Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/281

 sive 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 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 intermixt 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 con