I. f^OD is a Being infinitely perfed and good ,•

V T the Supreme, the Original Good,- the Au- thor and Maker of all things; and cannot therefore ^ be fuppofed, either to hate what himfelf hath made, or to have given Being to any thing, withadefign to render it miferable. His Providence and Povver,which made the Subject of the two former Meditations, are in their ownNature andPrimitiveIntention,calculated for the Benefit and Security of his Creatures. And, if at any time they become the Inftruments or Difpenfers of Grief and Pain, this is an Effect purely accidental^ an Operation fo foreign, that it is even extorted from them5and wholly imputable to fome otherCaufe. And this is the Cafe of Mankind; once favoured above all theirFellow-Creatures,and fafe under the Shelter and Smiles of an Almighty Protector ,- But by their own fault deprived of this Defence j left naked and expo- fed to Mifchiefs and Sufferings,- and not only difarm- "ed of their fureft Guard,but in perpetual danger of be- ing deftroy'd, by that very Hand, which was former- ly their Friend and Defender. O wretched Confe- quences of Sin ! that did not only render our firft Pa- rents and all theirPofterity liable to Bodily Death, and all the Difeafes and Pains that lead to it ; but left a fatal Averfenefs to all Good, and a ftrongPropenfion in us to all Evil : By indulging whereof we add our own adual Guilt, to that which our finful Parents had derived down to us; and by Iniquities without num- ber, by wilful, repeated, habitual, and bold Tranf- greffions, do confirm and aggravate this Sentence of 'Death, and arm the Juftice of God againft our felves.
IL
14 %tDitation& ans ^mvtv$