Existence and Attributes of God

The whole Creation groans and travels in pain together until now. They would really groan, had they understanding to be sensible of the Outrage done them.

The whole Creation, 'It is the pang of universal Nature, the agony of the whole Creation, to be alienated from the original use for which they were intended, and be disjointed from their end, to serve the disloyalty of a Rebel. The Drunkards Cup, and the Gluttons Table, the Adulterers Bed, and the proud Mans Purple would groan against the abuser of them. But when all the fruits of Redemption shall be completed, the Goodness of God shall pour itself upon the Creatures, deliver them from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God , they shall be reduced to their true end, and retun'd in their original harmony. As the Creation doth passionately groan under its vanity, so it doth earnestly expect and wait for its deliverance at the time of the manifestation of the Sons of God. The manifestation of the Sons of God is the attainment of the liberty of the Creature. They shall be freed from the vanity under which they are enslav'd. As it entered by sin, it shall vanish upon the total removal of sin. What use they were designed for in Paradise, they will have afterwards, except that of the nourishment of Men, who shall be as Angels, neither eating nor drinking. The Glory of God shall be seen and contemplated in them. It can hardly be thought that God made the World to be little a moment after he had reard it, sullied by the Sin of Man, and turned from its original end, without thoughts of a restoration of it to its true end, as well as Man to his lost happiness. The World was made for Man: Man hath not yet enjoyed the Creature in the first intention of them; Sin made an interruption in that Fruition. As Redemption restores Man to his true end, so it restores the Creatures to their true use. The restoration of the World to its beauty and order, was the design of the Divine Goodness in the coming of Christ, as it is intimated in Isaiah 11.6, 7, 8, 9. As he came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it, so he came not to destroy the Creatures, but to repair them. To restore to God the honor and pleasure of the Creation, and restore to the Creatures their felicity in restoring their Order. The Fall corrupted it, and the full Redemption of Men restores it. The last time is called not a time of destruction, but a time of restitution, and that of all things of universal nature, the main part of the Creation at least. All those things which were the effects of sin, will be abolished; the removal of the Cause beats down the effect. The disorder and unruliness of the Creature arising from the venom of Mans transgression, all the fierceness of one Creature against another shall vanish. The World shall be nothing but an universal smile; Nature shall put on triumphant Vestments: There shall be no affrighting Thunders, choking Mists, venomous Vapours, or poisonous Plants. It would not else be a restitution of all things. They are now subject to be wasted by Judgments for the sin of their Possessor, but the perfection of Mans Redemptions shall free them from every misery. They have an advancement at the present; for they are under a more glorious head, as being the possession of Christ the heavenly Adam much superior to the first: As it's the glory of a person to be a Servant to a Prince, rather than a Peasant. And afterwards they shall be elevated to a better state, sharing in Man's happiness, as well as they did in his misery; As Servants are interested in the good Fortune of their Master, and bettered by his advance in his Princes favor. As Man in his first Creation was mutable and liable to sin, so the Creatures were liable to vanity; But as Man by Grace shall be freed from the Mutability, so shall the Creatures be freed from the fears of an Invasion, by the vanity that sully'd them before. The condition of the Servants shall be suited to that of their Lord, for whom they were designed: Hence all Creatures are called upon to rejoice upon the Perfection of Salvation, and the appearance of Christ's Royal Authority in the World. If they were to be destroyed, there would be no ground to invite them to triumph. Thus doth Divine Goodness spread its kind Arms over the whole Creation.

