Existence and Attributes of God

Propositions to explain the Nature of this Goodness;

1. He is good by his own Essence. God is not only good in his Essence, but good by his Essence: The Essence of every created thing is good, so the unerring God pronounced everything which he had made . The Essence of the worst Creatures, yea, of the impure and Savage Devils is good, but they are not good per essentiam, for then they could not be bad, Malicious, and Oppressive. God is good as he is God, and therefore good by himself, and from himself, not by participation from another; He made everything good, but none made him good: Since his goodness was not received from another, he is good by his own Nature. He could not receive it from the things he Created, they are later than he: Since they received all from him, they could bestow nothing on him, and no God preceded him, in whose Inheritance and Treasures of Goodness, he could be a Successor: He is absolutely his own goodness, he needed none to make him good; but all things needed him, to be good by him. Creatures are good by being made so by him, and cleaving to him: He is good without cleaving to any goodness without him. Goodness is not a Quality in him, but a Nature, not a Habit added to his Essence, but his Essence itself; He is not first God, and then afterwards Good, but he is Good as he is God, his Essence being one and the same, is formally and equally God and Good. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , good of himself, was one of the Names the Platonists gave him. He is Essentially Good in his own Nature, and not by any outward action which follows his Essence. He is an Independent Being, and hath nothing of goodness or happiness from anything without him, or anything he doth act about. If he were not good by his Essence, he could not be Eternally good, he could not be the first good, he would have something before him, from whence he derived that Goodness, wherewith he is possessed; Nor could he be perfectly good, for he could not be equally good to that, from whom he derived his Goodness: No Star, no splendid Body that derives light from the Sun, doth equal that Sun by which it's enlightened.

Hence his goodness must be infinite, and circumscrib'd by no limits: The Exercise of his goodness may be limited by himself, but his Goodness, the Principle, cannot; For since his Essence is Infinite, and his Goodness is not distinguished from his Essence, 'tis Infinite also; If it were limited, it were Finite; he cannot be bounded by anything without him; if so, then he were not God, because he would have something Superior to him, to put bars in his way; If there were anything to fix him, it must be a good or evil Being; Good it cannot be, for it is the property of goodness to encourage goodness, not to bound it; Evil it cannot be, for then it would extinguish goodness, as well as limit it; it would not be content with the circumscribing it, without destroying it; for it is the nature of every Contrary, to endeavor the destruction of its Opposite. He is Essentially good by his own Essence, therefore good of himself, therefore Eternally good, and therefore abundantly good.

2. God is the prime and chief Goodness. Being good per se, and by his own Essence, he must needs be the chief Goodness, in whom there can be nothing but good, from whom there can proceed nothing but good, to whom all good whatsoever must be refer'd as the final cause of all good. As he is the chief Being, so he is the chief Good. And as we rise by steps from the Existence of Created things, to acknowledge one Supreme Being, which is God; so we mount by Steps from the Consideration of the Goodness of Created things, to acknowledge one Infinite Ocean of Sovereign Goodness, whence the Streams of Created Goodness are derived. When we behold things that partake of Goodness from another, we must acquiesce in one that hath Goodness by participation from no other, but Originally from himself, and therefore Supremely in himself above all other things. So that as nothing greater and more Majestick can be imagined, so also nothing Better and more Excellent can be conceived than God. Nothing can add to him, or make him better than he is, nothing can detract from him, to make him worse, nothing can be added to him, nothing can be severed from him; No Created Good can render him more Excellent; No Evil from any Creature, can render him less Excellent. Our goodness extends not to him; Wickedness may hurt a Man, as we are, and our Righteousness may profit the Son of Man, but if we be Righteous, what give we to him, or what receives he at our hands? As he hath no Superior in place above him, so being chief of all, he cannot be made better by any Inferior to him. How can he be made better by any, that hath from himself, all that he hath? The Goodness of a Creature may be changed, but the Goodness of the Creator is immutable; He is always like himself, so Good that he cannot be Evil, as he is so Blessed, that he cannot be Miserable.

Nothing is good but God, because nothing is of itself but God: As all things being from nothing, are nothing in comparison of God, so all things being from nothing, are scanty and evil in comparison of God. If anything had been ex Deo, God being the Matter of it, it had been as good as God is; but since the Principle whence all things were drawn, was nothing, though the Efficient Cause by which they were extracted from nothing was God, they are as nothing in goodness, and not esteemable in comparison of God. Whom have I in Heaven but thee, &c. God is all good, every Creature hath a distinct variety of goodness. God distinctly pronounced every days work in the Creation good. Food communicates the goodness of its Nourishing Virtue to our Bodies, Flowers the goodness of their Odors to our Smell, every Creature a goodness of Comeliness to our Sight; Plants the goodness of Healing Qualities for our Cure. And all derive from themselves a goodness of Knowledge, objectively to our Understandings. The Sun by one sort of goodness warms us, Metals enrich us, living Creatures sustain us, and delight us by another; All those have distinct kinds of Goodness, which are eminently summed up in God, and are all but parts of his Immense Goodness. 'It is he that enlightens us by his Sun, nourisheth us by Bread. 'It is not by Bread alone, that we live, but by the Word of God. 'It is all but his own Supreme Goodness, conveyed to us through those varieties of Conduit-pipes. God is all Good, other things are good in their kind, as a Good Man, a Good Angel, a Good Tree, a Good Plant; but God hath a Good of all kinds eminently in his Nature. He is no less All-good, than he is Almighty, and All-knowing: As the Sun contains in it all the Light, and more Light than is in all the clearest Bodies in the World; so doth God contain in himself all the Good, and more Good than is in the Richest Creatures. Nothing is Good, but as it Resembles him; as nothing is Hot, but as it Resembles Fire, the Prime Subject of Heat.

God is Omnipotent, therefore no Good can be wanting to him. If he were destitute of any which he could not have, he were not Almighty: He is so Good that there is no mixture of anything, which can be called not Good in him; everything besides him wants some Good, which others have. Nothing can be so Evil as God is Good. There can be no Evil, but there is some mixture of Good with it. No Nature so Evil, but there is some spark of Goodness in it: But God is a Good which hath no taint of Evil; nothing can be so Supreme an Evil, as God is Supreme Goodness.

He is only Good without capacity of increase: He is all Good, and unmixedly Good; none Good but God. A Goodness like the Sun, that hath all Light, and no Darkness. That is the second thing, He is the Supreme and chief Goodness.

3. This Goodness is Communicative. None so Communicatively Good as God. As the Notion of God includes Goodness, so the Notion of Goodness includes Diffusiveness; without Goodness he would cease to be a Deity, and without Diffusiveness he would cease to be Good. The being Good is necessary to the being God: For Goodness is nothing else in the Notion of it, but a strong inclination to do Good; either to find, or make an Object, wherein to exercise itself, according to the Propension of its own Nature; And it is an Inclination of Communicating itself, not for its own interest, but the good of the Object it pitcheth upon. Thus God is good by Nature, and his Nature is not without activity, he acts conveniently to his own Nature. Thou art good, and dost good. And nothing accrues to him, by the Communications of himself to others, since his blessedness was as great before the frame of any Creature, as ever it was since the Erecting of the World; so that the Goodness of Christ himself increaseth not the luster of his Happiness: My Goodness extends not to thee. He is not of a Niggardly and Envious Nature; He is too Rich to have any cause to envy, and too Good to have any will to envy: He is as liberal as he is Rich, according to the capacity of the Object about which his Goodness is exercised. The Divine Goodness being the Supreme Goodness, is Goodness in the highest Degree of Activity; Not an idle, enclosed, pent up Goodness, as a Spring shut up, or a Fountain sealed, bubbling up within itself, but bubbling out of itself. A Fountain of Gardens to water every part of his Creation; He is an Ointment pour'd forth: Nothing spreads itself more than Oil, and takes up a larger space, wheresoever it drops. It may be no less said of the Goodness of God, as it is of the fullness of Christ, He fills all in all: He fills Rational Creatures with Understanding, Sensitive Nature with Vigor and Motion, the whole World with Beauty and Sweetness. Every Taste, every Touch of a Creature is a Taste and Touch of Divine Goodness. Divine Goodness offers itself in one spark in this Creature, in another spark in the other Creature, and altogether make up a Goodness inconceivable by any Creature. The whole Mass and extracted Spirit of it is infinitely short of the Goodness of the Divine Nature, imperfect shadows of that Goodness which is in himself.

Indeed the more excellent anything is, the more nobly it acts; How remotely doth Light, that excellent brightness of the Creation, disperse itself? How doth that glorious Creature, which God hath set in the Heavens, spread its Wings over Heaven and Earth, roll itself about the World, cast its Beams upward and downward, insinuate into all Corners, pierce the Depths, and shoot up its Rays into the Heigths, encircle the higher and lower Creatures in its Arms, reach out its Communications to influence everything under the Earth, as well as dart its Beams of light and heat on things above, or upon the Earth? Nothing is hid from it; not from its power, nor from its sweetness. How Communicative also is Water, a necessary and excellent Creature? How active is it in a River, to nourish the living Creatures engendered in its Womb? Refresheth every Shore it runs by, promotes the propagation of Fruits for the Nourishment, and bestows a Verdure upon the Ground for the delight of Man; and where it cannot reach the higher Ground in its Substance, it doth by its Vapours mounted up, and concocted by the Sun, and gently distilled upon the Earth, for the opening its Womb to bring forth its Fruits. God is more prone to communicate himself, than the Sun to spread its Wings, or the Earth to mount up its Fruits, or the Water to multiply living Creatures. Goodness is his Nature. Hence were there internal Communications of himself from Eternity; Diffusions of himself without himself in time, in the Creation of the World, like a full Vessel running over. He Created the World that he might impart his Goodness to something without him, and diffuse larger measures of his Goodness, after he had laid the first Foundation of it in its Being; And therefore he Created several sorts of Creatures, that they might be capable of various, and distinct measures of his Liberality, according to the distinct capacities of their Nature; but imparted most to the Rational Creature, because that is only capable of an Understanding to know him, and Will to embrace him. He is the highest Goodness, and therefore a Communicative Goodness, and acts excellently according to his Nature.

4. God is necessarily good. None is necessarily Good but God; he is as necessarily Good, as he is necessarily God. His Goodness is as inseparable from his Nature as his Holiness. He is Good by Nature, not only by will; as he is Holy by Nature, not only by will; he is Good in his Nature, and Good in his Actions; and as he cannot be bad in his Nature, so he cannot be bad in his Communications: He can no more act contrary to this Goodness in any of his actions, than he can un-God himself. 'It is not necessary that God should Create a World; he was at his own choice whether he would Create or no: But when he resolves to make a World, 'tis necessary that he should make it good, because he is Goodness itself, and cannot act against his own Nature. He could not Create anything without Goodness in the very act: The very act of Creation, or Communicating being to anything without himself, is in itself an act of Goodness, as well as an act of Power: Had he not been Good in himself, nothing could have been endued with any Goodness by him. In the act of giving Being, he is Liberal, the Being he bestows is a Displaying his own Liberality: He could not confer what he needs not, and which could not be deserved, without being Pountiful. Since what was nothing, could not Merit to be brought into Being, the very act of giving to nothing a Being, was an act of choice Goodness.

He could not Create anything without Goodness as the Motive, and the necessary Motive: His Goodness could not necessitate him to make the World, but his Goodness could only move him to resolve to make a World; He was not bound to erect and fashion it because of his Goodness, but he could not frame it without his Goodness as the moving cause.

He could not Create anything, but he must Create it Good. It had been inconsistent with the Supreme Goodness of his Nature, to have Created only Murderous, Ravenous, Injurious Creatures: To have Created a Bedlam rather than a World. A mere heap of Confusion would have been as inconsistent with his Divine Goodness, as with his Divine Wisdom.

Again when his Goodness had moved him to make a Creature, his Goodness would necessarily move him to be beneficial to his Creature; not that this necessity results from any Merit in the Creature, which he had framed; but from the Excellency and Diffusiveness of his own Nature, and his own Glory, the end for which he formed it, which would have been obscure, yea, nothing, without some degrees of his Bounty. What occasion of acknowledgments and praise could the Creature have for its Being, if God had given him only a miserable Being, while it was innocent in action? The Goodness of God would not suffer him to make a Creature, without providing conveniencies for it, so long as he thought good to maintain its Being, and furnishing it with that which was necessary to answer that End for which he Created it; And his own Nature would not suffer him to be unkind to his Rational Creature, while it was Innocent. It had been injustice to inflict Evil upon the Creature, that had not offended, and had no relation to an offending Creature; The Nature of God could not have brought forth such an act. And therefore some say, that God after he had Created Man, could not presently annihilate him, and take away his Life and Being. As a Sovereign he might do it, as Almighty he was able to do it, as well as Create him; but in regard of his Goodness, he could not Morally do it: For had he annihilated Man as soon as ever he had made him, he had not made Man for himself, and for his own Glory; to be loved, worshipped, sought, and acknowledged by him: He would not then have been the end of Man; He had Created him in vain, and the World in vain, which he assures us he did not . And certainly if the Gifts of God be without Repentance, Man could not have been annihilated after his Creation without Repentance in God, without any Cause, had not Sin entered into the World. If God did not say to Man, after Sin had made its entrance into the World, seek ye me in vain, he could not because of his Goodness, have said so to Man in his Innocence. As God is necessarily Mind, so he is necessarily Will; as he is necessarily Knowing, so he is necessarily Loving. He could not be Blessed, if he did not know Himself, and his own Perfection: Nor Good, if he did not delight in Himself, and his own Perfections. And this Goodness whereby he delights in Himself, is the source of his delight in his Creatures, wherein he sees the footsteps of Himself. If he loves Himself, he cannot but love the Resemblance of Himself, and the Image of his own Goodness. He loves himself, because he is the highest Goodness, and Excellency; and loves everything as it resembles Himself; because it is an efflux of his own Goodness: And as he doth necessarily love Himself, and his own Excellency, so he doth necessarily love anything, that resembles that Excellency, which is the Primary Object of his Esteem. But,

5. Though he be necessarily Good, yet he is also freely Good. The necessity of the Goodness of his Nature hinders not the liberty of his Actions: The matter of his acting is not at all necessary, but the manner of his acting in a good and bountiful way, is necessary, as well as free . He Created the World and Man freely, because he might choose whether he would Create it, but he Created them good necessarily, because he was first necessarily good in his Nature, before he was freely a Creator. When he Created Man, he freely gave him a positive Law, but necessarily a Wise and Righteous Law; because he was necessarily Wise, and Righteous, before he was freely a Lawgiver. When he makes a Promise, he freely lets the Word go out of his Lips, but when he hath made it, he is necessarily a faithful Performer; because he was necessarily True and Righteous in his Nature, before he was freely a Promiser. God is necessarily good in his Nature, but free in his Communications of it: To make him necessarily to communicate his Goodness in the first Creation of the Creature, would render him but impotent, good without liberty, and without will: If the Communications of it be not free, the Eternity of the World must necessarily be concluded, which some Anciently asserted from the Naturalness of God's Goodness, making the World flow from God as Light from the Sun.

God indeed is necessarily good Affective in regard of his Nature, but freely good Effective in regard of the Effluxes of it to this or that particular Subject he pitcheth on. He is not so necessarily communicative of his Goodness as the Sun of his light, or a Tree of its cooling shade, that chooseth not its Objects, but enlightens all indifferently, without any variation or distinction: This were to make God of no more Understanding than the Sun, to shine not where it pleaseth, but where it must. He is an understanding Agent, and hath a Sovereign Right to choose his own Subjects. It would not be a Supreme Goodness, if it were not a voluntary Goodness. 'It is agreeable to the Nature of the highest Good, to be absolutely free, to dispence his Goodness in what methods, and measures he pleaseth, according to the free determinations of his own Will, guided by the Wisdom of his Mind, and regulated by the Holiness of his Nature. He is not to give an account of any of his matters . He will have mercy, on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion . And he will be good, to whom he will be good: When he doth act, he cannot but act well, so it's necessary; yet he may act this good, or that good to this or that degree, so it is free. As it is the Perfection of his Nature, 'tis necessary; as it is the communication of his Bounty, 'tis voluntary. The Eye cannot but see if it be open, yet it may glance upon this or that color, fix upon this or that object, as it is conducted by the Will. God necessarily loves Himself, because he is good, yet not by constraint, but freedom; because his affection to Himself is from a knowledge of Himself: He necessarily loves his own Image; because 'tis his Image, yet freely, because not blindly, but from motions of understanding and will. What necessity could there be upon him, to resolve to communicate his Goodness? It could not be to make Himself better by it; for he had a Goodness uncapable of any addition: He confers a goodness on his Creatures, but reaps not a Harvest of goodness to his own Essence from his Creatures. What obligation could there be from the Creature, to confer a goodness on Him to this or that degree, for this or that duration? If he had not Created a Man, nor Angel, he had done them no wrong. If he had given them only a simple Being, he had manifested a part of his Goodness, without giving them a right to challenge anymore of him. If he had taken away their Beings after a time when he had answered his End, he had done them no Injury: For what Law obliged him, to enrich them, and leave them in that Being wherein he had invested them, but his sole Goodness? Whatever sparks of goodness any Creature hath, are the free effusions of God's Bounty, the Offspring of his Own inclination to do well, the Simple favor of the Donor; not purchased, not merited by the Creature. God is as unconstrained in his Liberty in all his Communications, as infinite in his Goodness, the Fountain of them.

6. This Goodness is Communicative with the greatest Pleasure. Moses desired to see his Glory, God assures him, he should see his Goodness , intimating that his Goodness is his Glory, and his Glory his delight also. He sends not forth his Blessings with an ill Will; He doth not stay till they are squeezed from him; He prevents Men with his Blessings of Goodness ; He is most delighted, when he is most diffusive, and his pleasure in bestowing, is larger than his Creatures in possessing; He is not covetous of his own Treasures; He lays up his Goodness in order to laying it out with a complacency wholly Divine. The jealousy Princes have of their Subjects, makes them sparing of their Gifts, for fear of giving them Materials for Rebellion. God's foresight of the ill use Men would make of his Benefits, damped him not in bestowing his Largesses. He is uncapable of Envy: His own Happiness can no more be diminish'd, than it can be increased. None can over-top him in Goodness, because nothing hath any Good, but what is derived from him; his Gifts are without Repentance: Sorrow hath no footing in him, who is infinitely Happy, as well as infinitely Good. Goodness and Envy are inconsistent. How unjustly then did the Devil accuse God? What God gives out of Goodness, he gives with joy and gladness. He did not only will that we should be, but rejoice, that he had brought us into Being. He rejoiced in his Works . And his Wisdom stood by him, delighting in the habitable parts of the Earth . He beheld the World after its Creation with a complacency, and still governs it with the same pleasure wherewith he reviewed it. Infinite Chearfulness attends infinite Goodness. He would not give, if he had not a pleasure that others should enjoy his Goodness; Since he is better than anything, and more communicative than anything; He is more joyful in giving out, than the Sun can be to run its Race, in pouring forth Light. He is said only to repent, and grieve, when Men answer not the obligations and ends of his Goodness; which would be their own Felicity as well as his Glory. Though he doth not force greater degrees of his Goodness upon those that neglect it, yet he denies them not to those that solicit him for it. 'It is always greater pleasure to him to impart upon the importunities of the Creatures, than it is to a Mother to reach out her Breast to her crying and longing Infant. He is not wearied by the sollications of Men, he is pleased with their Prayers; because he is pleased with the imparting of his own Goodness. He seems to be in travel with it, longing to be delivered of it into the lap of his Creature. He is as much delighted with Petitions for his Liberality in bestowing his best Goodness, as Princes are weary of the craving of their Subjects. None can be so desirous to squeeze those that are under them, as God is delighted to enlarge his hand towards them. 'It is the nature of his Goodness to be glad of Men's solicitations for it: because they are significant valuations of it, and therefore fit occasions for him to bestow it. Since he doth not delight in the unhappiness of any of his Creatures, he certainly delights in what may conduce unto their felicity. He doth with the same delight multiply the effects of his Goodness, where his Wisdom sees it convenient, as he beheld the first Fruits of his Goodness with a complacency upon the laying the top-stone of the Creation.

7. The displaying of this Goodness was the Motive and End of all his Works of Creation and Providence . God being infinitely Wise, could not act without the highest Reason, and for the highest End: The reason that induced him to Create, must be of as great an Eminency as Himself: The Motive could not be taken from without him; because there was nothing but Himself in Being: It must be taken therefore from within Himself, and from someone of those most Excellent Perfections, whereby we conceive him. But upon the exact consideration of all of them, none can seem to challenge that Honor of being the Motive of them, to resolve the setting forth any work, but his own Goodness; This being the first thing manifest in his Creation, seems to be the first thing moving him to a Resolution to Create; Wisdom may be considered as directing; Power considered as Acting; but it is natural to reflect upon Goodness as Moving the one to direct, and the other to act: Power was the Principle of his Action, Wisdom the Rule of his Action, Goodness the Motive of his Action; Principle and Rule are awakened by the Motive, and subservient to the End. That which is the most amiable Perfection in the Divine Nature, and that which he first took notice of as the Footsteps of them in the distinct view of every days work, and the general view of the whole Frame, seems to claim the best right to be entitled the Motive and End of his Creation of things.

God could have no End but himself, because there was nothing besides himself. Again, the End of every Agent is that which he esteems good, and the best good for that kind of action. Since nothing is to be esteemed good but God, nothing can be the ultimate End of God but himself, and his own Goodness: What a Man wills chiefly is his End; but God cannot will any other thing but himself as his End, because there is nothing Superior to himself in Goodness. He cannot will anything, that Supremely serves himself and his own Goodness as his End: for if he did, that which he wills, must be Superior to himself in Goodness, and then he is not God; or Inferior to them in Goodness, and then he would not be Righteous, in willing that which is a lower Good before a higher. God cannot will anything as his End of acting but himself, without undeifying himself. God's Will being Infinitely Good, cannot move for anything but what is Infinitely Good; and therefore whatsoever God made, he made for himself, that whatsoever he made might bear a badge of this Perfection upon it, and be a discovery of his wonderful Goodness; For the making things for himself doth not signify any indigence in God, that he made anything to increase his Excellency (for that is capable of no addition) but to manifest his Excellency. God possessing everything eminently in himself, did not Create the World for any need he had of it; Finite things were unable to make any accession to that which is Infinite. Man indeed builds a House to be a shelter to him against Wind and Weather, and makes Clothes to secure him from Cold, and Plants Gardens for his Recreation and Health. God is above all those little helps: he did not make the World for himself in such a kind, but for himself, i. e. the manifestation of himself and the Riches of his Nature: Not to make himself Blessed, but to discover his own Blessedness to his Creatures, and communicate something of it to them. He did not garnish the World with so much Bounty, that he might live more happily than he did before; but that his Rational Creatures might have fit conveniencies. As the end for which God demands the performance of our Duty, is not for his own advantage, but for our good; so the end why he confer'd upon us the excellency of such a Being, was for our good, and the discovery of his Goodness to us: For had not God Created the World, he had been wholly unknown to any but himself; He produced Creatures that he might be known. As the Sun shines not only to discover other things, but to be seen itself in its beauty and brightness. God would Create things, because he would be known in his Glory and Liberality; Hence it that he Created Intellectual Creatures, because without them, the rest of the Creation could not be taken notice of: It had been in some sort in vain; for no Nature lower than an Understanding Nature, was able to know the Marks of God in the Creation, and acknowledge him as God. In this regard, God is good above all Creatures, because he intends only to communicate his Goodness in Creation, not to acquire any Goodness, or Excellency from them, as Men do in their framing of things. God is all, and is destitute of nothing, and therefore nothing accrues to him by the Creation, but the acknowledgment of his Goodness. This Goodness therefore must be the Motive and End of all his Works.

