BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibref/wesley/serm_044.txt

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John Wesley


SERMON 44


[text from the 1872 edition]


ORIGINAL SIN

"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 evil
continually."  Gen. 6:5.

1. 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.

2. 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. Accounts of this
kind have particularly abounded in the present century; and perhaps
in no part of the world more than in our own country. 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 he acknowledged, that, if
their accounts of him be just, man is still but "a little lower than
the angels;" or, as the words may be more literally rendered, "a
little less than God."

3. Is it any wonder, that these accounts are very readily received
by the generality of men? 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. So that
it is now quite unfashionable to talk otherwise, to say any thing
to the disparagement of human nature; which is generally allowed,
notwithstanding a few infirmities, to be very innocent, and wise,
and virtuous!

4. But, in the mean time, what must we do with our Bibles?--for
they will never agree with this. These accounts, however pleasing
to flesh and blood, are utterly irreconcilable with the scriptural.
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 can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean?"--that consequently we, as well as other men, 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;" that "there is no difference," in that "all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God," of that glorious image of God wherein
man was originally created. And hence, when "the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men, he saw they were all gone out
of the way; they were altogether become abominable, there was none
righteous, no, not one," none that truly sought after God: Just agreeable
this, to what is declared by the Holy Ghost in the words above recited,
"God saw," when he looked down from heaven before, "that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth;" so great, that "every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

This is God's account of man: From which I shall take occasion, First,
to show what men were before the flood: Secondly, to inquire, whether
they are not the same now: And, Thirdly, to add some inferences.


I. 1. I am, First, by opening the words of the text, to show what
men were before the flood. And we may fully depend on the account
here given: For God saw it, and he cannot be deceived. He "saw that
the wickedness of man was great:"--Not of this or that man; not
of a few men only; not barely of the greater part, but of man in
general; of men universally. The word includes the whole human race,
every partaker of human nature. And it is not easy for us to compute
their numbers, to tell how many thousands and millions they were.
The earth then retained much of its primeval beauty and original
fruitfulness. The face of the globe was not rent and torn as it is
now; and spring and summer went hand in hand. It is therefore probable,
it afforded sustenance for far more inhabitants than it is now capable
of sustaining; and these must be immensely multiplied, while men
begat sons and daughters for seven or eight hundred years together.
Yet, among all this inconceivable number, only "Noah found favour
with God." He alone (perhaps including part of his household) was
an exception from the universal wickedness, which, by the just judgment
of God, in a short time after brought on universal destruction. All
the rest were partakers in the same guilt, as they were in the same
punishment.

2. "God saw all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart;" -
- of his soul, his inward man, the spirit within him, the principle
of all his inward and outward motions. He "saw all the imaginations:
" It is not possible to find a word of a more extensive signification.
It includes whatever is formed, made, fabricated within; all that
is or passes in the soul; every inclination, affection, passion,
appetite; every temper, design, thought. It must of consequence include
every word and action, as naturally flowing from these fountains,
and being either good or evil according to the fountain from which
they severally flow.

3. 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.

4. But was there not good mingled with the evil? Was there not light
intermixed with the darkness? No; none at all: "God saw that the
whole imagination of the heart of man was only evil." It cannot indeed
be denied, but many of them, perhaps all, had good motions put into
their hearts; for the Spirit of God did then also "strive with man,
" if haply he might repent, more especially during that gracious
reprieve, the hundred and twenty years, while the ark was preparing.
But still "in his flesh dwelt no good thing;" all his nature was
purely evil: It was wholly consistent with itself, and unmixed with
anything of an opposite nature.

5. However, it may still be matter of inquiry, "Was there no intermission
of this evil? Were there no lucid intervals, wherein something good
might be found in the heart of man?" We are not here to consider,
what the grace of God might occasionally work in his soul; and, abstracted
from this, we have no reason to believe, there was any intermission
of that evil. For God, who "saw the whole imagination of the thoughts
of his heart to be only evil," saw likewise, that it was always the
same, that it "was only evil continually;" every year, every day,
every hour, every moment. He never deviated into good.

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, hath 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.

1. And this is certain, the Scripture gives us no reason to think
any otherwise of them. On the contrary, all the above cited passages
of Scripture refer to those who lived after the fl