3. The third thing is the Goodness of God in his Government. That Goodness that despised not their Creation, doth not despise their conduct. The same Goodness that was the head that framed them, is the helm that guides them; his Goodness hovers over the whole frame, either to prevent any wild disorders unsuitable to his Creating end, or to conduct them to those ends which might illustrate his Wisdom and Goodness to his Creatures. His Goodness doth no less incline him to provide for them, than to frame them. 'It is the natural inclination of man to love what is purely the birth of his own strength or skill. He is fond of preserving his own Inventions, as well as laborious in inventing them. 'It is the glory of a Man to preserve them, as well as to produce them. God loves everything which he hath made, which love could not be without a continued diffusiveness to them, suitable to the end for which he made them. It would be a vain Goodness, if it did not interest itself in managing the World, as well as erecting it: Without his Government everything in the World would justle against one another: The beauty of it would be more defaced, it would be an unruly Mass, a confused Chaos rather then a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a comely World. If Divine Goodness respected it when it was nothing, it would much more respect it when it was something by the sole virtue of his Power and good Will to it, without any motive from anything else than Himself, because there was nothing else but Himself. But since he sees his own stamp in things without Himself in the Creature, which is a kind of motive or moving Object to Divine Goodness to preserve it, when there was nothing without Himself, that could be any motive to Him, to Create it: As when God hath created a Creature, and it falls into misery, that misery of the Creature, though it doth not necessitate his mercy, yet meeting with such an affection as mercy in his Nature, is a moving Object to excite it: As the repentance of Nineveh drew forth the exercise of his pity and preserving goodness. Certainly since God is Good, he is Bountiful, and if Bountiful, he is Provident. He would seem to envy and malign his Creatures, if he did not provide for them, while he intends to use them: But infinite Goodness cannot be affected with envy: For all envy implies a want of that good in ourselves, which we regard with so evil an eye in another. But God being infinitely blessed, hath not the want of any good, that can be a rise to such an uncomely disposition. The Jews thought that Divine Goodness extended only to them in an immediate and particular Care, and left all other Nations and things to the guidance of Angels. But the Psalmist, Psal. 107. a Psalm calculated for the celebration of this Perfection, in the continued course of his Providence throughout all Ages of the World, ascribes to Divine Goodness immediately all the advantages men meet with. He helps them in their actions, presides over their motions, inspects their several conditi • ns, labors day and night in a perpetual care of them. The whole life of the World is linked together by Divine Goodness. Every thing is ordered by him in the place where he hath set it, without which the World would be stripped of that Excellency it hath by Creation.

1. First, This Goodness is evident in the Care he hath of all Creatures. There is a peculiar goodness to his People; but this takes not away his general goodness to the World: Though a Master of a Family hath a choicer affection to those that have an Affinity to him in Nature, and stand in a nearer Relation, as his Wife, Children, Servants; yet he hath a regard to his Cattle, and other Creatures he nourisheth in his House. All things are not only before his eyes, but in his Bosom; He is the Nurse of all Creatures, supplying their wants, and sustaining them from that nothing they tend to. The Earth is full of his Riches, not a creek or cranny but partakes of it. Abundant Goodness daily hovers over it, as well as hatched it. The whole World swims in the rich Bounty of the Creator, as the Fish do in the largeness of the Sea, and Birds in the spatiousness of the Air. The Goodness of God is the River, that Waters the whole Earth. As a lifeless Picture casts its eye upon everyone in the Room, so doth a living God upon everything in the World. And as the Sun illuminates all things which are capable of partaking of its light, and diffuseth its Beams to all things which are capable of receiving them; So doth God spread his Wings over the whole Creation, and neglects nothing, wherein he sees a mark of his first creating Goodness.

