Wesley Corpus

It consti tutes none of them equally guilty with him. Yet both that sin itself, and a degree of guilt on account of it, are imputed to all his posterity; the sin itself is imputed to them, as included in their head. And on this account, they are reputed guilty, are ‘children of wrath, liable to the threat ened punishment. And this cannot be denied, supposing, (1.) Man’s original righteousness: (2.) Adam’s being the federal head of all mankind.” (Page 6.) “(1.) Man’s original righteousness has been largely proved. Let me add only an argument ad hominem. Supposing (not granting) that the Son of God is no more than the first of creatures, either he was originally righteous, or he was not. If he was not, then time was when he was not ‘the Holy One of God;’ and possibly he never might have been such, no, nor righteous at all; but instead of that, as ungodly, guilty, and wretched, as the devil himself is. For the best creature is (Dr. Taylor grants) alterable for the worst; and the best, when corrupted, becomes the worst. Again: If the Son of God was a mere creature, and as such made without righteousness, (which every creature must be, according to Dr. Taylor,) then he was not, could not be, at first as righteous, as like God, as the holy angels are now, yea, or as any holy man on earth is. But if these suppositions are shockingly absurd; if the Son of God could not have become as bad as the devil; if he never was unrighteous; if he was not originally less holy than angels and men are now; then the assertion, ‘that righteous ness must be the effect of a creature's antecedent choice and endeavour, falls to the ground.” (Pages, 7, 9, 10.) “But the Hebrew word jasher, Dr. Taylor says, “does not generally signify a moral character. This is one of the numer ous critical mistakes in this gentleman’s books. Of the more than one hundred and fifty texts in which jasher, or the sub stantive josher, occurs, there are very few which do not confirm our interpretation of Ecclesiastes vii.29. “But jasher is applied to various things not capable of moral action. It is; and what then? Many of these applications are neither for us, nor against us.