Yet how unwarrantably should we maim the notion of God, if we should conceive of him only, according to one Attribute, secluding the consideration of the rest! How misshapen an Idea should we bear of him in our ⟨p. 54⟩minds! And how would it deform the face of Providence, and spoil the Decorum of his Administrations, if they should be the effects of one single Attribute only, the other having no influence on the affairs of the world! If nothing but Mercy should appear in his dispensations towards sinful man, so that every man might do what were good in his own eyes, without cause of fear to be called to account; If the most dissolute and profane were equally assured of his favour, with those who are most holy, and strictly regular in all their conversation; what would be thought of God and Religion? Or how should we savour the notion of an impure Deity taking pleasure to indulge the wickedness of men? And if Justice alone have the whole management of Affairs, and every act of sin be followed with an act of sudden vengeance, and the whole world become a flaming. Theatre, and all men held in an ⟨p. 55⟩hopeless expectation of fiery indignation, and of judgment without mercy; What would become of that amiable Representation, and the consolatory thoughts we have of God, and of that love and duty which some souls do bear towards him? Or if Power should affect daily to show it self in universal appearances and effects, in changing every hour the shapes of the Terrestrial Creatures, in perpetual quick innovations of the courses of the Celestial, with a thousand more kinds of prodigious events that might be the hourly effects of unlimited power; How were the order of the World disturbed, and how unlovely an Idea would it beget in every intelligent Creature, of him that made and rules it? Yet is it from no defect of Mercy, that all men are not equally favoured and blessed of God; nor of Justice, that a speedy vengeance is not taken on all; nor of Power, that the World is ⟨p. 56⟩not filled with astonishing wonders every day; but rather from their unexcessiveness; and that they make that blessed temperature where they reside, and are exercised in so exact proportion, that nothing is ever done unworthy of Him who is, at once, both perfectly Merciful, and Just, and Powerful, and Wise, and hath all Perfections eminently comprehended and united in His own most simple Being.
Yet how unwarrantably should we maim the notion of God, if we should conceive of him only, according to one Attribute, secluding the consideration of the rest! How mishapen an Idea should we bear of him in our ⟨p. 54⟩minds! And how would it deform the face of Providence, and spoil the Decorum of his Administrations, if they should be the effects of one single Attribute only, the other having no influence on the affairs of the world! If nothing but Mercy should appear in his dispensations towards sinful man, so that every man might do what were good in his own eyes, without cause of fear to be called to account; If the most dissolute and prophane were equally assured of his favour, with those who are most holy, and strictly regular in all their conversation; what would be thought of God and Religion? Or how should we savour the notion of an impure Deity taking pleasure to indulge the wickedness of men? And if Justice alone have the whole management of Affairs, and every act of sin be followed with an act of sudden vengeance, and the whole world become a flaming. Theater, and all men held in an ⟨p. 55⟩hopeless expectation of fiery indignation, and of judgment without mercy; What would become of that amiable Representation, and the consolatory thoughts we have of God, and of that love and duty which some souls do bear towards him? Or if Power should affect daily to shew it self in universal appearances and effects, in changing every hour the shapes of the Terrestrial Creatures, in perpetual quick innovations of the courses of the Celestial, with a thousand more kinds of prodigious events that might be the hourly effects of unlimited power; How were the order of the World disturb•d, and how unlovely an Idea would it beget in every intelligent Creature, of him that made and rules it? Yet is it from no defect of Mercy, that all men are not equally favoured and blessed of God; nor of Justice, that a speedy vengeance is not taken on all; nor of Power, that the World is ⟨p. 56⟩not filled with astonishing wonders every day; but rather from their unexcessiveness; and that they make that blessed temperature where they reside, and are exercised in so exact proportion, that nothing is ever done unworthy of Him who is, at once, both perfectly Merciful, and Just, and Powerful, and Wise, and hath all Perfections eminently comprehended and united in His own most simple Being.