The third thing, That God is good.

1. The more excellent anything is in Nature, the more of goodness and kindness it hath. For we see more of love and kindness in Creatures that are endued with Sense, to their Descendents, than in Plants, that have only a Principle of Growth. Plants preserve their Seeds whole that are enclosed in them; Animals look to their young only after they are dropt from them; yet after some time take no more notice of them than of a Stranger that never had any Birth from them. But Man, that hath a higher Principle of Reason, cherisheth his Offspring, and gives them Marks of his goodness while he lives, and leaves not the World at the time of his Death without some testimonies of it; Much more must God, who is a higher Principle than Sense or Reason, be good and bountiful to all his Offspring. The more perfect anything is, the more it doth communicate itself. The Sun is more excellent than the Stars, and therefore doth more sensibly, more extensively disperse its liberal Beams than the Stars do. And the better any Man is, the more charitable he is. God being the most excellent Nature, having nothing more excellent than himself, because nothing more ancient than himself, who is the ancient of days; There is nothing therefore better and more bountiful than himself.

2. He is the cause of all Created Goodness, he must therefore himself be the Supreme Good. What Good is in the Heavens, is the Product of some Being above the Earth; and those varieties of Goodness in the Earth, and several Creatures, are some where in their fullness and union: That therefore which possesses all those scattered Goodnesses in their fullness, must be all Good, All that Good which is displayed in Creatures; therefore Soveraignly best. Whatsoever Natural or Moral Goodness there is in the World, in Angels, or Men, or Inferior Creatures, is a line drawn from that Center, the bublings of that Fountain. God cannot but be better then all, since the Goodness that is in Creatures is the fruit of his own. If he were not good, he could produce no good: he could not bestow what he had not. If the Creature be good, as the Apostle says, every Creature is , he must needs be better than all, because they have nothing but what is derived to them from him; And much more goodness then all, because Finite Being are not capable of receiving into them, and containing in themselves all that goodness which is in an Infinite Being; When we search for good in Creatures, they come short of that satisfaction which is in God. As the certainty of a first Principle of all things, is necessarily concluded from the being of Creatures, and the upholding and sustaining Power and Virtue of God is concluded from the mutability of those things in the World; whence we infer, that there must be some Stable Foundation of those tottering things, some firm Hinge upon which those changeable things do move, without which there would be no Stability in the Kinds of things, no order, no agreement, or union among them: So from the goodness of everything, and their usefulness to us, we must conclude him Good, who made all those things. And since we find distinct Goodnesses in the Creature, we must conclude that one Principle whence they did slow, excels in the Glory of Goodness: All those little glimmerings of Goodness which are scattered in the Creatures, as the Image in the Glass, Represent the Face, Posture, Motion of him whose Image it is, but not in the fullness of Life and Spirit, as in the Original; 'It is but a Shadow at the best, and speaks something more excellent in the Copy. As God hath an Infiniteness of Being above them, so he hath a Supremacy of Goodness beyond them: What they have, is but a Participation from him; what he hath, must be infinitely super-eminent above them. If anything be good by itself, it must be Infinitely Good, it would set itself no bounds; we must make as many God's, as particulars of Goodness in the World: But being Good by the bounty of another, that from whence they flow must be the chief Goodness. 'It is God's Excellency and Goodness, which like a Beam pierceth all things: He decks Spirits with Reason, endues Matter with Form, furnisheth everything with useful Qualities.

As one Beam of the Sun illustrates Fire, Water, Earth; so one Beam of God enlightens and endows Minds, Souls, and Universal Nature: Nothing in the World had its goodness from itself, anymore than it had its being from itself. The Cause must be riches than the Effect.

But that which I intend is the Defense of this Goodness.

1. The goodness of God is not impaired by suffering Sin to enter into the World, and Man to fall thereby. 'It is rather a Testimony of God's Goodness, that he gave Man an ability to be Happy, than any Charge against his Goodness, that he settled Man in a capacity to be Evil. God was first a Benefactor to Man, before Man could be a Rebel against God. May it not be inquired, whether it had not been against the Wisdom of God, to have made a Rational Creature with Liberty, and not suffer him to act according to the Nature he was endowed with, and to follow his own choice for some time? Had it been Wisdom to frame a Free Creature, and totally to restrain that Creature from following its Liberty? Had it been Goodness, as it were, to force the Creature to be happy against its will? God's Goodness furnished Adam with a power to stand; was it contrary to his Goodness, to leave Adam to a free use of that Power? To make a Creature, and not let that Creature act according to the freedom of his Nature, might have been thought to have been a blot upon his Wisdom, and a constraint upon the Creature, not to make use of that freedom of his Nature, which the Divine Goodness had bestowed upon him. To what purpose did God make a Law, to govern his Rational Creature, and yet resolve that Creature should not have his choice, whether he would obey it or no? Had he been really constrained to observe it, his Observation of it could no more have been called Obedience, than the acts of Bruits that have a kind of Natural constraint upon them by the instinct of their Nature, can be called Obedience: In vain had God endowed a Creature with so great and noble a Principle as Liberty. Had it been Goodness in God after he had made a Reasonable Creature, to govern him in the same manner as he did Bruits by a necessary Instinct? It was the Goodness of God to the Nature of Men and Angels, to leave them in such a condition, to be able to give him a voluntary Obedience, a nobler Offering than the whole Creation could present him with; And shall this Goodness be undervalued, and accounted mean, because Man made an ill use of it, and turned it into wantonness? As the unbelief of Man doth not diminish the Redeeming Grace of God, so neither doth the fall of Man lessen the Creating Goodness of God. Besides, why should the permission of Sin be thought more a blemish to his Goodness, than the providing a way of Redemption for the destroying the works of Sin, and the Devil be judged the Glory of it, whereby he discovered a goodness of Grace that surpast the bounds of Nature? If this were a thing that might seem to obscure, or deface the Goodness of God, in the permission of the fall of Angels and Adam, it was in order to bring forth a greater Goodness in a more illustrious pomp to the view of the World: God hath concluded them all in Unbelief, that he might have Mercy upon all. But if nothing could be alleged for the defense of his Goodness in this, it were most comely for an ignorant Creature, not to Impeach his Goodness, but adore him in his proceedings, in the same language the Apostle doth, verse. 33. Oh the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments, and his ways past finding out?

2. Nor is his Goodness prejudiced, by not making all things the equal Subjects of it.

1. 'It is true all things are not Subjects of an equal Goodness. The Goodness of God is not so illustriously manifested in one thing as another. In the Crea •• on he hath dropt Goodness upon some, in giving them Beings and Sense; and pour'd it upon others, in endowing them with Understanding and Reason. The Sun is full of Light, but it hath a want of Sense; Brutes excel in in the vigor of Sense, but they are destitute of the Light of Reason; Man hath a Mind and Reason confer'd on him, but he hath neither the acuteness of Mind, nor the quickness of Motion equal with an Angel. In Providence also he doth give abundance: and opens his hand to some, to others he is more sparing; He gives greater gifts of knowledge to some, while he lets others remain in ignorance; He strikes down some, and raiseth others; He afflicts some with a continual Pain, while he blesseth others with an uninterrupted Health; He hath chosen one Nation wherein to set up his Gospel Sun, and leaves another benighted in their own Ignorance. Known was God in Judea; they were a peculiar People alone of all the Nations of the Earth . He was not equally good to the Angels: He held forth his hand, to support some in their happy Habitation, while he suffered others to sink in irreparable Ruin; and he is not so diffusive here of his Goodness to his own, as he will be in Heaven. Here their Sun is sometimes Clouded, but there all Clouds and Shades will be blown away, and melted into nothing: Instead of Drops here, there will be above Rivers of Life. Is any Creature destitute of the open Marks of his Goodness, though all are not enriched with those signal Characters, which he vouchsafes to others? He that is unerring pronounced everything good distinctly in its Production, and the whole good in its Universal Perfection. Though he made not all things equally good, yet he made nothing evil; And though one Creature in regard of its Nature, may be better than another, yet an Inferior Creature in regard of its usefulness in the order of the Creation, may be better than a Superior. The Earth hath a goodness in bringing forth Fruits, and the Waters in the Sea a goodness in multiplying Food. That any of us have a Being, is goodness; that we have not so healthful a Being as others, is unequal, but not unjust goodness. He is good to all, though not in the same degree. The whole Earth is full of his Mercy . A good Man is good to his Cattle, to his Servants; he makes a Provision for all, but he bestows not those Flouds of Bounty upon them, that he doth upon his Children. As there are various Gifts, but one Spirit ; so there are various Distributions, but from one Goodness; The Drops as well as the fuller Streams, are of the same Fountain, and relish of the Nature of it; And though he do not make all Men partake of the riches of his Grace after the corruption of their Nature, Is his Goodness disgraced hereby? Or doth he merit the Title of Cruelty? Will any diminish the goodness of a Father, for his not setting up his Son after he hath foolishly and willfully proved Bankrupt; or not rather admire his liberality in giving him so large a Stock to Trade with, when he first set him up in the World?

2. The goodness of God to Creatures, is to be measured by their distinct Usefulness to the Common End. It were better for a Toad or Serpent to be a Man, i. e. better for the Creature itself, if it were advanced to a higher degree of Being, but not better for the Universe: He could have made every Pebble a living Creature, and every living Creature a Rational one: But that he made everything as we see, it was a goodness to the Creature itself; But that he did not make it of a higher Elevation in Nature, was a part of his goodness to the Rational Creature. If all were Rational Creatures, there would have been wanting Creatures of an Inferior Nature for their conveniency; There would have wanted the manifestation of the variety and fullness of his goodness. Had all things in the World been Rational Creatures, much of that goodness which he hath communicated to Rational Creatures, would not have appeared: How could Man have showed his skill in Taming and Managing Creatures more mighty than himself? What Materials would there have been to manifest the goodness of God, bestowed upon the Reasonable Creatures for framing Excellent Works, and Inventions? Much of the Goodness of God had lain wrapped up from Sense and Understanding. All other things partake not of so great a goodness as Man; yet they are so subservient to that goodness poured forth on Man, that little of it coul • have been seen without them. Consider Man, every Member in his Body hath a goodness in itself; but a greater goodness as referred to the whole, without which the goodness of the more noble part would not be manifested. The Head is the most excellent Member, and hath greater Impressions of Divine Goodness upon it, in regard that it is the Organ of Understanding: Were every Member of the Body a Head, what a deformed Monster would Man be? If he were all Head, where would be feet for Motion? And Arms, for Action? Man would be fit only for Thought, and not for Exercise. The goodness of God in giving Man so noble a part as the Head, could not be known without a Tongue, whereby to Express the Conception of his Mind; and without Feet and Hands whereby to act, much of what he conceives, and determines, and execute the resolves of his Will: All those have a goodness in themselves, an honor, a comeliness from the goodness of God, but not so great a goodness as the nobler part: Yet if you consider them in their Functions, and refer them to that excellent Member which they serve, their Inferior goodness is absolutely necessary to the goodness of the other; without which the goodness of the Head and Understanding would lie in obscurity, be insignificant to the whole World, and in a great measure to the Person himself that wants such Members.

3. The goodness of God is more seen in this inequality. If God were equally good to all, it would destroy Commerce, Unity, the Links of Human Society; damp Charity, and render that useless which is one of the noblest and delightfullest Duties to be exercised here; It would cool Prayer, which is excited by wants, and is a necessary demonstration of the Creatures dependence on God. But in this inequality, every Man hath enough in his Enjoyments for Praise, and in his Wants matter for his Prayer. Besides the inequality of the Creature is the Ornament of the World: What pleasure could a Garden afford, if there were but one sort of Flowers, or one sort of Plants? Far less than when there is variety to please the Sight, and every other Sense.

Again, the freedom of Divine Goodness, which is the glory of it, is evident hereby; Had he been alike good to all, it would have looked like a necessary, not a free act: But by the inequality, it is manifest that he doth not do it by a Natural necessity as the Sun shines, but by a voluntary Liberty, as being the entire Lord, and free Disposer of his own Goods: And that it is the gift of the pleasure of his Will, as well as the Efflux of his Nature; That he hath not a Goodness without Wisdom, but a Wisdom as rich as his Bounty.

4. The goodness of God could not be equally communicated to all, after their settlement in their several Beings. Because they have not a capacity in their Natures for it: He doth bestow the Marks of his Goodness according to that natural capacity of fitness, he perceives in his Creatures: As the Water of the Sea fills every Creek and Gulf with different measures, according to the compass each have to contain it; And as the Sun doth disperse Light to the Stars above, and the places below, to some more, to some less, according to the measures of their Reception. God doth not do good to all Creatures according to the greatness of his own Power, and the extent of his own Wealth, but according to the capacity of the Subject; Not so much good as he can do, but so much good as the Creature can receive. The Creature would sink, if God would pour out all his Goodness upon it: As Moses would have perished, if God should have shewn him all his Glory . He doth manifest more Goodness to his Reasonable Creatures, because they are more capable of acknowledging, and setting forth his Goodness.

5. God ought to be allowed the free disposal of his own Goodness. Is not God the Lord of his own Gifts; and will you not allow him the privilege of having some more peculiar Objects of his love and pleasure, which you allow without blame to Man, and use yourself without any sense of a Crime? Is a Prince esteemed good, though he be not equally bountiful to all his Servants, nor equally gracious in pardoning all his Rebels; And shall the goodness of the great Sovereign of the World be impeacht, notwithstanding those mighty distributions of it; because he will act according to his own Wisdom and Pleasure, and not according to Men's fancies and humors? Must Purblind Reason be the Judge and Director, how God shall dispose of his own, rather than his own Infinite Wisdom and Sovereign Will? Is God less good, because there are number less nothings, which he is able to bring into being? He could Create a World of more Creatures than he hath done: doth he therefore wish evil to them by letting them remain in that nothing from whence he could draw them? No, but he denies that good to them, which he is able, if he pleased, to confer upon them.

If God doth not give that good to a Creature which it wants by its own demerit, can he be said to wish evil to it; or only to deny that goodness which the Creature hath forfeited, and which is at God's liberty to retain or disperse? Though God cannot but love his own Image where he finds it, yet when this Image is lost, and the Devils Image voluntarily received, he may choose whether he will manifest his goodness to such a one or no. Will you not account that Man liberal, that distributes his Alms to a great company, though he rejects some? Much more will you account him good, if he rejects none that implore him, but dispenseth his doles to everyone upon their Petition: And is he not good, because he will not bestow a Farthing upon those that Address not themselves to him? God is so good, that he denies not the best good to those that seek him: He hath promised Life and Happiness to them that do so. Is he less good, because he will not distribute his goodness to those that despise him? Though he be Good, yet his Wisdom is the Rule of dispensing his Goodness.

6. The severe Punishment of Offenders, and the Afflictions he inflicts upon his Servants, are no violations of his Goodness. The Notion of God's Vindictive Justice is as naturally inbred, and implanted in the mind of Man, as that of his Goodness, and those two Sentiments never shockt one another. The Heathen never thought him bad because he was just, nor unrighteous because he was good. God being Infinitely good, cannot possibly intend or act anything but what is good: Thou art good, and thou dost good, i. e. whatsoever thou dost is good, whatsoever it be, pleasant or painful to the Creature: Punishments themselves are not a Moral Evil in the Person that inflicts, though they are a Natural Evil in the Person that suffers them. In ordering Punishment to the Wicked, Good is added to Evil; In ordering Impunity to the Wicked, Evil is added to Evil. To punish Wickedness is Right, therefore Good: To leave men uncontroul'd in their Wickedness, is Unrighteous, and therefore Bad. But again, Shall his Justice in some few Judgments in the World, impeach his Goodness, more than his wonderful Patience to Sinners is able to silence the Calumnies against him? Is not his hand fuller of gracious Doles, than of dreadful Thunderbolts? Doth he not oftener seem forgetful of his Justice, when he pours out upon the guilty the Streams of his Mercy, than to be forgetful of his Goodness, when he sprinkles in the World some drops of his Wrath?

First, God's Judgments in the World, do not infringe his Goodness; For

1. The justice of God is a part of the goodness of his Nature. God himself thought so, when he told Moses, he would make all his Goodness pass before him : He leaves not out in that enumeration of the parts of it, his resolution, by no means to clear the Guilty, but to visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children . 'It is a property of goodness to hate evil, and therefore a property of goodness to punish it: 'It is no less Righteousness to give according to the deserts of a Person in a way of Punishment, than to reward a Person that obeys his Precepts in a way of Recompence. Whatsoever is Righteous is Good; Sin is evil, and therefore whatsoever doth witness against it, is good; His Goodness therefore shines in his Justice, for without being just he could not be good. Sin is a Moral Disorder in the World: Every Sin is Injustice: Injustice breaks God's Order in the World; there is a necessity therefore of Justice to put the World in order. Punishment orders the Person committing the Injury, who when he will not be in the order of Obedience, must be in the order of suffering for God's Honor. The goodness of all things which God pronounced so, consisted in their order and beneficial helpfulness to one another: When this order is inverted, the goodness of the Creature ceaseth: If it be a bad thing to spoil this order, Is it not a part of Divine Goodness to reduce them into order, that they may be reduced in some measure to their goodness? Do we ever account a Governor less in goodness, because he is exact in Justice, and punisheth that which makes a disorder in his Government? And is it a diminution of the Divine Goodness, to punish that which makes a Disorder in the World? As Wisdom without Goodness would be a Serpentine Craft, and issue in destruction; so Goodness without Justice would be impotent Indulgence, and cast things into confusion. When Abel's Blood cried out for Vengeance against Cain, it spake a good thing; Christ's Blood speaking better things than the Blood of Abel, implies that Abel's Blood spake a good thing; the comparative implies a positive . If it were the goodness of that Innocent Blood to demand Justice, it could not be a badness in the Sovereign of the World to execute it. How can God sustain the part of a Good and Righteous Judge, if he did not preserve Human Society? And how would it be preserved, without manifesting himself by public Judgments against public Wrongs? Is there not as great a necessity that Goodness should have Instruments of Judgment, as that there should be Prisons, Bridewels, and Gibbets in a good Commonwealth? Did not the Thunderbolts of God sometimes roar in the Ears of Men, they would sin with a higher hand than they do, fly more in the face of God, make the World as much a Moral, as it was at first a Natural Chaos: The ingenuity of Men would be damped, if there were not something to work upon their fears, to keep them in their due order. Impunity of the Innocent Person is worse than any Punishment. 'It is a Misery to want Medicines for the Cure of a sharp Disease; and a Mark of goodness in a Prince to consult for the security of the Political Body, by cutting off a Gangrene'd and corrupting Member: And what Prince would deserve the noble Title of Good, if he did not restrain by punishment those Evils, which impair the Public Welfare? Is it not necessary that the examples of Sin, whereby others have been encouraged to Wickedness, should be made examples of Justice, whereby the same Persons and others may be discouraged from what before they were greedily inclined unto? Is not a hatred of what is bad and unworthy, as much a part of Divine Goodness, as a love to what is Excellent, and bears a Resemblance to himself? Could he possibly be accounted Good, that should bear the same degree of Affection to a prodigious Vice, as to a sublime Virtue? And should behave himself in the same manner of carriage to the Innocent and Culpable? Could you account him Good, if he did always with pleasure behold Evil, and perpetually suffer the Oppressions of the Innocent under unpunisht Wickedness? How should we know the Goodness of the Divine Nature, and his Affection to the goodness of his Creature, if he did not by some acts of severity witness his implacable aversion against Sin, and his care to preserve the good Government of the World? If corrupted Creatures should always be exempt from the effects of his Indignation, he would declare himself not to be Infinitely Good, because he would not be really Righteous. No Man thinks it a Natural Vice in the Sun by the power of its scorching heat, to dry up and consume the unwholesome Vapours of the Air; nor are the demonstrations of Divine Justice any blots upon his Goodness, since they are both for the defense and glory of his Holiness, and for the preservation of the beauty and order of the World.

2. Is it not part of the Goodness of God to make Laws, and annex Threatn ngs; And shall it be an impeachment of his Goodness to support them? The more severe Laws are made for deterring Evil, the better is that Prince accounted, in making such provision for the welfare of the Community. The design of Laws, and the design of upholding the honor of those Laws by the punishment of Offenders, is to promote Goodness and restrain Evil; The Execution of those Laws must be therefore pursuant to the same design of Goodness, which first settled them. Would it not be contrary to Goodness, to suffer that which was designed for the support of Goodness, to be scorned and slighted? It would neither be prudence nor goodness, but folly and vice, to let Laws, which were made to promote Virtue, be broken with impunity. Would not this be to weaken Virtue, and give a new life and vigor to Vice? Not only the Righteousness of the Law itself, but the Wisdom of the Law-giver would be exposed to contempt, if the Violations of it remained uncontroul'd, and the Violence offered by Men passed unpunished. None but will acknowledge the Divine Precepts to be the Image of the Righteousness of God, and beneficial for the common good of the World; The Law is holy, just and good, and so is every Precept of it: The Law was for no other end, but to keep the Creature in subjection to, and dependence on God; This dependence could not be preserved without a Law, nor that Law be kept in Reputation without a Penalty; nor would that Penalty be significant without an Execution. Every Law loseth the nature of a Law, without a Penalty; and the Penalty loseth its vigor, without the infliction of it: How can those Laws attain their end, if the Transgressions of them be not punished? Would not the wickedness of Men's hearts be encouraged by such a kind of uncomely Goodness? And all the threatenings be to no other end, than to engender vain and fruitless fears in the minds of Men? Is it good for the Majesty of God to suffer itself to be trampled on by his Vassals? To suffer Men by their Rebellion to level his Law with the wickedness of their own hearts; and by impunity slight his own Glory, and encourage their Disobedience? Who would give any Man, any Prince, any Father that should do so, the name of a good Governor? If it were a fruit of Divine Goodness to make Laws, is it contrary to Goodness to support the honor of them? 'It is every whit as rational, and as good to vindicate the honor of his Laws by Justice, as at first to settle them by Authority; As much goodness to vindicate it from Contempt, as at first to Enact it; As it is as much Wisdom to preserve a Law, as at first to frame it: Shall his Precepts be thought by him unworthy of a support, that were not thought by him unworthy to be made? The same reason of Goodness that led him to enjoin them, will lead him to revenge them. Did Evil appear odious to him, while he Enacted his Law; and would not his own Goodness, as well as his Wisdom appear odious to him, if he did never Execute it? Would it not be a denial of his own Goodness, to be led by the foolish and corrupt Judgment of his Creatures, and slight his own Law, because his Rebels spurn at it? Since he valued it before they could actually contemn it, would he not misjudge his own Law and his own Wisdom, discount from the true value of them, condemn his own Acts, censure his Precepts as Unrighteous, and therefore Evil and Injurious? Remove the differences between Good and Evil, look upon Vice and Virtue and Wickedness as Righteousness, if he thought his Commands unworthy of a Vindication? How can there be any support to the honor of his Precepts without sometimes Executing the severity of his Threatenings?

