Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of Gods dealings with his Church, as though there were a coldness in Gods affections to his Church, and a ⟨p. 76⟩glowing heat toward• it only in us? Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise, as though we would over-rule and over-persuade God to comply with our humour. We have an ambition to be Gods Tutors and direct him in his Counsels: Who hath been his Counsellor, saith the Apostle? ^*Who ought not to be his Counsellor, saith corrupt nature? Men will find fault with God in what he suffers to be done according to their own minds, when they feel the bitter fruit of it. When Cain had killed his brother, and his Conscience racked him, how saucily and discontentedly doth he answer God, Gen. 4.9. Am I my brothers keeper? Since thou dost own thy self the Rector of the world, thou shouldst have preserved his person from my fury; since thou dost accept his Sacrifice before my Offering, preservation was due as well as acceptance. If this temper be found on earth, no wonder it is lodged in hell. That deplorable person under the sensible stroke of Gods Sovereign justice, would oppose his Nay, to Gods will, Luke 16.30. (And he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent): He would presume to prescribe more effectual means than Moses and the Prophets, to inform men of the danger they incurred by their sensuality: David was displeased, it's said, 2 Sam. 6.8. When the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah; not with Uzzah, who was the object of his pity, but with God who was the inflicter of that punishment.

Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of Gods dealings with his Church, as though there were a coldness in Gods affections to his Church, and a ⟨p. 76⟩glowing heat toward• it only in us? Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise, as though we would over-rule and over-perswade God to comply with our humour. We have an ambition to be Gods Tutors and direct him in his Counsels: Who hath been his Counsellor, saith the Apostle?