Gods Goodness and Mercy Laid Open

In this Psalm, we have

• 1. A duty, Thankfulness, described from its common nature, Confession.
• 2. Arguments, from the object of our praises, God, considered
  • 1. In himself.
    • 1. In his simple being, Jehovah, verse. 1.
    • 2. In his second being, viz. his properties, reduced to
      • 1. Graciousnes
        • 1. Simply good.
        • 2. Respectiuely merciful.
      • 2. Greatness.
        • 1. Power is his. verse. 2.
        • 2. Dominion is his. v. 3.
  • 2. In his works delivered
    • 1. In general, they are all wonderful. verse. 4.
    • 2. In special.
      • 1. Such as concern the whole world.
        • Creation in the parts thereof. verse. 5 6. 7.
        • Preservation & government. verse. 8.9.
      • 2. Such as concern the Church.
        • 1. In her first Plantation verse. 10-23.
        • 2. In her settled estate, her blessings
          • Privatiue. v. 23.24.
          • Positiue.
          • Earthly. verse. 25.
          • Spiritual. verse. 26.

To the Christian Reader.

Understand, that I was then Summoned to the Cross, when I was not in case, either to Study or to speak; the former straight, (when I could not be excused) forced me to a familiar and easy Text, the later to a brief and short kind of speech, which carried with it an appearance of that, which I ever shunned, Affectation and Obscuritie. It may be, thine Eye will conceive me better then thine Eare, and therefore I yield to importunity, and present myself to thy view, entreating 2. things of thee, 1. Charity, 2. Conscience, Charity towards the Printer, in case some faults (in my absence) escape him: towards me, in case so frequent quotations offend thee: my now practice agrees with my ancient Judgment; at home, my people neither understand nor desire tongues, and human Authorities, and therefore I am sparing, on the other side, when I fall upon an Auditory that conceives and receives both, I use both, as I see my advantage. All is thine if thou canst be content, and wilt add conscience (the second thing) to charity. It grieves my soul to see the guise of many hearers; they desire novelties: when they have heard, they judge the man and his method▪ and then sit down, seldom practicing what is preached. Reader be not such an hearer, lest thou cosen thyself James 1.22. thou here seest, that if thou be of God, and God's goodness, and special mercy shall be thine, thou must be good, and do good, be merciful and show mercy, the times require this, the Lord expects this, our unthankfulness and vnfruitfulnes hath welmost undone us, if we, who have more peace in the State, more preaching in the Church, then any other known Nation under Heaven, be not more fruitful and abundant in goodness, then other people, our light will be turned into darkness, our Sun into blood: what shall I say? or to whom shall I turn myself? we cal til we are hoarse, we speak till we spit forth our lungs, yet will not the Sons of Men hear us, they will not hear, I say (with tears) they will not hear, we can do no good: O Lord persuade Japheth for we cannot, and be merciful to this barren Country: Reader I leave thee, adding to the Martyrs, pray, pray, pray, work, work, work.

GOD'S GOODNES AND MERCIE, LAID OPEN IN A Sermon at Paul's Cross, on the last of June. 1622.

T His Psalm cleeres it self, and therefore a Title needed not, it answers all occasions: and therefore the Arguments are general, it was sung by course, and therefore the burden is still the same: In it we have a Duty pressed, and Arguments pressing: the Duty is thankfulness, delivered from its common nature; Confession: (our praises are but acknowledgments of God's excellencies.) The Arguments are drawn from the Object of our praises, God, considered first in himself; Secondly, in his works: in himself considered, he is apprehended by a first and second Act of our understanding; First, in his most simple being (confess to Jehovah. ) Secondly, in his second being, (to speak as we conceive things) in his properties. These mentioned are, first, Gratiousnesse; Secondly, Greatness; for the first, he is first simply (Good) and then in a respect (Merciful,) for the second, his is Power, he is (God's of God's) God's in the plural, because all powers are his, (God of God's) in an hebrew superlative, because he is far above all God's, whether so reputed or deputed; that great, that strong God, as Moses expounds the phrase. Deut. 10.7. next, Kingdom is his: He is (Lord's of Lord's) in the same sense, that is the Monarch and Emperor, of Princes and States; now if power be his, and Kingdom his, Glory is his also, therefore 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 confess it, saith the Psalmist: this is the first Argument from God's blessed self, the second, from his works, we leave for hast, &c.

Of the Action (Confess,) the Object (Jehovah) something at home. Goodness & Mercy, offer themselves next; and first, Goodness as the more general.

