264 The Living Temple. Part H. now, thegreat Lord, and Rider of the World, owes his own Creatures no- thing : He is, by his Goodnefs, incli- ned to take care of them, andpreferve i Jinmon Order among them ; but not owing them any thing, (except, by his own Word, he makes himfelf a Deb- for) he cannot'be laid to wrong the Com- munity., by not providing that Pnnith- mente be inflicted upon Delinquents according to demerit. What he can be undertiood, criginally, to owe here- in, he owes only to himfelf: Whence, allo, the Notion of Alike, which we herein attribute to him, feems very dif- frent from that which belongs to Hu- mane Governments ; which, thoùgh it allows not the dilpofal of anotber's Right to his Prejudice, forbids not the remitting of one's own. Whereas, therefore, a thingmay be laid juft; in a two-fold Sente; either negative, as 'ti s that which juJiice does not difipprove cr pofitive, as that whereto allo juftice doth oblige: 'Tis hereupon a Quefion of great Moment, Whether God's Will topuni(1) Sinners, an= lecedent to his legal Confitution to that pirpoI, werejunk in theformer Senfe ow.; I. t. l
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