Wesley Corpus

Whereas no such calamity could ever have befallen innocent Adam, or his innocent offspring.” (Page 187.) “The ‘image of God,” in which Adam was created, consisted eminently in righteousness and true holiness. But that part of the ‘image of God’ which remained after the fall, and remains in all men to this day, is the natural image of God, namely, the spiritual nature and immortality of the soul; not excluding the political image of God, or a degree of dominion over the creatures still remaining. But the moral image of God is lost and defaced, or else it could not be said to be ‘renewed.” It is then evident, that the blessing given to Adam in innocency, and that given to Noah after the flood, differ so widely, that the latter was consistent with the condemnation or curse for sin, and the former was not. Consequently, mankind does not now stand in the same favour of God, as Adam did while he was innocent.” (Pages 188, 189.) “Thus it appears that the holy Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments, give us a plain and full account of the conveyance of sin, misery, and death, from the first man to all his offspring.” APosTACY FROM GoD 7 A GENERAL survey of THE FOLLIES AND MISERLEs “UPoN a just view of human nature, from its entrance into life, till it retires behind the curtain of death, one would be ready to say concerning man, ‘Is this the creature that is so superior to the rest of the inhabitants of the globe, as to require the peculiar care of the Creator in forming him? Does he deserve such an illustrious description, as even the heathen poet has given us of him?” Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius alte Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in catera posset. Natus homo est / sive hunc divino semine cretum Ille opifex rerum mundi melioris origo Finzit in effigiem moderantúm cuncta deorum. Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram; Os homini sublime dedit; calumque tueri Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet; and then was man design'd: Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire form’d, and fit to rule the rest.