• ·2 38 An l7u1nble Enquiry into the InfiniteWifdom ofGod. them to be exceeding, goo.d, immediately dn the en,trance of fin, pronouncecl a curfe on the whole Eartb, and all things con, tained therein. · To fuffer this DifoYder to continue uhrecHfied, was nGt · conftfient :with the Wifdom and Rigliteoufnefs of God. It would malm the King,drJm of God, to be like that of Satan, full ofdarknefs and confufton. Nothing is more neceffary unto the good of the Univerfe, and without which it were better it were annih~lated, than the preferva(ion of the Ho~ nour ofGodin his Gq·vetnment. And this could no otherwife - be done, but by--the Inflittion of ap~;~nifhmentproportionable . _in Jufiice unto :the demerit of fin . Some think this migbt p~ · . done by a free difmij}ion of.fin, or a pailln:g it over w1thouf ' -.. any puniihment at all. But what evidence ihould we · then - have that Good ar1d Evil were not alike, and alm91l:. equal unto God in his Rule, that he doth ·not like fin as well as up– rightnefs ? Nor would this fuppoiition leave any grounds of cxercifing Jufiice among m~n . For if God in his Rule of all things clifmifi the _greate11: fin without any penalty_, inflicted, what reafon hav~ we to , judge that evils among our felves ihoukl at all be punifl1ed ? That therefore be far trmn ·God, that the Righteous fl10uld be as the Wicked,fhall not the Judge ofall the·World do Right ?, . 'Vherefore the Order of Gods Ride /Jeing, broken, ~s it con– fifted in the regular Obedience of the Creature, and diforc!er with confufion being brought therebyinto the Kingdom and Government ~f God; his Righteoufnes as it is the Rdloral Vertue and Power of the Divine Namre, required that his Glory fhould be refrored, by reducing the ftnning Creature . again into order by punifhment. Jufhce therefore mufi .·be anfwered and complied with~l herein, according unto its eternal and unanf\verable Law, in a way fuited unto the Glory, ofGod, or the finning Creature mufl: perifh eternally. · · flercin
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