“But if Adam was originally
perfect in Holiness,” (say, perfectly Holy, made in the Moral Image of
God) “what Occasion was there for any farther Trial?” That there might be Room
for farther Holiness and Happiness: Entire Holiness does not exclude Growth:
Nor did the right State of all his Faculties intitle him to that full
Reward, which would have followed the Right Use of them.
“Upon the whole, Regeneration, or
gaining Habits of Holiness, takes in no Part of the Doctrine of Original Sin.”
But Regeneration is not “gaining Habits of Holiness:” It is quite a different
Thing. It is not a Natural, but a Supernatural Change; and is just as different
from the gradual “gaining Habits,” as a Child’s being born into the
World is, from his growing up into a Man. The New Birth is not (as
you suppose) the Progress, or the Whole of Sanctification, but
the Beginning of it: As the natural Birth, is not the Whole of
Life, but only the Entrance upon it. He that is born of a Woman, then
begins to live a natural Life: He that is born of God, then begins to
live a spiritual. And if every Man born of a Woman had spiritual Life
already, he would not need to be born of God. (John Wesley, The Doctrine
of Original Sin: According to Scripture, Reason, and Experience [Bristol: E.
Farley, 1756], 223-24)
