John Wesley

“ So far we bear the image of the devil, and tread in his steps. But at the next step we leave Satan behind; we run into an idolatry whereof he is not guilty: I mean, love of the world; which is now as natural to every man, as to love his own will. What is more natural to us than to seek happiness in the creature, instead of the Creator-—to seek that satisfaction in the works of His hands, which can be found in God only? ”

“ By nature ‘God is not in all our thoughts': we leave Him to manage His own affairs, to sit quietly, as we imagine, in heaven, and leave us on earth to manage ours; so that we have no more of the fear of God before our eyes, than of the love of God in our hearts. ”

“ God heals all our Atheism by the knowledge of Himself, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent; by giving us faith, a divine evidence and conviction of God, and of the things of God-in particular, of this important truth, `Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ By repentence and lowliness of heart, the deadly disease of pride is healed ”

“ Nor have Heathens alone, men who are guided in their researches by little more than the dim light of reason, but many likewise of them that bear the name of Christ, and to whom are entrusted the oracles of God, spoken as magnificently concerning the nature of man, as if it were all innocence and perfection. ”

“ We have set up our idols in our hearts; and to these we bow down, and worship them: we worship ourselves, when we pay that honour to ourselves which is due to God only. Therefore, all pride is idolatry; it is ascribing to ourselves what is due to God alone. And although pride was not made for man, yet where is the man that is born without it? Bur hereby we rob God of His unalienable right, and idolatrously usurp His glory.
8. But pride is not the only sort of idolatry which we are all by nature guilty of. Satan has stamped his own image on our heart in self-will also. ”

“ They would have no religion at all: they would have no more knowledge of God than the beast of the field, than the wild ass's colt. Such is natural religion, abstracted from traditional, and from the influences of God's Spirit.
5. And having no knowledge, we can have no love of God: we cannot love Him we know not. Most men talk indeed of loving God, and perhaps imagine they do; at least, few will acknowledge they do not love Him: but the fact is too plain to be denied. No man loves God by nature, any more than he does a stone, or the earth he treads upon. ”

“ I will do my own will and pleasure, independently on that of my Creator. The same does every man born into the world say, and that in a thousand instances; nay, and avow it too, without ever blushing upon the account, without either fear or shame. ”

“ A third symptom of this fatal disease—the love of the world, which is so deeply rooted in our nature- is 'the pride of life`; the desire of praise, of the honour that cometh of men This the greatest admirers of human nature allow to be strictly natural; as natural as the sight, or hearing, or any other of the external senses. And are they ashamed of it, even men of letters, men of refined and improved understanding? ”

“ It is true, as soon as we came to the use of reason, we learned ‘the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made.' From the things that are seen we inferred the existence of an eternal, powerful Being, that is not seen. ”

“ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only continually. -- Gen 6:5
How widely different is this from the fair pictures of human nature which men have drawn In all ages! The writings of many of the ancients abound with gay descriptions of the dignity, of man; whom some of them paint as having all virtue and happiness in his composition, or, at least, entirely in his power, without being beholden to any other being; yea, as self-sufficient, able to live on his own stock, and little inferior to God Himself. ”

“ Now God saw that all this, the whole thereof was evil—— contrary to moral rectitude; contrary to the nature of God, which necessarily includes all good; contrary to the divine will, the eternal standard of good and evil; contrary to the pure, holy image of God, wherein man was originally created, and wherein he stood when God, surveying the works of His hands, saw them all to be very good; contrary to justice, mercy, and truth, and to the essential relations which each man bore to his Creator and his fellow creatures. ”

“ II. Such is the authentic account of the whole race of mankind which He who knoweth what is in man, who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins gas left upon record for our instruction. Such were all men before God brought the flood upon the earth We are, secondly, to inquire, whether they are the same now. ”

“ The Scripture avers, that 'by one man’s disobedience - all men were constituted sinners'; that 'in Adam all died,' spiritually died, lost the life and the image of God; that fallen, sinful Adam then 'begat a son in his own likeness’—nor was it possible he should beget him in any other; for ‘who an bring a clean thing out of an unclean?'—that consequently we, as well as other man, were by nature ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ ‘without hope, without God in the world,` and, therefore, children of wrath'; that every man may say, ‘I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me’ ”

“ We have by nature, not only no love, but no fear of God. It is allowed, indeed, that most men have, sooner or later, a kind senseless, irrational fear, properly called ‘superstition’; though the blundering Epicureans gave it the name of ‘religion.' Yet even this is not natural, but acquired ”

“ What we love we delight in: but no man has naturally any delight in God. In our natural state we cannot conceive how an one should delight in Him. We take no pleasure in Him at all; He is utterly tasteless to us. ”

