Wesley Corpus

If indeed one or the other can be said to act at all. Properly speaking, it does not : It is purely passive: It is only acted upon by the Creator; and must move in this manner and no other, seeing it cannot resist His will. In like manner, St. Paul did much good: But it was no virtue, if he did not act from choice. And if he was in all things necessitated to think and act, he was not capable of moral goodness. Nero does much evil; murders thousands of men, and sets fire to the city: But it is no fault; he is not capable of moral badness, if he does not act from choice, but necessity. Nay, properly, the man does not act at all : He is only acted upon by the Creator, and must move thus, being irresistibly impelled. For who can resist his will? 2. Again: If all the actions, and passions, and tempers of men are quite independent on their own choice, are governed by a principle exterior to themselves; then none of them is either rewardable or punishable, is either praise or blame worthy. The consequence is undeniable: I cannot praise the sun forwarming, nor blame the stone for wounding me; because neither the sun nor the stone acts from choice, but from neces sity. Therefore, neither does the latter deserve blame, nor the former deserve praise. Neither is the one capable of reward, nor the other of punishment. And if a man does good as necessarily as the sun, he is no more praiseworthy than that; if he does evil as necessarily as the stone, he is no more blame worthy. The dying to save your country is noway rewardable, if you are compelled thereto; and the betraying your country is noway punishable, if you are necessitated to do it. 3. It follows, if there be no such thing as virtue or vice, as moral good or evil, if there be nothing rewardable or punish able in the actions or passions of men, then there can be no judgment to come, and no future rewards and punishments. For might not God as well judge the trees of the wood, or the stones of the field, as man, if man was as totally passive as they? as irresistibly determined to act thus or thus?