And as to his Threatenings of Punishment for the breach of his Laws, are they not designed to discourage Wickedness, as the Promises of Reward were designed to encourage Goodness? Hath he not multiplied the one to scare Men from Sin, as well as the other to allure Men to Obedience? Is not the same Truth engaged to support the one as well as the other? And how could he be abundant in Goodness, if he were not abundant in Truth? Both are linked together; If he neglected his Truth, he would be out of love with his own Goodness; since it cannot be manifested in performing the Promises to the Obedient, if it be not also manifested in executing his Threatenings upon the Rebellious. Had not God annexed Threatenings to his Laws, he would have had no care of his own Goodness. The Order between God and the Creature wherein the declaration of his Goodness consisted, might have been easily broken by his Creature: Man would have freed himself from subjection to God, been unaccountable to him. Had this consisted with that infinite Goodness whereby he loves himself, and loves his Creatures? As therefore the annexing Threatenings to his Law, was a part of his Goodness; the Execution of them is so far from being a blemish, that it is the honor of his Goodness. The Rewards of Obedience, and the Punishment of Disobedience refer to the same end, viz. the due manifestation of the valuation of his own Law, the glorifying his own Goodness, which enjoined so beneficial a Law for Man, and the support of that goodness in the Creatures which by that Law he demands righteously and kindly of them.

3. Hence it follows, That not to punish Evil would be a want of Goodness to himself. The Goodness of God is an indulgent Goodness in a way of Wisdom and Reason; not a fond Goodness in a way of weakness and folly: Would it not be a weakness, always to bear with the Impenitent? A want of expressing a goodness to Goodness itself? Would not Goodness have more reason to complain for a want of Justice to rescue it, than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it? If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, and God silently behold forever this Order broken; would he not either charge himself with a want of Power, or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness? Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders? His Throne would shake, yea, sink from under him, if Justice, whereby he Sentenceth, and Judgment, whereby he Executes his Sentence, were not the supports of it. Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne; So Psal. 92.2. Man would forget his Relation to God, God would be unknown to be Sovereign of the World, were he careless of the breaches of his own Order. The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes; Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures? His own Sovereignty which is good, and the subjection of the Creature to him as Sovereign, which is also good; The one would not be maintained in its due place, nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment. Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness itself trampled upon constantly, without some time or other appearing for the relief of it? Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honor, to prevent further Evil? Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments, sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty; as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them, and wait upon them for a Reformation? Must God be bad to himself, to be kind to his Enemies? And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd? The World is wronged by Sin, as well as God is injured by it. How could God be good to himself, if he righted not his own Honor? Or be a good Governor of the World, if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands? Would he be good to himself as a God, to be careless of his own Honor? Or good as the Rector of the World, and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion?

That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty, and despiseth his Sovereignty, is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom, or that of his Righteousness; 'It is a part of God's Goodness to love himself: Would he love his Sovereignty, if he saw it daily slighted, without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honor of it? Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness, if he beheld it trampled upon, without any will to vindicate it? Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty, because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it; and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way? Is Sovereignty destitute of Goodness, because it preserves its Honor against one that would not have it Reign over him? Would he not seem by such a regardlessness to renounce his own Essence, undervalue and undermine his own Goodness, if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it? If Men turn Grace into Wantonness, is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice?

All his Attributes, which are parts of his Goodness, engage him to punish Sin; without it his Authority would be vilified, his Purity stained, his Power derided, his Truth disgraced, his Justice scorned, his Wisdom slighted: He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws, and be judged, according to the Rules of Reason, to be void of true Goodness.

4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God. 'It is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish; and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatenings, that he might prevent Sin, and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature : The principal Intention of God in his Law, was to encourage Goodness, that he might reward it; And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish, and takes the Sword into his hand, he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness, but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts, which was to Reward: As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office, to protect good Men from Violence, and maintain the honor of the Laws; yet consequently to punish bad men, without which the Protection of the good would not be secured, nor the Honor of the Law be supported: And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office, doth principally intend the encouragement of the good, and wisheth there were no wickedness, that might occasion Punishment; and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him, he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature, but pursuant to the Duty of his Place; but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity. Thus God seems to speak of himself; He calls the act of his Wrath, his Strange Work, his Strange Act; A work not against his Nature, as the Governor of the World; but against his first Intention as Creator, which was to manifest his Goodness: Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts, brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart, and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand: He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Children of Men : And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner : Not in Death as Death, in Punishment as Punishment, but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept, or reduceth him into order under his Power, or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature: God only hates the Sin, not the Sinner: He desires only the destruction of the one, not the misery of the other; The Nature of a Man doth not displease him, because it is a work of his own Goodness; but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him, because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance. Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner, but upon the Sin: But since he cannot punish the Sin, without punishing the Subject, to which it cleaves, the Sinner falls under his lash. Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor, but as an Enemy to his Crime, when he doth Sentence and Execute him?

5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them, therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God.

1. A Goodness in their preparations. He sends not Judgments without giving warnings: His Justice is so far from extinguishing his Goodness, that his Goodness rather shines out in the preparations of his Justice: He gives Men time, and sends them Messengers to persuade them to another temper of mind, that he may change his Hand, and exercise his Liberality, where he threatened his Severity. When the Heathen had Presages of some Evil upon their Persons or Countries, they took them for invitations to Repentance, excited themselves to many acts of Devotion, implored his Favor, and often Experimented it. The Ninevites upon the Proclamation of the destruction of their City by Jonah, fell to Petitioning him; whereby they signified, That they thought him good, though he were just, and more prone to Pity than Severity; and their humble Carriage caused the Arrows he had ready against them, to drop out of his hands . When he brandisheth his Sword, he wishes for some to stand in that Gap to mollify his anger, that he might not strike the fatal blow; I sought for a Man among them that should make up the Hedge, and stand in the Gap before me in the Land, that I should not destroy it. He was desirous that his Creatures might be in a capacity to receive the Marks of his Bounty : This he signified not obscurely to Moses, Exod. 32.10. when he spoke to him to let him alone, that his anger might wax hot against the People, after they had made a Golden Calf and Worshipped it. Let me alone, said God: Not that Moses restrained him, saith Chrysostom, who spake nothing to him, but stood silent before him, and knew nothing of the Peoples Idolatry; But God would give him an occasion of praying for them, that he might exercise his Mercy towards them; yet in such a manner, that the People being struck with a sense of their Crime, and the horror of Divine Justice, they might be amended for the future; when they should understand that their Death was not averted by their own Merit or Intercession, but by Moses his Patronage of them, and pleading for them. As we see sometimes Masters and Fathers angry with their Servants and Children, and preparing themselves to punish them, but secretly wish some Friend to intercede for them, and take them out of their hands: There is a Goodness shining in the preparations of his Judgments.

2. A Goodness in the Execution of them. They are good, as they show God disaffected to Evil, and conduce to the glory of his Holiness, and deter others from presumptuous Sins: I will be glorified in all that draw near unto me; in his Judgment upon Nadab and Abihu, the Sons of Aaron, for Offering strange Fire.

By them God preserves the excellent Footsteps of his own Goodness in his Creation and his Law; and curbs the Licentiousness of Men, and contains them within the bounds of their Duty. The Judgments are good, saith the Psalmist , i. e. Thy Judicial proceedings upon the Wicked: For he desires God there, to turn away by some signal act, the reproach the Wicked cast upon him. Can there be anything more Miserable than to live in a World full of Wickedness, and void of the Marks of Divine Goodness and Justice to repress it? Were there not Judgments in the World, Men would forget God, be insensible of his Government of the World, neglect the Exercises of Natural and Christian Duties; Religion would be at its last gasp, and expire among them, and Men would pretend to break God's Precepts by God's Authority. Are they not good then, as they restrain the Creature from further Evils? Affright others from the same Crimes, which they were inclinable to commit? He strikes some, to reform others that are Spectators; As Apollonius tamed Pigeons, by beating Dogs before them. Punishments are God's gracious warnings to others, not to venture upon those Crimes which they see attended with such Judgments. The Censers of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram were to be wrought into Plates for a covering of the Altar, to abide there as a Memento to others, not to approach to the Exercise of the Priestly Office without an authoritative call from God ; And those Judgments exercised in the former Ages of the World, were intended by Divine Goodness for warnings, even in Evangelical times. Lots Wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt, to prevent Men from Apostasy: That use Christ himself makes of it, in the exhortation against turning back . And, The Righteous shall wash his Feet in the Blood of the Wicked. When God shall drench his Sword in the Blood of the Wicked, the Righteous shall take occasion from thence to purify themselves, and reform their Ways, and look to the Paths of their Feet. Would not Impunity be hurtful to the World, and Men receive encouragement to Sin, if severities sometimes did not bridle them from the practice of their Inclinations? Sometimes the Sinner himself is reformed, and sometimes removed from being an example to others. Though Thunder be an affrightning noise, and Lightning a scaring flash, yet they have a liberal goodness in them, in shattering and consuming those contagious Vapours which burden and infect the Air, and thereby render it more clear and healthful.

Again, There are few acts of Divine Justice upon a People, but are in the very Execution of them attended with demonstrations of his Goodness to others: He is a Protector of his own, while he is a Revenger on his Enemies; When he rides upon his Horses in anger against some, his Chariots are Chariots of Salvation to others . Terror makes way for Salvation: The overthrow of Pharaoh and the strength of his Nation completed the deliverance of the Israelites. Had not the Egyptians met with their Destruction, the Israelites had unavoidably met with their Ruin, against all the Promises God had made to them, and to the defamation of his former Justice in the former Plagues upon their Oppressors. The death of Herod was the security of Peter, and the rest of the Malic'd Christians. The gracious deliverance of good Men is often occasioned by some severe stroke upon some eminent Persecutor: The destruction of the Oppressor is the rescue of the Innocent.

Again, Where is there a Judgment but leaves more Criminals behind than it sweeps away, that deserved to be involved in the same fate with the rest? More Egyptians were left behind to possess and enjoy the goodness of their fruitful Land, than they were that were hurried into another World by the overflowing Waves; Is not this a Mark of goodness as well as severity?

Again, Is it not a goodness in him not to pour out Judgments according to the greatness of his Power? To go gradually to work with those, whom he might in a moment blow to destruction with one breath of his Mouth?

Again, He sometimes exerciseth Judgments upon some, to form a new Generation for himself; He destroyed an old World, to raise a new one more Righteous; As a Man pulls down his old Buildings to erect a sounder and more stately Fabric. To sum up what hath been said in this particular; How could God be a Friend to Goodness, if he were not an Enemy to Evil? How could he show his enmity to Evil, without revenging the abuse and contempt of his Goodness? God would rather have the Repentance of a Sinner than his Punishment; but the Sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of God, than pursue those Methods wherein he hath settled the conveyances of his kindness; You will not come to me that you might have Life, saith Christ. How is Eternity of Punishment inconsistent with the Goodness of God? Nay, how can God be good without it? If Wickedness always remain in the Nature of Man, Is it not fit the Rod should always remain on the Back of Man? Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible Offender in Chains, in a Bridewell? While Sin remains, it's fit it should be Punished: Would not God else be an Enemy to his own Goodness; and show favor to that which doth abuse it, and is contrary to it? He hath threatened Eternal Flames to Sinners, that he might the more strongly excite them to a Reformation of their Ways, and a Practice of his Precepts.

In those Threatenings he hath manifested his Goodness; And can it be bad in him to defend what his Goodness hath Commanded, and Execute what his Goodness hath Threatned? His Truth is also a part of his Goodness; for it is nothing but his Goodness performing that which it obliged him to do. That is the first thing, Severe Judgments in the World are no Impeachments of his Goodness.

2. The Afflictions God inflicts upon his Servants, are no violations of his Goodness. Sometimes God aflicts Men for their Temporal and Eternal good; for the good of their Grace in order to the good of their Glory; which is a more excellent Good than Afflictions can be an Evil. The Heathens reflected upon Ulysses his hardship as a Mark of Jupiter's goodness and love to him, that his Virtue might be more conspicuous. By strong Persecutions brought upon the Church, her Lethargy is Cur'd, her Chaff Purg'd, the glorious Fruit of the Gospel brought forth in the lives of her Children; The number of her Proselytes multiply, and the strength of her weak ones is increased, by the Testimonies of Courage and Constancy which the stronger present to them in their Sufferings. Do those good Effects speak a want of goodness in God, who brings them into this condition? By those he cures his People of their Corruptions, and promotes their Glory by giving them the honor of suffering for the Truth, and raiseth their Spirits to a Divine pitch. The Epistles of Paul to the Ephes. Philip. and Colos. wrote by him while he was in Nero 's Chains, seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when was at liberty.

As for Afflictions, they are Marks of a greater measure of Fatherly Goodness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted Prosperity, who are not dignified with that glorious Title of Sons, as those are that he chasteneth . Can any question the goodness of the Father that Corrects his Child to prevent his Vice and Ruin, and breed him up to Virtue and Honor? It would be a Cruelty in a Father leaving his Child without Chastisement, to leave him to that Misery an ill Education would reduce him to. God judges us that we might not be condemned with the World . Is it not a greater Goodness to separate us from the World to Happiness by his Scourge, than to leave us to the condemnation of the World for our Sins? Is it not a greater Goodness to make us smart here, than to see us scorched hereafter? As he is our Shepherd, it is no part of his Enmity or ill will to us, to make us feel sometimes the weight of his Shepherds Crook, to reduce us from our Stragling. The visiting our Transgressions with Rods, and our Iniquities with Stripes, is one of the Articles of the Covenant of Grace, wherein the greatest luster of his Goodness appears . The advantage and gain of our Afflictions is a greater Testimony of his Goodness to us, than the pain can be of his Unkindness: The Smart is well recompensed by the accession of clearer Graces.

It is rather a high Mark of his Goodness, than an Argument for the want of it, that he treats us as his Children, and will not suffer us to run into that Destruction we are more ambitious of, than the Happiness he hath prepared for us, and by Afflictons he fits us for the partaking of, by imparting his Holiness together with the inflicting his Rod . That is the third thing, God is Good.

The Fourth thing is, The manifestation of this Goodness in Creation, Redemption, and Providence.

1. In Creation. This is apparent from what hath been said before, That no other Attribute could be the Motive of his Creating, but his Goodness; His Goodness was the Cause that he made anything, and his Wisdom was the Cause that he made everything in Order and Harmony: He pronounced everything good, i. e. such as became his Goodness to bring forth into Being, and rested in them more, as they were Stamps of his Goodness, than as they were Marks of his Power, or Beams of his Wisdom: And if all Creatures were able to answer to this Question, What that was which Created them? The Answer would be, Almighty Power, but employed by the Motion of Infinite Goodness . All the varieties of Creatures are so many Apparitions of this Goodness. Though God be one, yet he cannot appear as a God but in variety. As the greatness of Power is not manifest but in variety of Works, and an Acute Understanding not discovered, but in variety of Reasonings; so an Infinite Goodness is not so apparent, as in variety of Communications.

1. The Creation proceeds from Goodness. 'It is the Goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing. Because God is Good, things have a Being; If he had not been Good, nothing could have been Good; Nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not: Nothing but Goodness could have communicated to things an Excellency, which before they wanted. Being is much more Excellent than nothing. By this Goodness therefore the whole Creation was brought out of the dark Womb of Nothing: This formed their Natures, this beautified them with their several Ornaments and Perfections, whereby everything was enabled to act for the good of the Common World. God did not Create things because he was a Living Being; but because he was a Good Being: No Creature brought forth anything in the World merely because it is; but because it is good, and by a Communicated Goodness fitted for such a Production. If God had been the Creating Principle of things, only as he was a Living Being, or as he was an Understanding Being; then all things should have partaken of Life and Understanding; because all things were to bear some Characters of the Deity upon them. If by Understanding solely God were the Creator of all things, all things should have born the Mark of the Deity upon them, and should have been more or less Understanding; but he Created things as he was Good, and by Goodness he renders all things more or less like himself: Hence everything is accounted more noble, not in regard of its Being, but in regard of the beneficialness of its Nature. The Being of things was not the End of God in Creating, but the Goodness of their Being: God did not rest from his Works, because they were his Works, i. e. because they had a Being, but because they had a Good Being; because they were naturally useful to the Universe: Nothing was more pleasing to him, than to behold those Shadows and Copies of his own Goodness in his Works.

2. Creation was the first act of Goodness without himself. When he was alone from Eternity, he contented himself with himself, abounding in his own Blessedness, delighting in that abundance: He was incomprehensively rich in the possession of an unstained Felicity. This Creation was the first Efflux of his Goodness without himself: For the work of Creation cannot be called a work of Mercy: Mercy supposeth a Creature miserable; but that which hath no Being, is subject to no Misery: For to be Miserable, supposeth a Nature in Being, and deprived of that Good which belongs to the pleasure and felicity of Nature; but since there was no Being, there could be no Misery: The Creation therefore was not an act of Mercy, but an act of sole Goodness: And therefore it was the Speech of an Heathen, That when God first set upon the Creation of the World, he transformed himself into Love and Goodness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . This led forth and animated his Power, the first moment it drew the Universe out of the Womb of Nothing; And

3. There is not one Creature but hath a Character of his Goodness. The whole World is a Map to Represent, and a Herald to proclaim this Perfection: 'It is as difficult not to see something of it in every Creature with the Eye of our Minds, as it is not to see the Beams of the Shining Sun with those of our Bodies. He is good to all: He is therefore good in all; Not a drop of the Creation, but is a drop of his Goodness.

These are the Colours worn upon the Heads of every Creature. As in every Spark the light of the Fire is manifested, so doth every grain of the Creation wear the visible Badges of this Perfection. In all the Lights, the Father of Lights hath made the riches of Goodness apparent; No Creature is silent in it, 'tis legible to all Nations in every work of his hands. That as it is said of Christ, In the Volume of thy Book it is written of me: In the Volume of the Book of the Scripture 'tis written of me, and my Goodness in Redemption; So it may be said of God, In the Volume of the Book of the Creature 'tis written of me, and my Goodness in Creation. Every Creature is a Page in this Book, whose Line is gone through all the Earth, and their Words to the end of the World . Though indeed the less Goodness in some is obscured by the more resplendent Goodness he hath imparted unto others: What an admirable piece of Goodness is it to communicate Life to a Fly? How should we stand gazing upon it, till we turn our Eye inwards, and view our own Frame, which is much more ravishing?

But let us see the Goodness of God in the Creation of Man.

1. In the Being and Nature of Man. God hath with a liberal hand confer'd upon every Creature the best Being it was capable of in that Station and Order, and conducing to that end and use in the World he intended it for: But when you have run over all the measures of Goodness God hath poured forth upon other Creatures, you will find a greater fullness of it in the Nature of Man, whom he hath placed in a more Sublime Condition, and endued with choicer Prerogatives than other Creatures: He was made but little lower than the Angels, and much more loftily crowned with glory and honor than other Creatures . Had it not been for Divine Goodness, this Excellent Creature had lain wrapped up in the Abyss of nothing: Or if he had called it out of nothing, there might have been less of Skill, and less of Goodness displayed in the forming of it, and a lesser kind of Being imparted to it, than what he hath confer'd.

1. How much of Goodness is visible in his Body? God drew out some part of the Dust of the Ground, and Copy'd out this Perfection, as well as that of his Power, on that mean Matter, by erecting it into the form of Man, quickening that Earth by the Inspiration of a living Soul : Of this Matter he composed an Excellent Body in regard of the Majesty of the Face, Erectness of its Stature, and Grace of every Part: How neatly hath he wrought this Tabernacle of Clay, this Earthly House, as the Apostle calls it ? A curious wrought piece of Needle-work, a Comely Artifice; an Embroyder'd Case for an Harmonious Lute: What variety of Members, with a due proportion, without confusion, beautiful to sight, excellent for use, powerful for strength? It hath Eyes to conduct its Motion, to serve in Matter for the Food and and delight of the Understanding: Ears to let in the pleasure of Sounds, to convey Intelligence of the Affairs of the World, and the Counsels of Heaven to a more noble Mind: It hath a Tongue to Express, and sound forth what the learned Inhabitant in it thinks; and Hands to act what the inward Counselor directs; and Feet to support the Fabric: 'It is tempered with a kindly Heat, and an Oyly Moisture for Motion, and endued with conveyances for Air to qualify the fury of the Heat, and Nourishment to supply the decays of Moisture: 'It is a Cabinet fitted by Divine Goodness for the enclosing a rich Jewel; a Palace made of Dust, to lodge in it the Viceroy of the World: An Instrument disposed for the operations of the Nobler Soul, which he intended to unite to that Refined Matter: What is there in the situation of every part, in the proportion of every Member, in the usefulness of every Limb and String to the Offices of the Body, and Service of the Soul? What is there in the whole Structure that doth not inform us of the Goodness of God?

2. But what is this to that goodness which shines in the Nature of the Soul? Who can express the wonders of that Comeliness that is wrapped up in this Mask of Clay? A Soul endued with a clearness of Understanding and freedom of Will: Faculties no sooner framed, but they were able to produce the Operations they were intended for; A Soul that excelled the whole World, that comprehended the whole Creation; A Soul that evidenced the extent of its Skill, in giving names to all that variety of Creatures, which had issued out of the hand of Divine Power ; A Soul able to discover the Nature of other Creatures, and manage and conduct their Motions. In the Ruines of a Palace we may see the Curiosity displayed, and the Cost expended in the building of it; In the Ruines of this fallen Structure, we still find it capable of a mighty Knowledge; a Reason able to regulate Affairs, govern States, order more Mighty and Massy Creatures, find out witty Inventions; There is still an Understanding to irradiate the other Faculties, a Mind to contemplate its own Creator, a Judgment to discern the differences between Good and Evil, Vice and Virtue, which the Goodness of God hath not granted to any lower Creature. These Excellent Faculties, together with the Power of Self-reflection, and the swiftness of the Mind in running over the things of the Creation, are astonishing Gleams of the vast Goodness of that Divine Hand which ennobled this Frame. To the other Creatures of this World, God had given out some small Mites from his Treasury; but in the Perfections of Man, he hath opened the more secret parts of his Exchequer, and liberally bestowed those Doles, which he hath not expended upon the other Creatures on Earth.

3. Besides this, He did not only make Man so noble a Creature in his Frame, but he made him after his own Image in Holiness. He imparted to him a Spark of his own Comeliness, in order to a communion with himself in Happiness, had Man stood his ground in his trial, and used those Faculties well, which had been the gift of his Bountiful Creator: He made Man after his Image, after his own Image; That as a Coyn bears the Image of the Prince, so did the Soul of Man the Image of God: Not the Image of Angels, though the speech be in the Plural Number, [Let us make Man.] 'It is not to a Creature, but to a Creator; Let us, that are his Makers, make him in the Image of his Makers. God Created Man, Angels did not Create him; God Created Man in his own Image, not therefore in the Image of Angels: The Nature of God, and the Nature of Angels are not the same. Where in the whole Scripture is Man said to be made after the Image of Angels? God made Man not in the Image of Angels, to be conformed to them as his Prototype; but in the Image of the Blessed God, to be conformed to the Divine Nature: That as he was conformed to the Image of his Holiness, he might also partake of the Image of his Blessedness, which without it could not be attained: For as the felicity of God could not be clear without an unspotted Holiness, so neither can there be a glorious Happiness without Purity in the Creature; This God provided for in his Creation of Man, giving him such accomplishments in those two Excellent Pieces of Soul and Body, that nothing was wanting to him but his own will, to instate him in an invariable Felicity. He was possessed with such a Nature by the hand of Divine Goodness, such a loftiness of Understanding, and purity of Faculties, that he might have been forever Happy as well as the standing Angels: And he was placed in such a Condition, that moved the envy of fallen Spirits; He had as much Grace bestowed upon him, as was proportionable to that Covenant God then made with him: The Tenor of which was, That his Life should continue so long as his Obedience, and his Happiness endure so long as his Integrity: And as God by Creation had given him an Integrity of Nature, so he had given him a power to persist in it, if he would. Herein is the Goodness of God displayed, that he made Man after his own Image.

