Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. The third Information is this, If God be infinitely good, there can be no just complaint against God, if Men be punished for abusing his Goodness. Man had nothing, nay, it was impossible he could have any thing from infinite Goodness to disoblige him, but to engage him. God never did, nay, never could draw his Sword against Man, till Man had had slighted him, and affronted him by the strength of his own Bounty. 'Tis by this, God doth justify his severest proceedings against Men, and very seldom charges them with any else as the matter of their provocations;^* Therefore will I return, and take away my Corn in the time thereof, and my Wine in the season thereof, and will recover my Wool and my Flax. And in Ezek. 16. after he had drawn out a Bill of Complaint against them, and inserted on•y the abuse of his Benefits, as a justification of what he intended to do; He concludes Verse 27. Behold therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thy ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee. When Men suffer, they suffer justly; they were not constrained by any Violence, or forced by any necessity, nor provoked by any ill usage, to turn head against God, but broke the bands of the strongest Obligations, and most tender Allurements. What Man, what Devil can justly blame God for punishing them, after they had been so intolerably bold, as to fly in the face of that Goodness that had obliged them, by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior Creatures, and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first Habitation? Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigour than Devils, since after his unreasonable Revolt, a more express Goodness than that which Created him, hath solicited him to Repentance, Courted him by melting Promises and Expostulations, added undeniable Arguments of Bounty, and drawn out the choicest Treasures of Heaven in the gift of his Son, to prevail over Mens perversity. And yet Man after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an Angel, will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a Devil; and more strongly link himself to the Society of the damned Spirits, wherein by his first Rebellion he had incorporated himself. Who can blame God for vindicating his own Goodness from such desperate contempts, and the extreme ingratitude of Man?^*