Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under, the disorders in Nature, the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests, the trouble he is continually exposed to in the World, which tethers down his Spirit from more generous Employments, shows, that Man is not what he was, when Divine Goodness first Erected him; but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God; and so heinous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand, and makes him lay aside the Blessings, his hand was filled with, to take up the Arms of Vengeance, wherewith to fight against the World. Divine Goodness would have secured his Creatures from any such invasions, and never used those things against Man, which he designed in the first frame for Mans service, were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man, which makes God with-hold his Liberality, and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments. The Consideration of the Divine Goodness, which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity, would to an unbiased Reason, verify the History of those Punishments, settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis, and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation. This instruction naturally flows from the ⟨p. 671⟩Doctrine of Divine Goodness. If God be so good, it is a certain Argument, that Man is fallen from his Original State.

The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under, the disorders in Nature, the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests, the trouble he is continually expos'd to in the World, which tedders down his Spirit from more generous Employments, shews, that Man is not what he was, when Divine Goodness first Erected him; but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God; and so hainous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand, and makes him lay aside the Blessings, his hand was fill'd with, to take up the Arms of Vengeance, wherewith to fight against the World. Divine Goodness would have secur'd his Creatures from any such invasions, and never us'd those things against Man, which he design'd in the first frame for Mans service, were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man, which makes God with-hold his Liberality, and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments. The Consideration of the Divine Goodness, which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity, would to an unbyast Reason, verifie the History of those Punishments, settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis, and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation. This instruction naturally flows from the