Wesley Corpus

He had also an executive power, answerable to his will ; a power to do the good which he knew should be done, and which he inclined to do; even to fulfil the whole law of God. If it had not been so, God would not have required perfect obedience of him. For to say that “the Lord gathereth where he hath not strewed, is but the blasphemy of a slothful servant. “From what has been said it may be gathered, that man's original righteousness was universal, and natural, yet mutable. “1. It was universal, both with respect to the subject of it, the whole man; and the object of it, the whole law: It was diffused through the whole man; it was a blessed leaven that leavened the whole lump. Man was then holy in soul, body, and spirit: While the soul remained untainted, the members of the body were consecrated vessels and instruments of righteousness. A combat between reason and appetite, nay, the least inclination to sin, was utterly inconsistent with this uprightness in which man was created; and has been invented to veil the corruption of man’s nature, and to obscure the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And as this righteousness spread through the whole man, so it respected the whole law. There was nothing in the law but what was agreeable to his reason. and will. His soul was shapen out in length and breadth, to the commandment, though exceeding broad; so that his origi mal righteousness was not only perfect in parts, but in degrees. “2. As it was universal, so it was natural to him. He was created with it. And it was necessary to the perfection of man, as he came out of the hand of God; necessary to con stitute him in a state of integrity. Yet, “3. It was mutable: It was a righteousness which might be lost, as appears from the sad event. His will was not indifferent to good and evil: God set it towards good only, yet did not so fix it, that it could not alter: it was movable to evil, but by man himself only. “Thus was man made originally righteous, being ‘created in God’s own image,’ (Gen. i. 27,) which consists in ‘knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.’ (Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 24.) All that God made ‘was very good, according to their several natures.