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tural Confequence and juft Punishment of that; and fuch a terrible Punishment it is, as fhould make us afraid of being over-curious in Matters fo far above us.

2. If this does not make us Atheifts, yet it is apt to give us very wrong Notions concerning God, which is a very great Evil, next to Atheifm it felf.

This we know tempted fome Men to affert two Principles, or two Gods, a good and a bad God; for when they obferved fuch a mixture of Good and Evil in the nature of things,they thought it impoffible, that a good God fhould be the Author of fo much Evil as is in this World; and because they could not answer this Difficulty, nor give an account how a good God fhould make and govern the World, and yet there be fo much Evil and Wickedness in it; they concluded that there was a bad God, who was the Author of all the Evil in the World, and a good God of all the Good. But this ftarts a much more unaccountable Difficulty, how a good and a bad God fhould agree together in making and governing the World: For can any thing be more oppofite to each other, than effential Good and effential Evil? They can never agree, and therefore they muft be either equal in Power, or muft destroy each other; if they be equal, neither of them are Omnipotent, for two Omnipotents is a Contradiction; and then neither one nor both could make the World, which is a Work of Omnipotence: At least fince it is impoffible they fhould agree together to make a World; as impoffible, as that effential Goodness fhould confent to any thing that

is Evil; or effential Evil confent to any thing that is good; they muft neceffarily hinder each other in making the World, if their Power were equal; and then the World had never been made. But I fhall not trouble you with the Confutation of this, but only point you to the Source and Origine of this Mischief, which in its Confequence overthrows all Religion.

Others to eafe themselves of thefe Difficulties of reconciling all the Paffages of Providence to God's Wifdom and Juftice, fet them both afide, and refolve all into God's Arbitrary and Sovereign Will and Pleafure; who makes himself, and the advancement of his own Glory his fole end. They lay it down indeed as an agreed Principle, That all that God does, is wife, and good, and juft; but we muft not examine this by Humane Rules and Measures of Goodnefs and Juftice; for God is anabfolute Sovereign, and unaccountable to his Creatures; his Will is the Rule of Juftice, and he wills what is most for his own Glory; he magnifies his Goodness and Grace in a free and arbitrary kindness to fome of his Creatures; and magnifies his Juftice in as free and arbitrary Severities to others: he makes fome Creatures to be Objects of his Love, and others to be the Objects of his Vengeance and Difpleafure: and thus they cut the Knot which they can't unty.

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But this is a greater Difficulty than all the reft, to a confidering man, who would much rather chufe to give no account of the Divine Providence, than to give fo ill an account of the Nature of God: Arbitrary Will and Power is the very worst Notion we can have of God: It deftroys our Love

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to him, and our Hope and Confidence in him, unless we can fancy him as partial to us as we are to our felves; it turns Religion into a superftitious dread of God, or hypocritical Flatteries; destroys the Notions of Good or Evil, or all regard to them, while we think God takes no notice of them himself.

This may fatisfy us, how dangerous it is to be too inquifitive into the Myfteries of Providence, which God hath thought fit to conceal from us; which should make us careful to keep our distance, and humbly to reverence and adore God, and truft his Wisdom beyond our own Understanding of things; and in order to cure this Curiosity, confider,

II. How unreasonable it is to disturb our Minds with fuch Difficulties of Providence, as we cannot anfwer; or to draw any fuch Conclufion from them, as fhall either shake our Faith as to the Being or Providence of God, or corrupt our Notions of him; and there are two things which may fatisfy any man in this:

ift, That there are a great many things which are called Difficulties, which may be very fairly accounted for, and therefore the Difficulty is not in the things, but owing to our want of Underftanding; which is reafon enough to prefume,that thus it may be in other cafes too, fince as mens Knowledge increases, fo the Difficulties of Providence leffen; which should make us never quarrel at Providence, but bewail our own Ignorance, and grow modeft under a fenfe of it.

2dly. That in fuch matters as we can give no account of, there may be plain reafons affigned

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why no Account can be given of them in this World.

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I. As for the firft, it is eafie to give many Inftances of it: There are many things which Mankind greatly complain of, and for which they think themselves very hardly used by God, which upon a true Eftimate of things, confidering the corrupt State of Human Nature, are greatly for the Happiness of the World; and tho' they were inflicted as Punishments by God, yet have an excellent Temperament of Wisdom and Goodness.

This I have formerly fhewed you, as to that Sentence of Death which God pronounced against Mankind, after the Fall of cur firft Parents, Duft thou art, and to Duft thou shalt return; and as to his fhortning the Lives of Men after the Flood; and I fhall now give another Inftance in that Curfe God pronounced upon the Earth for the Sin of Man, to which we owe most of that Pain, and Toil, and Labour, which is under the Sun, and most of the Miseries and Calamities of Human Life: And if in this alfo the Wisdom and Goodness, as well as the Juftice and Severity of God appears, I hope it will convince us how reasonable it is to be modeft in our Cenfures of Providence, and to conclude, that God is equally wife and good in those things which we do not understand..

The Juftice of this is very evident; for when Man, who was the Lord of the Creation had rebelled againft God, it was very juft for God to punish him; and the most proper Punishment which he could inflict on him, next to his own MortaliK

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ty, was to Curfe thofe Creatures which were made for his Ufe and Delight: As God told Adam, when he had eaten the forbidden Fruit, Because thou haft bearkned to the Voice of thy Wife, and eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee,faying, Thou shalt not eat of it: Curfed is the Ground for thy fake; in Sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the Days of thy Life. Thorns alfo and Thistles fhall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the Herb of the Field. In the Sweat of thy Brow shalt thou eat Bread, until thou return to the Ground; for out of it waft thou taken; for Duft thou art, and unto Duft thou shalt return, 3. Gen. 17. For I need not tell you this Curfe upon the Ground was no Punishment to the Ground, which was fenfible of no hurt, but to Man, who was to live upon it; it defaced the Beauty and Glory of the Creation, and entailed a toilfome and painful Life on him; it made his Food lefs wholfome, and more hard to come by: And whereas all Creatures before were in perfect Subjection to Man, according to the grand Character of the Creation, Have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea, and over the Fowl of the Air, and over every living thing that moveth on the Earth, 1. Gen. 28, Now we find by Experience that they have caft off this Yoke, and very often revenge the Quarrel of their Maker upon Apoftate Man. Thus Man fell from the Glory and Happiness of his Nature; and yet if we wifely confider things, we fhall find Excellent Wisdom and Goodness even in this Curfe.

For Man having corrupted himself, the beft State he could be put into, was an induftrious and laborious Life; to force him to work hard to get his Living, and to earn his Bread with the Sweat of

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