Wesley Corpus

And do you never speak or act in such a manner as your own reason condemns?” He candidly answered, “Indeed I do. I frequently feel tempers, and speak many words, and do many actions, which I do not approve of. But I cannot avoid it. They result, whether I will or no, from the vibrations of my brain, together with the motion of my blood, and the flow of my animal spirits. But these are not in my own power. I cannot help them. They are independent on my choice. And therefore I cannot apprehend myself to be a sinner on this account.” 6. Very lately another gentleman, in free conversation, was carrying this matter a little farther. Being asked, “Do you believe God is almighty?” he answered, “I do; or he could not have made the world.” “Do you believe he is wise?” “I cannot tell." Much may be said on both sides.” “Do you believe he is good?” “No; I cannot believe it. I believe just the contrary. For all the evil in the world is owing to Him. I can ascribe it to no other cause. I cannot blame that cur for barking orbiting; it is his nature; and he did not make himself. I feel wrong tempers in myself; but that is not my fault; for I cannot help it. It is my nature; and I could not prevent my having this nature, neither can I change it.” 7. The Assembly of Divines, who met at Westminster in the last century, express very nearly the same sentiment, though placed in a different light. They speak to this effect: “Whatever happens in time, was unchangeably determined from all eternity. God ordained or ever the world was made, all the things that should come to pass therein. The greatest and the smallest events were equally predetermined; in particular, all the thoughts, all the words, all the actions of every child of man; all that every man thinks, or speaks, or does, from his birth, till his spirit returns to God that gave it. It follows, that no man can do either more or less good, or more or less evil, than he does. None can think, speak, or act any otherwise than he does, not in any the smallest circumstance. In all he is bound by an invisible, but more than adamantine, chain.