The vanity of this mortal life, or, Of man, considered only in his present…

2. Nor were there (in the case all along supposed) a more probable provision made, to conciliate and procure to the Divine Majesty the love which it is requisite he should have from the children of men.

And this cannot but be thought another apt method for his wisdom to pitch upon, to render his government acceptable, and to engage men to that free and complacential subjection which is suitable to a God. For how can that filial and dutiful affection •ver be the genuine product or impress of such a representation of the case between God and them; that is, that they shall be most indispensably obliged to devote their whole being, and all their powers, entirely to his Service and Interest; exactly to observe his strictest Laws, to keep under the severest restraint their most innate reluctant inclinations; and in the mean time expect the administrations of Providence to be such, towards them, that they shall find harder usage all their days, than his most insolent and irreconcilable Enemies, and at last lose their very Beings they know not how soon; and therewith (necessarily) all possibilities of any future recompense. ⟨p. 62⟩Is this a likely way to procure love, and to captivate hearts into an affectionate and free obedience? Or what is it probable to produce, but a sour and sullen despondency, the extinction of all generous affection, and a temper more agreeable to a forced enthralment to some malignant insulting Genius, than a willing subjection to the God of all Grace and Love?

And this cannot but be thought another apt method for his wisdom to pitch upon, to render his government acceptable, and to engage men to that free and complacential subjection which is suitable to a God. For how can that filial and dutiful affection •ver be the genuine product or impress of such a representation of the case between God and them; that is, that they shall be most indispensably obliged to devote their whole being, and all their powers, entirely to his Service and Interest; exactly to observe his strictest Laws, to keep under the severest restraint their most innate reluctant inclinations; and in the mean time expect the administrations of Providence to be such, towards them, that they shall find harder usage all their days, than his most insolent and irreconcilable Enemies, and at last lose their very Beings they know not how soon; and therewith (necessarily) all possibilities of any future recompence.