Wesley Corpus

Now, can any one suppose God to have made so many millions of creatures, as have come into the world from Adam till now, which have all entered the world, innocent and holy, and yet not one of them should retain his image in holiness, or be fit for his favour, without being born again, created anew, raised from the dead, re deemed, not with corruptible things, but with the blood of his own Son? Do not all these representations prove that every man is born with some original contagion, and under some criminal imputation in the sight of God? Else would not one among all these millions be fit to be made a partaker of his favour, without such amazing purifications as require the blood of the Son of God, and the almighty operation of his Spirit! Do not all these things show that mankind in their present generations are not such creatures as God at first made them?” (Pages 413, 414.) “The same great truth we may learn, Thirdly, from even a slight survey of the heathen nations. A few days ago I was viewing, in the map of the world, the vast Asiatic empires of Tartary and China, and a great part of the kingdom of the Mogul, with the multitude of islands in the East Indies. I went on to survey all the southern part of Afric, with the savage nations of America. I observed the thousands, or rather millions, who dwell on this globe, and walk, and trifle, and live and die there, under the heaviest cloud of ignorance and darkness, not knowing God, nor the way to his favour; who are drenched in gross impieties and superstitions, who are continually guilty of national immoralities, and practise idolatry, malice, and lewdness, fraud and falsehood, with scarce any regret or restraint.” (Page 415.) “Then, sighing within myself, I said, It is not many years since these were all infants; and they were brought up by parents who knew not God, nor the path that leads to life and happiness. Are not these unhappy children born under diffi culties almost unsurmountable? Are they not laid under almost an impossibility of breaking their way of themselves, through so much thick darkness, to the knowledge, the fear, and love of Him that made them 7 Dreadful truth indeed ! Yet, so far I can see, certain and incontestable.