PROPOSITION II, llfi assures us, that he who hath shewn-such exquisite wisdom, even in the formation of his inanimate creatures, and in his disposal and management of them agreeably to those purposes for which they are fitted, will manifest also the same wisdom in governing his intelligent creatures, and bestow those rewards or punishments on them for which they are fitted, agreeable to their tempers, characters and actions. And this is properly called the righteousness or equity of God, or his governing justice. I have been much the longer in this proof of the being of God, in order to introduce the next proposition which ex- presses his nature, and contains the common and general sense of the wordof God. PeoP. II.God is the Creator of all things, the first and the eternal Being, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of Beings, the sovereign Lord and Disposer of all his Works, the righteous Governer of his intellectual Creatures, and the proper Object of their Worship. This description of God is drawn with apparent evidence from the very proof of his being. The same light of nature or reason which tells us that there is a God, does' at the same time tell us what God is : and this being the plainest and the most obvious andeasy way of coming to the knowledge of his exis- tence, these must be the first, the plainest, and the easiest no- tions of godhead or divine nature, that mankind naturally obtains and receives. But since the knowledge pi' God, by the light of reason, is so low, and feeble, and obscure in the greatest part of mankind, he has condescended to reveal both his being and his nature in his written word. This bath been attested with so many divine signs and miracles, as prove it beyond all controversy to be the word of the living God : And in this word of his he bath described his nature in the same manner as the light of reason would describe it ; though in greater perfection, and with fuller assurance. When, therefore, we use the word God properly, absolutely, and without any special limitation ; some of these ideas will naturally come into the mind, and espe- cially those of Almighty, All-wise, the Creator, and the Eternal. Therefore thishas been the common senseof the word inheathen nations, even from all antiquity, and amongst all the thinking part of mankind, who have acknowledged one God only; and this is the general sense of the word God in the scripture, as might be made to appear by many quotations, if it were needful. Hence it will follow, that those persons who make the word God to signify mere authority, dominion, or government, do much diminish the ideaof it; they contract aad narrow the sense
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