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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08803	Several discourses concerning the actual Providence of God. Divided into three parts. The first, treating concerning the notion of it, establshing the doctrine of it, opening the principal acts of it, preservation and government of created beings. With the particular acts, by which it so preserveth and governeth them. The second, concerning the specialities of it, the unseachable things of it, and several observable things in its motions. The third, concerning the dysnoēta, or hard chapters of it, in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence, and to vindicate the justice, wisdom, and holiness of God, with the reasonableness of his dealing in such motions. / By John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5335; ESTC R233164	689,844	860

which then hindered his being revealed and would let until he should be taken away The Roman Empire hindered nor is that hinderance yet taken away 'T is true there is but a stump of that Empire remaining in Germany Spain France England many other great boughs are lop'd off it but most of them kept their Antichristian favour though they changed their temporal Lords and set up for and by themselves as to temporal subjection and dominion You see and hear how fierce the French the Spaniards the Portugals c. the house of Austria are for the Romish Religion 'T is true England hath broke that yoke off its neck so hath Holland the Gospel hath got a great foot in Germany France Denmark Poland Sweden Hungary but yet the Devil hath a large Chappel in most of those places It is the National Religion of France Spain Portugal Italy the Imperial Proper-territories God is fitting the circumstances of the World much to his promised Work of destroying this Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth with the brightness of his coming England is fallen off Holland is fallen off a great part of Switzerland many Cities and Territories in Germany Sweden and Denmark great numbers in France God is by degrees doing his work and a great deal is done within the space of a hundred and fifty years last past for it is no longer since Luther began to shake his Throne but yet the circumstances of the World do not look as if it were like to be a work we should see in our age nor it may be our childrens children Methinks the Scripture looks as if that man of sin should die a natural death not a violent one I mean that that Religion should be loathed out of the World not fought out of it God will consume it with the Spirit of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord I tell you but my judgment that before the fall of Antichrist you must yet see a greater falling off from Popery by the Princes of other Nations and their people The Worlds circumstances do not yet seem fitted to that great Work God may work Miracles in the case but I know no ground we have to expect them I am very confident that Antichrist is in his wane much past his full declining every day and therefore the fears of some that that ridiculous Religion should again over-spread England or Holland or any other reformed Church do not much afflict me I take that for granted that Babylon is falling but when we shall hear that joyful sound Babylon is fallen Babylon is fallen that I cannot tell you but in the general I think we must first see the World otherwise circumstanced than it is 2. By this observation of the motions of Providence you shall also understand much of Gods set time as to shewing mercy to your own particular soul viz. when your bodily or spiritual circumstances are fitted for the desired mercy 1. I say first when your bodily circumstances are fitted to it There is nothing more evident than the dependance of our minds upon our bodies and the influence that some bodily distempers especially have upon our souls and minds now although it be true that God can work miraculously and by light can break through a darkness be it never so thick and ravish a Soul with unspeakable joy and peace though at that time it be yoked to a dark cloudy melancholick disturbed body yet God useth not to work Miracles ordinarily but to move in a more ordinary course of Providence by the use and application of means that are proper so that as it is seldom but God useth the disorders and disturbances of the body to influence and afflict the mind and to be at least an adjuvant cause when he will trouble a Soul so he usually restoreth health and a better constitution of body when he intends to restore peace and quiet and a composure of spirit I say ordinarily he doth so And hence again in the next place 3. We by giving attendance to this Observation may learn our duty in reference to the use of Means so as to use what is proper to its season for there is great wisdom to be used in apportioning means For Example as to the bringing down of Antichrist if Gods time be not come the means are not girding our swords upon our thighs c. I question whether that will ever be a Mean proper to be used in that case but endeavouring by all means possible to loath the World of Popish superstitions and ceremonies and all the idolatry of that Synagogue and of all the cheats they put upon the World and alienate the hearts of people from them So for calling the Jews the means to be used is not inciting them to get into a body and heading them