First, The working of God is always §Iwith some design of High Providence. He did not create the World and Man by chance, nor as a Seal impresses its Figure without knowing what is stamped. But he works always by Counsel and Election, knowing what he does, and for what End. ⟨p. 8⟩Now the last Period wherein all his Works determine, is his own Glory, that being the chiefest Good. He made great variety of Creatures, and bountiful Provisions for their Happiness, ultimately for his own Pleasure. According to his Wisdom and most free Goodness, he was pleased that the World should not only be filled with material and sensitive Beings, that objectively glorify him, by the reflex of the Divine Perfections appearing in them, but to frame a higher rank of Creatures, wherein the Image of his Excellencies was more conspicuous, and that might actively glorify him, by understanding and magnifying, by loving and obeying Him. And as the several kinds of things have degrees of Excellency, they are subordinate in their use: the simple to the compounded, the dead to the living, the lower Natures to the more Noble. By this we may take an estimate of their Dignity and Order. Now for whom was this vast Fabric raised, and furnished with as many Miracles as Creatures? for whose use were the Lights of Heaven, and the innumerable Forms of lower Beings, Plants, and Beasts on the Earth? If we regard ⟨p. 9⟩their Operations, 'tis evident they were intended for the benefit of Man. He that understands himself, and will not forfeit the Prerogative of the reasonable Nature, must readily acknowledge that the Preservation and Comfort of Man, was their final Rule in the mind of the Creator, and their mutual usefulness to one another is referred to his advantage. He is the Centre of the Universe, wherein the several Orders of visible Beings, as Lines drawn in a Circle, unite. And is Man alone left without an end worthy his excellent Nature? 'Tis not to be conceived without vile Thoughts, even the casting an imputation on the Wisdom of his Maker.
First, The working of God is always §Iwith some design of High Providence. He did not create the World and Man by chance, nor as a Seal impresses its Figure without knowing what is stampt. But he works always by Counsel and Election, knowing what he does, and for what End. ⟨p. 8⟩Now the last Period wherein all his Works determine, is his own Glory, that being the chiefest Good. He made great variety of Creatures, and bountiful Provisions for their Happiness, ultimately for his own Pleasure. According to his Wisdom and most free Goodness, he was pleased that the World should not only be filled with material and sensitive Beings, that objectively glorify him, by the reflex of the Divine Perfections appearing in them, but to frame a higher rank of Creatures, wherein the Image of his Excellencies was more conspicuous, and that might actively glorify him, by understanding and magnifying, by loving and obeying Him. And as the several kinds of things have degrees of Excellency, they are subordinate in their use: the simple to the compounded, the dead to the living, the lower Natures to the more Noble. By this we may take an estimate of their Dignity and Order. Now for whom was this vast Fabrick raised, and furnished with as many Miracles as Creatures? for whose use were the Lights of Heaven, and the innumerable Forms of lower Beings, Plants, and Beasts on the Earth? If we regard ⟨p. 9⟩their Operations, 'tis evident they were intended for the benefit of Man. He that understands himself, and will not forfeit the Prerogative of the reasonable Nature, must readily acknowledg that the Preservation and Comfort of Man, was their final Rule in the mind of the Creator, and their mutual usefulness to one another is referred to his advantage. He is the Center of the Universe, wherein the several Orders of visible Beings, as Lines drawn in a Circle, unite. And is Man alone left without an end worthy his excellent Nature? 'Tis not to be conceived without vile Thoughts, even the casting an imputation on the Wisdom of his Maker.
