Senn XCII. The Goodnefs of . God. 691 It is tietefíary from the very nature of thefe Creatures, that they íhould be paffive and liable to pain : and yet it doth in no wife contradidt either the Wif- dom or Goodnefs Of God to make fuch Creatures, becaufe all there pains are for the mofl part fully recompenfed, by the pleafure there Creatures find in Life; and that they have fuch a pleafure and happinefs in Life, is evident, in that all Creatures, notwithflanding the miferies they endure, are fili fond Of Life, and unwilling to part with it no Creature but Man (who, only bath perverted his Nature) ever feeks the deflrudion of it felt; and lince all brute Creatures are fo loth to go out of Being, we may probably conclude, that if they would delibe- rate, whether they would be or not, they wouldchufe to come into Being, even upon thefe hard conditions. But however that be, this we are Pure of, that they fuffer chiefly from us, and upon our account ; we who are their natural Lords, having depraved our felves firf, are become cruel and tyrannical to them ; nay, the Scripture tells us, that they fuller for our fakes, and that the whole Creation groaneth, and is in bondage for the Sin of Man. And this is not unreafonable, that being made principally for Man, they íhould fuffer upon his account, as a part of his Goods and Eflate ; not as a punishment to them (which under the notion ofpunifbment, they arenot capable of) but as a punishment to him who is the Lord and Owner ofthem, they being by this means become more weak and frail, and lefs ufeful and ferviceable to him for whom they were made ; fo that the Sufferings of the Creatures below us, are in a great meafure to be charged upan us, under whole dominion God bath put them. idly, As for the AfHi&ions and Sufferings whichbefal Men, there are not na- tural and of God's making, but the.refult and fruit of our own doings, the ef= felts and confequences of the ill ufe of our own liberty and free choice ; and God does not willingly fend them upon us, but we wilfully pull them down upon our felves ; For he Both not affili willingly, nor grieve the children of Men, as the Prophet tells us, Lam. 3. 33. Or as it is in the Wifdom of Solomon, Chap. a. I3. God made not death, neither bath he pleafure in the defirutlion of the living ; but Men pull defirutlionupon themfelves, with the works of their own hands. All the Evils that are in the World, are either the Efedsof our own Sin, as Poverty, and Difgrace, Pains, Difeafes, and Death, which are fometimes more immedi- ately infli&ed upon Men, by a vifible Providence and Hand of God, but are ufu- ally brought upon us by our felves, in the natural courfe and order of things ; or they are the Effe&s of other Mens Sins, brought upon us by the Ambition and Covetoufnefs, by the Malice and Cruelty of others ; and thefe Evils, tho' they are procured and caufed by others, yet theyare deferved by our felves ; and tho' they are immediately from the hand of Men, yet we ought to look farther, and confider them, as dire &ed and difpofedby the Providence of God ; as Daviddid when Shimei curled him ; God (faith he) hath bidhim curie David, tho' it im- mediately proceeded fromShimei's infolence and ill-nature. Now upon the fuppofition of Sin, the Evils of Afidion and Suffering are good, becaufe they are of great ufe to us, and ferve to very good ends and pur- pofes. a. As they are the proper Punifhments of Sin. Evil is good to them that do Evil, that is, it is fit and proper, juft and due, Pfal. 107. 17. Fools, becaufe of their tranfgrejion, and becaufe of their iniquities, are afflitled. And it is fit they íhould be fo, crooked to crooked is (freight and right. A rod for the back of Fools, faith Solomon ; and elfewhere, God bath made every thing for that which is ft for it, and the evil day for the wicked Man. idly, As they are the Preventions and Remedies of greater Evils. -Evils of Affli&ion and Suffering are good for wicked Men, to bring them to a fence of their Sin, and to reclaim them from it, and thereby to prevent greater Tempo- ral Evils, and preferve them from Eternal Mifery ; and notonly good to thePer- fon that Puffers but likewife to others, to deter and affright them from the like Sins ; to prevent the contagion of Sin, and to flop the progrefs of Iniquity, up- on which greater Guilt, and worfe Mifchiefs might enfue . and they are good tà Tttta good
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