Wesley Corpus

Was it ever in my power to do any good action? Could I ever do any, but by that grace which thou hadst determined not to give me? For doing evil? Lord, did I ever do any, which I was not bound to do by thy own decree? Was there ever a moment when it was in my power, either to do good, or to cease from evil? Didst not thou fix whatever I should do, or not do, or ever I came into the world? And was there ever one hour, from my cradle to my grave, wherein I could act otherwise than I did?” Now, let any man say whose mouth would be stopped, that of the criminal or the Judge. 5. But if, upon this supposition, there can be no judgment to come, and no future rewards or punishments, it likewise follows, that the Scriptures, which assert both, cannot be of divine original. If there be not “a day wherein God will judge the world, by that Man whom he hath appointed;” if the wicked shall not go into eternal punishment, neither the righteous into life eternal; what can we think of that book which so frequently and solemnly affirms all these things? We can no longer maintain, that “all Scripture was given by inspiration of God,” since it is impossible that the God of truth should be the author of palpable falsehoods. So that, whoever asserts the pre-determination of all human actions, a doctrine totally inconsistent with the scriptural doctrines of a future judgment, heaven and hell, strikes hereby at the very foundation of Scripture, which must necessarily stand or fall with them. 6. Such absurdities will naturally and necessarily follow from the scheme of necessity. But Mr. Edwards has found out a most ingenious way of evading this consequence: “I grant,” says that good and sensible man, “if the actions of men were involuntary, the consequence would inevitably follow,-they could not be either good or evil; nor, therefore, could they be the proper object either of reward or punish ment. But here lies the very ground of your mistake; their actions are not involuntary. The actions of men are quite voluntary; the fruit of their own will. They love, they desire, evil things; therefore they commit them. But love and hate, desire and aversion, are only several modes of willing.