Wesley Corpus

“BUT, to wave for the present the sins and follies of man kind, may we not infer from his miseries alone, that we are degenerate beings, bearing the most evident marks of the displeasure of our Maker?” (Page 863.) “View the histories of mankind; and what is almost all his tory but a description of the wretchedness of men, under the mischiefs they bring upon themselves, and the judgments of the great God? The scenes of happiness and peace are very thin setamong all thenations; and they are ratheratransient glimpse, here and there, than anything solid and durable. But if we look over the universe, what public desolations by plague and famine, by storms and earthquakes, by wars and pestilence! What secret mischiefs reign among men, which pierce and tor ture the soul! What smarting wounds and bruises, what pains and diseases, attack and torment the animal frame!” (Page364.) “Where is the family of seven or eight persons wherein there is not one or more afflicted with some troublesome malady, or tiresome inconvenience? These indeed are often concealed by the persons who suffer them, and by the families where they dwell. But were they all brought together, what hospitals or infirmaries would be able to contain them?” (Page 365.) “What toils and hardships, what inward anxieties and sor rows, disappointments and calamities, are diffused through every age and country ! Do not the rich feel them as well as the poor? Are they not all teazed with their own appetites, which are never satisfied ? And their impetuous passions give them no rest. What keen anguish of mind arises from pride, and envy, and resentment ! What tortures does ambition, or disappointed love, or wild jealousy, infuse into their bosoms Meanwhile the poor, together with inward vexations and corroding maladies of the mind, sustain like wise endless drudgeries in procuring their necessary subsist ence. And how many of them cannot, after all, procure even food to eat and raiment to put on l’’ (Page 366.) “Survey man through every stage. See, first, what a figure he makes, at his entrance into life!