4. As to the Life of Man in this World, God by an immense Goodness Copied out in him the whole Creation, and made him an Abridgment of the higher and lower World; a little World in a greater one. The Link of the two Worlds, of Heaven and Earth, as the Spiritual and Corporeal Natures are united in him, the Earth in the Dust of his Body, and the Heavens in the Crystal of his Soul: He hath the upper Springs of the Life of Angels in his Reason, and the nether Springs of the Life of Animals in his Sense. God displayed those Virtues in Man, which he had discovered in the rest of the lower Creation; but besides the communication which he had with Earth in his Nature, God gave him a participation with Heaven in his Spirit. A mere Bodily Being he hath given to the Heavens, Earth, Elements; a Vegetative Life, or a Life of Growth he hath vouchsafed to the Plants of the Ground: He hath stretched out his Liberality more to Animals and Beasts by giving them Sense. All these hath his Goodness linked in Man, Being, Life, Sense, with a richer Dole than any of those Creatures have received in a Rational, Intellectual Life, whereby he approacheth to the Nature of Angels. This some of the Jews understood. God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a living Soul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Breath of Lives, in the Hebrew; not one sort of Life, but that variety of Lives which he had imparted to other Creatures: All the Perfections scattered in other Creatures, do unitedly meet in Man: So that Philo might well call him every Creature, the Model of the whole Creation: His Soul is Heaven, and his Body is Earth . So that the Immensity of his Goodness to Man, is as great as all that Goodness you behold in Sensitive and Intelligible things.

5. All this was free Goodness. God Eternally possessed his own Felicity in himself, and had no need of the Existence of anything without himself for his satisfaction. Man before his Being could have no good qualities to invite God to make him so Excellent a Fabric: For being nothing, he was as unable to allure and merit, as to bring himself into Being; Nay, he Created a Multitude of Men, who he foresaw, would behave themselves in as ungrateful a manner; as if they had not been his Creatures, but had bestowed that rich variety upon themselves without the hand of a Superior Benefactor.

How great is this Goodness, that hath made us Models of the whole Creation, tied together Heaven and Earth in our Nature, when he might have rankt us among the lower Creatures of the Earth, made us mere Bodies as the Stones, or mere Animals as the Brutes, and denied us those Capacious Souls, whereby we might both know him and enjoy him? What could Man have been more, unless he had been the Original, which was impossible? He could not be greater than to be an Image of the Deity, an Epitome of the whole Creation. Well may we cry out with the Psalmist, O Lord, our Lord, How Excellent is thy Name, the Name of thy Goodness in all the Earth? How more particularly in Man: What is Man that thou art mindful of him? What is a little Clod of Earth and Dust, that thou shouldest ennoble him with so rich a Nature, and Engrave upon him such Characters of thy Immense Being?

6. The Goodness of God appears in the Conveniencies he provided for, and gave to Man. As God gave him a Being Morally perfect in regard of Righteousness, so he gave him a Being Naturally perfect in regard of delightful Conveniencies, which was the fruit of Excellent Goodness; Since there was no quality in Man, to invite God to provide him so Rich a World, nor to bestow upon him so Comely a Being.

1. The World was made for Man. Since Angels have not need of anything in this World, and are above the Conveniencies of Earth and Air, it will follow, that Man being the noblest Creature on the Earth, was the more immediate End of the visible Creation. All Inferior things are made to be subservient to those that have a more excellent Prerogative of Nature; and therefore all things for Man, who exceeds all the rest in Dignity: As Man was made for the honor of God, so the World was made for the support and delight of Man, in order to his performing the Service due from him to God. The Empire God settled Man in as his Lieutenant over the Works of his Hands, when he gave him possession of Paradise, is a clear manifestation of it: God put all things under his Feet, and gave him a deputed Dominion over the rest of the Creatures under himself, as the absolute Sovereign; Thou madest him to have Dominion over the Works of thy Hands, thou hast put all things under his Feet, all Sheep and Oxen, yea, and the Beasts of the Field, the Foul of the Air, and the Fish of the Sea, yea, and whatsoever passeth through the Paths of the Sea. What less is witnest to by the Calamity, all Creatures were subjected to by the Corruption of Mans Nature? Then was the Earth Curs'd, and a black Cloud flung upon the Beauty of the Creation, and the strength and vigor of it languisheth to this day under the Curse of God , and groans under that vanity the Sin of Man subjected it to . The Treasons of Man against God, brought Misery upon that which was framed for the use of Man: As when the Majesty of a Prince is violated by the Treason and Rebellion of his Subjects, all that which belongs to them, and was before the free Gift of the Prince to them is forfeit, their Habitations, Palaces, Cattle, all that belongs to them bear the Marks of his Sovereign fury: Had not the Delicacies of the Earth been made for the use of Man, they had not fallen under the Indignation of God upon the Sin of Man.

God Crown'd the Earth with his Goodness to gratify Man; gave Man a right to serve himself of the delightful Creatures he had provided; yea, and after Man had forfeited all by Sin, and God had washed again the Creature in a Deluge, he renews the Creation, and delivers it again into the hand of Man, binding all Creatures to pay a Respect to him, and Recognize him as their Lord, either spontaneously or by force; and commissions them all to fill the heart of Man with food and gladness: And he loves all Creatures as they conduce to the good of, and are serviceable to his prime Creature which he set up for his own glory: And therefore when he loves a Person, he loves what belongs to him: He takes care of Jacob and his Cattle: Of Penitent Nineveh and their Cattle: As when he sends Judgments upon Men, he destroys their Goods.

2. God richly furnished the World for Man. He did not only Erect a stately Palace for his Habitation, but provided all kind of Furniture as a Mark of his Goodness for the Entertainment of his Creature Man: He Archt over his Habitation with a bespangled Heaven, and Floor'd it with a solid Earth, and spread a curious wrought Tapestry upon the Ground where he was to tread, and seemed to sweep all the Rubbish of the Chaos to the two uninhabitable Poles. When at the first Creation of the Matter the Waters covered the Earth, and rendered it uninhabitable for Man, God Drain'd them into the proper Chanels he had founded for them, and set a bound that they might not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the Earth . They fled and hasted away to their proper Stations, as if they were ambitious to deny their own Nature, and content themselves with an Imprisonment for the convenient Habitation of him, who was to be appointed Lord of the World. He hath set up standing Lights in the Heaven, to direct our Motion and to regulate the Seasons: The Sun was Created, that Man might see to go forth to his Labor : Both Sun and Moon though set in the Heaven, were formed to give light on the Earth . The Air is his Aviary, the Sea and Rivers his Fish-ponds, the Valleys his Granary, the Mountains his Magazine; The first afford Man Creatures for Nourishment, the other Metals for Perfection: The Animals were Created for the support of the life of Man, the Herbs of the Ground were provided for the maintenance of their Lives, and gentle Dews, and moistening Showers, and in some places slimy Flouds appointed to render the Earth fruitful, and capable to offer to Man and Beast what was fit for their Nourishment. He hath peopled every Element with a variety of Creatures both for necessity and delight; all furnished with useful qualities for the Service of Man. There is not the most despicable thing in the whole Creation, but it is endued with a Nature to contribute something for our Welfare; either as Food to Nourish us when we are Healthful, or as Medicine to Cure us when we are Distemper'd, or as a Garment to Cloath us when we are Naked, and Arm us against the Cold of the Season, or as a refreshment when we are weary, or as a delight when we are sad; All serve for Necessity or Ornament, either to spread our Table, beautify our Dwellings, furnish our Closets, or store our Wardrobes: The whole Earth is full of his Riches. Nothing but by the rich Goodness of God is exquisitely accomodated in the numerous brood of things, immediately or mediately for the use of Man; All in the issue conspire together to render the World a delightful Residence for Man. And therefore all the living Creatures were brought by God to attend upon Man after his Creation, to receive a Mark of his Dominion over them by the imposition of their Names . He did not only give variety of Senses to Man, but provided variety of delightful Objects in the World for every Sense; The Beauties of Light and Colours for our Eye, the Harmony of Sounds for our Ear, the Fragrancy of Odours for our Nostrils, and a Delicious Sweetness for our Palates: Some have qualities to pleasure all, everything a quality to pleasure one or other: He doth not only present those things to our view, as Rich Men do in Ostentation their Goods: He makes us the Enjoyers as well as the Spectators, and gives us the Use as well as the Sight: And therefore he hath not only given us the Sight, but the Knowledge of them. He hath set up a Sun in the Heavens, to expose their outward Beauty and Conveniencies to our Sight; and the Candle of the Lord is in us, to expose their inward Qualities and Conveniencies to our Knowledge, that we might serve ourselves of, and rejoice in all this Furniture wherewith he hath garnished the World; and have wherewithal to employ the inquisitiveness of our Reason, as well as gratify the pleasure of our Sense: And particularly, God provided for Innocent Man a delightful Mansion-house, a place of more special Beauty and Curiosity, the Garden of Eden, a delightful Paradise, a Model of the Beauties and Pleasures of another World, wherein he had placed whatsoever might contribute to the felicity of a Rational, and Animal Life, the Life of a Creature composed of Mire and Dust, of Sense and Reason : Besides the other Delicacies consign'd in that place to the use of Man, there was a Tree of Life provided to maintain his Being, and nothing denied in the whole compass of that Territory but one Tree, that of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which was no Mark of an ill will in his Creator to him, but a Reserve of God's absolute Sovereignty, and a Trial of Mans voluntary Obedience. What blur was it to the Goodness of God, to reserve one Tree for his own propriety, when he had given to Man in all the rest such numerous Marks of his Rich Bounty and Goodness? What Israel after Mans Fall enjoyed sensibly, Nehemiah calls great Goodness . How inexpressible then was that Goodness manifested to Innocent Man, when so small a part of it indulged to the Israelites after the Curse upon the Ground, is called, as truly it Merits, such great Goodness? How can we pass through any part of this great City, and cast our Eyes upon the well Furnisht Shops, stored with all kinds of Commodities, without reflections upon this Goodness of God, starting up before our Eyes in such varieties, and plainly telling us, that he hath accommodated all things for our use, suited things both to supply our need, content a reasonable Curiosity, and delight us in our aims at, and passage to our Supreme End?

3. The Goodness of God appears in the Laws he hath given to Man, the Covenant he made with him. It had not been agreeable to the Goodness of God, to let a Creature governable by a Law, be without a Law to regulate him, his Goodness then which had broke forth in the Creation, had suffered an Eclipse and obscurity in his Government. As Infinite Goodness was the Motive to Create, so Infinite Goodness was the Motive of his Government. And this appears;

1. In the fitting the Law to the Nature of Man. It was rather below than above his strength; he had an integrity in his Nature to answer the Righteousness of the Precept. God Created Man upright; his Nature was suited to the Law, and the Law to his Nature; it was not above his understanding to know it, nor his will to embrace it, nor his passions to be regulated by it: The Law and his Nature were like two exact straight Lines, touching one another in every part when joined together: God exacted no more by his Law, than what was written by Nature in his Heart: He had a knowledge by Creation to observe the Law of his Creation, and he fell not for want of a Righteousness in his Nature: He was enabled for more than was commanded him, but willfully indisposed to less than he was able to perform. The Precepts were easy, not only becoming the Authority of a Sovereign to exact, but the Goodness of a Father to demand, and the Ingenuity of a Creature and a Son to pay. His Commands are not grievous; the observance of them had filled the Spirit of Man with an extraordinary Contentment. It had been no less a pleasure and a delightful satisfaction to have kept the Law in a Created State, than it is to keep it in some measure in a Renew'd State: The Renewed Nature finds a suitableness in the Law to kindle a delight : It could not then have anywise shook the Nature of an upright Creature, nor have been a burden too heavy for his Shoulders to bear. Though he had not a Grace given him above Nature, yet he had not a Law given him that surmounted his Nature: It did not exceed his Created strength, and was suited to the Dignity and Nobility of a Rational Nature: It was a just Law, and therefore not above the Nature of the Subject that was bound to obey it. And had it been impossible to be observed, it had been unrighteous to be Enacted: It had not been a matter of Divine Praise, and that seven times a day; as it is, Seven times a day do I praise thee, because of thy Righteous Judgments. The Law was so Righteous, that Adam had every whit as much reason to bless God in his Innocence for the Righteousness of it, as David had with the Relics of Enmity against it: His Goodness shines so much in his Law, as merits our Praise of him, as he is a Sovereign Law-giver, as well as a Gracious Benefactor in the imparting to us a Being.

2. In fitting it for the Happiness of Man. For the satisfaction of his Soul, which finds a Reward in the very act of keeping it, Great peace in the loving it; for the preservation of Human Society, wherein consists the External felicity of Man. It had been inconsistent with Divine Goodness, to enjoin Man anything that should be oppressive and uncomfortable. Bitterness cannot come from that which is altogether Sweet: Goodness would not have obliged the Creature to anything, but what is not only free from damaging him, but wholly conducing to his Welfare, and Perfective of his Nature. Infinite Wisdom could not order anything, but what was agreeable to Infinite Goodness. As his Laws are the most Rational, as being the contrivance of Infinite Wisdom: so they are the best, as being the Fruit of Infinite Goodness. His Laws are not only the acts of his Sovereign Authority, but the Effluxes of his Loving-Kindness, and the Conductors of Man to an enjoyment of a greater Bounty: He minds as well the promotion of his Creatures Felicity, as the asserting his own Authority: As good Princes make Laws for their Subjects benefit, as well as their own honor. What was said of a more difficult and burdensome Law long after Mans fall, may much more be said of the easy Law of Nature in the state of Mans Innocence, that it was for our good . He never pleaded with the Israelites for the observation of his Commands upon the account of his Authority, so much as upon the score of their benefit by them.

And when his Precepts were broken, he seems sometimes to be more grieved for Men's impairing their own felicity by it, than for their violating his Authority; Oh that thou hadst hearken'd to my Commandments, then had thy Peace been as a River! Goodness cannot prescribe a thing prejudicial: whatsoever it enjoins, is beneficial to the Spiritual and Eternal Happiness of the Rational Creature: This was both the design of the Law given, and the end of the Law. Christ in his Answer to the Young man's Question, refers him to the Moral Law, (which was the Law of Nature in Adam ) as that whereby Eternal Life was to be gained: Which evidenceth, that when the Law was first given as the Covenant of Works, it was for the happiness of Man; and the end of giving it was, that Man might have Eternal Life by it: There would else be no strength or truth in that Answer of Christ to that Ruler. And therefore Stephen calls the Law given by Moses, which was the same with the Law of Nature in Adam, The living Oracles: He enjoined Men's Services to them not simply for his own Glory, but his Glory in Men's Welfare: As if there were any Being better than himself, his Goodness and Righteousness would guide him to love that better than himself; because it is Good and Righteous to love that best which is most amiable: So if there were any that could do us more good, and shour down more happiness upon us than himself, he would be content we should obey that as Sovereign, and Steer our Course according to his Laws: If God be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him: If the observance of the Precepts of Baal be more beneficial to you; If you can advance your Nature by his Service, and gain a more mighty Crown of Happiness than by mine, follow him with all my heart: I never intended to enjoin you anything to impair, but increase your Happiness. The chief design of God in his Law, is the Happiness of the Subject; and Obedience is intended by him, as a means for the attaining of Happiness, as well as preserving his own Sovereignty: This is the reason why he wished that Israel had walked in his ways, that their time might have endured forever, Psal. 81.13, 15, 16. And by the same reason, this was his intendment in his Law given to Man, and his Covenant made with Man at the Creation, that he might be fed with the finest part of his Bounty, and be satisfied with Honey out of the Eternal Rock of Ages. To Paraphrase his Expression there. The Goodness of God appears further;

3. In engaging Man to Obedience by Promises and Threatenings. A Threatning is only mentioned, Gen. 2.17. but a Promise is implied: If Eternal Death were fixed for Transgression, Eternal Life was thereby designed for Obedience: And that it was so, the Answer of Christ to the Ruler evidenceth, that the first intendment of the Precept was the Eternal Life of the Subject, ordered to obey it.

1. God might have acted, in settling his Law only as a Sovereign. Though he might have dealt with Man upon the score of his absolute Dominion over him as his Creature, and signified his pleasure upon the right of his Sovereignty, threatening only a Penalty if Man transgressed, without the promising a bountiful acknowledgment of his Obedience by a Reward as a Benefactor: yet he would treat with Man in gentle Methods, and Rule him in a tract of Sweetness as well as Sovereignty; He would preserve the rights of his Dominion in the Authority of his Commands, and honor the condescensions of his Goodness in the allurements of a Promise. He that might have solely demanded a compliance with his Will, would kindly Article with him, to oblige him to observe him out of love to himself as well as Duty to his Creator; that he might have both the interest of avoiding the Threatned Evil to affright him, and the interest of attaining the promised Good to allure him to Obedience. How doth he value the Title of Benefactor above that of a Lord! when he so kindly Sollicites, as well as Commands, and engageth to Reward that Obedience which he might have absolutely claimed as his due, by enforcing fears of the severest Penalty. His Sovereignty seems to stoop below itself for the elevation of his Goodness; and he is pleased to have his Kindness more taken notice of than his Authority. Nothing imported more condescension than his bringing forth his Law in the Nature of a Covenant, whereby he seems to humble himself, and veil his Superiority to treat with Man as his equal, that the very manner of his Treatment might oblige him in the richest Promises he made to draw him, and the startling Threatenings he pronounced to link him to his Obedience: And therefore is it observable, that when after the Transgression of Adam God comes to deal with him, he doth not do it in that thundering Rigor, which might have been expected from an enraged Sovereign, but in a gentle Examination, Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat? To the Woman, he said no more than, What is this that thou hast done? And in the Scripture we find, when he cites the Israelites before him for their Sin, he Expostulates with them not so much upon the absolute right he had to challenge their Obedience, as upon the equity and reasonableness of his Law, which they had transgressed: That by the same Argument of sweetness wherewith he would attract them to their Duty, he might shame them after their Offence .

2. By the Threatenings he manifests his Goodness as well as by his Promises. He Promises that he might be a Rewarder, and Threatens that he might not be a Punisher; the one is to elevate our hope, and the other to excite our fear, the two Passions whereby the Nature of Man is managed in the World. He imprints upon Man Sentiments of a Misery by Sin in his thundering Commination, that he might engage him the more to embrace and be guided by the Motives of Sweetness in his gracious Promises. The design of them was to preserve Man in his due bounds, that God might not have occasion to blow upon him the Flames of his Justice; to suppress those irregular Passions, which the Nature of Man (though Created without any disorder) was capable of entertaining upon the appearance of suitable Objects; and to keep the Waves from swelling upon any turning Wind, that so Man being modest in the use of the Goodness God had allowed him, might still be capable of fresh streams of Divine Bounty, without ever falling under his Righteous Wrath for any Transgression. What a prospect of Goodness is in this proceeding, to disclose Mans Happiness to be as durable as his Innocence; and set before a Rational Creature the extremist Misery due to his Crime, to affright him from neglecting his Creator, and making unworthy Returns to his Goodness? What could be done more by Goodness to suit that passion of fear which was implanted in the Nature of Man, than to assure him he should not degenerate from the Righteousness of his Nature, and violate the Authority of his Creator, without falling from his own Happiness, and sinking into the most deplorable Calamity?

3. The Reward he promised, manifests yet further his Goodness to Man. It was his Goodness to intend a Reward to Man: No necessity could oblige God to Reward Man, had he continued obedient in his Created State: For in all Rewards which are truly Merited, besides some kind of equality to be considered between the Person doing Service, and the Person Rewarding, and also between the Act performed, and the Reward bestowed, there must also be considered the condition of the Person doing the Service, that he is not obliged to do it as a Duty, but is at his own choice whether to offer it or no: But Man being wholly dependent on God in his Being and Preservation, having nothing of his own, but what he had received from the hands of Divine Bounty, his Service was due by the strongest Obligation to God: But there was no natural Engagement on God to return a Reward to him; for Man could return nothing of his own, but that only which he had received from his Creator: It must be pure Goodness that gives a gracious Reward for a due Debt, to receive his own from Man, and return more than he had received. A Divine Reward doth far surmount the value of a Rational Service.

It was therefore a mighty Goodness to stipulate with Man, that upon his Obedience he should enjoy an Immortality in that Nature. The Article on Mans part was Obedience, which was necessarily just, and founded in the Nature of Man: He had been unjust, ungrateful, and violated all Laws of Righteousness, had he committed any act unworthy of one that had been so great a Subject of Divine Liberality: But the Article on God's part of giving a perpetual Blessedness to Innocent Man, was not founded upon Rules of strict Justice and Righteousness, for that would have argu'd God to be a Debtor to Man; but that God cannot be to the Work of his hands, that had received the Materials of his Being and Acting from him, as the Vessel doth from the Potter. But this was founded only on the Goodness of the Divine Nature, whereby he cannot but be kind to an innocent and holy Creature. The Nature of God inclined him to it by the Rules of Goodness, but the Service of Man could not claim it by the Rules of Justice without a Stipulation: So that the Covenant whereby God obliged himself to continue the Happiness of Man upon the continuance of his Obedience, in the Original of it, springs from pure Goodness, though the performance of it upon the fulfilling Condition required in the Creature, was founded upon the Rules of Righteousness and Truth, after Divine Goodness had brought it forth.

God did Create Man for a Reward and Happiness: Now God's implanting in the Nature of Man a desire after Happiness, and some higher Happiness than he had in Creation invested him in, doth evidence that God did not Create Man only for his own Service, but for his attaining a greater Happiness. All Rational Creatures are possessed with a Principle of seeking after Good, the highest Good, and God did not plant in Man this Principle in vain: It had not been Goodness to put this Principle in Man, if he had designed never to bestow a Happiness on Man for his Obedience; This had been Repugnant to the Goodness and Wisdom of God; And the Scripture doth very Emphatically express, the Felicity of Man to be the design of God in the first forming him and moulding him a Creature, as well as working him a new Creature, He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God: He framed this Earthly Tabernacle for a Residence in an Eternal Habitation, and a better Habitation than an Earthly Paradise. What we expect in the Resurrection, that very same thing God did in Creation intend us for; but since the Corruption of our Natures, we must undergo a dissolution of our Bodies, and may have just reason of a despondency, since Sin hath seemed to change the course of God's Bounty, and brought us under a Curse. He hath given us the Earnest of his Spirit, as an assurance that he will perform that very self same thing, the conferring that Happiness upon renewed Creatures for which he first formed Man in Creation, when he compacted his Earthly Tabernacle of the dust of the Ground, and reared it up before him.

