Chap. 13 sin wrongs the Counsels of God in setting that Order in the world that he has set.
CHAP. XIII.
Sin Wrongs the Counsels of God in Setting that Order in the World that He Has Set.
Thirdly, Thou wrongest the counsels of God in setting that order in the world which he has set. To understand it know this, God in his eternal counsel has set a due order in all his creatures, they walk in an orderly way to fetch about that end that he himself did intend. As a workman that makes a curious work, puts every wheel and piece in a right frame, and due order, that so by that order his art has placed in the work, the work may attain unto that end he made it for: So God has done.
He has made all things by weight and measure in due order. God made all things good, very good, and all that one creature might be serviceable to another; as one wheel to a curious watch is serviceable to another, and all to bring about the end of the workman; so God in his eternal will and Counsel has set all things in that proportion and order that he may fetch about his own end.
But sin is the thing, and the only thing that break the order of God in the world, and strikes at God's Work to break it al to pieces what lies in the sinner.
If we should suppose that all the cunning artificers in the whole nation, nay in all the world, should join together to make a curious work in a curious frame, perhaps they have been seven years in making of it, and at length bring it to perfection, and things be made in that order and exactness, that it is to admiration, so that this work is worth more than can be imagined, because of the curious art and order in this work: But suppose now, one should come, and (through ignorance, much more if knowingly) give it a blow and strike it al to pieces; what a mischievous thing were this?