Wesley Corpus

But he imagines he has been drop ping tears in every page, and that over every part of mankind.” Undoubtedly he has; and if so, how unjust, how cruel, is that censurel send our thoughts to the sultry regions of Afric, the frost and snows of Norway, the rocks and deserts of Lapland and northern Tartary,--what a frightful thing is human life l How is the rational nature lost in slavery, and brutality, and incessant toils, and hardships | They are treated like brutes by their lords, and they live like dogs and asses, among labours and wants, hunger and weariness, blows and burdens without end. Did God appoint this for innocents?” (Page 31.) “Is the momentary pleasure of eating and drinking a recom pence for incessant labour? Does it bear any proportion to the length of toil, pain, and hazard, wherewith the provisions of life are procured? Moses thought not. When he speaks of man's ‘eating bread in the sweat of his brow, he acknowledges this to be another of the curses of God for the sin of man.” (Page 32.) “It is strange that any man should say, ‘In this sentence of God, no curse is pronounced upon either Adam’s body, soul, or posterity; that the sorrow of child-bearing is not inflicted as a curse; that the labours of life were increased, but not as a curse; that death was not a curse.’ I would fain ask, What is a curse, if some natural evil pronounced and executed upon a person, or thing, be not so, especially when it is pronounced on account of sin, and by God himself, as supreme Governor and Judge? And even the curse on the ground falls properly on the person who tills it. “It is granted, God can turn curses into blessings. Yet these evils were originally pronounced and inflicted as a curse or punishment of sin; as it is written, ‘Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things.’ And that death was designed as a curse on man for sin is evident; for Christ ‘suffered” that “curse for us.” “5. Consider the character of mankind in general, with regard to religion and virtue, and it will be hard to believe they bear the image of their common Father in knowledge and holi ness.