Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

They seemed to be fitter Objects of Divine Goodness in regard of the eminency of their Nature above the Humane: One Angel excelled in Endowments of Mind and Spirit, vastness of Understanding, greatness of Power, all the Sons of Men; they were more capable to praise him, more capable to serve him, and because of the Acuteness of their Comprehension more able to have a due Estimate of such a Redemption, had it been afforded them; yet that Goodness which had Created them so Comely, would not lay it self out in restoring the Beauty they had defaced. The Promise was of bruising the Serpents head for us, not of listing up the Serpents head with us; Their Nature was not assumed, nor any command given them to believe or repent: Not one Devil spared, not one Apostate Spirit recovered, not one of those eminent Creatures restored; Every one of them hath only a prospect of Misery without any glimpse of Recovery: They were ruined under one Sin, and we repaired under many. All his Redeeming Goodness was laid out upon Man, Psal. 144.3. What is Man that thou takest knowledge of him, and the Son of Man that thou makest account of him? Making account of him above Angels; As they fell without any tempting them, so God would leave them to rise without any assisting them. I know the Schools trouble themselves to find out the reasons of this peculiarity of Grace to Man, and not to them; because the whole Humane Nature fell, but only a part of the Angelical; The one Sinned by a Seduction, and the other by a sullenness without any Tempter: Every Angel Sinned by his own proper will, whereas Adams Posterity Sinned by the will of the first Man, the common Root of all. God would deprive the Devil of any glory in the satisfaction of his envious desire to hinder Man from attainment and possession of that Happiness which himself had lost. The weakness of Man below the Angelical Nature might excite the Divine Mercy: And since all the things of the lower World were Created for Man, God would not lose the honour of his Works, by losing the immediate End for which he framed them. And finally because in the Restoration of Angels, there would have been only a Restoration of one Nature that was not comprehensive of the Nature of Inferior things: But after all such Conjectures Man must sit down, and acknowledge Divine Goodness to be the only Spring without any other Motive.

They seem'd to be fitter Objects of Divine Goodness in regard of the eminency of their Nature above the Humane: One Angel excelled in Endowments of Mind and Spirit, vastness of Understanding, greatness of Power, all the Sons of Men; they were more capable to praise him, more capable to serve him, and because of the Acuteness of their Comprehension more able to have a due Estimate of such a Redemption, had it been afforded them; yet that Goodness which had Created them so Comely, would not lay it self out in restoring the Beauty they had defaced. The Promise was of bruising the Serpents head for us, not of listing up the Serpents head with us; Their Nature was not assum'd, nor any command given them to believe or repent: Not one Devil spar'd, not one Apostate Spirit recover'd, not one of those eminent Creatures restor'd; Every one of them hath only a prospect of Misery without any glimps of Recovery: They were ruin'd under one Sin, and we repair'd under many. All his Redeeming Goodness was laid out upon Man,