Wesley Corpus

(3.) “In these verses he is describing their wretched state, while they were in Gentile darkness,”--and while they were in Jewish darkness; the Jews having been just as wicked be fore their conversion as the Heathens. Both the one and the other had “walked,” till then, “in the vanity of their mind; having their understanding darkened,” being equally “dead in trespasses and sins,” equally “alienated from the iife of God, through the blindness of their heart:”--A very lively description, not so much of a wicked life, as of an evil nature. (4.) “When he saith, they were ‘dead in trespasses and sins, he speaks of their personal iniquities.” (Page 109.) True, both of heart and life. I must make some variation in the rest of your paraphrase. “Wherein,” saith he, “in times past, ye,” Heathens particularly, “walked;” inwardly and outwardly, “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now” (still) “worketh in the children of dis obedience; among whom we Jews also had our conversation;” being as “dead in trespasses and sins” as you. “Therefore, (5.) When he adds, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, he cannot mean, they were liable to wrath, by that nature which they brought into the world.” (Page 110.) Why not? This does not follow from anything you have said yet. Let us see how you prove it now : “This nature is now no other than God’s own work. The nature of every man comes out of the hands of God.” The same may be said of those who are still “dead in tres passes and sins.” Their original nature came from God, and was no other than God’s own work; yet the present corrup tion of their nature came not from God, and is not his work. “Consequently, the nature of every person, when brought into being, is just what God sees fit it should be.” This is true of the original nature of mankind, when it was first “brought into being;” but it is not true of our present corrupt nature. This is not “what God sees fit it should be.” “It is his power alone that forms it.” Yes, that forms us men; but not that forms us sinful men.