Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. Other things have more reason to complain of our sovereignty over them, than we of God's exercise of his sovereignty over us. Do we not exercise an Authority over our Beasts, as to strike them, when we please, and merely for our pleasure; and think we merit no reproof for it, because they are our own, and of a nature inferior to ours? And shall not God who is absolute, do as much with us, who are more below him, than the meanest Creatures are below us? They are Creatures as well as we, and we no more Creatures than they, they were framed by omnipotence, as well as we; there is no more difference between them and us in the notion of Creatures.

3. Other things have more reason to complain of our soveraignty over them, than we of God's exercise of his soveraignty over us. Do we not exercise an Authority over our Beasts, as to strike them, when we please, and meerly for our pleasure; and think we merit no reproof for it, because they are our own, and of a nature inferior to ours? And shall not God who is absolute, do as much with us, who are more below him, than the meanest Creatures are below us? They are Creatures as well as we, and we no more Creatures than they, they were fram'd by omnipotence, as well as we; there is no more difference between them and us in the notion of Creatures.

As there is no difference between the greatest Monarch on Earth, and the meanest Beggar on the dunghill in the notion of a man: The Beggar is a man, as well as the Monarch, and as much a man; the difference consists in the special Endowments we have above them by the bounty of their and our common Creator. We are less, if compared with God, than the worst, meanest, most sordid Creature can be, if compared with us. Hath not a Bird or a Hare, (if they had a capacity) more reason to complain of mens persecuting them by their Hawks and their Dogs? but would their complaints appear reasonable, since both were made for the use of man, and man doth but use the nature of the one, to attain a benefit by the other? Have we any reason to complain of God, if he lets loose other Creatures, the devouring Hounds of the World, to bite and afflict us? We must not open our lips against him, nor let our heart swell against his scourge, since both they and we were made for his use, as well as other Creatures for ours. This is a reason to stifle all complaints against God, but not to make us careless of preventing afflictions, or emerging out of them by all just ways. The Hare hath a nature to shift for it self by its winding and turning, and the Bird by its flight, and neither of them could be blamed, if they were able, should the one scratch out the Eyes of the Hounds, and the other sacrifice the Hawk to its own fury.