[Doct.] God is good. This point is plain, a principle not needing proof; there be (saith nature in the Philosopher) some confessed goods, of these, God is the chief, nay all these in one, like an absolute pearl, that contains all beauties in it self, no Marcion will deny goodness, where he yields a Godhead, we have therefore said enough for proof, when we have once said what goodness is, and how it is affirmed of God.

[ 1] For the first, Goodness is the perfection of things, for which they are desirable, perfection imports freedom from all defects, and fullness of all excellencies, and is chiefly seen in the being, working, end of things; that which hath the noblest being, and therefore ende, and therefore operations, is ever best and most desirable: Desire is the reaching of the Soul after that that likes us, because it is like us: Now the All-sufficient God is his own Being, his own Act, or rule in Action, yea he is the Author of all good, and ende, & desire (in natural respects) and therefore the perfection of all, and all perfection and goodness.

[ 2] For the second, God is, first, essentially good, good without goodness, (saith Austin ). Creatures be good, but not goodness; their nature is good, but goodness is not their nature, but the nature and substance of God (saith the Christian Philosopher) is goodness, nature and goodness differ not in him, but only in a respect.

Secondly, causally good; not as the form of particular goods, but as the worker of all; the ende, that terminates and perfects all.

Thirdly, (which follows upon the former) eminently good: first, in Order, Nature, Worth; and lastly, originally, and absolutely the only good.

This Doctrine calls more for practice then proof, because as in nature, so here, the sweetest things are most abused, and being abused, prove most dangerous. God is good, let us put it to a good use; [Use] first, for Humbling, see what we were once, good: for of goodness, can come nothing but goodness; secondly What we are now by nature, bad; for first, we are sunk as far from God as Hell is from heaven; he is holy, we profane, he wise, we foolish, he true, we false, he good, we naught. Secondly from this disproportion grows hatred of God's holiness, in his word, worship, people, presence, every way. Thirdly, from this hatred springs love to his Enemies, the World, Flesh▪ Satan. Fourthly from this love a listening to what flesh shall propound, and Satan suggest, and thence a capacity and possibility of being monstrous in life, and blasphemous to the death.

Oh what a piece of ground is man's heart now become wherein no spiritualnes thrives, unless Power it self plant it? wherein, Pride, Murder, Whoredom, Sodomy, Blasphemy, Atheism, either doth or soon may seed? this cursed nature, this renders us as odious, as goodness doth amiable, and this must be seen, if ever we will be saved. Now the glass that detects badness is God's goodness, by his nature and works we see ours, as by the sun we see motes, and filth by light; but God is a light too strong for our sense; True, therefore we must with him (in the story) look for the Sun in the West, not in the East: behold the Lord, as he is reflected and refracted, first in the glass of his creatures, and his works, Secondly, in the face of his dearest Son, so we shall see (at one view) unspeakable beauty, and deformity; that in God, this in us: so way and overture will be made for that first, second, and third of Christianity, true humility: so God's goodness will be admired; man's wickedness abhorred all the errors of the times, and incongruities of action will be soon resolved into their first principle, estrangement from, and distrust in this goodness of God.

[ 2] Secondly, see what we should be, good, goodness is even admirable, and therefore (saith the Philosopher) imitable. Now the 119. Psal. verse. 68. tells us, that God is good, and duth good, and he is our Copy and rule.

[ 1] First therefore we must be good, and then do good. first the sap must be good, and then the fruit; for as things be, so they work; the effusion of the sap (the first act of our conversion) is God's act, our will prevents it not, but follows it. The second act (of fructifying) is ours, under God: for when God hath tuned and doth touch us, we do move, and whilst the spirit imbreathes us, we turn about like the Mill: in neither we must be wanting to our selves, but concur, in this as agents, in that as patients, and as our liberty (in external acts) is still some, so must our endeavors be answerable. First we must have the patience to hear (whatsoever wanton wits may talk of the wills virginity or other exemptions of the higher faculties) that in our flesh dwells no spiritual goodness, all our goodness dwells out of our selves in Christ.

Secondly, that it is God's own hand, that slends us from the first, and sets us in the second Adam. And thirdly that he doth this by his own means, & therefore we must tender our selves to his means, waiting till he (who speaks in working, and works in speaking) shall please to speak life into the Soul, by the ear.