4. It was a mighty Goodness that God should give Man an Eternal Reward. That an Eternity of Reward was promised, is implied in the Death that was threatened upon Transgression: Whatsoever you conceive the threatened Death to be, either for Nature, or duration upon Transgression; of the same Nature and duration you must suppose the life to be, which is implied upon his constancy in his Integrity. As Sin would render him an Eternal Object of God's hatred, so his Obedience would render him an Eternally amiable Object to his Creator, as the standing Angels are preserved and confirmed in an entire Felicity and Glory. Though the threatening be only expressed by God, yet the other is implied, and might easily be concluded from it by Adam. And one reason why God only expressed the Threatning, and not the Promise, was, because man might collect some hopes and expectations of a perpetual Happiness from that Image of God which he beheld in himself, and from the large Provision he had made for him in the World, and the Commission given him to Increase and Multiply, and to Rule as a Lord over his other Works; whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being exposed to such an extraordinary Calamity as an Eternal Death, without some signification of it from God. 'It is easily concludable, that Eternal Life was supposed to be promised, to be confer'd upon him if he stood, as well as Eternal Death to be inflicted on him if he Rebell'd . Now this Eternal Life was not due to his Nature, but it was a pure Beam, and Gift of Divine Goodness: For there was no proportion between Mans Service in his Innocent Estate, and a Reward so great both for Nature and duration: It was a higher Reward than can be imagined either due to the Nature of Man, or upon any Natural Right claimable by his Obedience. All that could be expected by him, was but a Natural Happiness, not a Supernatural: As there was no necessity upon the account of Natural Righteousness, so there was no necessity upon the account of the Goodness of God to elevate the Nature of Man to a Supernatural Happiness, merely because he Created him: For though it be necessary for God, when he would Create, in regard of his Wisdom, to Create for some End, yet it was not necessary that End should be a Supernatural End and Happiness, since a Natural Blessedness had been sufficient for Man. And though God in Creating Angels and Men intellectual and Rational Creatures, did make them necessary for himself and his own Glory, yet it was not necessarily for him to order either Angels or Men to such a Felicity as consists in a clear Vision, and so high a Fruition of himself: for all other things are made by him for himself, and yet not for the Vision of himself. God might have Created Man only for a Natural Happiness, according to the Perfection of his Natural Faculties, and had dealt Bountifully with him, if he had never intended him a Supernatural Blessedness, and an Eternal Recompence: But what a largeness of Goodness is here, to design Man in his Creation for so rich a Blessedness as an Eternal Life, with the Fruition of himself? He hath not only given to Man all things which are necessary, but designed for Man that which the poor Creature could not imagine: He garnished the Earth for him, and garnished him for an Eternal Felicity, had he not by slighting the Goodness of God stripped himself of the present, and forfeited his future Blessedness.

2. The second thing is the manifestation of this Goodness in Redemption. The whole Gospel is nothing but one entire Mirror of Divine Goodness: The whole of Redemption is wrapped up in that one Expression of the Angels Song, Luke 2.14. Good will towards Man. The Angels Sang but one Song before, which is upon Record, but the Matter of it seems to be the Wisdom of God chiefly in Creation. Job 38.7. compar. 9. v. 5, 6, 8, 9. The Angels are there meant by the Morning Stars; The visible Stars of Heaven were not distinctly formed, when the Foundations of the Earth were laid: And the Title of the Sons of God verifies it, since none but Creatures of understanding are dignified in Scripture with that Title. There they Celebrate his Wisdom in Creation; here his Goodness in Redemption, which is the entire Matter of the Song.

1. Goodness was the Spring of Redemption. All and every part of it owes only to this Perfection the appearance of it in the World. This only excited Wisdom to bring forth from so great an Evil as the Apostasy of Man, so great a Good as the Recovery of him. When Man fell from his Created Goodness, God would evidence that he could not fall from his Infinite Goodness: That the greatest Evil could not surmount the ability of his Wisdom to contrive, nor the Riches of his Bounty to present us a Remedy for it. Divine Goodness would not stand by a Spectator, without being Reliever of that Misery Man had plunged himself into; but by astonishing Methods it would recover him to Happiness, who had wrested himself out of his hands, to fling himself into the most deplorable Calamity: And it was the greater, since it surmounted those Natural Inclinations, and those strong Provocations, which he had to shower down the Power of his Wrath. What could be the Source of such a Procedure, but this Excellency of the Divine Nature; Since no Violence could force him, nor was there any Merit to persuade to such a Restoration? This under the name of his Love, is rendered the sole cause of the Redeeming Death of the Son: It was to commend his Love with the highest Gloss, and in so singular a manner that had not its parallel in Nature, nor in all his other Works, and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other Attribute . It must be only a miraculous Goodness that induced him to expose the Life of his Son to those difficulties in the World, and Death upon the Cross for the freedom of sordid Rebels: His great End was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his Nature, as might be attractive to his Creature, remove its shakings and tremblings, and encourage its approaches to him. 'It is in this he would not only manifest his Love, but assume the name of Love. By this Name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son, God is love. In this is manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World, that we might live through him. He would take the Name he never expressed himself in before. He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his Promise; so he would be known of old: He is Goodness in regard of the grandeur of his Affection in the Mission of his Son: And therefore he would be known by the Name of Love now in the days of the Gospel.

2. It was a Pure Goodness. He was under no obligation to pity our Misery, and repair our Ruines: He might have stood to the terms of the first Covenant, and exacted our Eternal Death, since we had committed an infinite Transgression: He was under no tie to put off the Robes of a Judge for the Bowels of a Father, and erect a Mercy-seat above his Tribunal of Justice . The reparation of Man had no necessary connection with his Creation; It follows not, that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty Power, that it must lift us out of willful Misery by a mighty Grace. Certainly that God who had no need of Creating us, had far less need of Redeeming us: For since he Created one World, he could have as easily destroyed it and reared another. It had not been unbecoming the Divine Goodness or Wisdom, to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plunged himself, since he was Criminal by his own will, and therefore Miserable by his own fault: Nothing could necessitate this Reparation. If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature, he is further from any Obligation by the meanness of Man to repair Human Nature. There was less necessity to restore Man, than to restore the fallen Angels: What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him, since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation? He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery. Could it be a salary for anything we had done: Alas! we are so far from Meriting it, that by our daily Demerits, we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it: We could not have complained of him, if he had left us in the Misery we had courted, since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted. When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption, he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God . It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness, which received no addition by Mans Redemption; If he had been blessed by it, it had been a goodness to himself, as well as to the Creature: It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving anything from us; but it was a pure Goodness, streaming out of itself, without bringing anything into itself for the Perfection of it: There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love, but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit.

3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity. In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation, without those distinct Labors and Offices of each Person; and without those raised Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration. In this there are distinct Functions: The Grace of the Father, the Merit of the Son, and the Efficacy of the Spirit; The Father makes the Promise of Redemption, the Son Seals it with his Blood, and the Spirit applies it; The Father Adopts us to be his Children, the Son Redeems us to be his Members, and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples. In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice; The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God; and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove, to fit him for his work; And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues, manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel.

4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness. 'It is by this we are delivered from the Corruption of our Nature, the Ruin of our Happiness, the deformity of our Sins, and the punishment of our Transgressions: He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkened, and from the Slavery wherein we were fettered. When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime, instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited, he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected: His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice, and while he chaseth him out of Paradise, he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation; and is in the whole, more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness, than charge him with the horror of his Crimes : 'It is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives; and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart: He doth not only relieve our wants, but restores us to our Dignity. 'It is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honor, than barely to supply his present Necessity; 'It is an admirable Pity, whereby he was inclined to Redeem us, and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolved to exalt us. What can be desired more of him than his Goodness hath granted? He hath sought us out when we were lost, and Ransom'd us when we were Captives: He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd, and raised us when we were Dead. In Creation he reared us from nothing, in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity, and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy, and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation.

5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation. He gave Man a Being in Creation, but did not draw him from inexpressible Misery by that act. His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature: His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief, than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye. There is more of his Bounty expressed in that one Verse, ( So God loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son. ) than there is in the whole Volume of the World: 'It is an incomprehensible so; a so, that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze, and few Comment upon, or understand the dimensions of this so. In Creation he formed an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground; in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son: It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation.

1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it. In Creation mere nothing was vanquished, to bring us into Being; In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquered for the enjoyment of our Restoration; In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures; In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity; A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspired the Dust of Men's Bodies with a living Soul; but the Blood of his Son must be shed, and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturned, to lay the Foundation of our renewed Happiness. In the first, Heaven did but speak, and the Earth was formed; In the second, Heaven itself must sink to Earth, and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State.

2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation, in regard of its Cost. This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation; The redemption of one Soul is precious , much more costly than the whole Fabric of the World, or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created: For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure, and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory; For this God must be made Man, Eternity must suffer Death, the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle, and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave; he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem, and die upon a Cross on Calvary: Unspotted Righteousness must be made Sin, and unblemisht Blessedness be made a Curse. He was at no other Expence than the Breath of his Mouth to form Man; the Fruits of the Earth could have maintained Innocent Man without any other Cost; but his broken Nature cannot be healed without the invaluable Medicine of the Blood of God. View Christ in the Womb and in the Manger, in his weary Steps and hungry Bowels, in his Prostrations in the Garden, and in his clodded drops of Bloody Sweat; View his Head pierced with a Crown of Thorns, and his Face besmeared with the Soldiers Slabber; View him in his march to Calvary, and his Elevation on the painful Cross with his Head hanged down, and his Side streaming Blood; View him pelted with the Scoffs of the Governors, and the Derisions of the Rabble; And see in all this, what Cost Goodness was at for Mans Redemption. In Creation his Power made the Sun to shine upon us, and in Redemption his Bowels sent a Son to die for us.

3. This Goodness of God in Redemption is greater than that manifested in Creation, in regard of Mans desert of the contrary. In the Creation, as three was nothing without him to allure him to the Expressions of his Bounty; so there was nothing that did damp the Inclinations of his Goodness: The nothing from whence the World was drawn, could never merit, nor demerit a Being, because it was nothing: As there was nothing to engage him, so there was nothing to disoblige him: As his Favor could not be merited, so neither could his Anger be deserved: But in this he finds ingratitude against the former Marks of his Goodness, and Rebellion against the sweetness of his Sovereignty: Crimes unworthy of the dews of Goodness, and worthy of the sharpest strokes of Vengeance: And therefore the Scripture advanceth the honor of it above the Title of mere Goodness, to that of Grace ; because Men were not only unworthy of a Blessing, but worthy of a Curse. An Innocent Nothing more deserves Creation, than a Culpable Creature deserves an exemption from Destruction. When Man fell, and gave occasion to God to repent of his Created Work, his ravishing Goodness surmounted the occasions he had of repenting, and the provocations he had to the destruction of his Frame.

4. It was a greater Goodness than was expressed towards the Angels.

1. A greater Goodness than was expressed towards the standing Angels. The Son of God did no more expose his Life for the confirmation of those that stood, than for the restoration of those that fell: The Death of Christ was not for the holy Angels, but for sinful Man; They needed the Grace of God to confirm them, but not the Death of Christ to restore or preserve them; They had a beloved Holiness to be established by the powerful Grace of God, but not any abominable Sin to be expiated and blotted out by the Blood of God; They had no Debt to pay but that of Obedience; but we had both a Debt of Obedience to the Precepts, and a Debt of Suffering to the Penalty after the Fall. Whether the holy Angels were confirmed by Christ, or no, is a question: some think they were, from Colos. 1.20. where things in Heaven are said to be reconciled; but some think that place signifies no more than the Reconciliation of things in Heaven, if meant of the Angels, to things on Earth, with whom they were at enmity in the Cause of their Sovereign; or the Reconciliation of things in Heaven to God, is meant the glorified Saints who were once in a State of Sin, and whom the Death of Christ upon the Cross reached, though dead long before. But if Angels were confirmed by Christ, it was by him not as a slain Sacrifice, but as the Sovereign head of the whole Creation, appointed by God to gather all things into one, which some think to be the intendment of, Ephes. 1.10. where all things, as well those in Heaven, as those in Earth are said to be gathered together in one in Christ. Where is a syllable in Scripture of his being Crucified for Angels, but only for Sinners? Not for the Confirmation of the one, but the Reconciliation of the other; So that the Goodness whereby God continued those Blessed Spirits in Heaven through the effusions of his Grace, is a small thing to the restoring us to our forfeited Happiness through the Streams of Divine Blood. The preserving a Man in life, is a little thing and a smaller benefit than the raising a Man from Death. The rescuing a Man from an ignominious Punishment lays a greater obligation, than barely to prevent him from committing a capital Crime. The preserving a Man standing upon the top of a steep Hill is more easy, than to bring a Crippled and Tissical Man from the bottom to the top. The continuance God gave to the Angels, is not so signal a Mark of Goodness, as the deliverance he gave to us, since they were not sunk into Sin, nor by any Crime fallen into Misery.

2. His Goodness in Redemption is greater than any Goodness expressed to the Fallen Angels. 'It is the wonder of his Goodness to us, that he was mindful of Fall'n Man, and careless of Fall'n Angels; That he should visit Man, wallowing in Death and Blood with the Day-spring from on high, and never turn the Egyptian darkness of Devils into a cheerful day; When they Sinn'd Divine Thunder dashed them into Hell; When Man Sinn'd Divine Blood wafts the Fallen Creature from his Misery: The Angels wallow in their own Blood forever, while Christ is made partaker of our Blood, and wallows in his Blood, that we might not forever corrupt in ours; They tumbled down from Heaven, and Divine Goodness would not vouchsafe to catch them: Man tumbles down, and Divine Goodness holds out a hand drenched in the Blood of him, that was from the Foundations of the World, to lift us up, Heb. 2.16. He spared not those dignified Spirits, when they Revolted; and spared not punishing his Son for dusty Man, when he offended; when he might as well forever have let Man lie in the Chains wherein he had entangled himself, as them. We were as fit Objects of Justice as they, and they as fit Objects of Goodness as we: they were not more wretched by their Fall than we, and the poverty of our Nature rendered us more unable to recover ourselves, than the dignity of theirs did them; They were his Reuben his first born, they were his Might and the beginning of his Strength, yet those Elder Sons he neglected to prefer the Younger; They were the Prime and Golden Pieces of Creation, not laden with gross Matter, yet they lie under the Ruines of their Fall, while Man, Lead in comparison of them, is refined for another World.

They seemed to be fitter Objects of Divine Goodness in regard of the eminency of their Nature above the Human: One Angel excelled in Endowments of Mind and Spirit, vastness of Understanding, greatness of Power, all the Sons of Men; they were more capable to praise him, more capable to serve him, and because of the Acuteness of their Comprehension more able to have a due Estimate of such a Redemption, had it been afforded them; yet that Goodness which had Created them so Comely, would not lay itself out in restoring the Beauty they had defaced. The Promise was of bruising the Serpents head for us, not of listing up the Serpents head with us; Their Nature was not assumed, nor any command given them to believe or repent: Not one Devil spared, not one Apostate Spirit recovered, not one of those eminent Creatures restored; Everyone of them hath only a prospect of Misery without any glimpse of Recovery: They were ruined under one Sin, and we repaired under many. All his Redeeming Goodness was laid out upon Man, Psal. 144.3. What is Man that thou takest knowledge of him, and the Son of Man that thou makest account of him? Making account of him above Angels; As they fell without any tempting them, so God would leave them to rise without any assisting them. I know the Schools trouble themselves to find out the reasons of this peculiarity of Grace to Man, and not to them; because the whole Human Nature fell, but only a part of the Angelical; The one Sinned by a Seduction, and the other by a sullenness without any Tempter: Every Angel Sinned by his own proper will, whereas Adams Posterity Sinned by the will of the first Man, the common Root of all. God would deprive the Devil of any glory in the satisfaction of his envious desire to hinder Man from attainment and possession of that Happiness which himself had lost. The weakness of Man below the Angelical Nature might excite the Divine Mercy: And since all the things of the lower World were Created for Man, God would not lose the honor of his Works, by losing the immediate End for which he framed them. And finally because in the Restoration of Angels, there would have been only a Restoration of one Nature that was not comprehensive of the Nature of Inferior things: But after all such Conjectures Man must sit down, and acknowledge Divine Goodness to be the only Spring without any other Motive. Since Infinite Wisdom could have contrived a way for Redemption for Fallen Angels, as well as for Fallen Man, and restored both the one and the other; Why might not Christ have assumed their Nature as well as ours into the unity of the Divine Person, and suffered the Wrath of God in their Nature for them, as well as in his Human Soul for us? 'It is as conceivable that two Natures might have been assumed by the Son of God, as well as three Souls be in Man distinct, as some think there are.

3. To Enhance this Goodness yet higher; It was a greater Goodness to us, than was for a time manifested to Christ himself. To demonstrate his Goodness to Man in preventing his Eternal Ruin, he would for a while with-hold his Goodness from his Son, by exposing his Life as the price of our Ransom; not only subjecting him to the Derisions of Enemies, Desertions of Friends, and Malice of Devils, but to the inexpressible bitterness of his own Wrath in his Soul, as made an offering for Sin.

The Particle so, John 3.16. seems to intimate this Supremacy of Goodness: He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son. He so loved the World, that he seemed for a time not to love his Son in comparison of it, or equal with it. The Person to whom a Gift is given, is in that regard accounted more valuable than the Gift or Present made to him: Thus God valued our Redemption above the worldly Happiness of the Redeemer, and sentenceth him to an Humiliation on Earth, in order to our Exaltation in Heaven: He was desirous to hear him groaning, and see him bleeding, that we might not groan under his Frowns, and bleed under his Wrath: He spared not him, that he might spare us; refused not to strike him, that he might be well pleased with us; drenched his Sword in the Blood of his Son, that it might not forever be wet with ours; but that his Goodness might forever triumph in our Salvation: He was willing to have his Son made Man, and die, rather than Man should perish, who had delighted to ruin himself; He seemed to degrade him for a time from what he was . But since he could not be united to any but to an intellectual Creature, he could not be united to any viler and more sordid Creature than the Earthly Nature of Man. And when this Son in our Nature prayed, that the Cup might pass from him, Goodness would not suffer it, to show how it valued the manifestation of itself in the Salvation of Man above the preservation of the Life of so dear a Person.

In particular wherein this Goodness appears;

1. The first Resolution to Redeem, and the means appointed for Redemption, could have no other inducement but Divine Goodness. We cannot too highly value the Merit of Christ; but we must not so much extend the Merit of Christ, as to draw a value to Eclipse the Goodness of God: Though we owe our Redemption and the Fruits of it to the Death of Christ, yet we owe not the first Resolutions of Redemption, and assumption of our Nature, the means of Redemption, to the Merit of Christ. Divine Goodness only, without the association of any Merit, not only of Man but of the Redeemer himself, begat the first purpose of our Recovery: He was singled out, and predestinated to be our Redeemer, before he took our Nature to Merit our Redemption. God sent his Son, is a frequent Expression in the Gospel of St. John . To what end did God send Christ, but to Redeem? The purpose of Redemption therefore preceded the pitching upon Christ as the means and procuring Cause of it, i. e. of our actual Redemption, but not of the Redeeming purpose; the end is always in intention before the means. God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son; The love of God to the World was first in Intention and the Order of Nature, before the will of giving his Son to the World. His Intention of saving was before the Mission of a Savior: So that this Affection rose not from the Merit of Christ, but the Merit of Christ was directed by this Affection. It was the Effect of it, not the Cause. Nor was the union of our Nature with his Merited by him; All his Meritorious acts were performed in our Nature: The Nature therefore wherein he performed it, was not Merited; that Grace which was not, could not Merit what it was: He could not Merit that Humanity, which must be assumed before he could Merit anything for us, because all Merit for us must be offered in the Nature which had offended. 'It is true Christ gave himself, but by the order of Divine Goodness; he that begat him pitched upon him, and called him to this great work: He is therefore called the Lamb of God, as being set apart by God to be a propitiating and appeasing Sacrifice. He is the Wisdom of God, since from the Father he reveals the Council and Order of Redemption. In this regard he calls God his God in the Prophet, and in the Evangelist; though he was big with affection for the accomplishment, yet he came not to do his own will, but the will of Divine Goodness: His own will it was too, but not principally as being the first Wheel in Motion, but subordinate to the eternal will of Divine Bounty. It was by the will of God that he came, and by his will he drank the dreggy Cup of Bitterness. Divine Justice laid upon him the iniquity of us all, but Divine Goodness intended it for our Rescue: Divine Goodness singled him out, and set him apart: Divine Goodness invited him to it: Divine Goodness commanded him to effect it, and put a Law into his heart, to bias him in the performing of it: Divine Goodness sent him, and Divine Goodness moved Justice to bruise him; and after his Sacrifice, Divine Goodness accepted him, and caressed him for it. So earnest was it for our Redemption, as to give out special and irreversible Orders: Death was commanded to be endured by him for us, and Life commanded to be imparted by him to us . If God had not been the Mover, but had received the proposal from another, he might have heard it, but was not bound to grant it: His Sovereign Authority was not under any obligation to receive another's Sponsion for the miserable Criminal. As Christ is the head of Man, so God is the head of Christ ; He did nothing but by his directions, as he was not a Mediator but by the Constitution of Divine Goodness. As a liberal Man deviseth liberal things , so did a bountiful God devise a bountiful act, wherein his kindness and love as a Savior appeared: He was possessed with the resolutions to manifest his Goodness in Christ in the beginning of his way , before he descended to the act of Creation. This intention of Goodness preceded his making that Creature Man, who he foresaw would fall, and by his fall disjoynt, and entangle the whole Frame of the World without such a provision.

2. In God's giving Christ to be our Redeemer, he gave the highest gift that it was possible for Divine Goodness to bestow. As there is not a greater God than himself to be conceived, so there is not a greater Gift for this great God to present to his Creatures: Never did God go farther in any of his excellent Perfections than this. 'It is such a Dole that cannot be transcended with a choicer: He is as it were come to the last Mite of his Treasure. And though he could Create Millions of Worlds for us, he cannot give a greater Son to us. He could abound in the expressions of his Power in new Creations of Worlds, which have not yet been seen, and in the luster of his Wisdom in more stately Structures; but if he should frame as many Worlds, as there are Mites of Dust and Matter in this, and make everyone of them as bright and glorious as the Sun; Though his Power and Wisdom would be more signalized, yet his Goodness could not, since he hath not a choicer Gift to bless those brighter Worlds withal, than he hath confer'd upon this. Nor can Immense Goodness contrive a richer means to conduct those Worlds to Happiness, than he hath both invented for this World, and presented it with. It cannot be imagined, that it can extend itself farther, than to give a Gift equal with himself; a Gift as dear to him as himself. His Wisdom, had it studied millions of Eternities, (excuse the Expression, since Eternity admits of no Millions, it being an interminable duration) it could have found out no more to give, this Goodness could have bestowed no more, and our necessity could not have required a greater offering for our relief. When God intended in Redemption the manifestation of his highest Goodness, it could not be without the Donation of the choicest Gift. As when he would ensure our Comfort, he swears by himself, because he cannot swear by a greater : So when he would ensure our Happiness, he gives us his Son, because he cannot give a greater, being equal with himself. Had the Father given himself in Person, he had given one first in order, but not greater in Essence and glorious Perfections: It could have been no more than the life of God, that should then have been laid down for us; and so it was now, since the Human Nature did not subsist but in his Divine Person.

1. 'It is a greater Gift than Worlds, or all things purchased by him. What was this Gift but the Image of his Person, and the brightness of his Glory ? What was this Gift, but one as rich as Eternal Blessedness could make him? What was this Gift, but one that possessed the fullness of Earth, and the more Immense Riches of Heaven? 'It is a more valuable Present, than if he presented us with thousands of Worlds of Angels and inferior Creatures, because his Person is incomparably greater, not only than all conceivable, but inconceivable Creations: We are more obliged to him for it, than if he had made us Angels of the highest Rank in Heaven, because it is a Gift of more value than the whole Angelical Nature, because he is an infinite Person; and therefore infinitely transcends whatsoever is finite, though of the highest Dignity. The Wounds of an Almighty God for us are a greater Testimony of Goodness, than if we had all the other Riches of Heaven and Earth. This Perfection had not appeared in such an astonishing grandeur, had it pardoned us without so rich a satisfaction; that had been pardon to our Sin, not a God of our Nature. God so loved the World that he pardoned it, had not sounded so great and so good, as God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son. Est aliquid in Christo formosius Servatore. There is something in Christ more Excellent and Comely than the Office of a Savior; the greatness of his Person is more Excellent, than the Salvation procured by his Death: It was a greater Gift than was bestowed upon innocent Adam, or the holy Angels. In the Creation, his Goodness gave us Creatures for our use: In our Redemption, his Goodness gives us what was dearest to him for our Service; our Sovereign in Office to benefit us, as well as in a Royalty to govern us.