c. but to convince them of their errours to endeavour the sweetning of their spirits the enlightning their minds with the knowledg of the truth of the Gospel and reconciling them to the Christian Religion and shewing them the Examples of an holy life and conversation So in case of particular Souls where the discomposure of the mind is originated in or further advantaged by bodily distempers which is a thing very frequently happening I do not take it to be the duty of a Christian meerly to pray and hear but also to use natural means proper for the abating of these distempers yet not this without Prayer and use of Ordinances both for the blessing of God upon such means and for the further influences of his supernatural grace for God fitteth the circumstances of the person that is to receive the mercy to the desired mercy when he intendeth the bestowing of it as well as the circumstances of the World to the mercy which in his set-time he intendeth for his Church so as I say this observing of this method of Providence duly attended to addeth spiritual Wisdom to a Christian as in discerning of Gods time for mercy so also in directing him to his duty as to proper means to be used by him in the way of his duty in order to the obtaining of the mercy teaching him to know what Israel ought to do what a good Christian ought to do under the circumstances under which God hath brought him 2. By an attendance to this working of Providence you shall understand much of the loving-kindness of the Lord very much of the goodness and love of God to Nations and Churches is seen in this his fitting of the worlds circumstances to his designs before he produceth them as his designs are effected without tumult and bloodshed which otherwise through mens opposition to it would not be avoided With how much bloodshed in all humane probability must the Children of Israel have first came out of Egypt then out of Babylon had not God fitted the circumstances of the world to those designs of his Providence

Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will

the justice and goodness of God and the revelation of his will in Ezech. 18.4 and other Texts This dispensation at first view seemeth not to comport with the justice of God which must give every man his due and recompence to every one according to his work Now the work of the Father is not the work of the Child how then cometh it to be recompensed to the Child much less doth it seem to comport with the goodness of God to visit the iniquity of the Father upon the child and then it seemeth to cross what God hath said Ezech. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye and again Jer. 31.29 30. Every one shall dye for his own iniquity every man that eateth the sowre grape his teeth shall be set on edge But I beseech you observe 1. How ready we are to quarrel with God for what is done every day with men and no man accuseth it of injustice to take away the estates of Children for the treasons of Parents for the debts of Parents c. How ordinarily in war do innocent Children suffer for their Parents yet as to man the law of God is plain Deut. 24.16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the parents every man shall be put to death for his own sin and reason holds much stronger for Gods punishing even with death the sin of the parent upon the child For 1. God can compensate the loss of a temporal life to the child with an eternal life this man cannot do This was Augustines reason 2. God seeth guilt enough in children to justifie his vengeance To man they are innocent yet according to that barbarous custom in war nothing is more ordinary than to take away the lives of children for the fathers faults yet the world doth not much clamour at this 2. The justice of God is sufficiently cleared in this That God never punisheth any for the sin of their correlate in whom there is not personal guilt enough to justifie God in that proceeding Every one in his punishment beareth his own burden though possibly his sin and the sin of his father be punished together 3. Correlates are the goods of their Relations Children are the great portion of Parents so are people the riches and goods of Princes thus Aquinas solveth this difficulty Filii sunt res parentum Thus the learned Rivet saith children have in them aliquid parentis indeed that is something more children are not only the portion and goods of their parents but they are pieces of their parents and their parents are punished in them As David was punished in the death of his first child by Bathsheba Some may say this is something if children were only punished during the life of their parents but how are their parents punished in them when they are dead before vengeance cometh upon the child Answ The fear of it all their life-time is a punishment 2. Is it no punishment to them though dead to have their names blotted out 4. The goodness of God is seen in this That it is a rational means to do good to the parents and parents are often advantaged by the punishment of the children David was so you know If God will say to the child I will punish you and use your punishment to do good to your parents what have we to say to it If we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren as St. John determines certainly if God calls children to it they ought to be willing to lay down their lives for their parents if God impose it upon them Debent