His Godness is seen, 1. In preserving all things. Oh Lord thou preservest Man and Beast. Not only Man, but Beasts, and Beasts as well as Men. Man, as the most excellent Creature, and Beasts as being serviceable to Man, and Instruments of his Worldly Happiness. He continues the Species of all things, concurs with them in their distinct Offices, and quickens the Womb of Nature. He visits Man every day, and makes him feel the effects of his Providence, in giving him fruitful seasons, and filling his heart with food and gladness , as witnesses of his Liberality and Kindness to Man. The Earth is visited and watered by the River of God. He settles the furrows of the Earth, and makes it soft with showers, that the Corn may be nourished in its Womb, and spring up to Maturity. He crowns the year with his Goodness, and his paths drop fatness. The little Hills rejoice on every side; The Pastures are clothed with Flocks, and the Valleys are covered over with Corn, as the Psalmist elegantly . He waters the ground by his Showers, and preserves the little Seed from the Rapine of Animals. He draws not out the evil Arrows of Famine, as the expression is . Every day shines with new Beams of his Divine Goodness. The vastness of this City, and the multitudes of living Souls in it, is an astonishing Argument. What streams of nourishing necessaries are daily conveyed to it? Every Mouth hath Bread to sustain it, and among all the number of Poor in the Bowels and Skirts of it, how rare is it to hear of any starved to death for want of it? Every day he spreads a Table for us, and that with varieties; and fills our Cups . He shortens not his hand, nor withdraws his Bounty: The Increase of one year by his Blessing, restores what was spent by the former. He is the strength of our life , continuing the vigor of our Limbs, and the health of our Bodies; secures us from terrors by night, and the Arrows of Diseases that fly by day . Sets a hedge about our Estates , and defends them against the attempts of violence. Preserves our Houses from flames that might consume them, and our persons from the dangers that lie in wait for them. Watcheth over us in our goings out, and our comings in ; and way-lays a Thousand dangers we know not of. And employs the most glorious Creatures in Heaven, in the service of mean Men upon Earth : Not by a faint Order, but a pressing Charge over them, to keep them in all his ways. Those that are his immediate Servants before his Throne, he sends to Minister to them, that were once his Rebels. By an Angel he conducted the affairs of Abraham : And by an Angel secured the life of Ishmael : Glorious Angels for mean Man, Holy Angels for impure Man, Powerful Angels for weak Man. How in the midst of great dangers, doth his sudden light dissipate our great darkness, and create a deliverance out of nothing? How often is he found a present help in time of trouble? When all other assistance seems to stand at a distance, He flies to us beyond our expectations, and raises us upon the sudden from the pit of our dejectedness, as well as that of our danger, exceeding our wishes, and shooting beyond our desires as well as our deserts. How often in a time of confusion, doth he preserve an indefensible place from the attacks of Enemies, like a spark in the midst of a tempestuous Sea? the rage falls upon other places round about them, and by a secret Efficacy of Divine Goodness is not able to touch them. He hath peculiar preservations for his Israel in Egypt, and his Lots in Sodom, his Daniel's in the Lions Dens, and his Children in a fiery Furnace. He hath a tenderness for all, but a peculiar affection to those that are in Covenant with him.

2. The Goodness of God is seen in taking care of the Animals and inanimate things. Divine Goodness embraceth in its arms the lowest Worm as well as the loftiest Cherubin: He provides Food for the Crying Ravens, and a Prey for the Appetite of the hungry Lyon : He opens his hand, and fills with good those innumerable Creeping things, both small and great Beasts, they are all wa • ters upon him, and all are satisfied by their bountiful Master . They are better provided for by the Hand of Heaven, than the best favourite is by an Earthly Prince: For they are filled with good. He hath made Channels in the wildest Desarts for the watering of Beasts, and Trees for the Nests and Habitation of Birds . As a Law-giver to the Jews, he took care, that the poor Beast should not be abused by the cruelty of Man: He provided for the ease of the laboring Beast in that Command of the Sabbath, wherein he provided for his own service: The Cattle was to do no work on it . He ordered that the mouth of the Ox should not be Muzled, while it trod out the Corn, (it being the manner of those Countries to separate the Corn from the Stalk by that means, as we do in this by Thrashing) regarding it as a part of Cruelty to deprive the poor Beast of tasting, and satisfying itself with that, which he was so officious by his labor to prepare for the use of Man. And when any met with a Nest of young Birds, though they might take the young to their use, they were forbidden to seize upon upon the Dam, that she might not lose the Objects of her Affection and her own liberty in one day .

And see how God enforceth this Precept with a threatening of a shortness of life, if they transgressed it? Thou shalt let the Dam go, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. He would revenge the Cruelty to Dumb Creatures with the shortness of the Oppressors life: Nor would he have Cruelty used to Creatures that were separated for his Worship: He therefore provides, that a Cow, or an Ew, and their young ones should not be killed for Sacrifice in one day . All which Precepts, say the Jews, are to teach Men Mercifulness to their Beasts; so much doth Divine Goodness bow down itself, to take notice of those mean Creatures, which Men have so little regard to, but for their own advantage: Yea, he is so good, that he would have Worship declined for a time in favor of a distressed Beast; the helping a Sheep, or an Ox, or an Ass out of a Pit, was indulged them even on the Sabbath -day, a day God had peculiarly Sanctified and ordered for his Service: In this case he seems to remit for a time the Rights of the Deity for the rescue of a mere Animal. His Goodness extends not only to those kind of Creatures that have life, but to the insensible ones; He clothes the Grass, and arrays the Lilies of the Field with a greater glory, than Solomon had upon his Throne ; And such care he had of those Trees which bor • Fruit for the maintenance of Man or Beast, that he forbids any injury to be offered to them, and bars the Rapine and Violence, which by Soldiers useth to be practiced, Deut 20.19. though it were to promote the conquest of their Enemy. How much Goodness is it, that he should think of so small a thing as Man! How much more that he should concern himself in things, that seem so petty as Beasts and Trees! Persons seated in a Sovereign Throne, think it a debasing of their Dignity to regard little things: But God, who is infinitely greater in Majesty above the mightiest Potentate, and the highest Angel, yet is so infinitely good, as to employ his Divine thoughts about the meanest things. He who possesses the praises of Angels, leaves not off the care of the meanest Creatures: And that Majesty that dwells in a pure Heaven, and an inconceivable Light, stoops to provide for the ease of those Creatures, that lie and lodge in the Dirt and Dung of the Earth. How should we be careful not to use those unmercifully, which God takes such care of in his Law, and not to distrust that Goodness, that opens his hand so liberally to Creatures of another Rank?