Thus are we made trees, being such, we must [ 2] in the second place, bear: and here lies our business, our errand hither, is not to please or preach man, but to call for fruit Mat. 21.34. you are trees in God's vineyard, well planted, fenced, husbanded, what is your fruit? your Land is good, your Law is good, your City good, your Sermons good, what be you? Is your truite none? Hear our blessed Savior, every Tree, every Man, House, Citty, Nation, that bears not fruit, is for the fire: Is your fruit bad? Hear again, a good Tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, and the ground that brings forth briers after showers must be burnt. Heb. 6.8. You have received the rain of Heaven, and must be as the rain and dew, Mic. 5.7. else the curse is near. Is your goodness only Moral? hear your Savior, Every branch that bears not fruit in me, he takes away. John. 15.2. Your works must be the works of God, wrought from God, for God, in God, according to God, else they are but shining sins. Is your goodness spiritual? hear again, unless a man abide in me he is cast out, cast into the fire and burnt, John 15.6. Behold, if another should cry fire, fire, fire, thus in your streets, you would be all awakened; our blessed Savior cries fire, if your fruit be none, fire, if bad, fire, if not spiritual, fire, if not lasting.

Oh be afraid of this consuming fire, and as you hear the words, so do the works of God. Religion, (we must know) is not a name, goodness a word, it is active like fire, communicative like light, as the life of things stands in goodness, so the life of goodness in action. The chiefest goods are most active, the best good a mere Act, & the more good we do, the more god-like and excellent we be; what is the excellency of meats? goodness, what of wines? goodness, what of grounds? goodness, what of all? goodness: what is man's comfort in life? what in death? what after? whatever? goodness. This is the man, the whole man, no crown to this in life, no comfort to this in death, no tomb to this after death, no gain to this in the day of accounts. Well done good servant, enter into thy masters joy. Glory, and honor, and peace, is to every worker of goodness, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, rich or poor, wise or simple, weak or strong; if a worker of righteousness, he is accepted, assisted, rewarded, therefore work.

Now as you must be pressed to, and rich in every good work, so chiefly in the best, for kind or use, that is, good spiritual, and common, for the first, as spiritual gifts, so acts are most desirable. Man never lives till the life of God live in him, and all that he doth be either a spiritual act, or (at least) spiritually acted, holiness must be written ( Zechariah tells us) upon our bridles, when we war; upon our cups, when we drink: In short, the kingdom of God, must first be sought and set up in us and ours; and, what we may, advanced among others, in the means of it and maintenance for it. And here the rich may join in one both these goods (spiritual and common) some Churches (you see) want men, some men Churches and means, I blush, I bleed to speak it, able men are ready to hire out themselves for bread, and excellent wits hang the head, for want of watering, gasping like fishes out of the water, being out of all, both means and hopes; if there be any true blood yet running in your veins, you that can feed Birds and Dogs, starve not Grace and Learning. Children might be Scholars, Scholars Preachers, Preachers Savior's, and that of Thousands did not dogs eat the Children's bread.

Secondly, you must aim at the common good, for that is still the greatest good; and here two rules, first, if you will be for the public, you must be good in private: bear your own fruit, work in your own hines, man your own oars, and make good your own standing. Happy is that body, wherein the eye sees, the ear hears, the liver sanguifies &c. Happy that house, wherein the Master rules, the man runs, the head leads, and the body follows; Happy that State, wherein the Cobbler meddles with his last, the Tradesman with his shop, the Student with his book, the Counselor with State, the Prince with the Scepter, and each Creature lives in his own Element; but woe be to the Heathens army, when all will be Captains, and none Soldiers, woe to that body that will be all head; members misplaced are neither for use nor ease.

Secondly, we must shoot at the common white, that is, though you be private in your standings, yet you must be public in your affections, and intendements.

For the first; as King Richard bestowed himself diversely, at his death, so must we in life; Bohemia claims a part in our love, the Palatinate a part, the Churches abroad, our Brethren at home, a part: at home, in selling we must be buyers, in lending borrowers, in visiting patients, in comforting mourners; abroad, we must in our own peace consider their wars, feel them panting, see them bleeding, hear them scriching; O husband, O wife, O my child, my child, O mother, mother, mother, my father is slain, my brother is torn, my leg is off, my guts be out, half dead, half alive, worse then either, because neither. O that we had hearts to bleed over them, and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

For the second, our thoughts must all meet in the common good, like so many lines in a Center, streams in the Sea; Christ Jesus pleased not himself saith Saint Paul, he died for us, saith Saint John, therefore we must for our brethren; one member will die for all, one heathen for many; if we must die for the common good, must we not live to it? If all must, must not the more public person? Yes you Lawyers (to Instance) must be common blessings, and not seek your own, you must (with Papinian ) reject bad causes, and ripen good, there goes but a pair of Sheares beween a protracting Lawyer and cheating Mountebank, that sets his Client backward and foreward like a man at Chess, and proves a butcher to the silly sheep, which ran to him from the Grasier.

