When self-love so far blindeth us, as to make our Interest the Standard to judge of the goodness of God, we do but show that we are fallen from God unto our selves, and that we are setting up our selves above him, and debasing him below our selves: As if we and our Happiness were that ultimate end, and he and his Goodness were the Means, and had no other Goodness but that of a means to us and our felicity! If he made us, he must needs have absolute Propriety in us, and made us for himself: To measure his Goodness by our own Interest, is more unwise than to measure the Sea in our hand, or the Sun and all the Orbs by our span. And to measure it by the Interest of the Universe, 1is to judge of that which is infinite, by that which is finite; betwixt which there is no proportion. As God is infinitely Better than the World, so he is infinitely more Amiable, and therefore must Infinitely more Love himself than all the World; and therefore so to do, is Infinite excellency and Perfection in his Will. But the out-going of his Will to the Creature, by way of causative volition, is free; and conducted by that Wisdom, which-knoweth what is fit, and what degrees of Communication are most eligible to God. ⟨p. 92⟩God is Perfect without his Works: He had wanted nothing if he had never made them. He will not herein do all that he is simply Able to do, but all that his Wisdom seeth fittest to be done. He was as Good before he made the World as since; And those that think he caused it eternally, must confess him in order of Nature to be first perfect in Himself, and to have more Goodness than all which he communicateth to the World. He was as Good before this present generation of men on Earth had any being! He is as good before he bringeth us to the Heavenly Glory, as he will be after;2 though before he did not so much good to us. It is no diminution of his Goodness, to say, that he made millions of Toads, and Flies, and Spiders, whom he could have made men if he had pleased; or to say, that he made millions of Men, whom he could have made Angels; nor that he made not every Clod or Stone a Starr or Sun: nor that he suffereth men to be tormented by each others cruelty, or by such diseases as the Stone and Strangury, Convulsions, Epilepsies, &c. nor that men at last must die, and their bodies rot and turn to dust. That these things are done, is past dispute:
When self-love so far blindeth us, as to make our Interest the Standard to judge of the goodness of God, we do but shew that we are fallen from God unto our selves, and that we are setting up our selves above him, and debasing him below our selves: As if we and our Happiness were that ultimate end, and he and his Goodness were the Means, and had no other Goodness but that of a means to us and our felicity! If he made us, he must needs have absolute Propriety in us, and made us for himself: To measure his Goodness by our own Interest, is more unwise than to measure the Sea in our hand, or the Sun and all the Orbs by our span. And to measure it by the Interest of the Ʋniverse, 1is to judge of that which is infinite, by that which is finite; betwixt which there is no proportion. As God is infinitely Better than the World, so he is infinitely more Amiable, and therefore must Infinitely more Love himself than all the World; and therefore so to do, is Infinite excellency and Perfection in his Will. But the out-going of his Will to the Creature, by way of causative volition, is free; and conducted by that Wisdom, which-knoweth what is fit, and what degrees of Communication are most eligible to God. ⟨p. 92⟩God is Perfect without his Works: He had wanted nothing if he had never made them. He will not herein do all that he is simply Able to do, but all that his Wisdom seeth fittest to be done. He was as Good before he made the World as since; And those that think he caused it eternally, must confess him in order of Nature to be first perfect in Himself, and to have more Goodness than all which he communicateth to the World. He was as Good before this present generation of men on Earth had any being! He is as good before he bringeth us to the Heavenly Glory, as he will be after;2 though before he did not so much good to us. It is no diminution of his Goodness, to say, that he made millions of Toads, and Flies, and Spiders, whom he could have made men if he had pleased; or to say, that he made millions of Men, whom he could have made Angels; nor that he made not every Clod or Stone a Starr or Sun: nor that he suffereth men to be tormented by each others cruelty, or by such diseases as the Stone and Strangury, Convulsions, Epilepsies, &c. nor that men at last must die, and their bodies rot and turn to dust. That these things are done, is past dispute:
- 1Laudandus est is qui mortem oppetit pro Republica, qui doceat patriam esse chariorem nobis, quam nosmetipsos: Estque illa vox inhumana & scelerata corum, qui negant se recusare, quo minus ipsis mortuis terrarum omnium deflagratio consequatur. Cicer. 3▪ de finib.
- 2It was the erroneous reasoning of the Philosophers, to prove the World eternal, that Optimum & Pulchrum, God and the World must be inseparable; and so to conclude the Being of that, which their fancies think best to be; (as Ammonius argueth with Zachar. Mytilen.): whereby they might as well prove (as Zach. telleth Ammon▪ ) that Plato and Aristotle were from eternity, and must never die. It is foolish to reason against sense and experience, or to deny that which is, because we think that it should be otherwise.It was the erroneous reasoning of the Philosophers, to prove the World eternall, that Optimum & Pulchrum, God and the World must be inseparable; and so to conclude the Being of that, which their fancies think best to be; (as Ammonius argueth with Zachar. Mytilen.): whereby they might as well prove (as Zach. telleth Ammon▪ ) that Plato and Aristotle were from eternity, and must never die. It is foolish to reason against sense and experience, or to deny that which is, because we think that it should be otherwise.