2. It was a greater Gift, because it was his own Son. Not an Angel. It had been a mighty Goodness to have given one of the lofty Seraphims; A greater Goodness to have given the whole Corporation of those glorious Spirits for us; those Children of the most high: But he gave that Son, whom he commands all the Angels to Worship , and all Men to adore, and pay the lowest Homage to ; that Son that is to be honored by us, as we honor the Father ; that Son which was his delight; his delights in the Hebrew, wherein all the delights of the Father were gathered in one, as well as of the whole Creation; and not simply a Son, but an only begotten Son, upon which Christ lays the stress with an Emphasis . He had but one Son in Heaven or Earth, one Son from an unviewable Eternity, and that one Son he gave for a degenerate World; this Son he Consecrated for evermore a Priest . The word of the Oath makes the Son; The peculiarity of his Sonship heightens the Goodness of the Donor. It was no meaner a Person that he gave to empty himself of his glory, to fulfil an obedience for us, that we might be rendered happy partakers of the Divine Nature. Those that know the natural affection of a Father to a Son, must judge the affection of God the Father to the Son infinitely greater, than the affection of an Earthly Father to the Son of his Bowels. It must be an unparalleled Goodness, to give up a Son that he loved with so ardent an Affection for the Redemption of Rebels: Abandon a glorious Son to a dishonorable Death for the security of those that had violated the Laws of Righteousness, and endeavored to pull the Sovereign Crown from his head. Besides, being an only Son, all those Affections center'd in him, which in Parents would have been divided among a multitude of Children: So then, as it was a Testimony of the highest Faith and Obedience in Abraham to offer up his only begotten Son to God ; So it was the Triumph of Divine Goodness, to give so great, so dear a Person for so little a thing as Man; and for such a piece of nothing and vanity, as a Sinful World.

3. And this Son given to Rescue us by his Death. It was a gift to us; For our sakes he descended from his Throne, and dwelt on Earth; For our sakes he was made Flesh, and infirm Flesh; For our sakes he was made a Curse, and scorched in the Furnace of his Fathers Wrath; For our sakes he went naked, armed only with his own Strength into the Lists of that Combat with the Devils, that led us Captive. Had he given him to be a Leader for the conquest of some Earthly Enemies, it had been a great Goodness to display his Banners, and bring us under his Conduct; but he sent him to lay down his Life in the bitterest and most inglorious manner, and exposed him to a cursed Death for our Redemption from that dreadful Curse which would have broken us to pieces, and irreparably have crushed us. He gave him to us, to suffer for us as a Man, and Redeem us as a God; to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin, by translating the Punishment upon himself, which was merited by us. Thus was he made low to exalt us, and debased to advance us, made poor to enrich us ; and Eclipsed to brighten our sullied Natures, and Wounded that he might be a Physician for our languishments: He was ordered to taste the bitter Cup of Death, that we might drink of the Rivers of Immortal Life, and pleasures: To submit to the frailties of the Human Nature, that we might possess the Glories of the Divine: He was ordered to be a Sufferer, that we might be no longer Captives; and to pass through the Fire of Divine Wrath, that he might purge our Nature from the dross it had contracted. Thus was the Righteous given for Sin, the Innocent for Criminals, the Glory of Heaven for the Dregs of Earth, and the Immense Riches of a Deity expended to re-stock Man.

4. And a Son that was exalted for what he had done for us by the order of Divine Goodness. The Exaltation of Christ was no less a signal Mark of his miraculous Goodness to us, than of his Affection to him; since he was obedient by Divine Goodness to die for us, his advancement was for his obedience to those Orders. The Name given to him above every Name, was a repeated Triumph of this Perfection; Since his Passion was not for himself, he was wholly Innocent, but for us who were Criminal. His advancement was not only for himself as Redeemer, but for us as Redeem'd: Divine Goodness center'd in him, both in his Cross and in his Crown; for it was for the purging our Sins he sat down on the Right hand of the Majesty on high : And the whole blessed Society of Principalities and Powers in Heaven admire this Goodness of God, and ascribe to him Honor, Glory, and Power for advancing the Lamb slain . Divine Goodness did not only give him to us, but gave him Power, Riches, Strength, and Honor, for manifesting this Goodness to us, and opening the passages for its fuller conveyances to the Sons of Men. Had not God had thoughts of a perpetual Goodness, he would not have settled him so near him, to manage our Cause, and testified so much Affection to him on our behalf. This Goodness gave him to be debas'd for us, and ordered him to be Enthron'd for us: As it gave him to us Bleeding, so it would give him to us Triumphing; that as we have a share by Grace in the Merits of his Humiliation, we might partake also of the glories of his Coronation; that from first to last, we may behold nothing but the Triumphs of Divine Goodness to fallen Man.

5. In bestowing this Gift on us, Divine Goodness gives whole God to us. Whatsoever is great and excellent in the Godhead, the Father gives us, by giving us his Son: The Creator gives himself to us in his Son Christ. In giving Creatures to us, he gives the Riches of Earth; In giving himself to us, he gives the Riches of Heaven, which surmount all understanding: 'It is in this Gift he becomes our God, and passeth over the Title of all that he is for our use and benefit, that every Attribute in the Divine Nature may be claimed by us; not to be imparted to us whereby we may be deified; but employed for our welfare, whereby we may be blessed. He gave himself in Creation to us in the Image of his Holiness; but in Redemption he gave himself in the Image of his Person: He would not only communicate the Goodness without him, but bestow upon us the infinite Goodness of his own Nature; That that which was his own End and Happiness, might be our End and Happiness, viz. Himself.

By giving his Son, he hath given himself; and in both Gifts he hath given all things to us: The Creator of all things is eminently all things: He hath given all things into the hands of his Son, and by consequence given all things into the hands of his Redeem'd Creatures, by giving them him to whom he gave all things; Whatsoever we were invested in by Creation, whatsoever we were deprived of by Corruption, and more, he hath deposited in safe hands for our enjoyment: And what can Divine Goodness do more for us? What further can it give unto us, than what it hath given, and in that Gift designed for us?

3. This Goodness is enhanc'd by considering the State of Man in the first Transgression, and since.

1. Mans first Transgression. If we should rip up every Vein of that first Sin, should we find any want of Wickedness to excite a just Indignation? What was there but ingratitude to Divine Bounty, and Rebellion against Divine Sovereignty? The Royalty of God was attempted, the Supremacy of Divine knowledge above Mans own knowledge envied; the Riches of Goodness whereby he lived and breathed, slighted: There is a discontent with God upon an unreasonable Sentiment, that God had denied a knowledge to him, which was his right and due; when there should have been an humble acknowledgment of that unmerited Goodness, which had not only given him a Being above other Creatures, but placed him the Governor and Lord of those that were inferior to him: What alienation of his understanding was there from knowing God, and of his will from loving him? A Debauch of all his Faculties: A Spiritual Adultery, in preferring not only one of God's Creatures, but one of his desperate Enemies before him; thinking him a wiser Counselor than Infinite Wisdom, and imagining him possessed with kinder affections to him, than that God who had newly Created him. Thus he joins in League with Hell against Heaven, with a Fallen Spirit against his Bountiful Benefactor, and enters into Society with Rebels, that just before commenc'd a War against his and their common Sovereign: He did not only falter in, but cast off the Obedience due to his Creator; endeavored to purloin his Glory, and actually murdered all those that were virtually in his Loins. Sin entered into the World by him, and Death by Sin, and passed upon all Men, taking them off from their Subjection to God, to be Slaves to the damned Spirits, and Heirs of their Misery: And after all this he adds a foul imputation on God, taxing him as the Author of his Sin, and thereby stains the Beauty of his Holiness. But notwithstanding all this, God stops not up the Floodgates of his Goodness, nor doth he entertain Fiery Resolutions against Man, but brings forth a healing Promise; and sends not an Angel upon Commission, to Reveal it to him, but Preaches it himself to this Forlorn and Rebellious Creature.

2. Could there be anything in this Fallen Creature, to allure God to the Expression of his Goodness? Was there any good action in all his Carriage, that could plead for a readmission of him to his former State? Was there one good quality left, that could be an Orator to persuade Divine Goodness to such a gracious Procedure? Was there any Moral Goodness in Man after this Debauch, that might be an Object of Divine Love? What was there in him, that was not rather a provocation, than an allurement? Could you expect that any Perfection in God, should find a Motive in this ungrateful Apostate, to open a Mouth for him, and be an Advocate to support him, and bring him off from a just Tribunal? Or after Divine Goodness had begun to pity and plead for Man, is it not wonderful that it should not discontinue the Plea, after it found Mans Excuse to be as black as his Crime ; and his Carriage upon his Examination, to be as disobliging as his first Revolt? It might well be expected, that all the Perfections in the Divine Nature, would have entered into an association eternally to treat this Rebel according to his deserts. What attractives were there in a silly Worm, much less in such complete Wickedness, inexcusable Enmity, infamous Rebellion, to design a Redeemer for him, and such a Person as the Son of God to a Fleshy Body, an Eclipse of Glory, and an ignominious Cross? The meanness of Man was further from alluring God to it, than the dignity of Angels.

3. Was there not a World of demerit in Man, to animate Grace as well as Wrath against him. We were so far from deserving the opening any Streams of Goodness, that we had merited Floods of devouring Wrath. What were all Men, but Enemies to God in a high manner? Every offense was infinite, as being committed against a Being of Infinite Dignity; it was a stroke at the very Being of God; A resistance of all his Attributes; it would degrade him from the height and Perfection of his Nature; it would not by its good will suffer God to be God. If he that hates his Brother, is a Murderer of his Brother, he that hates his Creator, is a Murderer of the Deity; and every Carnal mind is Enmity to God : Every Sin envies him his Authority by breaking his Precept; and envies him his Goodness by defacing the Marks of it: Every Sin comprehends in it more than Men or Angels can conceive: That God who only hath the clear apprehensions of his own Dignity, hath the sole clear apprehensions of Sins Malignity. All Men were thus by Nature; those that Sinned before the coming of the Redeemer, had been in a State of Sin; those that were to come after him would be in a State of Sin by their Birth, and be Criminals as soon as ever they were Creatures. All Men, as well the Glorifi'd as those in the Flesh at the coming of the Redeemer, and those that were to be born after, were considered in a State of Sin by God, when he bruis'd the Redeemer for them: All were filthy and unworthy of the Eye of God: All had employed the Faculties of their Souls, and the Members of their Bodies, which they enjoyed by his Goodness, against the interest of his Glory. Every Rational Creature had made himself a Slave to those Creatures over whom he had been appointed a Lord; subjected himself as a Servant to his Inferior, and strutted as a Superior against his Liberal Sovereign, and by every Sin rendered himself more a Child of Satan, and Enemy of God, and more worthy of the Curses of the Law, and the Torments of Hell: Was it not now a mighty Goodness that would surmount those high Mountains of Demerit, and elevate such Creatures by the Depression of his Son? Had we been possessed of the highest Holiness, a Reward had been the natural effect of Goodness: It was not possible that God should be unkind to a Righteous and Innocent Creature: His Grace would have Crown'd that, which had been so agreeable to him: He had been a denier of himself, had he numbered Innocent Creatures in the Rank of the Miserable. But to be kind to an Enemy: To run Counter to the vastness of Demerit in Man, was a Superlative Goodness; a Goodness triumphing above all the provocations of Men, and Pleas of Justice. It was an abounding Goodness of Grace: Where Sin abounded, Grace did much more abound, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It swelled above the heights of Sin, and triumphed more than all his other Attributes.

4. Man was reduced to the lowest Condition. Our Crimes had brought us to the lowest Calamity; we were brought to the dust, and prepared for Hell. Adam had not the boldness to Request, and therefore we may Judge he had not the least hopes of Pardon; he was sunk under Wrath, and could have expected no better an Entertainment, than the Tempter, whose solicitations he submitted to: We had cast the Diadem from our heads, and lost all our Original Excellency: We were lost to our own Happiness, and lost to our Creators Service, when he was so kind as to send his Son to seek us, Matth. 18.11. and so liberal as to expend his Blood for our cure and preservation. How great was that Goodness that would not abandon us in our Misery, but remit our Crimes, and rescue our Persons, and ransom our Souls by so great a Price from the Rights of Justice, and horrors of Hell, we were so fitted for?

5. Every Age multiplied Provocations. Every Age of the World proved more degenerate; The Traditions which were purer and more lively among Adams immediate Posterity, were more dark among his further Descendants. Idolatry, whereof we have no Marks in the old World before the Deluge, was frequent afterwards in every Nation: Not only the knowledge of the true God was lost, but the Natural Reverential thoughts of a Deity were expelled. Hence God's were dubb'd according to Men's humors; and not only Human Passions, but Brutish Vices ascribed to them: As by the Fall we were become less than Men, so we would fancy God no better than a Beast, since Beasts were Worshipped as God's ; yea, fancied God no better than a Devil; since that Destroyer was Worshipped instead of the Creator; and a Homage paid to the Powers of Hell that had ruined them, which was due to the Goodness of that Benefactor, who had made them and preserved them in the World. The vilest Creatures were Deifi'd; Reason was debas'd below Common Sense: And Men adored one end of a Log, while they warmed themselves with the other ; as if that which was Ordain'd for the Kitchen, were a fit Representation for God in the Temple. Thus were the Natural Notions of a Deity depraved; the whole World drenched in Idolatry; And though the Jews were free from that gross abuse of God, yet they were sunk also into loathsome Superstitions, when the Goodness of God brought in his designed Redeemer and Redemption into the World.

6. The impotence of Man enhanceth this Goodness. Our own Eye did scarce pity us, and it was impossible for our own hands to relieve us; we were insensible of our Misery, in love with our Death; we courted our Chains, and the noise of our fettering Lusts were our Music, serving diverse Lusts and Pleasures. Our Lusts were our Pleasures; Satan's Yoke was as del ghtful to us to bear, as to him to impose: Instead of being his Opposers in his attempts against us, we were his voluntary Seconds, and every whit as willing to embrace, as he was to propose his Ruining Temptations. As no Man can recover himself from Death, so no Man can recover himself from Wrath; he is as unable to Redeem, as to Create himself; he might as soon have stripped himself of his being, as put an end to his Misery; his Captivity would have been endless, and his Chains remediless, for anything he could do to knock them off, and deliver himself; he was too much in love with the Sink of Sin, to leave wallowing in it, and under too powerful a hand, to cease frying in the Flames of Wrath. As the Law could not be obeyed by Man, after a corrupt Principle had entered into him, so neither could Justice be satisfied by him after his Transgression. The Sinner was indebted, but Bankrupt; As he was unable to pay a Mite of that Obedience he owed to the Precept, because of his enmity; so he was unable to satisfy what he owed to the Penalty, because of his Feebleness: He was as much without love to observe the one, as without strength to bear the other: He could not because of his Enmity be subject to the Law, or compensate for his Sin, because he was without strength. His strength to offend was great; but to deliver himself a mere nothing. Repentance was not a thing known by Man after the fall, till he had hopes of Redemption; and if he had known and exercised it, what compensation are the Tears of a Malefactor for an injury done to the Crown, and attempting the life of his Prince? How great was Divine Goodness; not only to pity Men in this State, but to provide a strong Redeemer for them? Oh Lord my Strength, and my Redeemer, said the Psalmist : When he found out a Redeemer for our Misery, he found out a Strength for our Impotency.

To conclude this: Behold the Goodness of God, when we had thus unhandsomely dealt with him; had nothing to allure his Goodness, Multitudes of Provocations to incense him, were reduced to a conditon as low as could be, fit to be the Matter of his Scoffs, and the Sport of Divine Justice, and so weak that we could not repair our own Ruines; then did he open a Fountain of fresh Goodness in the Death of his Son, and sent forth such delightful Streams, as in our Original Creation, we could never have tasted; Not only overcame the Resentments of a Provoked Justice, but magnified itself by our lowness, and strengthened itself by our weakness: His Goodness had before Created an Innocent, but here it saves a Malefactor; and sends his Son to die for us, as if the Holy of Holies were the Criminal, and the Rebel the Innocent. It had been a pompous Goodness, to have given him as a King; but a Goodness of greater grandeur, to expose him as a Sacrifice for Slaves and Enemies: Had Adam remained Innocent, and proved thankful for what he had received, it had been great Goodness to have brought him to glory; But to bring filthy and rebellious Adam to it, surmounts by inexpressible degrees, that sort of Goodness he had experimented before; Since it was not from a light Evil, a tolerable Curse unawares brought upon us, but from the Yoke we had willingly submitted to, from the power of darkness we had courted, and the furnace of wrath we had kindled for ourselves. What are we dead Dogs, that he should behold us with so gracious an Eye? This Goodness is thus enhanced, if you consider the State of Man in his first Transgression and after.

4. This Goodness further appears in the high advancement of our Nature, after it had so highly offended. By Creation, we had an affinity with Animals in our Bodies, with Angels in our Spirits, with God in his Image; but not with God in our Nature till the Incarnation of the Redeemer. Adam by Creation was the Son of God, but his Nature was not one with the Person of God: He was his Son as Created by him, but had no affinity to him by virtue of union with him: But now Man doth not only see his Nature in multitudes of Men on Earth, but by an astonishing Goodness, beholds his Nature united to the Deity in Heaven: That as he was the Son of God by Creation, he is now the Brother of God by Redemption; for with such a Title doth that Person, who was the Son of God as well as the Son of Man, honor his Disciples : And because he is of the same Nature with them, he is not ashamed to call them Brethren, Heb. 2.11.

Our Nature which was infinitely distant from, and below the Deity, now makes one Person with the Son of God. What Man sinfully aspired to, God hath graciously granted, and more: Man aspired to a likeness in knowledge, and God hath granted him an affinity in union. It had been astonishing Goodness to Angelize our Natures, but in Redemption Divine Goodness hath acted higher, in a sort to Deifie our Natures. In Creation our Nature was exalted above other Creatures on Earth; in our Redemption our Nature is exalted above all the Host of Heaven: We were higher than the Beasts as Creatures, but lower than the Angels; But by the Incarnation of the Son of God, our Nature is elevated many steps above them. After it had sunk itself by Corruption below the Bestial Nature, and as low as the Diabolical, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in our Nature Bodily, but never in the Angels, Angelically. The Son of God descended to dignify our Nature, by assuming it, and ascended with our Nature to have it crowned above those standing Monuments of Divine Power, and Goodness. That Person that descended in our Nature into the Grave, and in the same Nature was raised up again, is in that same Nature set at the right hand of God in Heaven, far above all Principality and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and every Name that is named. Our Refined Clay by an indissoluble union with this Divine Person, is honored to sit forever upon a Throne above all the Tribes of Seraphims and Cherubims; and the Person th • t wears it, is the head of the good Angels, and the conqueror of the bad; The one are put under his Feet, and the other commanded to adore him, that purged our Sins in our Nature : That Divine Person in our Nature receives Adoration from the Angels; but the Nature of Man is not ordered to pay any Homage and Adorations to the Angels. How could Divine Goodness to Man more magnify itself? As we could not have a lower descent than we had by Sin, How could we have a higher ascent, than by a substantial participation of a Divine Life in our Nature in the unity of a Divine Person? Our Earthly Nature is joined to a Heavenly Person; our undone Nature united to one equal with God . It may truly be said, that Man is God, which is infinitely more glorious for us, than if it could be said, Man is an Angel. If it were Goodness to advance our Innocent Nature above other Creatures, the advancement of our degenerate Nature above Angels deserves a higher Title than mere Goodness. 'It is a more gracious act, than if all Men had been transformed into the pure Spiritual Nature of the loftiest Cherubims.

5. This Goodness is manifest in the Covenant of Grace made with us, whereby we are free • d from the rigor of that of Works. God might have insisted upon the terms of the old Covenant, and required of Man the improvement of his Original Stock; but God hath condescended to lower terms, and offered Man more gracious Methods, and mitigated the rigor of the first, by the sweetness of the second.

1. 'It is Goodness, that he should condescend to make another Covenant with Man. To Stipulate with Innocent and Righteous Adam for his Obedience, was a stoop of his Sovereignty: Though he gave the Precept as a Sovereign Lord, yet in his Covenanting he seems to descend to some kind of equality with that Dust and Ashes with whom he treated. Absolute Sovereigns do not usually Covenant with their People, but exact Obedience and Duty, without binding themselves to bestow a Reward; and if they intend any, they reserve the purpose in their own breasts, without treating their Subjects with a solemn declaration of it. There was no obligation on God to enter into the first Covenant, much less after the violation of the first, to the settlement of a new. If God seemed in some sort to equal himself to Man in the first, he seemed to descend below himself in treating with a Rebel upon more condescending terms in the second. If his Covenant with Innocent Adam was a stoop of his Sovereignty, this with Rebellious Adam seems to be a stripping himself of his Majesty in favor of his Goodness; As if his happiness depended upon us, and not ours upon him. 'It is a Humiliation of himself to behold the things in Heaven, the glorious Angels, as well as things on Earth, mortal Men; much more to bind himself in gracious bonds to the glorious Angels, and much more if to Rebel Man. In the first Covenant there was much of Sovereignty as well as Goodness; In the second there is less of Sovereignty, and more of Grace: In the first there was a Righteous Man for a Holy God; In the second a polluted Creature for a pure and provoked God: In the first he holds his Scepter in his hand, to Rule his Subjects; In the second he seems to lay by his Scepter, to Court and Espouse a Beggar: In the first he is a Lord; in the second a Husband, and binds himself upon Gracious Conditions to become a Debtor. How should this Goodness fill us with an humble astonishment, as it did Abraham, when he fell on his face, when he heard God speaking of making a Covenant with him! And if God speaking to Israel out of the Fire, and making them to hear his voice out of Heaven, that he might instruct them, was a Consideration whereby Moses would heighten their admiration of Divine Goodness, and engage their affectionate Obedience to him ; How much more admirable is it for God to speak so kindly to us through the pacifying Blood of the Covenant, that silenced the terrors of the old, and settled the tenderness of the new?

2. His Goodness is seen in the Nature and Tenor of the new Covenant. There are in this richer Streams of Love and Pity. The language of one was, die if thou Sin; that of the other, live if thou believest : The old Covenant was founded upon the obedience of Man; the new is not founded upon the inconstancy of Mans Will, but the firmness of Divine Love, and the valuable Merit of Christ. The head of the first Covenant was Human and mutable; the head of the second is Divine and immutable. The Curse due to us by the breach of the first, is taken off by the indulgence of the second: We are by it snatched from the Jaws of the Law, to be wrapped up in the bosom of Grace: For you are not under the Law, but under Grace; from the Curse and condemnation of the Law, to the sweetness and forgiveness of Grace. Christ bore the one, being made a Curse for us, that we might enjoy the sweetness of the other; By this we are brought from Mount Sinai, the Mount of Terror, to Mount Zion, the Mount of Sacrificing, the Type of the great Sacrifice : That Covenant brought in Death upon one offense, this Covenant offers Life after many offenses : That involved us in a Curse, and this enricheth us with a Blessing: The breaches of that expel'd us out of Paradise, and the embracing of this admits us into Heaven. This Covenant demands, and admits of that Repentance, whereof there was no mention in the first: That demanded Obedience, not Repentance upon a failure; and though the exercises of it had been never so deep in the fallen Creature, nothing of the Laws severity had been remitted by any virtue of it. Again, the first Covenant demanded exact Righteousness, but conveyed no cleansing virtue upon the contracting any filth. The first demands a continuance in the Righteousness confer'd in Creation; the second imprints a gracious heart in Regeneration. I will pour clean Water upon you; I will put a new Spirit within you, was the voice of the second Covenant, not of the first. Again, as to Pardon: Adams Covenant was to punish him, not to pardon him if he fell; That threatened Death upon Transgression, this remits it; That was an Act of Divine Sovereignty declaring the will of God, this is an Act of Divine Grace, passing an Act of Oblivion on the Crimes of the Creature: That, as it demanded no Repentance upon a failure, so it promised no Mercy upon guilt: That convened our Sin, and condemned us for it; this clears our guilt, and comforts us under it. The first Covenant related us to God as a Judge; every transgression against it forfeited his indulgence as a Father: The second delivers us from God as a condemning Judge, to bring us under his Wing as an affectionate Father: In the one there was a dreadful frown to scare us, in the other a healing Wing to cover and relieve us. Again, in regard of Righteousness: That demanded our performance of a Righteousness in and by ourselves, and our own strength; This demands our acceptance of a Righteousness higher than ever the standing Angels had: The Righteousness of the first Covenant was the Righteousness of a Man; the Righteousness of the second, is the Righteousness of a God . Again in regard of that Obedience it demands, it exacts not of us as a necessary condition the Perfection of Obedience, but the sincerity of Obedience; an uprightness in our intention, not an unspottedness in our action; an integrity in our aims, and an industry in our compliance with Divine Precepts, Walk before me, and be thou perfect, i. e. sincere. What is hearty in our actions is accepted, and what is defective is overlooked, and not charged upon us, because of the Obedience and Righteousness of our surety. The first Covenant rejected all our services after Sin; the services of a Person under the sentence of Death are but dead services; This accepts our imperfect services after Faith in it; That administered no strength to obey, but supposed it; This supposeth our inability to obey, and confers some strength for it, I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my Statutes. Again, in regard of the Promises; The old Covenant had good, but the new hath better Promises, of justification after guilt, and sanctification after filth, and glorification at last of the whole Man. In the first there was provision against guilt, but none for the removal of it: Provision against filth, but none for the cleansing of it: Promise of happiness implied, but not so great a one as that Life and Immortality in Heaven, brought to light by the Gospel. Why said to be brought to light by the Gospel? because it was not only buried upon the fall of Man under the Curses of the Law, but it was not so obvious to the conceptions of Man in his Innocent State. Life indeed was implied to be promised upon his standing, but not so glorious an immortality disclosed, to be reserved for him, if he stood. As it is a Covenant of better Promises, so a Covenant of sweeter Comforts; Comforts more choice, and Comforts more durable; An everlasting Consolation, and a good h • pe are the fruits of Grace, i. e. the Covenant of Grace : In the whole there is such a love disclosed, as cannot be expressed; The Apostle leaves it to every Mans mind to conceive it, if he could, what manner of love the F • there hath b • stowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God . It in •• ates us in such a manner of the love of God as he bears to his Son the Image of his Person; That the World may know, that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

3. This Goodness appears in the choice gift of hims • lf which he hath made over in this Covenant. You know how it runs in Scripture, I will be their God, and they shall be my People : A propriety in the Deity is made over by it. As he gave the Blood of his Son to Seal the Covenant, so he gave himself as the Blessing of the Covenant; He is not ashamed to be called their God. Though he be environ'd with Millions of Angels, and presides over them in an inexpressible glory, he is not ashamed of his condescensions to Man, and to pass over himself as the propriety of his People, as well as to take them to be his 'It is a diminution of the sense of the place, to understand it of God as Creator; what reason was there for God to be ashamed of the Expressions of his Power, Wisdom, Goodness in the works of his hands? but we might have reason to think, there might be some ground in God, to be ashamed of making himself over in a Deed of Gift to a mean Worm, and a filthy Rebel; this might seem a disparagement to his Majesty; but God is not ashamed of a Title so mean, as the God of his despised People. A Title below those others, of the Lord of Hosts, glorious in Holiness, fearful in Praises, doing Wonders, riding on the wings of the Wind, walking in the Circuits of Heaven. He is no more ashamed of this Title of being our God, than he is of those other that sound more glorious: He would rather have his Greatness veil to his Goodness, than his Goodness be confined by his Majesty. He is not only our God, but our God as he is the God of Christ. He is not ashamed to be our Propriety, and Christ is not ashamed to own his People in a Partnership with him in this Propriety; I ascend to my God, and your God. This of God's being our God, is the quintessence of the Covenant, the Soul of all the Promises: In this he hath promised whatsoever is Infinite in him, whatsoever is the Glory and Ornament of his Nature for our use: Not a part of him, or one single Perfection, but the whole vigor and strength of all. As he is not a God without Infinite Wisdom, and Infinite Power, and Infinite Goodness, and Infinite Blessedness, &c. so he passes over in this Covenant all that which presents him as the most adorable Being to his Creatures: He will be to them as Great, as Wise, as Powerful, as Good as he is in himself. And the assuring us in this Covenant to be our God, imports also that he will do as much for us, as we would do for ourselves, were we furnished with the same Goodness, Power, and Wisdom: In being our God, he testifies 'tis all one, as if we had the same Perfections in our own power to employ for our use; For he being possessed with them, 'tis as much, as if we ourselves were possessed with them for our own advantage, according to the Rules of Wisdom, and the several Conditions we pass through for his Glory; but this must be taken with a relation to that Wisdom, which he observes in his proceedings with us as Creatures, and according to the several Conditions we pass through for his Glory. Thus God's being ours is more than if all Heaven and Earth were ours besides: 'It is more than if we were fully our own and at our own dispose; it makes all things that God hath ours *. And therefore not only all things he hath Created, but all thing • that he can Create: Not only all things that he hath contrived, but all things that he can contrive: For in being ours, his Power is ours, his possible Power as well as his active Power; his Power whereby he can effect more than he hath done; and his Wisdom whereby he can contrive more than he hath done; so that if there were need of employing his Power to Create many Worlds for our good, he would not stick at it; for if he did, he would not be our God in the extent of his Nature, as the Promise intimates. What a rich Goodness, and a fullness of Bounty is there in this short Expression, as full as the expression of a God can make it to be intelligible, to such Creatures as we are?

4. This Goodness is further manifest in the Confirmation of the Covenant. His Goodness did not only condescend to make it for our happiness, after we had made ourselves miserable, but further condescended to ratify it in the solemnest manner for our assurance, to over-rule all the Despondencies unbelief could raise up in our Souls. The reason why he confirmed it by an Oath, was to show the immutability of his glorious Counsel; not to tie himself to keep it: For his Word and Promise is in itself as immutable as his Oath; They were two immutable things, his Word, and his Oath, one as unchangeable as the other; but for the strength of our Consolation, that it might have no reason to shake and totter : He would condescend as low as was possible for a God to do for the satisfaction of the dejected Creature. When the first Covenant was broken, and it was impossible for Man to fulfil the terms of it, and mount to Happiness thereby, he makes another: And as if we had reason to distrust him in the first, he solemnly Ratifies it in a higher manner than he had done the other, and swears by himself, that he will be true to it, not so much out of an Election of himself, as the Object of the Oath. Because he could not swear by a greater, he swears by himself; whereby the Apostle clearly intimates, that Divine Goodness was raised to such a height for us, that if there had been anything else more sacred than himself, or that could have punished him, if he had broken it, that he would have sworn by, to silence any diffidence in us, and confirm us in the reality of his intentions. Now if it were a mighty Mark of Goodness, for God to stoop to a Covenanting with us; it was more for a Sovereign to bind himself so solemnly, to be our Debtor in a Promise, as well as he was our Sovereign in the Precept, and stoop so low in it to satisfy the distrusts of that Creature, that deserved forever to lie soaking in his own ruins, for not believing his bare word. What absolute Prince would ever stoop so low, as to Article with Rebellious Subjects, whom he could in a moment set his Foot upon and crush; much less countenance a causeless distrust of his Goodness by the addition of his Oath, and thereby bind his own hands, which were unconfin'd before, and free to do what he pleased with them?

5. This Goodness of God is remarkable also in the Condition of this Covenant, which is Faith. This was the easiest Condition in its own Nature, that could be imagined: No difficulty in it but what proceeds from the pride of Mans Nature, and the obstinacy of his Will: It was not impossible in itself; it was not the old Condition of perfect Obedience: It had been mighty Goodness to set us up again upon our old Stock, and restore us to the Tenor and Condition of the Covenant of Works, or to have required the burdensome Ceremonies of the Law. Nor is it an exact knowledge he requires of us; all Men's understandings being of a different size, they had not been capable of this. It was the most reasonable Condition, in regard of the excellency of the things proposed, and the effects following upon it; Nay, it was necessary. It had been a want of Goodness to himself and his own Honor; he had cast that off, had he not insisted on this Condition of Faith; it being the lowest he could condescend to with a salvo for his Glory. And it was a Goodness to us; 'tis nothing else he requires, but a willingness to accept what he hath contrived, and acted for us: And no Man can be happy against his will; without this belief at least, Man could never voluntarily have arrived to his Happiness. The Goodness of God is evidenced in that,

First, 'It is an easy Condition, not impossible.

1. It was not the Condition of the old Covenant. The Condition of that was an entire Obedience to every Precept with a Mans whole strength, and without any flaw or crack. But the Condition of the Evangelical Covenant is a sincere though weak Faith; He hath suited this Covenant to the Misery of Mans fallen Condition: He considers our weakness, and that we are but Dust, and therefore exacts not of us an entire, but a sincere Obedience. Had God sent Christ to expiate the Crime of Adam, restore him to his Paradise Estate, and repair in Man the ruined Image of Holiness, and after this to have renewed the Covenant of Works for the future, and settled the same Condition in exacting a complete Obedience for the time to come; Divine Goodness had been above any accusation, and had deserved our highest admiration in the pardon of former Transgressions, and giving out to us our first Stock. But Divine Goodness took larger strides: He had tried our first Condition, and found his mutable Creature quickly to violate it: Had he demanded the same now, 'tis likely it had met with the same issue as before in Mans disobedience and fall; we should have been as Men, as Adam, transgr • ssing the Covenant, and then we must have lain groaning under our Disease, and wallowing in our Blood, unless Christ had come to die for the Expiation of our new Crimes; for every Transgression had been a violation of that Covenant, and a forfeiture of our Right to the benefits of it. If we had broke it but in one tittle, we had rendered ourselves uncapable to fulfil it for the future; that one Transgression had stood as a bar against the pleas of after Obedience. But God hath wholly laid that Condition aside as to us, and settled that of Faith, more easy to be performed, and to be renewed by us. 'It is infinite Grace in him, that he will accept of Faith in us, instead of that perfect Obedience, he required of us in the Covenant of Works.

2. It is easy, not like the burdensome Ceremonies appointed under the Law. He exacts not now the legal Obedience, expensive Sacrifices, troublesome Purifications and Abstinencies, that Yoak of Bondage, which they were not able to bear. He treats us not as Servants, or Children in their Nonage under the Elements of the World, nor requires those innumerable bodily Exercises, that he exacted of them: He demands not 1000 of Lambs, and Rivers of Oil; but he requires a sincere Confession and Repentance in order to our absolution; an unfain'd Faith in order to our Blessedness, and elevation to a Glorious Life. He requires only that we should believe what he saith, and have so good an opinion of his Goodness and Veracity, as to persuade ourselves of the reality of his Intentions, confide in his Word, and rely upon his Promise, cordially embrace his Crucified Son, whom he hath set forth as the means of our Happiness, and have a sincere Respect to all the discoveries of his Will. What can be more easy than this? Though some in the days of the Apostles, and others since have endeavored to introduce a multitude of legal Burthens, as if they envied God the Expressions of his Goodness, or thought him guilty of too much Remissness, in taking off the Yoak, and treating Man too favourably.

3. Nor is it a clear knowledge of every Revelation, that is the Condition of this Covenant. God in his kindness to Man hath made Revelations of himself, but his Goodness is manifested in obliging us to believe him, not fully to understand him. He hath made them by sufficient Testimonies as clear to our Faith, as they are incomprehensible to our Reason: He hath revealed a Trinity of Persons in their distinct Offices in the business of Redemption, without which Revelation of a Trinity, we could not have a right Notion and Scheme of Redeeming Grace. But since the clearness of Men's understanding is sullied by the fall, and hath lost its Wings to fly up to a knowledge of such sublime things as that of the Trinity, and other Mysteries of the Christian Religion: God hath manifested his Goodness in not obliging us to understand them, but to believe them, and hath given us reason enough to believe it to be his Revelation, (both from the Nature of the Revelation itself, and the way and manner of propagating it; which is wholly Divine, exceeding all the Methods of Human Art) though he hath not extended our understandings to a capacity to know them, and render a reason of every Mystery. He did not require of every Israelite, or of any of them that were stung by the fiery Serpents, that they should understand, or be able to discourse of the Nature and Qualities of that Brass of which the Serpent upon the Pole was made, or by what Art that Serpent was formed, or in what manner the sight of it did operate in them for their Cure; it was enough that they did believe the Institution, and Precept of God, and that their own Cure was assured by it: It was enough if they cast their Eyes upon it according to the direction. The understandings of Men are of several sizes and elevations, one higher than another: If the Condition of this Covenant had been a greatness of knowledge, the most acute Men had only enjoyed the benefits of it. But it is Faith, which is as easy to be performed by the ignorant and simple, as by the strongest and most towering Mind: 'It is that which is within the compass of every Mans understanding. God did not require that everyone within the Verge of the Covenant, should be able to discourse of it to the reasons of Men: He required not that every Man should be a Philosopher, or an Orator, but a Believer. What could be more easy than to lift up the Eye to the Brazen Serpent, to be Cur'd of a fiery Sting? What could be more facile than a glance, which is done without any pain, and in a moment? 'It is a Condition may be performed by the weakest as well as the strongest: Could those that were bitten in the most Vital part, cast up their Eyes, though at the last gasp, they would arise to health by the expulsion of the Venom.

2. As 'tis Easie, so 'tis Reasonable. Repent and Believe is that which is required by Christ and the Apostles for the enjoyment of the Kingdom of Heaven: 'It is very reasonable that things so great and glorious, so beneficial to Men, and revealed to them by so sound an Authority, and an unerring truth, should be believed. The Excellency of the thing disclos'd could admit of no lower a Condition than to be believed and embraced. There is a sort of Faith, that is a Natural Condition in everything: All Religion in the World, though never so false, depends upon a sort of it; for unless there be a belief of future things, there would never be a hope of Good, or a fear of Evil, the two great Hinges upon which Religion moves. In all kinds of Learning, many things must be believed, before a progress can be made. Belief of one another is necessary in all acts of Human Life; without which Human Society would be unlinkt and dissolved. What is that Faith that God requires of us in this Covenant, but a willingness of Soul to take God for our God, Christ for our Mediator, and the Procurer of our Happiness ? What Prince could require less upon any Promise he makes his Subjects, than to be believed as true, and depended on as good? That they should accept his Pardon, and other gracious offers, and be sincere in their Allegiance to him, avoiding all things that may offend him, and pursuing all things that may please him: Thus God by so small and reasonable a Condition as Faith, lets in the Fruits of Christ's Death into our Soul, and wraps us up in the fruition of all the Privileges purchased by it. So much he hath condescended in his Goodness, that upon so slight a Condition we may plead his Promise, and humbly challenge by virtue of the Covenant those good things he hath promised in his Word: 'It is so reasonable a Condition, that if God did not require it in the Covenant of Grace, the Creature were obliged to perform it: For the publishing any Truth from God, naturally calls for Credit to be given it by the Creature, and an entertainment of it in Practice. Could you offer a more reasonable Condition yourselves, had it been left to your choice? Should a Prince proclaim a Pardon to a profligate Wretch, would not all the World cry shame of him, if he did not believe it upon the highest assurances? and if Ingenuity did not make him sorry for his Crimes, and careful in the Duty of a Subject, surely the World would cry shame of such a Person.

5. 'It is a necessary Condition.

1. Necessary for the honor of God. A Prince is disparag'd if his Authority in his Law, and if his Graciousness in his Promises be not accepted and believed. What Physician would undertake a Cure, if his Precepts may not be Credited? 'It is the first thing in the order of Nature, that the Revelation of God should be believed, that the reality of his Intentions in inviting Man to the acceptance of those Methods, he hath prescribed for their attaining their chief Happiness, should be acknowledged. 'It is a debasing Notion of God, that he should give a Happiness, purchased by Divine Blood, to a Person that hath no value for it, nor any abhorrency of those Sins that occasioned so great a Suffering, nor any will to avoid them: Should he not vilify himself, to bestow a Heaven upon that Man, that will not believe the offers of it, nor walk in those ways that leads to it? That walks so, as if he would declare, there was no truth in his Word, nor Holiness in his Nature? Would not God by such an act verify a truth in the language of their practice, viz. that he were both false and impure, careless of his Word, and negligent of his Holiness? As God was so desirous to ensure the Consolation of Believers, that if there had been a greater Being than himself to attest, and for him to be Responsible to, for the confirmation of his Promise, he would willingly have submitted to him, and have made him the Umpire; He swore by himself, because he could not swear by a greater. By the same reason; Had it stood with the Majesty and Wisdom of God to stoop to lower Conditions in this Covenant, for the reducing of Man to his Duty and Happiness, he would have done it; but his Goodness could not take lower steps with the preservation of the Rights of his Majesty, and the Honor of his Wisdom. Would you have had him wholly submitted to the obstinate will of a Rebellious Creature, and be ruled only by his terms? Would you have had him received Men to Happiness, after they had heightened their Crimes by a contempt of his Grace as well as of his Creating Goodness, and have made them blessed under the guilt of their Crimes without an acknowledgment? Should he glorify one that will not believe what he hath revealed, nor repent of what himself hath committed; and so save a Man after a repeated unthankfulness to the most immense Grace that ever was, or can be discovered, and offered, without a detestation of his ingratitude, and a voluntary acceptance of his offers? 'It is necessary for the honor of God, that Man should accept of his terms, and not give Laws to him, to whom he is obnoxious as a guilty Person, as well as Subject as a Creature.

Again, it was very equitable and necessary for the honor of God, that since Man fell by an unbelief of his Precept and Threatning, he should not rise again without a belief of his Promise, and calling himself upon his Truth in that: Since he had vilified the honor of his Truth in the Threatning: Since Man in his fall would lean to his own understanding against God, 'tis fit that in his Recovery, the highest powers of his Soul, his Understanding and Will should be subjected to him in an entire Resignation. Now, whereas Knowledge seems to have a power over its Object, Faith is a full submission to that which is the Object of it. Since Man intended a glorying in himself; the Evangelical Covenant directs its whole battery against it, that Men may glory in nothing but Divine Goodness . Had Man performed exact Obedience by his own Strength, he had had something in himself as the Matter of his Glory. And though after the fall Grace had made itself illustrious, in setting him up upon a new Stock, yet had the same Condition of exact Obedience been settled in the same manner, Man would have had something to glory in, which is struck off wholly by Faith; whereby Man in every act must go out of himself for a supply, to that Mediator which Divine Goodness and Grace hath appointed.

2. 'It is necessary for the happiness of Man. That can be no contenting Condition wherein the will of Man doth not concur. He that is forced to the most delicious Diet, or to wear the bravest Apparel, or to be stored with abundance of Treasure, cannot be happy in those things without an esteem of them, and delight in them: If they be nauseous to him, the indisposition of his mind is a dead Fly in those Boxes of precious Ointment. Now Faith being a sincere willingness to accept of Christ, and to come to God by him; and Repentance being a detestation of that, which made Mans separation from God, 'tis impossible he could be yoluntarily happy without it: Man cannot attain and enjoy a true happiness without an operation of his understanding about the Object proposed, and the means appointed to enjoy it: There must be a knowledge of what is offered, and of the way of it, and such a knowledge as may determine the will, to affect that end, and embrace those means; which the will can never do, till the understanding be fully persuaded of the truth of the Offerer, and the goodness of the Proposal itself, and the conveniency of the means for the attaining of it. 'It is necessary in the nature of the thing, that what is revealed, should be believed to be a Divine Revelation. God must be judged true in the Promising Justification, and Sanctification, the means of happiness; and if any Man desires to be Partaker of those Promises, he must desire to be Sanctified; and how can he desire that which is the Matter of those Promises, if he wallow in his own lusts, and desire to do so, a thing repugnant to the Promise itself? Would you have God force Man to be happy against his will? Is it not very reasonable, he should demand the consent of his reasonable Creature, to that Blessedness he offers him? The new Covenant is a Marriage Covenant , which implies a consent on our parts, as well as a consent on God's part; That is no Marriage, that hath not the consent of both Parties. Now Faith is our actual Consent, and Repentance and sincere Obedience are the Testimonies of the truth and reality of this Consent.

6. Divine Goodness is eminent in his Methods of treating with Men to embrace this Covenant. They are Methods of gentleness and sweetness: 'It is a wooing Go dness, and a bewailing Goodness; His Expressions are with strong motions of affection: He carrieth not on the Gospel by force of Arms: He doth not solely menace Men into it, as Worldly Conquerors have done: He doth not as Mahomet, plunder Men's Estates, and wound their Bodies, to imprint a Religion on their Souls: He doth not erect Gibbets, and kindle Faggots, to scare Men to an entering into Covenant with him. What Multitudes might he have raised by his power, as well as others? What Legions of Angels might he have Rendezvouz'd from Heaven, to have beaten Men into a profession of the Gospel? Nor doth he only interpose his Sovereign Authority in the Precept of Faith, but useth Rational Expostulations, to move Men voluntarily to comply with his Proposals; Come now saith the Lord, let us reason together. He seems to call Heaven and Earth to be judge, whether he had been wanting in any reasonable ways of Goodness, to overcome the perversity of the Creature; Hear O Heavens, and give ear O Earth, I have nourished and brought up Children. What various encouragements doth he use agreeable to the Nature of Men, endeavoring to persuade them with all tenderness, not to despise their own Mercies, and be Enemies to their own Happiness? He would allure us by his Beauty, and win us by his Mercy. He uses the Arms of his own Excellency, and our necessity to prevail upon us; and this after the highest provocations. When Adam had trampl'd upon his Creating Goodness, it was not crushed; and when Man had cast it from him, it took the higher rebound: When the Rebels provocation was fresh in his mind, he sought him out with a promise in his hand, though Adam fled from him out of enmity, as well as fear . And when the Jews had outrag'd his Son, whom he loved from Eternity, and made the Lord of Heaven and Earth bow down his head like a Slave on the Cross, yet in that place where the most horrible wickedness had been committed, must the Gospel be preached: The Law must go forth out of that Zion, and the Apostles must not stir from thence, till they had received the promise of the Spirit, and published the Word of Grace in that ungrateful City, whose Inhabitants yet swelled with indignation against the Lord of Life, and the Doctrine he had preached among them: He would overlook their indignities out of tenderness to their Souls; and expose the Apostles to the peril of their Lives, rather than expose his Enemies to the fury of the Devil.

