Use 3 3. Did God create and make the world? then it's blasphemy and impudency to quarrel and repine at the things which are in the world; This hath been a great Objection with many, If God made the world, why are there any evil or troublesome things in it? How cometh it to be such a miserable wicked world? This made the Manichees hold there were two eternal principles, The one good, from which cometh all good things; The other bad, from which comes all the sins and miseries that are in the world, but you must know that the word world is used divers ways in Scripture, by which this Objection may be answered, Sometimes for the Fabric of the Universe with all the parts thereof, Sometimes for the wickedness that is, in the world, and for wicked men, because they are the greater part of the world: Now if we speak of the world in the latter sense, God did not make it so, Man wilfully sinning made it a wicked world, so that the wickedness of the world is not of God, but by man, as also death and hell is of man, God only inflicts them as just punishments upon ungodly offenders: And thus likewise all the miseries, pains and diseases that are in the world are by sin; The Ground was not cursed to bring forth nothing but briars and thorns till man had sinned; So that the Principles of evil were the Apostate Angels and Apostate man: Otherwise take we the world in an innocent sense, for the Fabric of it, with the Creatures therein, So it is wholly good and of God: Therefore Gen. 1. God is said to look over all that he had made, and they were very good: Every days work was good, when they were put altogether, then they were very good, so that we are not to judge of every particular thing in the world by it self, but in its Harmony and Union, and so the world is like a curious piece of Arras or Tapestry, admirably showing the wisdom of the Creator: Basil thought that before Adam fell the Rose did grow without any pricks, and that there was no enmity between the creatures: The Wolf and the Sheep, the Lion and the Lamb, and the Leopard and the Kid did dwell together, &c. But whether this be so or no is yet disputed: Take heed of saying The ⟨p. 159⟩world might have been better, and this thing or that might have been made more completely, this is to reproach God the Maker of it:
Ʋse 3 3. Did God create and make the world? then it's blasphemy and impudency to quarrell and repine at the things which are in the world; This hath been a great Objection with many, If God made the world, why are there any evil or troublesome things in it? How cometh it to be such a miserable wicked world? This made the Manichees hold there were two eternal principles, The one good, from which cometh all good things; The other bad, from which comes all the sinnes and miseries that are in the world, but you must know that the word world is used divers waies in Scripture, by which this Objection may be answered, Sometimes for the Fabrick of the Universe with all the parts thereof, Sometimes for the wickednesse that is, in the world, and for wicked men, because they are the greater part of the world: Now if we speak of the world in the latter sence, God did not make it so, Man wilfully sinning made it a wicked world, so that the wickednesse of the world is not of God, but by man, as also death and hell is of man, God onely inflicts them as just punishments upon ungodly offenders: And thus likewise all the miseries, pains and diseases that are in the world are by sinne; The Ground was not cursed to bring forth nothing but briars and thorns till man had sinned; So that the Principles of evil were the Apostate Angels and Apostate man: Otherwise take we the world in an innocent sence, for the Fabrick of it, with the Creatures therein, So it is wholly good and of God: Therefore Gen. 1. God is said to look over all that he had made, and they were very good: Every daies work was good, when they were put altogether, then they were very good, so that we are not to judge of every particular thing in the world by it self, but in its Harmony and Union, and so the world is like a curious peice of Arras or Tapestry, admirably shewing the wisedom of the Creator: Basil thought that before Adam fell the Rose did grow without any pricks, and that there was no enmity between the creatures: The Wolf and the Sheep, the Lion and the Lamb, and the Leopard and the Kid did dwell together, &c. But whether this be so or no is yet disputed: Take heed of saying The ⟨p. 159⟩world might have been better, and this thing or that might have been made more compleatly, this is to reproach God the Maker of it:
