Of the Creaturer, ana the Condttion ~ one and the fame : But the Creature, Ius l'ower to do or act, is one thiPg,and BooK If. himfelf is another: He acts not immediately by himfclf, but by a l'owu air– ~ en him to act; and which is differing froni himfel f , an occident in h m ,bJar differing from himfe!f: Neither is h1mlelf llis own End in adtng ; but Cod, by his Creature , 1s to be Ius End to ael for, and·by whtch he IS to be n1ovtd m acting; and God, that is his End'· is without him, and far above him: And therefore himfelf, With all thefe hts Powers or Faculne•, may faul rer 1n acting when they come to beufed and put forth; there may fome deficiency c me be– tween his Power to ad and his aCl: it felf: as either, a CeiTation to act, (Ior he is but .Agms i11 petmtia) when he ought ; a falling fhort , in not putting forth all its Power to the utmofi; a remtfnefs, a flucknefs , may befall 1t . as in a Line firerched to the utmofi, a wagling way fall out, As paniculatl);, to infiance; Firfi , the Creatures Underftanding may fall into an incogitancy uq– awares, or aNon-advertency, or the want of Coofiderauon; m the twink– ling of an eye it may ~e diverted from a fied fafi ac:t of eying God, _as its trudl good. And though God gwe aiiifiance, accordmg to the due ot Creation, whereby he had Power within himfelf to have kept attentive to God, yet · take what w.ns to be irs own doing, its ac:t thereupon, or dury ; tLcre a Ccf– fatiM might fall out, an unattendency, a tailing in its acting Secondlv, Alfo his Will, whofe voice and office fiill is, Who writ Jbrw us a11y good? And thereupon it is fiedfafily to cleave to God; yet upon a lluz or Hear-1ay , of be– ing put into a better Condition, even a< Gods, lwow111g good and evrl; the Will, to which it is innate to aim at its own good,( thoug:, then ,n fubord,n31i– on to God, it might) did, by as fuddain ddiciencv and rem ifs fiat ion mal<e an hault in his way and tendency towards Happincf1: As one that in the put– ting lorth his hond , unto what is as high above him, as is poflible for him to reach, takes hold by the way of fomething that is lower and fhort, through a finding fome prefent eafe to its motion in reaching unto what is higher; and the lower to fuit his lower and inferiour ayms: And the Will was agog upon it; snd it fell into a tumour of feeking its own excellency: And then rhe Will might, influence the underfianding to take in the Conftdcration, whether there mighr not be fomething in that New propofed way of Happinefs; and the appearance of it was fo r,prefented, as the yielding to the Temptation is plamly put upon this, That the Womnns Undcrfianding was deceived; So the /lpofile in 2 Cor. r r •l· and r Tim. 2. 14• . And this Defed,bility may well be fuppofed, feeing it is granted by di,That there was that difference between the Condition of S•ints and Angels now in Glory, andof .the Angels and Adam in their Creation Efiate; tha& in that of Glory , the manifefiation of God to the Underf'tanding of the Creatures , and the Communication of his Goodnefs to the Will, is {o fuper-abundanrly full, filling them with all the fulnef• of God, that thefe Faculties and Powers are [wallowed up into God. God his being All in All, as it chains up, and unchangeably fixeth tliewhole of the Soul unto him, that it cannot ceafe or fufpend to cleave Immu ably, to him, who is their Incommutable Happinefs, and fo they cannot Sin. And had the Angels (who yet we cannot fay , were in the highefi Heaven of all) fo enjoyed God, they could not have finned. But, the law and meafure both for Angels and Men by Creation,was that God lbould be fo·reprefented to chem,as to give them a power to cleave toGod as their chief– eft Good, as they began to do: yet, in comparifon of the former, in foinferi· our a way of manif~fiation, that as for the Underfianding, in its own ampli– tude, and that variety of Objeds it migl1t meet with, and that might be pre– fented unto it, • room was teli: for a poiiibil rty , in its Creature adivity, to cofi an unhappy glance towards the entertainment of a Confidtration of them. And, that Concurfe was fuch with the Will, as the W•ll was fiill lc.t to a pollibility, to ceafe irs going out from it felf up unto God, who wos w·thout it felf, and to begin to aff•ct fame other Excellency proper unto it felf: ,1nd as that which was fuited unto that lower aim of fdf-love, and felf-excell ency. And the Evidence , that they were fo left, ( befides the evidence the event gives )is, That God applied legal threatnings, Thou Jbe~lt d.1·e th' dnth, which in the life of Glory have no place nor intlucnce; and all rh,s might and did
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