1.

that left God himself fhould thereby Ibid. alfo difplease him. Et quia non audebat anima mea ut ei difpliceret Deus meus, nolebat effe tuum quicquid ei difplicebat, & inde ierat in Opinionem duarum fubftantiarum, &c. But now if the Creature as fuch did imply any natural faultinefs in it, then 'tis certain that all the Creatures would partake of it, all that God has made or can ever make; nor could any of them have been perfect in their kinds; and then St. Austin would have been very favourable as to his Cenfure in finding fault only with Some of them.

3. It must therefore be acknowledged that Creature as Creature, implies no faultinefs in, it whether Natural or Moral, and confequently that fo far it can be no competent reason why a Man fhould be Humble, or take up a mean Opinion of himself, to confider himfelf under the Notion of a Creature. But ftill, though a Creature as fuch, implies no Faultinefs, becaufe God can make nothing that is truly Faulty, yet it befpeaks Imperfetion at large. It is not only capable of it, but formally imports it. Not indeed in a privative fenfe, as if the Creatures wanted any Perfection that belonged to them to have, for then they would not be perfect in their respective kinds, and fo properly faulty, as not being conformable to their Ideas; but in a Negative fenfe, that is, that though they

are

are perfect in their measure and order, yet abfolutely, and upon the whole, they are imperfect, there being a world of Perfection which they have not, though they have what their Nature requires, as appears by comparing them with the abfolutely perfect Author of their Being, between whom and them the diftance is fo great, and the disproportion fo unmeasurably vaft, that they are as nothing in comparison of him. Mine Age is even as nothing in respect of thee, Pfal. 39. So that there is deficiency enough in the very notion of a Creature, to furnish us with a great many humbling Confiderations. Ifhall touch upon a few of them.

4. First then a Creature is a Contingent Being, that is, a Being that might not have been, or that was not at all neceffary to be, as having no Principle or Foundation for that neceffity, either in its felf, or in its Caufe. Not in it felf, even by the very Suppofition. For by a Creature, we understand fomething that is produced out of nothing, fomething now in being that once was not. But if it had in it felf any Principle of neceffary. Existence, then it would always be, fince what neceffa rily is, always is, and fo could never from not Being pafs into Being, contrary to what the very Notion of a Creature fuppofes. Not in its Caufe, and that even by the Suppofition of that Caufe. For as the Creature is not

perfect enough to exift neceffarily, or of it felf, fo God is too perfect to produce him after that manner. For God is a perfect good to himself, and is perfectly happy in himself, and infinitely fufficient for himself, and fo cannot be under any neceflity to will any thing out of himself, nor confequently to produce any Creature, as having no need of him. Who therefore can have no principle of neceffary Being at all, neither in himself nor in the will of his Creator, and fo is all over Contingent. But now what an humbling, what a debafing Confideration muft this be, for a Man to reflect, any Man, even the greatest Man upon Earth, that with all the Height and Grandeur wherewith he is Born, entring the World as Agrippa and Bernice did the Court of Judicature μετά πολλῆς qalasias with great Pomp, or with all the State and Splendor wherein he Lives, Shines and Flourishes, and with all the Marks and Characters of Honour and Dignity which he wears; in the midst of all his Wealth, all his Power, all his Glory, and if you will, all his Wifdom too, which is more valuable than all the rest; in the midst of all these, I fay, to reflect, that he is ftill one of those Beings that might never have been, known, or heard of. That not only his Quality and Greatness, but even he himself, who is now so distinguish'd by them, might never have

been.

been. That Being was not at all Effential to his Nature, and that that Glorious Being to whom it is, whose very Effence is to be, and whose Name is, I am, had no need of him. So that if the Infinite Power that made him, had not been as Infinite in Goodness too, and fo willing to communicate of his Happiness, he had lain in Silence and Emptinefs, a pure Nothing to all Eternity. For out of that was he taken, and to that, if left to himself, he must return. Which leads me to fomething further Obfervable in a Creature, which is,

Secondly, That as he is a Contingent Being, fuch as might not have been, fo when he is, he is from Nothing. For that's the very notion of Creation, by which we understand a Production of fomething out of nothing. Not as Nothing fignifies the Matter out of which, but only the Term from whence the Production commences. For Creation supposes nothing. Art indeed does, and Nature does too, neither of which can work without fome fort of Materials; but Creation does not, as being a Production of the whole Being, and not a change of it from one manner of Being to another. But now to the whole Being of a thing, nothing can be conceiv'd as Antecedent, but not Being. But then what a sinking dispiriting thought again muft it be for a Man to reflect with himself,

though

though never fo great, and never so proud of his greatnefs, that whatever he is, or however he appears at prefent, he once was not, and had not fo much as a Being in the World, but was made out of Nothing, a State as I may fay fo repugnant to Being,that he needed no lefs than an Infinite Power to make him to be. When we would humble a Man whose Pride we cannot well otherwise Cure, and find too infulting to bear, we commonly mind him of the Bafeness of his Original or Parentage, this being what Men are apt to boast of; and so a touch here is thought to hit Pride in the most sensible part, to prick it in the very Nerve. But now what Original fo mean, fo low, as to be from Nothing! To fay that we are all from Adam, though a levelling Confideration enough for those who value themselves upon the little distinctions of Birth, Quality, or Fortune, is yet nothing to this. For that is only to fay that in the Original our nature is the fame, however we distinguish our felves by Accidental differénces. But then this Original is fomething, and fo we are the fame in fomething. But to fay that we all take our Rife from Nothing, a pure empty Nothing, what can be fo degradingly mean as this? And yet this is the truth of our Condition. Men boaft of their Families and Pedigrees, but they would find little reafon to do fo if they

would