Wesley Corpus

It is his work, and his will, (for he works nothing but what he wills,) and yet the sinfulness of the action is neither his work nor will. “But can those passions or propensities be sinful, which are neither caused nor consented to by me?” I answer, Spite, envy, and those other passions and tempers which are mani festly discernible even in little children, are certainly not virtuous, not morally good, whether you term them sinful or not; and it is as certain, these exist before they are consented to, much less caused by, those that feel them. “But sin, if it is unavoidable, is no sin.” (Page 143.) Whether you term it sin or not, it is contrary to the nature of God, and a trans gression of his holy and good law. “But a natural moral evil is a contradiction; for if it be natural, it cannot be moral.” That tempers contrary to the nature and the law of God are natural, is a point of daily experience; but if you do not choose to call these morally evil, call them what you please. All I aver is, that such tempers do exist in us antecedent to our choice. “But if the actual sins of men proceed from a corrupt nature, they are unavoidable, and consequently no sins at all.” (Page 144.) Actual sins may proceed from a corrupt nature, and yet not be unavoidable; but if actions contrary to the nature of God were unavoidable, it would not follow that they were innocent. To the question, “How comes it to pass, that our passions and appetites are now so irregular and strong, that not one person has resisted them so far as to keep himself pure and innocent?” you answer by another question, “How came Adam not to keep himself pure and innocent?” (Page 145.) There is no parity between the one case and the other. I can account for any one man’s committing sin, supposing him to be natu rally upright, as easily as for Adam’s committing it. Any one person, as well as Adam, though naturally inclined to neither, might choose either good or evil; and, on this supposition, he would be as likely to choose one as the other. But the case is extremely different, if you place Adam on one side, and all mankind on the other.