3. The Goodness of God is seen in taking care of the meanest Rational Creatures: As Servants and Criminals. He provided for the liberty of Slaves, and would not have their Chains continue longer than the seventh year, unless they would voluntarily continue under the power of their Masters; and that upon pain of his displeasure, and the withdrawing his Blessing . And though by the Laws of many Nations, Masters had an absolute power of Life and Death over their Servants, yet God provided that no Member should be lam'd, not an Eye, no nor a Tooth struck out, but the Master was to pay for his folly and fury the price of the liberty of his Servant : He would not suffer the abused Servant to be any longer under the power of that Man, that had not Humanity to use him as one of the same Kindred and Blood with himself. And though those Servants might be never so wicked, yet when unjustly afflicted, God would interest himself as their Guardian in their protection and delivery. And when a poor Slave had been provokit by the severity of his Masters fury, to turn fugitive from him, he was by Divine order not to be delivered up again to his Masters fury, but dwell in that City and with that Person, to whom he had fled for refuge . And when Public Justice was to be administered upon the lesser sort of Criminals, the Goodness of God ordered the number of blows, not to exceed forty, and left not the fury of Man to measure out the Punishment to excess . And in any just quarrel against a provoking and injuring Enemy, he ordered them not to ravage with the Sword, till they had summoned a Rendition of the place . And as great a care he took of the Poor, that they should have the gleanings both of the Vineyard and Field, and not be forced to pay Usury for the Money lent them .

4. His Goodness is seen in taking care of the wickedest Persons. The Earth is full of his Goodness . The wicked as well as the good enjoy it; they that dare lift up their hands against Heaven in the posture of Rebels, as well as those that lift up their Eyes in the condition of suppliants. To do good to a Criminal, far surmounts that goodness that flows down upon an Innocent Object: Now God is not only good to those that have some degrees of goodness, but to those that have the greatest degrees of wickedness, to Men that turn his liberality into affronts of him, and have scarce an appetite to anything but the violation of his Authority and Goodness. Though upon the fall of Adam we have lost the pleasant habitation of Paradise, and the Creatures made for our use are fallen from their Original Excellency and Sweetness; yet he hath not left the World utterly incommodious for us, but yet stores it with things not only for the preservation, but delight of those that make their whole lives invectives against this good God. Manna fell from Heaven for the Rebellious as well as for the Obedient Israelites. Cain as well as A •• l, and Esau as well as Jacob had the influences of his Sun, and the benefits of his Showers. The World is yet a kind of Paradise to the veriest Beasts among Mankind: The Earth affords its Riches, the Heavens its Showers, and the Sun its light to those that injure and Blaspheme him: He makes his S • n to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The wickedest breath in his Air, walk upon his Earth, and drink of his Water as well as the best. The Sun looks with as pleasant and bright an Eye upon a rebellious Absalom, as a righteous David: The Earth yields its Plants and Medicines to one as well as to the other: 'It is seldom that he deprives any of the faculties of their Souls, or any Members of their Bodies. God distributes his Blessings, where he might shoot his Thunders, and darts his Light on those who deserve an Eternal Darkness, and presents the good things of the Earth, to those that Merit the Miseries of Hell; for the Earth and the fuln • ss thereof is the Lord's; Every thing in it is his in Propriety, ours in Trust: 'It is his Corn, his Wine; He never devested himself of the Propriety, though he grants us the Use; And by those good things he supports multitudes of wicked Men, not one or two, but the whole Shoal of them in the World: For he is the Savior of all Men, i. e. is the Preserver of all Men . And as he Created them, when he foresaw they would be wicked, so he provides for them, when he beholds them in their ungodliness. The ingratitude of Men stops not the Current of his Bounty, nor tires his liberal hand; Howsoever unprofitable and injurious Men are to him, he is liberal to them; and his Goodness is the more admirable, by how much the more the unthankfulness of Men is provoking: He sometimes affords to the worst a greater portion of these Earthly Goods; they often swim in Wealth, when others pine away their lives in Poverty. And the Silk-worm yields its bowels to make Purple for Tyrants, while the Oppressed scarce have from the Sheep Wool enough to cover their nakedness; and though he furnish Men with those good things, upon no other account than what Princes do, when they nourish Criminals in a Prison till the time of their Execution, 'tis a Mark of his Goodness. Is it not the kindness of a Prince to treat his Rebels deliciously? To give them the liberty of the Prison, and the enjoyment of the delights of the place, rather than to load their Legs with Fetters, and lodge them in a dark and loathsome Dungeon, till he orders them for their Crime to be conducted to the Scaffold or Gibbet? Since God is thus kind to the vilest Men, whose meanness by reason of Sin is beyond that of any other Creature, as to shoot such rays of Goodness upon them; How inexpressible would be the Expressions of his Goodness, if the Divine Image were as pure and bright upon them, as it was upon Innocent Adam?