parentibus hoc officium saith Augustine Plutarch disputing the justice of the gods he was a Heathen and that his dialect in this particular saith that Physitians use to bleed the arm for a pain in the head and by a parity of reason so excuseth the Divine Justice The Parents have been instruments of giving life to the Children and God giveth Children many advantages for the Parents sake 5. In the mean time if the children be good and holy their afflictions are but fatherly chastisements Their deaths do but remove them to a better life so that they have no wrong not suffering in their souls nor by eternal punishments for the sins of their parents 6. Lastly saith Augustine God by this means doth maintain discipline and keep up his authority and government in states in the world in his Church in particular families Now who shall deny God the liberty of exercising an act of meer Power and Soveraignty if it were no more when by it a discipline and government is kept up in the Universe and by it many greater disorders and wickednesses are prevented Sinners are terrified and the thoughts of the miseries their children may feel for their sins may affright those who would adventure their own skins and necks and souls too I have now done with the Doctrinal part of this Observation I come to the Practical Application of this discourse Vse 1. In the first place this may serve to satisfie us as to the Justice of God in the distribution of some rewards of this life to the worst of men by the rewards of this life I understand riches honours outward prosperity and blessing It is a saying usually imputed to Hierom Omnis Dives est vel injustus vel injusti haeres every rich man is either an unrighteous man or the son of an unrighteous man I do not know but we may say the contrary That every prosperous man is either justus aut haeres justi either himself a good and righteous man or the child of such a one I mean not the immediate child but descended from such a one I will not assert it too universally but shall refer it to your Observation If you see a leud and wicked man growing great rich prospering much in the world observe whether he be not one who like Jehu hath not personally done some eminent service for God so Jehu did so Assyria did so Nebuchadnezzar did he made his Army to do a great service against Tyre 2. If you cannot find that enquire if he were not a descendent from some that had done some such service Jeroboam the Son of Joash Jehu's Grandchild was a naughty man yet the Kingdom of Israel had no such time of prosperity as in his Reign God did not reward any personal vertue in him but he rewarded the service which his Grandfather Jehu had done against the house of Ahab The prosperity therefore of wicked men should not trouble us nor be a temptation to us we should only conclude thus How much more will the Lord reward his faithful servants who worship and serve him in truth and with a perfect heart Vse 2. In the second place This may serve to rectifie the mistakes of those who may be under a temptation to say with David That they have washed their hands in vain and cleansed their hearts

and night in his Temple Had they not been defiled with sin they needed not have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and having their robes so washed they are elevated in the praises of God 4. Finally We may as I said before be assured that God would not suffer so much sin in the world If much sin did not tend much to the glory of God at last Here may be applied all that I said before in the former part of my discourse on this Argument shewing you how the aboundings of sin conduce to the aboundings of grace 1. That grace wherein man is meerly passive and recipient aboundeth by the aboundings of sin The Apostle telleth us that love covereth a multitude of faults the more faults be covered the greater love is discovered God magnifieth grace in abundantly pardoning and there could not be abundant pardoning if there were not abounding sin a multitude of mercies could not be magnified but upon a multitude of Sin The bredth of the robes of Christs righteousness could never have been seen but for the extension of our nakedness it is the height and depth and length and breadth of Sin which maketh all Saints to comprehend what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that we might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.17 18. 2. That grace in the exercise of which we are active is also advantaged by the much Sin which God permitteth Our Saviour telleth us Luke 7. those who have much forgiven will love much and those to whom little is forgiven will love but little It wonderfully aggravates pardoning mercy in the sense of a gracious heart to think how many are grinding at the same Mill of sin that he was formerly imployed in and that he should be taken and they left again we should never fight the good fight so well to the glory of God if we had not many enemies to fight with But I have inlarged far enough in the Doctrinal part of this discourse shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine providence in the sufferance of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners notwithstanding the opposition that sin hath to the honour and glory of God and to the purity and holiness of the Divine being nothing remains as to this discourse but to consider how this may be useful to us Vse 1. In the first place Let