“ It was above a thousand years after, that God declared by David concerning the children of men, “They are all gone out of the way of truth and holiness; ‘there is none righteous, no, not one.’ And to this bear all the prophets witness, in their several generations. ”

“ The will of God, meantime, is not in his thoughts, is not considered in the least degree; although it be the supreme rule of every intelligent creature, whether in heaven or earth, resulting from the essential, unalterable relation which all creatures bear to their Creator. ”

“ Here not a few persons of strong understanding, as well as extensive learning, have employed their utmost abilities to show, what they termed, 'the fair side of human nature.' And it must be acknowledged, that, if their accounts of him be just, man is still but ‘a little lower than the angels' ”

“ They applaud themselves for their love of applause Yea, eminent Christians, so called, make no difficulty of adopting the saying of the old, vain Heathen, Animi dissoluti est ei nequam negligere quid de se homines sentiant. `Not to regard what men think of us is the mark of a wicked and abandoned mind So that to go calm and unmoved through honour and dishonour through evil report and good report, is with them a sign of one that is, indeed, not fit to live: "away with such a fellow from the earth!" ”

“ The inbred thirst continues fixed in the soul; nay, the more it is indulged, the more it increases, and incites us to follow after another, and yet another object; although we leave every one with an abortive hope, and a deluded expectation. ”

“ These arise either from great, or beautiful, or uncommon objects- if the two former do not coincide with the latter; for perhaps it would appear, upon a diligent inquiry, that neither grand nor beautiful objects please any longer than they are new, that when the novelty of them is over, the greatest part, at least, of the pleasure they give is over; and in the same proportion as they become familiar, the become flat and insipid. ”

“ We read of an ancient king who, being desirous to know what was the natural language of men, in order to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the following experiment: he ordered two infants, as soon as they were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them, where they were brought up without any instruction at all, and without ever hearing a human voice. ”

“ They make very little more bf religion than the famous Mr. Hobbes did of reason. According to him, reason is only ‘a well-ordered train of words’; according to them, religion is only a well-ordered train of words and actions. And they speak consistently with themselves; for if the inside be not full of wickedness, if this be clean already, what remains, but to `cleanse the outside of the cup?" Outward reformation, if their supposition be just, is indeed the one thing needful.
5. But ye have not so learned the oracles of God. ”

“ But as soon as God opens the eyes of their understanding, they see the state they were in before; they are then deeply convinced, that every man living, ' themselves especially, are, by nature, ‘altogether vanity'; that is, folly and ignorance, sin and wickedness.
3. We see, when God opens our eyes, that we were before - without God, or rather, Atheists in the world. ”

“ For who is not easily persuaded to think favourably of himself? Accordingly, writers of this kind are most universally read, admired, applauded. And innumerable are the converts they have made, not only in the gay but the learned world. ”

“ Men indeed talk magnificently, of despising these low pleasures, particularly men of learning and education. They affect to sit loose to the gratification of those appetites wherein they stand on a level with the beasts that perish. ”

“ This, therefore, is the first grand distinguishing point between Heathenism and Christianity. The one acknowledges that many men are infected with many vices, and even born with a proneness to them; but supposes withal, that in some the natural good much overbalances the evil: the other declares that all men are ‘conceived in sin ` and ‘shapen in wickedness’—that hence there is in every man a `carnal mind which is enmity against God ”

“ The man, with all his good breeding, and other accomplishments, has no pre-eminence over the goat: nay, it is much to be doubted, whether the beast has not the pre-eminence over him. Certainly he has, if we may hearken to one of their modern oracles, who very decently tell us. ”

“ And, first, from hence we may learn one grand fundamental difference between Christianity, considered as a system of doctrines, and the most refined Heathenism. Many of the ancient Heathens have largely described the vices of particular men. They have spoken much against their covetousness, or cruelty ”

“ Hence we may, secondly, learn, that all who deny this, call it ‘original sin,’ or by any other title, are but Heathens still, in the fundamental point which differences Heathenism from Christianity. They may, indeed, allow, that men have many vices; that some are born with us; and that, consequently, we are not born altogether so wise or so virtuous as we should be ”

“ But it is mere affectation! for every man is conscious to himsel£ that in this respect he is, by nature, a very beast. Sensual appetites, even those of the lowest kind, have, more or less, the dominion over him. ”

“ So that it is now quite ` unfashionable to talk otherwise, to say anything to the disparagement of human nature; which is generally allowed, notwithstanding a few infirmities, to be very innocent, and wise, and virtuous! ”

“ So long as a man born blind continues so, he is scarce sensible of his want: much less, could we suppose a place where all were born without sight, would they be sensible of the want of it. ln like manner, so long as men remain in their natural blindness of understanding, they are not sensible of their spiritual wants, and of this in particular. ”