Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

And by those good things he supports multitudes of wicked Men, not one or two, but the whole Shoal of them in the World: For he is the Saviour of all Men, i. e. is the Preserver of all Men^*. And as he Created them, when he foresaw they would be wicked, so he provides for them, when he beholds them in their ungodliness. The ingratitude of Men stops not the Current of his Bounty, nor tires his liberal hand; Howsoever unprofitable and injurious Men are to him, he is liberal to them; and his Goodness is the more admirable, by how much the more the unthankfulness of Men is provoking: He sometimes affords to the worst a greater portion of these Earthly Goods; they often swim in Wealth, when others pine away their lives in Poverty. And the Silk-worm yields its bowels to make Purple for Tyrants, while the Oppressed scarce have from the Sheep Wool enough to cover their nakedness; and though he furnish Men with those good things, upon no other account than what Princes do, when they nourish Criminals in a Prison till the time of their Execution, 'tis a Mark of his Goodness. Is it not the kindness of a Prince to treat his Rebels deliciously? To give them the liberty of the Prison, and the enjoyment of the delights of the place, rather than to load their Legs with Fetters, and lodge them in a dark and loathsome Dungeon, till he orders them for their Crime to be conducted to the Scaffold or Gibbet? Since God is thus kind to the vilest Men, whose meanness by reason of Sin is beyond that of any other Creature, as to shoot such rays of Goodness upon them; How unexpressible would be the Expressions of his Goodness, if the Divine Image were as pure and bright upon them, as it was upon Innocent Adam?

And by those good things he supports multitudes of wicked Men, not one or two, but the whole Shoal of them in the World: For he is the Saviour of all Men, i. e. is the Preserver of all Men^*. And as he Created them, when he foresaw they would be wicked, so he provides for them, when he beholds them in their ungodliness. The ingratitude of Men stops not the Current of his Bounty, nor tires his liberal hand; Howsoever unprofitable and injurious Men are to him, he is liberal to them; and his Goodness is the more admirable, by how much the more the unthankfulness of Men is provoking: He sometimes affords to the worst a greater portion of these Earthly Goods; they often swim in Wealth, when others pine away their lives in Poverty. And the Silk-worm yields its bowels to make Purple for Tyrants, while the Oppressed scarce have from the Sheep Wool enough to cover their nakedness; and though he furnish Men with those good things, upon no other account than what Princes do, when they nourish Criminals in a Prison till the time of their Execution, 'tis a Mark of his Goodness. Is it not the kindness of a Prince to treat his Rebels deliciously? To give them the liberty of the Prison, and the enjoyment of the delights of the place, rather than to load their Legs with Fetters, and lodge them in a dark and loathsom Dungeon, till he orders them for their Crime to be conducted to the Scaffold or Gibbet? Since God is thus kind to the vilest Men, whose meaness by reason of Sin is beyond that of any other Creature, as to shoot such rayes of Goodness upon them; How unexpressible would be the Expressions of his Goodness, if the Divine Image were as pure and bright upon them, as it was upon Innocent Adam?