me appeal now to the reason of every one that hears me whether God in the sufferance of Sin and sinners doth not act consonantly to the wisdom of the Divine being It is nothing but our ignorance and inconsiderateness that can be any temptation to us to have any derogatory thoughts of God for these motions of his providence God doth all his own works in infinite wisdom and it is in infinite wisdom that he suffereth sinful men to walk in their own ways What though he be an holy God This will indeed conclude that himself cannot be tempted and that he tempteth no man but it will not argue that he may not suffer any one to be tempted that is as the Apostle James expoundeth it drawn away by his own lusts and enticed What though he hath a power to put a period to sin every moment yet certainly God is not obliged to do all that he can do but his power as ours also is is governed as to the exercise of it by his will What though sin dishonoureth God and impeacheth his glory he knoweth how to vindicate himself and to recompense himself as to his glory and that many ways from the sins of men True it is that it is from the lusts and wickedness of sinners hearts that so much sin is committed in the world yet it is also from the sufferance and permission of Divine Providence God being directed by his own infinite wisdom to govern the world in this method and thus to make a difference betwixt Earth and Heaven so to order it that hereby the vessels of wrath may be fitted for destruction and his chosen ones by many tribulations occasioned generally from the sins and sinners suffered in the world may be prepared for the Kingdom of God O the height and depth of Divine wisdom How unsearchable are Divine judgments how are the ways of God past our finding out Vse 2. But in the second place let every one take heed of taking any occasion from this discourse to give himself a liberty to sin This is the Apostles reflexion upon this he foresaw the ill conclusion which corrupt hearts would draw from these premises therefore adds Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid he makes it his business in that Chapter to shew that no gracious justified Soul can do so How saith he can they that are dead to sin live any longer therein So again Rom. 3. v. 7 He foresaw that some would say if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye why then am I judged as a sinner Such thoughts are ready to rise up in our hearts why am I blamed for sinning if God hath glory from my Sns Or why should I be judged as a sinner if the aboundings of sin advantage and make way for the aboundings of grace Surely God ●hen cannot so severely revenge himself upon me for sin To restrain such wild thoughts as these from entring or prevailing in any of your Souls let me offer some few things to your consideration 1. Consider first if any good come by sin to the particular soul that sinneth it must be from the abounding of gra●e Sin doth not of it self or from any particular affection or disposition in it do any soul good God indeed sometimes turns it for good so that a soul may say it is good for me that God suffered me to fall into such a sin Sin in its own nature tendeth to nothing but the ruine and eternal destruction of a Soul it must be from the aboundings of grace if any good come to the soul from sin the aboundings of Divine grace in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin or the aboundings of grace in the infusion of gracious habits by which the soul is made more broken-hearted more humble in the sense of sin more watchful against it for the time to come and careful to avoid all temptations to it The wages of sin is death and the work of sin tendeth to death to debauch and to debase a soul If a sinner getteth to eternal Life it is through the gift of God if by reason of his former sinfulness he now loves God more and be more zealous for God and more afraid to offend God all this is of grace and grace is free Now reason teacheth every man not wilfully to run upon his own ruine in hope that he shall experience the kindness of a friend in such a ruined estate Who will

and therefore publisheth it that men and women might be by the terrors of the Lord persuaded and warned to flee from the wrath that is to come and take heed of having their portion in that place where the worm never dieth and the fire never goeth out yet notwithstanding in defiance of the authority of God and in the contempt of his Law they will go on and take no warning to execute this Law upon them To conclude this Meditation to execute a just Law can be no injustice no cruelty and in God it is necessary to vindicate both his authory and truth This Law of eternal destruction as the punishment of sin considered in its first establishment was a just Law Just because a means to bring many to Heaven because an universal mean and most prudential and almost alone effectual to restrain sin in the world and because it was first a mean to preserve them from the pit who at last through their own choice stubbornness and wilfulness do fall into it It is therefore impossible that it should be any injustice in God to put this Law in execution to punish impenitent and incorrigible sinners with eternal destruction 6. The proportion which Justice is to observe and adjust betwixt a punishment and an enormous sinful act is by no means to be measured by comparing the time or degree of pleasure which the