Wesley Corpus

Our apprehension is indis tinct, our judgment false, our reasoning wrong in a thousand instances. So it always was; and so it is still, after all the care we can possibly take: Therefore, “our faculties are not a sound and fit for right action as Adam’s were before he sinned.’ “But any man of common understanding might havedressed and kept the garden as well as he.” I can neither affirm no deny this; for we know not how he dressed and kept it. “Nor doth it appear, that in giving names to all the crea. tures, he showed any extraordinary penetration into thei natures; for that the names he gave truly expressed the several qualities of them is a mere fiction, without any foun. dation in Scripture history, or the names of animals in the original Hebrew.” (Page 171.) This is really strange that any man of learning should be so hardy as to affirm this, after the numberless instances which have been produced of Hebrew names expressing the most essential property of each animal. And is this supposition likewise “without any foundation in Scripture history?” What is that? “And the Lord God brought every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, unto Adam, to see what he would call them;” to make proof of his understanding. “And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” (Gen. ii. 19.) Now, whether those names were Hebrew or no, (which you affect to doubt,) can it be supposed that God would have permitted them to stand, if they had not suited the nature of each creature? It is bold therefore to affirm, that “many of his posterity could have given names to them as well as he ; and that therefore this is not a proof that he had any capacity superior to us.” (Page 172.) You proceed: “Surely his eating the forbidden fruit is no evidence of superior abilities.” (Page 173.) And it is no evidence of the contrary; “seeing,” as you yourself observe, “what his special temptation was, we do not know.” There fore, neither do we know whether any of his posterity could have overcome it; much less, that “many of his posterity have over.