Wesley Collected Works Vol 9
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-wesley-collected-works-vol-9-414 |
| Words | 391 |
“O, by his own choice;
as Seth was righteous.” Well; afterwards, both wicked Cain
and good Seth begat sons and daughters. Now, was it not
just as probable, one should infect his children with goodness,
as the other with wickedness? How came, then, Cain to
transmit vice, any more than Seth to transmit virtue? If
you say, “Seth did transmit virtue; his posterity was vir
tuous until they mixed with the vicious offspring of Cain,”
I answer, (1.) How does that appear? How do you prove
that all the posterity of Seth were virtuous? But, (2.) If
they were, why did not this mixture amend the vicious, rather
than corrupt the virtuous? If our nature is equally inclined
to virtue and vice, vice is no more contagious than virtue. How, then, came it totally to prevail over virtue, so that “all
flesh had corrupted themselves before the Lord?” Con
tagion and infection are nothing to the purpose; seeing they
might propagate good as well as evil. Let us go one step farther: Eight persons only were saved
from the general deluge. We have reason to believe that
four, at least, of these were persons truly virtuous. How then came vice to have a majority again among the
new inhabitants of the earth ? Had the nature of man been
inclined to neither, virtue must certainly have had as many
votaries as vice. Nay, suppose man a reasonable creature,
and supposing virtue to be agreeable to the highest reason,
according to all the rules of probability, the majority of man. kind must in every age have been on the side of virtue. 8. Some have reckoned up a large catalogue of the instances
of divine goodness, and would make this as evident a proof
that mankind stands in the favour of God, as all the other
instances are of a universal degeneracy of man, and the anger
of God against them. But it is easy to reply, The goodness
of God may incline him to bestow a thousand bounties upon
criminals; but his justice and goodness will not suffer him to
inflict misery in such a universal manner, where there has
been no sin to deserve it either in parents or children. You answer: “There is more than enough sin among man
kind, to deserve all the sufferings God inflicts upon them.