Centuries of Meditations

42

One thing he saw, which is not commonly discerned, and that is, that God made man a free agent for his own advantage, and left him in the hand of his own counsel, that he might be the more glorious. It is hard, to conceive how much this tended to his satisfaction. For all the things in Heaven and Earth being so beautiful, and made, as it were, on purpose for his own enjoyment; he infinitely admired God’s wisdom, in that it salved his and all men’s exigencies, in which it fully answered his desires. For his desire was that all men should be happy as well as he. And he admired his goodness, which had enjoined no other duty, than what pertained to the more convenient fruition of the world which he had given: and at the marvellous excellency of His love, in committing that duty to the sons of men to be performed freely. For thereby He adventured such a power into the hands of His creatures, which Angels and Cherubims wonder at, and which when it is understood all Eternity will admire the bounty of giving. For He thereby committed to their hands a power to do that which He infinitely hated, which nothing certainly could move Him to entrust them with, but some infinite benefit which might be attained thereby, What that was, if you desire to know, it was the excellency, dignity and exaltation of His creature.