2. His Goodness is evident in the preservation of Human Society. It belongs to his Power that he is able to do it, but to his Goodness that he is willing to do it.

1. This Goodness appears, in prescribing Rules for it. The Moral Law consists but of Ten Precepts, and there are more of them ordered for the support of Human Society, than for the adoration and honor of himself; Four for the Rights of God, and Six for the Rights of Man, and his security in his Authority, Relations, Life, Goods, and Reputation; Superiors not to be dishonored, Life not to be invaded, Chastity not to be stained, Goods not to be filcht, Good Name not to be cracked by False-witness, nor anything belonging to our Neighbor to be coveted: And in the whole Scripture, not only that which was Calculated for the Jews, but compil'd for the whole World, he hath fixed Rules for the ordering all Relations; Magistrates, and Subjects, Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Masters and Servants, Rich and Poor find their distinct Qualifications and Duties. There would be a Paradisical State, if Men had a goodness to observe, what God hath had a goodness to order, for the strengthening the Sinews of Human Society: The World would not groan under oppressing Tyrants, nor Princes tremble under discontented Subjects, or mighty Rebels: Children would not be provokit to anger by the unreasonableness of their Parents, nor Parents sink under grief by the Rebellion of their Children: Masters would not tyrannize over the meanest of their Servants, nor Servants invade the authority of their Masters.

2. The Goodness of God in the preserving Human Society, is seen in setting a Magistracy to preserve it. Magistracy is from God in its Original, the Charter was drawn up in Paradise; Civil subordination must have been, had Man remained in innocence; But the Charter was more explicitly renewed and enlarged at the restoration of the World after the Deluge, and given out to Man under the Broad Seal of Heaven, Whoso sheds Mans Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. The Command of shedding the Blood of a Murderer, was a part of his Goodness, to secure the lives of those that bore his Image. Magistrates are the Shields of the Earth, but they belong to God . They are Fruits of his Goodness in their Original and Authority; Were there no Magistracy, there would be no Government, no security to any Man under his own Vine and Fig-tree; The World would be a Den of wild Beasts preying upon one another, everyone would do what seems good in his Eyes; The loss of Government is a Judgment God brings upon a Nation, when Men become as the Fishes of the Sea, to devour one another, because they have no Ruler over them. Private Dissensions will break out into Public Disorders and Combustions.

