The divine life in three treatises

Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities, yet they are such, as the subject in hand, viz. Gods first causation and Creation, together with the weight of them, and the contentions of the world about them, have made needful.

Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities, yet they are such, as the subject in hand, viz. Gods first causation and Creation, together with the weight of them, and the contentions of the world about them, have made needfull.

3. If God be the Creator and the cause of all, then we must remember that all his works are Good: and therefore nothing must be hated by us that hath he made, considered in its native Goodness. God hateth sin, and so must we: for that he made it not, Rev. 2. 6. Psal. 45. 7. Isa. 1. 14. And he hateth all the works of iniquity as such, Psal. 5. 5. and so must we; but we must Love all of God that is in them, and Love them for it. There is somewhat Good and Amiable in every creature; yea all of it, that is of God. Though Toads and Serpents are odious to us, because they are hurtful and seem deformed in themselves, yet are they Good in themselves, and not deformed as parts of the universe, but Good unto the common end. The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful ⟨p. 83⟩to the motion as the nucks or solid parts. The night is part of the useful order of the creation, as well as the day. The vacant interspace in your writing, is needful as well as the words: Every letter should not be a vowel, nor every character a Capital; Every member should not be a heart or head or eye: Nor should every one in a Commonwealth be a King, or Lord: So in the Creation the parts that seem base, are useful in their places, and good unto their Ends. Let us not therefore vilify or detest the works of God, but study the excellencies of them, and see, and admire, and Love them as they are of God. It is one of the hardest practical points before us, to know how to esteem of all the Creatures, and to use them without running into one extreme. At the same time to Love the world, and not to Love it; to honour it, and despise it: to exalt it, and to tread it under our feet; to mind it, and use it with delight, and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not. And yet a great part of our Christian duty lieth in the doing of this difficult work. As the world is the Devils bait, and the fleshes Idol, set up against God, and would tice us from him, or hinder us in his service, and either be our Carnal end and happiness, or a means thereto, so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it, despise it, neglect it, and tread it under foot; and the labour of our lives to conquer it.