You Land-lords must be common too, if with that Duke you will trust your Tennants with your throat, you must not hurt theirs, you are heads of Towns, the head should care for the least toe, enclosure if it wound not the heart, yet treads it heavy on the toes of a State; force not men by wracking rents, by over laying Commons, and picking quarrels to undo themselves, betray not Towns as Rome did Carthage with a distinction, we will save the Cittic, but destroy the Town: a poor man in his house is like a Snayle in his shell, crush that, and you kill him, say therefore with thyself, my Tennant is a man, not a beast, were he a beast, yet a righteous man is merciful to his beast, a breeding Bird must not have her nest destroyed, a young kidd must not be sod in his mothers milk, what will become of me and mine, if I destroy the nest of breeding Christians, and having chopped them to the pot, seethe old and young in one another's blood?

You Patrones must be for the common good also, prefer many souls to one tenth, when you be to choose a Shepherd; let the question be that of theirs in the Gospel, who is worthy? and the decision, detur digniori; when you present, present not a Prometheus sacrifice, skin and bone without flesh; when you have presented, fear Zacharias' curse against perjury and sacrilege, if perjury dwell in the Parsonage, and robbery in the Manor, the curse of God will pull down both. Lastly, when you have a Prophet, be you Patrones, study his peace, as he doth yours, what Law it may be, after vows to inquire I do not know, sure I am, Solomon saith, it is destruction, destruction of some estates, of many souls; whilst the nurse wants bread the children want milk, so both cry and both are heard, and woe be to him that hath a cry of Souls against him.

Nobles, I know not whether they frequent this place or not, if so, I would entreat them to remember, what the Story saith of some men, that they are Medicinable from top to toe, and such should they be. First, they should heal themselves, because their actions are all exemplary; then their families, by establishing Nebuchadnezzar's order, that no man speak (much less do) anything amiss against the God of Heaven; thirdly, the oppressed and wounded; they should rescue the poor, as did noble Job; plead for them, ride for them, speak to Majesty it self for them, where poverty hath not access. So shall they be common blessings, and prevent the censure of former Ages.

We close this Use with Magistrates and Justices (Itinerant, or others); Saint Paul tells them their errand; it is the common good, and chalkes out their way; they must be terrors and comforts: first, terrors to the evil, else evil-doers will be a terror to them, for sin is impudent and encroaching, as experience hath taught us: bribery will be sometimes bolder then innocence, falsehood then truth; a man that doth more then deliberate of Rebellion (which yet a Tacitus could call Rebellion ), he will embarke himself in actions of State, embroyle Kingdoms, transfer, for his public good, any Crown, speak most basely of anointed Princes, and yet such a man as this will be, near hand, heard as loud from the Barre, as Justice from the Bench; a Gentleman-swearer, drunkard, whore-master, stabber, will soon out-stare a Justice, an Alderman; and a Noble-man's man's man will so amaze Justice (if she take not the more heart) that she is left speechless a long time after. O Job, Phineas, Nehemiah, &c. whats become of your spirit? You would drive sin and sinners into their holes; now they dare the light, and stare Justice in the face, as if they would out-face her: arise (ye living Images of God) cloth yourselves with zeal as with a cloak, put on Justice as a garment, understand, that there is a King in Israel, a God in heaven; and make sin understand, that you have zeal in your hearts, and a sword in your hands.

Secondly, You must be incouragers of goodness; goodness (I say) both spiritual and moral, religion, and righteousness; for Religion, where is zeal comely, if not there? when, if not now, when false zeal blazeth, and true cools? View a zealous Papist (in that name and respect, better then a mere Newter) and he dares tell us to our heads, that our Religion is error, our selves heretics, our end destruction; that one Heaven cannot hold us hereafter, one Church now, that living and dying Lutherans, we shall be certainly damned; if we be not, he will be damned for us: Now if our Faith stand upon better pillars then his, why should not we be as resolute and confident as he? View again the Atheist, and he flieth upon Religion, as a Bird upon the Candle; he disgraces it, and will not you then grace it? He smites it, and will not you defend it? Yes, Religion calls in your sword to her succor, chiefly when she is opposed in her Prophets, they are the men of sorrows; they find the Historian true, that we have lost the names again the Atheist, of things: Darkness is called light, light darkness; the Shepherd is hunted, and the Fox hunts him: Many a man cries out of blasphemy against God and the King, and the blasphemy is but this; Naboth will not part with a piece of his Fleese; many a fearful Bill is framed against a Preacher, when the Enditement should run thus; Bonus vir, sed ideo malus, quia Christianus, at lest Christinuncius. My Fathers, and reverent Judges, open your mouths in the cause of the afflicted; remember, that you owe your Hoods, Gownes, Liues, selves to the Gospel; did not our Ministry awe men's Consciences, nor you, nor the world would be one year elder; should you cease to countenance us in our righteous causes, you should betray your right hand with the left.

