Wesley Corpus

It is bold therefore to affirm, that “many of his posterity could have given names to them as well as he ; and that therefore this is not a proof that he had any capacity superior to us.” (Page 172.) You proceed: “Surely his eating the forbidden fruit is no evidence of superior abilities.” (Page 173.) And it is no evidence of the contrary; “seeing,” as you yourself observe, “what his special temptation was, we do not know.” There fore, neither do we know whether any of his posterity could have overcome it; much less, that “many of his posterity have over. come temptations more violent than his.” All this is talking in the dark, “not knowing what we say, neither whereof weaffirm.” “And now let any man see whether there be any ground in revelation for exalting Adam's nature as Divines have done, who have affirmed that all his faculties were eminently per. fact, and entirely set to the love and obedience of his Creator.” (Page 175.) “And yet these same suppose him to have been guilty of the vilest act that ever was committed.” (Page 176.) They suppose Adam to have been created holy and wise, like his Creator; and yet capable of falling from it. They suppose farther, that through temptations, of which we cannot possibly judge, he did fall from that state; and that hereby he brought pain, labour, and sorrow on himself and all his pos terity; together with death, not only temporal, but spiritual, and (without the grace of God) eternal. And it must be com fessed, that not only a few Divines, but the whole body of Christians in all ages, did suppose this, till after seventeen hundred years a sweet-tongued orator arose, not only more enlightened than silly Adam, but than any of his wise posterity, and declared that the whole supposition was folly, nonsense, inconsistency, and blasphemy “Objection 2. But do not the Scriptures say, Adam was created after God's own image? And do his posterity bear that image now? “The Scriptures do say, ‘God created man in his own image.” (Gen. i. 27.) But whatever that phrase means here, it doubtless means the same in Gen. ix.