Wesley Corpus

But the case is extremely different, if you place Adam on one side, and all mankind on the other. It is true, “the nature of sin is not altered by its being general.” But the case is very widely altered. On this or that man it may “come, just as it came upon Adam, by his own choice and compliance with tempta tion.” But how comes it, that all men under the sun should choose evil rather than good? How came all the children of Adam, from the beginning of the world till now, to comply with temptation? How is it, that, in all ages, the scale has turned the wrong way, with regard to every man born into the world? Can you see no difficulty in this? And can you find any way to solve that difficulty, but to say with the Psalmist, We were “shapen in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive” us? ** “ORIGINAL righteousness is said to be, ‘that moral recti tude in which Adam was created. His reason was clear; and sense, appetite, and, passion were subject to it. His judgment was uncorrupted, and his will had a constant propensity to holi mess. He had a supreme love to his Creator, a fear of offend ing him, and a readiness to do his will.” When Adam sinned, he lost this moral rectitude, this image of God in which he was created; in consequence of which all his posterity come into the world destitute of that image.” (Pages 147-149.) In order to remove this mistake, you re-consider some of the texts on which it is grounded: “Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.” (Col. iii. 9, 10.) “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians iv. 22-24.) On this, you affirm: “‘The old’ and ‘new man, here do not signify a course of life; but the ‘old man’ signifies the heathen, the ‘new man, the Christian, profession.” (Pages 150, 151.) This you prove, 1. From Eph. ii.