Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. By Envy. When we are not as flush and gay, as well spread and sparkling as others, this passion gnaws our Souls; and we become the Executioners to wrack our selves, because God is the Executor of his own pleasure. The foundation of this passion is a quarrel with God; to envy others the enjoyment of their Propriety, is to envy God his right of disposal, and consequently the propriety of his own Goods. 'Tis a mental Theft committed against God, we rob him of his right in our will, and wish; 'tis a Robbery to make our selves equal with God when it is not our due, which is implied. Phil. 2.6. when Christ is said, to think it no Robbery, to be equal with God. We would wrest the Sceptre out of his hand, wish he were not the conductor of the world, and that he would resign his Sovereignty, and the right of the distribution of his own goods to the Caprices of our humour, and ask our leave to what Subjects he should dispense his favours. All Envy, is either a tacit accusation of God as an usurper, and assuming a right to dispose of that, which doth not belong to him, and so it is a denial of his propriety; or else charges him with a blind or unjust distribution, and so it is a bespattering his wisdom and righteousness. When God doth punish envy, he vindicates his own Sovereignty, as though this passion chiefly endeavoured to blast this perfection. Ezek. 25.11, 12. As I live saith the Lord, I will do according to thy anger, and according to thy envy, and thou shall know that I am the Lord. The sin of envy in the Devils was immediately against the Crown of God, and so was the sin of envy in the first man, envying God the sole Prerogative in knowledge above himself. This base humour in Cain at the preference of Abel's sacrifice before his, was the cause that he deprived him of his life. Denying God first his right of choice, and what he should accept, and then invading Gods right of propriety, in usurping a power over the Life and Being of his brother, which solely belonged to God.

1. By Envy. When we are not as flush and gay, as well spread and sparkling as others, this passion gnaws our Souls; and we become the Executioners to wrack our selves, because God is the Executor of his own pleasure. The foundation of this passion is a quarrel with God; to envy others the enjoyment of their Propriety, is to envy God his right of disposal, and consequently the propriety of his own Goods. 'Tis a mental Theft committed against God, we rob him of his right in our will, and wish; 'tis a Robbery to make our selves equal with God when it is not our due, which is implied.