Wesley Corpus

And not only they of riper age, but even those of ten der years, discover the principles of iniquity and seeds of sin. What young ferments of spite and envy, what native wrath and rage, are found in the little hearts of infants, and sufficiently discovered by their hands, and eyes, and countenances, before they can speak, or know good from evil ! What additional crimes of lying and deceit, obstinacy and perverseness proceed to blemish their younger years!” (Pages 39, 41.) “How little knowledge or thought of God, their Creator and Governor, is found in children when they can distinguish good and evil!” (Page 42.) “What an utter disregard of Him that made them, and of the duties they owe to him And when they * These quotations from Juvenal are thus translated by Gifford : “What day so sacred, which no guilt profanes?” ------“Nature still, Incapable of change, and fix’d in ill, Recurs to her old habits:-never yet Could sinner to his sin a period set. When did the flush of modest blood inflame The cheek once harden'd to the sense of shame? Or when the offender, since the birth of time, Retire, contented with a single crime?” “For youth is facile, and its yielding will Receives, with fatal ease, the print of ill.”-EDIT. begin to act according to their childish age, how little sense have they of what is morally right and good How do evil passions or irregular appetites continually prevail in them ! Even from their first capacity of acting as moral creatures, how are they led away to practise falsehood and injury to their play-fellows, perhaps with cruelty or revenge How often are they engaged in bold disobedience to their parents or teachers | And whence does this arise ? What is the root, that brings forth such early bitter fruit?” (Page 43.) “It cannot be imputed to custom, education, or example; for many of these things appear in children before they can take any notice of ill examples, or are capable of imitating them. And even where there are only good examples about them, and where the best and earliest instructions are given them, and inculcated with the utmost care, yet their hearts run astray from God.