1. How affectionately doth he invite Men? What multitudes of alluring Promises, and pressing Exhortations are there everywhere sprinkled in the Scripture, and in such a passionate manner, as if God were solely concerned in our good, without a glance on his own glory? How tenderly doth he woe flinty hearts, and express more pity to them, than they do to themselves? With what affection do his Bowels rise up to his Lips in his Speech in the Prophet, Hearken to me, O my People, and give ear unto me, O my Nation, my People, my Nation? Melting Expressions of a tender God soliciting a rebellious People, to make their retreat to him: He never emptied his hand of his Bounty, nor devested his Lips of those charitable Expressions. He sent Noah to move the Wicked of the old World to an embracing of his Goodness, and frequent Prophets to the provoking Jews; and as the World continued, and grew up to a taller stature in Sin, he stoops more in the manner of his Expressions. Never was the World at a higher pitch of Idolatry, than at the first publishing the Gospel; yet when we should have expected him to be a punishing, he is a beseeching God. The Apostle fears not to use the Expression for the glory of Divine Goodness, We are Ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. The beseeching voice of God is in the voice of the Ministry, as the voice of the Prince is in that of the Herald: 'It is as if Divine Goodness did kneel down to a Sinner with wringed Hands and blubbered Cheeks, entreating him not to force him to re-assume a Tribunal of Justice in the nature of a Judge, since he would treat with Man upon a Throne of Grace in the nature of a Father; yea, he seems to put himself into the posture of the Criminal, that the offending Creature might not feel the punishment due to a Rebel. 'It is not the condescension, but the interest of a Traitor to creep upon his knees in Sackcloth to his Sovereign, to beg his life: But it is a Miraculous Goodness in the Sovereign to creep in the lowest posture to the Rebel, to importune him not only for an amity to him, but a love to his own life and happiness; This he doth, not only in his general proclamations, but in his particular wooings, those inward courtings of his Spirit, soliciting them with more diligence (if they would observe it) to their happiness, than the Devil tempts them to the ways of their Misery. As he was first in Christ, reconciling the World, when the World looked not after him; so he is first in his Spirit, wooing the World to accept of that Reconciliation, when the World will not listen to him. How often doth he flash up the Light of Nature, and the Light of the Word in Men's hearts, to move them not to lie down in sparks of their own kindling, but to aspire to a better happiness, and prepare them to be subject to a higher Mercy; If they would improve his present entreaties to such an end? And what are his Threatenings designed for, but to move the Wheel of our Fears, that the Wheel of our Desire and Love might be set on Motion for the embracing his Promise? They are not so much the Thunders of his Justice, as the loud Rhetoric of his good Will, to prevent Men's Misery under the Vials of Wrath. 'It is his kindness to fear Men by threatenings, that Justice might not strike them with the Sword: 'It is not the destruction, but the preserving Reformation that he aims at: He hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked; This he confirms by his Oath. His threatenings are gracious Expostulations with them, Why will ye die O house of Israel? They are like the noise a favorable Officer makes in the Street, to warn the Criminal he comes to seize upon, to make his escape: He never used his Justice to crush Men, till he had used his Kindness to allure them. All the dreadful descriptions of a future Wrath, as well as the lively descriptions of the happiness of another World, are designed to persuade Men: The Honey of his Goodness is in the Bowels of those roaring Lions; such pains doth Goodness take with Men, to make them Candidates for Heaven.

2. How readily doth he receive Men, when they do return? We have David's Experience for it; I said, I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my Sin, Selah. A sincere look from the Creature draws out his Arms, and opens his Bosom; he is ready with his Physic to heal us, upon a resolution to acquaint him with our Disease, and by his Medicines prevents the putting our Resolution into a Petition. The Psalmist adds a Selah to it, as a special Note of Thankfulness for Divine Goodness. He doth not only stand ready to receive our Petitions, while we are speaking, but answers us before we call; listening to the Motions of our Hearts, as well as to the supplications of our Lips: He is the true Father, that hath a quicker pace in meeting, than the Prodigal hath in returning; Who would not have his Embraces and Caresses interrupted by his Confession; The Confession follows, doth not precede the Fathers Compassion. How doth he rejoice in having an opportunity to express his Grace, when he hath prevailed with a Rebel to throw down his Arms and lie at his Feet; and this because he delights in Mercy? He delights in the Expressions of it from himself, and the acceptance of it by his Creature.

3. How meltingly doth he bewail Mans willful refusal of his Goodness? 'It is a mighty Goddness to offer Grace to a Rebel, a mighty Goodness to give it him after he hath a while stood off from the terms: An astonishing Goodness to regret and lament his willful perdition. He seems to utter those words in a sigh, Oh that my People had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my way! 'It is true, God hath not Human Passions, but his Affections cannot be expressed otherwise in a way intelligible to us: The Excellency of his Nature is above the Passions of Men, but such Expressions of himself manifest to us the sincerity of his Goodness; and that were he capable of our Passions, he would express himself in such a manner as we do. And we find incarnate Goodness bewailing with tears and sighs the ruin of Jerusalem: By the same reason that when a Sinner returns, there is joy in Heaven, upon his obstinacy there is sorrow in Earth. The one is as if a Prince should Cloth all his Court in Triumphant Scarlet upon a Rebels Repentance: And the other, as if a Prince should put himself, and his Court in Mourning for a Rebels obstinate refusal of a Pardon, when he lies at his Mercy. Are not now these affectionate invitations, and deep bewailings of their perversity high Testimonies of Divine Goodness? Do not the unwearied repetitions of Gracious Encouragements deserve a higher name than that of mere Goodness? What can be a stronger Evidence of the sincerity of it, than the sound of his saving voice in our enjoyments, the motion of his Spirit in our hearts, and his grief for the neglect of all? These are not Testimonies of any want of Goodness in his Nature to answer us, or willingness to express it to his Creature. Hath he any mind to deceive us, that thus entreats us? The Majesty of his Nature is too great for such shifts; or if it were not, the despicableness of our condition would render him above the using any. Who would charge that Physician with want of kindness, that freely offers his Sovereign Medicine, importunes Men by the love they have to their health to take it, and is dissolved into tears and sorrow, when he finds it rejected by their peevish and conceited humor?

7. Divine Goodness is eminent in the Sacraments he hath affixt to this Covenant, especially in the Lord's Supper. As he gave himself in his Son, so he gives his Son in the Sacrament; He doth not only give him as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Expiation of our Crimes, but as a Feast upon the Table for the no •• ishment of our Souls: In the one he was given to be offered; in this he gives him to be partaked of, with all the Fruits of his Death: Under the Image of the Sacramental Signs, every Believer doth eat the Flesh, and drink the Blood of the great Mediator of the Covenant. The words of Christ, This is my Body, and this is my Blood, are true to the end of the World . This is the most delicious Viand of Heaven, the most exquisite Dainty Food, God can feed us with; the delight of the Deity, the admiration of Angels: A Feast with God is great, but a Feast on God is greater. Under those Signs that Body is presented; that which was conceived by the Spirit, inhabited by the Godhead, bruised by the Father to be our Food, as well as our Propitiation, is presented to us on the Table: That Blood which satisfied Justice, washed away our guilt on the Cross, and pleads for our Persons at the Throne of Grace: That Blood which silenced the Curse, pacifi'd Heaven, and purged Earth, is given to us for our refreshment. This is the Bread sent from Heaven, the true Manna; The Cup is the Cup of Blessing, and therefore a Cup of Goodness . 'It is true, Bread doth not cease to be Bread, nor the Wine cease to be Wine; neither of them lose their Substance, but both acquire a Sanctification, by the relation they have to that which they represent, and give a nourishment to that Faith that receives them. In those God offers us a Remedy for the Sting of Sin, and troubles of Conscience: He gives us not the Blood of a mere Man, or the Blood of an incarnate Angel, but of God blessed forever: A Blood that can secure us against the wrath of Heaven, and the tumults of our Consciencies: A Blood that can wash away our Sins, and beautify our Souls: A Blood that hath more strength than our Filth, and more prevalency than our Accuser: A Blood that secures us against the terrors of Death, and purifies us for the Blessedness of Heaven. The Goodness of God complies with our senses, and condescends to our weakness: He instructs us by the Eye, as well as by the Ear: He lets us see, and taste, and feel him, as well as hear him: He vails his Glory under Earthly Elements, and informs our understanding in the Mysteries of Salvation by signs familiar to our Senses; and because we cannot with our Bodily Eyes behold him in his Glory, he presents him to the Eyes of our Minds in Elements, to affect our understandings in the representations of his Death. The Body of Christ Crucified is more visible to our Spiritual sense, than the invisible Deity could be visible in his Flesh upon Earth: And the Power of his Body and Blood is as well experimented in our Souls, as the power of his Divinity was seen by the Jews in his miraculous actions in his Body in the World. 'It is the Goodness of God, to mind us frequently of the great things Christ hath purchased; That as himself would not let them be out of his mind, to communicate them to us, so he would give us means to preserve them in our minds, to adore him for them, and request them of him; whereby he doth evidence his own solicitousness, that we should not be deprived by our own forgetfulness of that Grace, Christ hath purchased for us: It was to remember the Redeemer, and show his Death till he came .

1. His Goodness is seen in the end of it, which is a sealing the Covenant of Grace. The common Nature and End of Sacraments is to seal the Covenant they belong to, and the truths of the Promises of it. The legal Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passover sealed the legal Promises and the Covenant in the Judaical Administration of it: And the Evangelical Sacraments seal the Evangelical Promises, as a Ring confirms a contract of Marriage, and a Seal the Articles of a Compact: By the same reason Circumcision is called a Seal of the Righteousn • ss of Faith , other Sacraments may have the same Title: God doth attest, that he will remain firm in his Promise, and the Receiver atte • ts he will remain firm in his Faith. In all Reciprocal Covenants there are mutual Engagements, and that which serves for a Seal on the part of the one, serves for a Seal also on the part of the other: God obligeth himself to the performance of the Promise, and Man engageth himself to the performance of his Duty. The thing confirmed by this Sacrament is the perpetuity of this Covenant in the Blood of Christ, whence it is called the New Testament, or Covenant in the Blood of Christ . In every repetition of it, God by presenting confirms his resolution to us, of sticking to this Covenant for the Merit of Christ's Blood; and the Receiver by eating the Body, and drinking the Blood, engageth himself to keep close to the Condition of Faith, expecting a full Salvation, and a blessed Immortality upon the Merit of the same Blood alone. This Sacrament could not be called the New Testament or Covenant, if it had not some relation to the Covenant; and what it can be but this, I do not understand. The Covenant itself was confirmed by the Death of Christ , and thereby made unchangeable both in the Benefits to us, and the Condition required of us; but he seals it to our sense in a Sacrament to give us strong consolation: Or rather the Articles of the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son, agreed on from Eternity, were accomplisht on Christ's part by his Death, on the Fathers part by his Resurrection; Christ performed what he promised in the one, and God acknowledgeth the validity of it, and performs what he had promised in the other. The Covenant of Grace founded upon this Covenant of Redemption is sealed in the Sacrament; God owns his standing to the terms of it, as sealed by the Blood of the Mediator, by presenting him to us under those Signs, and gives us a right upon Faith to the enjoyment of the Fruits of it: As the right of a House is made over by the delivery of the Key, and the right of Land translated by the delivery of a Turf; whereby he gives us assurance of his reality, and a strong support to our confidence in him; Not that there is any virtue and power of sealing in the Elements themselves, no more than there is in a Turf, to give an Infeoffment in a parcel of Land; but as the power of the one is derived from the Order of the Law, so the confirming power of the Sacrament is derived from the Institution of God. As the Oil wherewith Kings were anointed, did not of itself confer upon them that Royal Dignity, but it was a sign of their investiture into Office, ordered by Divine Institution. We can with no reason imagine, that God intended them as naked Signs or Pictures, to please our Eyes with the Image of them, to represent their own Figures to our Eyes, but to confirm something to our understanding by the Efficacy of the Spirit accompanying them : They convey to the Believing Receiver, what they represent, as the great Seal of a Prince fixed to the Parchment, doth the Pardon of the Rebel as well as its own Figure. Christ's Death, and the Grace of the Covenant is not only signified, but the Fruits and Merit of that Death communicated also. Thus doth Divine Goodness evidence itself, not only in making a Gracious Covenant with us, but fixing Seals to it; not to strengthen his own Obligation, which stood stronger than the Foundations of Heaven and Earth, upon the Credit of his Word, but to strengthen our weakness, and support our security, by something which might appear more formal and solemn than a bare word. By this, the Divine Goodness provides against our Spiritual faintings, and shows us by real Signs as well as Verbal Declarations, that the Covenant sealed by the Blood of Christ, is unalterable; and thereby would fortify and mount our hopes to degrees in some measure suitable to the kindness of the Covenant, and the dignity of the Redeemer's Blood. And it's yet a further degree of his Goodness, that he hath appointed us so often to Celebrate it, whereby he shows, how careful he is to keep up our tottering Faith, and preserve us constant in our obedience; obliging himself to the performance of his Promise, and obliging u • to the payment of our Duty.

2. His Goodness is seen in the Sacrament in giving us in it an union and communion with Christ. There is not only a Commemoration of Christ dying, but a Communication of Christ living. The Apostle strongly asserts it by way of Interrogation, The Cup of Blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ? In the Cup there is a communication of the Blood of Christ, a conveyance of a Right to the Merits of his Death, and the Blessedness of his Life: We are not less by this made one Body with Christ, than we are by Baptism: And put on Christ living in this, as well as in Baptism; That as his taking our infirm Flesh, was a real Incarnation, so the giving us his Flesh to eat, is a Mystical Incarnation in Believers, whereby they become one Body with him as Crucified, and one Body with him as Risen; For if Christ himself be received by Faith in the Word, He is no less received by Faith in the Sacrament. When the Holy Ghost is said to be received, the Graces or Gifts of the Holy Ghost are received; So when Christ is received, the Fruits of his Death are really partaked of. The Israelites that eat of the Sacrifices, did partake of the Altar , i. e. had a communion with the God of Israel, to whom they had been Sacrificed; and those that eat of the Sacrifices offered to Idols, had a fellowship with Devils, to whom those Sacrifices were offered, Verse 20. Those that partake of the Sacraments in a due manner, have a communion with that God to whom it was Sacrificed, and a communion with that Body which was Sacrificed to God; Not that the Substance of that Body and Blood is wrapped up in the Elements, or that the Bread and Wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, but as they represent him, and by virtue of the Institution are in Estimation himself, his own Body and Blood; by the same reason as he is called Christ our Passover, he may be called Christ our Supper : For as they are so reckoned to an unworthy Receiver, as if they were the real Body and Blood of Christ, because by his not discerning the Lord's Body in it, or making light of it as common Bread, he is judged guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ, guilty of treating him in as base a manner as the Jews did when they Crown'd him with Thorns: By the same reason they must be reckoned to a worthy Receiver, as the very Body and Blood of Christ: So that as the unworthy Receiver eats and drinks Damnation; the worthy Receiver eats and drinks Salvation. It would be an empty Mystery, and unworthy of an Institution by Divine Goodness, if there were not some communion with Christ in it: There would be some kind of deceit in the Precept, Take, Eat, and Drink, this is my Body and Blood, a conveyance of Spiritual vital influences to our Souls: For the natural End of eating and drinking is the nourishment and increase of the Body, and preservation of Life, by that which we eat and drink. The infinite Wise, gracious and true God, would never give us empty Figures without accomplishing that which is signified by them, and suitable to them. How great is this Goodness of God? he would have his Son in us, one with us, straitly join'd to us, as if we were his proper Flesh and Blood: In the Incarnation Divine Goodness united him to our Nature; in the Sacrament, it doth in a sort unite him with his purchased Privileges to our Persons; we have not a communion with a part or a Member of his Body, or a drop of his Blood, but with his whole Body and Blood, represented in every part of the Elements. The Angels in the Heaven enjoy not so great a privilege; They have the honor to be under him as their Head, but not that of having him for their Food; they behold him, but they do not taste him. And certainly that Goodness that hath condescended so much to our weakness, would impart it to us in a very glorious manner, were we capable of it. But because a Man cannot behold the Light of the Sun in its full splendor by reason of the infirmities of his Eyes, he must behold it by the help of a Glass, and such a communication through a coloured and Opake-glass, is as real from the Sun itself, though not so glorious, but more shrouded and obscure; 'It is the same light that shines through that Medium, as spreads itself gloriously in the open Air, though the one be maskt, and the other open-faced.

To conclude this, by the way we may take notice of the neglect of this Ordina ••• : If it be a token of Divine Goodness to appoint it, 'tis no sign of our estimation of Divine Goodness to neglect it. He that values the kindness of his friend, will accept of his invitation, if there be not some strong impediments in the way, or so much familiarity with him that his refusal upon a light occasion would not be unkindly taken. But though God put on the disposition of a Friend to us, yet he looseth not the authority of a Sovereign; and the humble familiarity he invites us to, doth not diminish the conditi • n and duty of a Subject. A Sovereign Prince would not take it well, if a Favorite should refuse the offered honor of his Table. The Viands of Godare not to be slighted. Can we live better upon our poor pittance, than upon his Dainties? Did not Divine Goodness condescend in it to the weakness of our Faith, and shall we conceit our Faith stronger than God thinks it? If he thought fit by those Seals to make a Deed of Gift to us, shall we be so unmannerly to him, and such enemies to the security he offers us over and above his word, as not to accept it? Are we unwilling to have our Souls enflamed with love, our Hearts filled with comfort, and armed against the attempts of our Enemies? 'It is true, there is a guilt of the Body and Blood of Christ contracted by a slightness in the manner of attending; Is it not also contracted by a refusal and neglect? What is the language of it? If it speaks not the death of Christ in vain, it speaks the institution of this Ordinance as a remembrance of his death to be a vanity, and no mark of Divine Goodness. Let us therefore put such a value upon Divine Goodness in this affair, as to be willing to receive the conveyances of his love, and fresh engagements of our duty; the one is due from us to the kindness of our Friend, and the other belongs to our duty as his Subjects.

6. By this Redemption God restores us to a more excellent condition than Adam had in Innocence. Christ was sent by Divine Goodness, not only to restore the Life Adam 's sin had stripped us of, but to give it more abundantly than Adam, standing could have conveyed it to us, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. More abundantly for strength, more abundantly for duration, a life abounding with greater felicity, and glory: The substance of those better Promises of the New Covenant, than what attended the old. There are fuller Streams of Grace by Christ, than flowed to Adam, or could flow from Adam. As Christ never restored any to health and strength, while he was in the World, but he gave them a greater measure of both than they had before; so there is the same kindness no question manifested in our Spiritual condition. Adam 's life might have preserved us, but Adam 's death could not have rescued either Himself or his Posterity; but in our Redemption, we have a Redeemer, who hath died to expiate our sins, and so Crowned with life to save, and forever preserve our persons Because I live, ye shall live also: So that by Redeeming Goodness the life of a Believer is as perpetual as the life of the Redeemer Christ. Adam though Innocent was under the danger of perishing; a Believer though culpable, is above the fears of Mutability. Adam had a holiness in his Nature, but capable of being lost; by Christ Believers have a holiness bestowed, not capable of being rifled, but which will remain, till it be at last fully perfected: Though they have a power to change in their Nature; yet they are above an actual final change by the indulgence of Divine Grace. Adam stood by himself, Believers stand in a Root impossible to be shaken, or corrupted: By this means the promise is sure to all the S • ed. Christ is a stronger person than Adam, who can never break Covenant with God, and the truth of God will never break Covenant with him. We are united to a more excellent head than Adam. Instead of a Root merely Human, we have a Root Divine, as well as Human. In him we had the Righteousness of a Creature merely Human; In this we have a Righteousness Divine, the Righteousness of God-man; the stock is no longer in our own hands, but in the hands of one that cannot imbezzle it, or forfeit it. Divine Goodness hath deposited it strongly for our security. The stamp we receive by the Divine Goodness from the second Adam, is more noble, than that we should have received from the first, had he remained in his created State: Adam was formed of the Dust of the Earth, and the New Man is formed by the incorruptible Seed of the word. And at the Resurrection the Body of Man shall be endued with better qualities than Adam had at Creation. They shall be like that glorious Body, which is in Heaven in union with the person of the Son of God. Adam at the best had but an Earthly Body, but the Lord from Heaven hath a Heavenly Body, the Image of which shall be born by the Redeemed Ones, as they have born the Image of the Earthly . Adam had the Society of Beasts, Redeemed ones expect by Divine Goodness in Redemption a commerce with Angels; as they are reconciled to them by his death, they shall certainly come to converse with them at the consummation of their happiness. As they are made of one Family, so they will have a peculiar intimacy. Adam had a Paradise, and Redeem'd Ones a Heaven provided for them, a happier place with a richer furniture. 'It is much to give so complete a Paradise to innocent Adam; but more to give Heaven to an ungrateful Adam, and his Rebellious Posterity. It had been abundant Goodness, to have restored us to the same condition in that Paradise, from whence we were ejected; but a super-abundant Goodness, to bestow upon us a better habitation in Heaven, which we could never have expected. How great is that Goodness, when by sin we were fallen to be worse than nothing, that he should raise us to be more than what we were! That restored us, not to the first step of our Creation, but to many degrees of elevation beyond it. Not only restores us, but prefers us, not only striking off our Chains, to set us free, but clothing us with a Robe of Righteousness, to render us honorable. Not only quenching our Hell, but preparing a Heaven; not regarnishing an earthly, but providing a richer Palace: His Goodness was so great, that after it had rescued us, it would not content itself with the old furniture, but makes all new for us in another World: A new Wine to drink; a new Heaven to dwell in; a more magnificent Structure for our Habitation; Thus hath Goodness prepared for us a straiter Union, a stronger Life, a purer Righteousness, an unshaken Standing, and a fuller Glory. All more excellent then was within the compass of innocent Adam 's Possession.

7. This Goodness in Redemption extends itself to the lower Creation. It takes in not only Man, but the whole Creation, except the Fallen Angels, and gives a participation of it to insensible Creatures; upon the account of this Redemption the Sun and all kind of Creatures were preserved, which otherwise had sunk into destruction upon the sin of Man, and ceased from their Being, as Man had utterly ceased from his Happiness. By him all things consist. The Fall of Man brought not only a misery upon himself, but a Vanity upon the Creature: The Earth groaned under a Curse for his sake. They were all created for the Glory of God, and the support of Man in the performance of his duty, who was obliged to use them for the honor of him that created them both. Had Man been true to his obligations, and used the Creatures for that end, to which they were dedicated by the Creator; As God would have then rejoiced in his Works, so his Works would have rejoiced in the honor of answering so excellent an end. But when Man lost his integrity, the Creatures lost their Perfection; the honor of them was stained when they were debas'd to serve the Lusts of a Traitor, instead of supporting the Duty of a Subject, and employed in the defense of the Vices of Men against the Precepts and Authority of their common Sovereign. This was a vilifying the Creature, as it would be a vilifying the Sword of a Prince, which is for the maintenance of Justice, to be used for the Murder of an Innocent; and a dishonoring a Royal Mansion, to make it a Storehouse for a Dunghil. Had those things the benefit of sense, they would groan under this disgrace, and rise up in indignation against them, that offered them this affront; and turned them from their proper end. When sin entered, the Heavens that were made to shine upon Man, and the Earth that was made to bear and nourish an innocent Creature, were now subjected to serve a rebellious Creature. And as Man turned against God, so he made those instruments against God, to serve his Enmity, Luxury, Sensuality. Hence the Creatures are said to groan, The whole Creation groans and travels in pain together until now.