Now as Religion brings the greatest good, and therefore must be most respected; so Justice the next, and therefore must be carefully administered. And here we shall not need to mind you of the Orators dust, or the Heathens note, How that many more offend by seeking favor, then offending; it shall suffice to refer your wisdoms to two Scriptures in Job; the first, is Chap. 15. verse. 34 and its this; Fire shall consume the Tabernacles of Bribery: if Bribery (however disguised) get into the house, whether by the master or mistress, or son, or servant God will fire it out, or fire the house over it. The second, is Chap. 13. verse. 10. He will surely reprove you, if you secretly accept persons. Carry it never so smoothly, yet if under-hand, you prefer a Laic to a Churchman, a Lord to a Plough-man, a kinsman to a stranger, a Courtier to a peasant, and take away the righteousness of the innocent, God will certainly reprove you, chide, smite, curse you for it, and so set it on, as no man shall be able to take it off; that God that will not suffer you to be partial for the poor, for himself, will never brook other warpings, and partialities: Oh, then look upward, pervse your Oth, deal equally between party and party, plea and plea; and if you will needs hear any in private, hear the poor man speak, whose counsel dares not speak (sometimes) in public; and if you will hasten any hence, hasten him who languisheth, whilst head and body stand a hundred miles a-sunder. And when you ride circuit, I beseech you remember, that you ride circuit, not post, take time to hear poor men's grievances yourselves, lest in a Reference, you leave the Hare in the Hunts-man's-hands, and the Commissioner deputed, umpire the matter, as once they did at Rome, between Neighbors; the ground is neither the Plaintifs nor Defendants, it is the Judges. To wind up all, nor you, nor we of the Ministry (to whom I had more to say if the place suited) nor any present, have done the good we should; let us say for the time past, That we have been unprofitable servants; and henceforward, resolve with the Church, of old; Not to talk, but to live.

The main dispatched, we would speak the rest, if we could, with one breath. Is God good? Then love him; for, Goodness is the object of love: now love is a desire of union, it unites us to God, by conforming and transforming us, so that then our love shall appear to be true, when out of a desire to be made one with God, we conform to his ordinances, and be transformed into his image.

Again, is God good? then let him be justified, and every mouth stopped; we instance.

First, sins are committed; Do me make God a cause of it? What as much as man? What more then man? What more then Satan? O blasphemy! O impudency! Did it ever come into any of our hearts so to think? No, no, we yield that sin cannot comport with a glorified estate, much less with glory it self: We hold, that God being goodness it self, and All-sufficiency, cannot be a cause, either moral or Physical, of that which is (formally) nothing but deficiency; and if our own words may not be taken in our own cause, let some consult SVAREZ, and their own Schools; others their Arminius, and Verstius, and then tell us, what we say more then they, or they less then we (for substance) about the cause of sin.

Secondly, the world (Christian) is embroiled, yet God is good; in this Confusion he seeth order, and in this double-faced world, the side to Godward is beautiful, when that to-us-ward is deformed.

Thirdly, Disputes arise, touching Reprobation, which trench far upon God's rights; say still, he is good, all that he decrees and does is of himself, and for himself, and therefore best, because from, and for the best.

Lastly, Discontents arise; say still, God is good; the times are hard, yet he is good; men are naught, yet he is good; we have our wants; yet he is good to us, and where can we mend our selves? Were we in France, in Bohemia, in Polonia; nay, were we not Christians but Heathens, not men but beasts, not beasts, but ghosts in hell, twere duty to say, God is good (for where power, justice, wisdom are, there goodness is) and if goodness must be acknowledged there, must it not in England, the face of Europe; in London, the eye of England? Behold, the Creatures refreshed with GOD'S goodness triumph; the Fields laugh; the Corn sings; the Birds chirp; the Beasts skip; yea, (saith the Heathen) we love to hear them sing, not howl, not roar, not bellow; and shall we (in the midst of their rejoicing) whine and cry? Doubtless, what ever the times be, or our estates be, God is good; and goodness is excellent, and excellency challengeth honor, therefore do the LORD right. How ever it be (saith the Prophet) God is good to Israel; Let the Israel of God taste it, relish it, confess it, live in the strength of it, die in the sense of it, and ever continue in the fear of Goodness, as Hosea speaks, Cap. 3. vlt.

Thus far of Goodness.