Wesley Corpus

It is therefore by no means true, that “he is in this verse speaking of the Gentiles in contradistinction to the Jews.” You affirm, (2.) “By the same argument, he here considers the Gentiles only in a body, as distinguished from the body of the Jews; for so he does all along in the four first chap ters.” No, not in one of them. If he had, the “mouth.” of no one individual person had been “stopped.” On the contrary, he speaks both here, and all along, of every indi vidual, that every one might believe in Him “who died for” every one of “the ungodly.” You affirm, (3) “In this verse he describes the condition of the converted Gentiles when in their heathen state, in which they were “without strength, unable to recover themselves; they were “ungodly, yea, ‘sinners, and “enemies to God.’” (Page 118.) And were not the unconverted Jews also “sinners,” and “enemies to God, ungodly,” and “without strength” to recover themselves? These four characters, therefore, are no proof at all, “that the Gentiles only are here spoken of.” “Their sin, and enmity, and ungodliness, consisted in their wicked works.” Primarily, in their wicked tempers. But how came all men, Jews and Gentiles, to have those wicked tempers, and to walk in those wicked works? How came they all, till converted, to be “dead in sin,” and “without strength” to recover from it, unless “in Adam all died,” in a deeper sense than you are willing to allow 7 You sum up your argument thus: “The Apostle is not speaking here of all mankind’s being corrupted in Adam, but of the Gentiles being corrupted by the idolatry and wicked ness into which they had plunged themselves, and out of which they were unable to recover themselves, without the extraordinary interposal of divine grace.” (Page 120.) If this was the case of the Heathens only, then the Jews were not “without strength,” but were able to recover them selves from their wickedness, without any such interposal | But with regard to the Heathens, I ask, (1.) Was this the state of all the heathen nations, or of some only? (2.) If of some only, which were they that were not corrupted? (3.) If it was the state of all heathen nations, how came it to be so?