3. The Goodness of God in the preservation of Human Society, is seen in the restraints of the Passions of Men. He sets bounds to the Passions of Men, as well as to the Roulings of the Sea, He stilleth the noise of the Waves, and the tumults of the People. Though God hath erected a Magistracy to stop the breaking out of those Flouds of Licentiousness, which swell in the hearts of Men, yet if God should not hold stiff Reins on the necks of those tumultuous and foaming Passions, the World would be a place of unruly confusion, and Hell Triumph upon Earth: A Crazy State would be quickly broke in pieces by boisterous Nature. The tumults of a People could no more be quelled by the force of Man, than the rage of the Sea by a puff of breath; Without Divine Goodness, neither the Wisdom nor watchfulness of the Magistrates, nor the industry of Officers could preserve a State. The Laws of Men would be too slight to curb the Lusts of Men, if the Goodness of God did not restrain them by a secret hand, and interweave their Temporal security with observance of those Laws. The Sons of Belial did murmur when Saul was chosen King; and that they did no more was the Goodness of God, for the preservation of Human Society. If God did not restrain the impetuousness of Men's Lusts, they would be the entire ruin of Human Society; their Lusts would render them as bad as Beasts, and change the World into a Savage Wilderness.

4. The Goodness of God is seen in the preservation of Human Society, in giving various inclinations to Men for public advantage. If all Men had an inclination to one Science or Art, they would all stand idle Spectators of one another; but God hath bestowed various dispositions and gifts upon Men, for the promoting the common good, that they may not only be useful to themselves, but to Society. He will have none idle, none unuseful, but everyone acting in a due place according to their measures for the good of others.

5. The Goodness of God is seen in the witness he bears against those Sins, that d • sturb Human Soci • ty. In those cases he is pleased to interest himself in a more signal manner, to cool those that make it their business to overturn the order he hath established for the good of the Earth. He doth not so often in this World punish those faults committed immediately against his own Honor, as those that put the World into a hurry and confusion: As a good Governor is more Merciful to Crimes against himself, than those against his Community. 'It is observed that the most turbulent seditious Persons in a State, come to most violent ends; As Corah, Adonijah, Zimri; Achitophel draws Absalom 's Sword against David and Israel, and the next is, he twists a Halter for himself. Absalom heads a Party against his Father, and God by a goodness to Israel hangs him up, and prevents not its safety by David 's indulgence, and a future Rebellion, had life been spared by the fondness of his Father. His Providence is more evident in discovering Disturbers, and the Causes that move them, in defeating their Enterprizes, and digging the Contrivers out of their Caverns and lurking holes. In such cases, God doth so act, and use such Methods, that he silenceth any Creature from challenging any partnership with him in the discovery. He doth more severely in this World correct those actions, that unlink the mutual assistance between Man and Man, and the charitable and kind Correspondence, he would have kept up. The Sins for which the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of d sobedience in this World, are of this sort: And when Princes will be oppressing the People, God will be pouring contempt on the Princes, and set the p • or on high from affliction. An evidence of God's care and kindness in the preserving Human Society, is those strange discoveries of Murders, though never so clandestine and subtly committed, more than of any other Crime among Men. Divine Care never appears more, than in bringing those hidden and injurious works of darkness to light, and a due Punishment.

6. His Goodness is seen in ordering mutual Offices to one another against the Current of Men's Passions. Upon this account he ordered in his Laws for the government of the Israelites, that a Man should reduce the wandering Beast of his Enemy, to the hand of his rightful Proprietor, though he were a provoking Enemy; and also help the poor Beast, that belonged to one that hated him, when he saw him sink under his burden . When mutual assistance was necessary, he would not have Men considered as Enemies, or considered as Wicked, but as of the same Blood with ourselves, that we might be serviceable to one another for the preservation of Life and Goods.

7. His Goodness is seen in remitting something of his own Right, for the pr • serving a due dependence and subjection. He declines the Right he had to the Vows of a Minor or one under the power of another, waving what he might challenge by the voluntary obligation of his Creature, to keep up the due order between Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Superiors and Inferiors; those that were under the power of another, as a Child under his Parents, or a Wife under her Husband, if they had vowed a Vow unto the Lord, which concerned his Honor and Worship, it was void without the approbation of that person under whose charge they were . Though God was the Lord of every Mans Goods, and Men but his Stewards; and though he might have taken to himself, what another had offered by a Vow, since whatsoever could be offered, was God's own, though it was not the Parties own, who offered it; yet God would not have himself adored by his Creature, to the prejudice of the necessary ties of Human Society: He lays aside what he might challenge by his Sovereign Dominion, that there might not be any breach of that Regular Order, which was necessary for the preservation of the World. If Divine Goodness did not thus order things, he would not do the part of a Rector of the World: The beauty of the World would be much defaced, it would be a confused Mass of Men and Women, or rather Beasts and Bedlams. Order renders every City, every Nation, yea, the whole Earth beautiful: This is an effect of Divine Goodness.