sinner hath had for his sinning or in his sinful act but by comparing the punishment either with the dignity of the person injured and contemned or with the damage done by the offence or with the malice treachery and perfidiousness of the person offending It must be acknowledged that distributive justice is to observe a proportion betwixt the punishment and the nature of the offence And upon this true principle it is that this objection these reasonings of ours against the justice of God in the eternal destruction of sinners do proceed But I say 1. This Proportion is not to be measured either by the time the sinner hath had to commit his sins in or by the degree of pleasure which the sinner hath had in his inordinate sinful actions That 's all which the caviller in this point against Divine Justice hath here to say What proportion is there between the sins of a few years and eternal destruction being tormented in Hell Ten thousand times ten thousand years But who amongst men measureth thus the proportion of any punishment to any kind of offences amongst men The Murtherer hath killed his neighbour the Traytor his Prince his work was done in a small part of an hour it may be very few days were taken up either in the contrivance or execution of his design Doth justice require that the time of these Malefactors Imprisonment or torture in Death should not exceed the time of the contrivance or execution of their sin who ever so judged There is nothing more ordinary in Philosophy than to say that distributive Justice ought to proceed according to Geometrical proportion between persons and things not according to an Arithmetical proportion observed in dealings between man and man The measure then of a sinful action is not to be taken from the duration or continuance of a sinful Act. But 1. From the dignity of the person offended injured and contemned He that murthereth his Prince is punished otherwise and more severely than he who murthereth his equal By Gods Law if the Daughter of the High Priest committed uncleanness she was to be burned Levit. 21.9 So was not every one who was an adulteress but she had defiled her father and therefore was not to dye an ordinary death It is only said he that curseth his father or mother shall dye Levit. 20.9 In our Law If a person murthereth his equal or inferiour he or she shall be hanged they shall dye the ordinary death of malefactors but if the Woman murthereth her Husband the Child his Parent the Servant his Master they shall be burned if the Traytor murthereth his Soveraign he shall be hanged drawn and quartered The injury is done to their superiors Now there is not so great a disproportion betwixt the greatest Emperor and the meanest Villain in the world as there is betwixt the great God of Heaven and Earth and his creature Nor is there so great a disproportion betwixt hanging burning and torturing to death and eternal punishment as there is betwixt an infinite and a finite being Sin taketh an infiniteness from the infiniteness of that God against whom it is committed And so is objective infinitum objectively infinite so as there is no disproportion though the punishment be as they say durative infinita infinite in duration The durative infiniteness of the punishment is adequated to the objective infiniteness of sin 2. Sin is to be measured by the damage it doth to the person injured or to the publick Upon this principle of Reason proceedeth another reason of different punishments He that meerly curseth or speaketh evil of his Prince shall not be punished as he that murthereth him Now sin wrongeth God infinite ways In his Soveraignty The sinner saith God hath no Authority over me no power no right to command me my thoughts are free I will think what I list my tongue is my own I will speak God hath nothing to do with me it wrongeth God in his holiness it says the Laws of God are not holy it wrongeth him in his Omniscience Omnipotence All sufficiency in his Justice in his Wisdom in all his Attributes It were a great work to shew you how many ways sin wrongeth God it is intensive infinitum intensively infinite and therefore a punishment of an infinite extension is but proportioned unto it I pass over the injury done by it to man as not to be compared with this 3. Sin is to be measured by the falshood treachery malice and perfidiousness of the person offending Hence the traytor the rebellious child the bloody wife and servant are more severely punished than others that do the same things to other persons because they violate a trust and shew the greatest treachery and perfidiousness Iniquity takes the greater heinousness from the greatest obligations to the contrary duty Now in all sinning against God there are the greatest failers of faith and duty the greatest abuses of love and goodness imaginable So as if we thus take our measures justice keeps but a due geometrical proportion in the eternal punishment of the momentary sins of sinners for as is the punishment to the offence so is the party offended to the party offending As the punishment is without end infinite whereas the sins were momentary and temporary so the party offended was infinite and the sinner who dared to defie infinite Majesty and disobey an infinitely great and glorious God was but a finite worm As is the injury in sinning to a man so is the vengeance in punishment to the sin Man is a poor pitiful worm but by sin he doth an