universal misery is at once a consequence and a proof of this universal corruption. Men are unhappy, (how very few are the exceptions !) because they are unholy. Culpam paena premit comes: “Pain accompanies and follows sin.” Why is the earth so full of complicated distress? Because it is full of complicated wickedness. Why are not you happy? Other circumstances may concur, but the main reason is, be cause you are not holy.