ì i ò Of god's .gracious Operations on Man's Soul : 'c tnoft extent and height ; Thus the variety becomes more full in the whole cc defign, and thechief deligd is heighmedin its grcareft Glory God in his " Infinite wifdóm fobringeth in this fcene of fin and evil, 'that himfelf is Cr perfedtly pure and good in thecontrivance and condudt of it. Hefetteth cc up a Law, good, holy and fpiritual, but fuch that fin inevitably may take C'occafion from it through the frailty of the fleth and of the creature, to a spring up as an overflowing flood, to difplay it felf over all things in its Pag. 175, 176. " fullest fouleft birth. This Law is to convince us of the frailty and mu- " tability innians primitive flare, 6-c. ( viz, that he is a creature. ) For 'C man is composed of the light of God, and his own proper darknefs ; TheCe "two theSchoolscalltheAt and Potentiality, the form and the matter; "beingandnot being,whichèonftitute every Creature ; The darknefs or cc nothingnefs, which is the Creatures own, is the proper ground of " TheLawcomes and diftinguiflieth the Light from the Darknefs " (fo that to fee fin is to fee that weare Creatures ;) Godwithholds his e Divine prefence,appearances and influencesfrom man, and fo the "darknefs difcovereth it felt in man, and predominateth and caprivateth " him entirely, and becomes hischoice and Lord. ( fo that fin is but an Im erfedt Creature, and the Law to caufe and thew it. ) *. 9. Pag.1 t 3, 154, be. He faith [" Thelmmediate caufe of the firft e' change made in the underftanding at the fall, was the Divine Glory with c' drawing or withholding it felf Darknefs is theprivationof Light Privations have no proper Causes, but accidentalonly.. Thus the Divine cc Glory retiring from theunderstanding; or ceasing to thine in it, is by ac- "eidetic the caule of the darknefs there ; as theSettingor departing of the "Sun is the caufe of Night; which is not a blemish to the Sun, but its "glory, that in its presence are all the beauties and joyes of light, in its " abfence all the difagreeablenefs and melancholies of night and darknefs : "Fag. 115. All evil is from the abfence of God, bc. P. 117. The fault " inman is the deficiency which arifeth from the defedtibility or nothing- "nefs of the Creature, in its fhadowy flare, in the purity of its firft Creation. Pag. r a a. The fall springs from the Harmony of the eter= anal defign in the Divine mind, being comprehended in it as a part of "ir. J i. t o. And yet he makes man Guiltyand unexcu/ertble, and God juft in this ; becaufe [°Guilt is but our being reallybad : And he that cannot de- " ny himfelf to bebad, is unexcufeable : And the opening of this caufeth cc shame And Juflice is toJudge andateall creaturesas they are.] t). r t. Tobe short, he maintaineth, "that man can have no freedom from ee nectffitating predetermination ; If he should it woulderofs the nature of "God, of the creature, of the foul, and the unity and harmony of all cc things ; But that God caufeth all finnegatively as neceffarily, ashe can- "reth darknefs, or any natural privation: But then he doth with a torrent of Rhetorick foPraife Godsdesign in it, and thebeauty and harmony ofall thingsmade up of good and evil, unities, varieties, diverfties and contra- rieties, and fhewerh !o largelythe glory.that cometh to Godby fin, and the good to thetlneverfe, and that it's but &sr narrowness and weakness of fight thatmaketh us take it to be any other than a part of the glory o . 4ie uni- verle, thoughbad in and to the perfon that fsnneth, that I confefs I never found ,my felt moretempted to Love fin, or to ceafe my hatredof it, than by his florid Oratory. ß, 12. And withal',as herefolveth all the ref} of Morality into Phyfical conceptions, fo heCeemeth to judge fuitably of Heil andof Redemption, fup- pofrrtgthat allthis darkneffthat Godbrings on (inners, is but to prepare for their Pag. 177. Fag. 178.
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