Wesley Corpus

Are these the signals of their Maker’s love, and of his image in which they were created?” (Page 58.) “Think of the numbers that are swallowed up in the mighty waters, by the rage of stormy winds and seas; review the mul titudes which have been swept away by the pestilence, or con sumed by the tedious agonies of famine. Would famine and pestilence, with all the train of lingering horrors which attend them, have ever been made for innocent creatures, to have swept away whole nations of them, of every age and sex, men, women, and children, without distinction?” (Page 59.) “Think yet again what numbers of men have been crushed into miseries and death, and buried by earthquakes; or have had their bones broken, their limbs disjointed, and &leir flesh painfully battered by the fall of houses; perhaps buried alive in the ruins of entire towns or villages, while their neighbours have been drowned in multitudes by the dismal eruptions of water, or destroyed by deluges of liquid fire bursting out of the earth: Would a God of goodness and justice have treated innocent creatures in this manner P” (Page 60.) “Carry your thoughts to the countries of those savages, where thousands of their conquered enemies, or prisoners of war, are offered in sacrifice to their idols, or tortured and roasted to death by slow fires! Add this to all the former miseries, and then let calm reflection say, whether this world does not look like a province half forsaken of its gracious Governor. “Some, perhaps, will say, It is but a small part of mankind who are involved in these dreadful calamities; and they may suffer peculiar afflictions for their own personal iniquities.” (Page 61.) “I answer: Take a just survey of those who have suf fered thus, and there is not the least reason to think they were sinners above others. Do not these calamities spread through whole countries, and involve the best and the worst of men together? Whole nations suffer by them at once. And, indeed, such is the corruption of human nature, that wherever they come they find none innocent. And it is the general situation of mankind, under the just displeasure of God, which exposes them to such destruction. “But to proceed: Think of the innumerable common mis fortunes that attend human life. What multitudes perish by these in one week!