3. His Goodness is evident in encouraging anything of Moral Goodness in the World. Though Moral Goodness cannot claim an Eternal Reward, yet it hath been many times rewarded with a Temporal Happiness; He hath often signally rewarded acts of honesty, justice, and fidelity, and punished the contrary by his Judgments, to deter Man from such an unworthy practice, and encourage others to what was Comely, and of a general good report in the World. Ahab 's humiliation put a demurrer to God's Judgments intended against him; and some ascribe the great Victories and success of the Romans, to that justice which was observed among themselves. Baruch was but an Amanuensis to the Prophet Jeremy, to write his Prophesy, and very despondent of his own welfare; God upon that account provides for his safety, and rewards the industry of his service with the security of his Person; He was not a States-Man, to declare against the corrupt Counsels of them that sat at the Helm; nor a Prophet to declare against their profane practices; but the Prophets Scribe; and as he writes in God's service the Prophesies revealed to the Prophet, God writes his name in the Roll of those that were designed for preservation in that deluge of Judgments, which were to come upon that Nation. Epicurus complained of the administration of God, that the Virtuous Moralist had not sufficient smiles of Divine Favor, nor the Swinish Sensualist frowns of Divine Indignation. But what if they have not always that confluence of outward Wealth and Pleasures, but remain in the common level? Yet they have the happiness and satisfaction of a clear Reputation, the esteem of Men, and the secret applauses of their very Enemies; besides the inward ravishments upon an exercise of Virtue, and the commendatory subscription of their own hearts, a dainty the Vicious Man knows not of; They have an inward applause from God as a Reward of Divine Goodness, instead of those Racks of Conscience upon which the Profane are sometimes stretched. He will not let the worst Men do him any service, (though they never intended in the act of service, him, but themselves) without giving them their Wages: He will not let them hit him in the teeth, as if he were beholding to them. If Nebuchadnezzar be the instrument of God's Judgments against Tyrus and Israel, he will not only give him that rich City, but a richer Country, Egypt, the granary for her Neighbors, a wages above his work. In this is Divine Goodness eminent, since in the most Moral actions, as there is something beautiful, so there is something mixed, hateful to the infinitely exact Holiness of the Divine Nature; yet he will not let that which is pleasing to him, go unrewarded, and defeat the expectations of Men, as Men do with those they employ, when for one flaw in an action, they deny them the reward due for the other part. God encouraged and kept up Morality in the Cities of the Gentiles, for the entertainment of a further goodness in the Doctrine of the Gospel, when it should be published among them.

4. Divine Goodness is eminent in providing a Scripture as a Rule to guide us, and continuing it in the World. If Man be a Rational Creature governable by a Law, can it be imagined there should be no revelation of that Law to him? Man by the light of Reason must needs confess himself to be in another condition than he was by Creation, when he came first out of the hands of God; and can it be thought, that God should keep up the World under so many Sins against the light of Nature, and bestow so many providential influences, to invite Men to return to him, and acquaint no Men in the World with the means of that return? Would he exact an Obedience of Men, as their Consciencies witness he doth, and furnish them with no Rules to guide them in the darkness, they cannot but acknowledge, that they have contracted? No, Divine Goodness hath otherwise provided; This Bible we have, is his Word and Rule. Had it been a falsity and imposture, would that Goodness that watches over the World, have continued it so long? That Goodness that overthrew the burdensome Rites of Moses, and expel'd the foolish Idolatry of the Pagans, would have discovered the imposture of this, had it not been a transcript of his own Will. Whatever mistakes he suffers to remain in the World, what goodness had there been, to suffer this anciently amongst the Jews, and afterwards to open it to the whole World, to abuse Men in Religion and Worship, which so nearly concerned himself and his own Honor, that the World should be deceived by the Devil without a remedy in the morning of its appearance? It hath been honor'd and admired by some Heathens, when they have cast their Eyes upon it, and their natural Light made them behold some footsteps of a Divinity in it. If this therefore be not a Divine Praescript, let any that deny it, bring as good Arguments for any Book else, as can be brought for this. Now the publishing this is an argument of Divine Goodness: 'It is designed to win the affections of beggarly Man, to be espous'd to a God of Eternal Blessedness, and immense Riches. It speaks words in season; No doubts but it resolves; No Spiritual Distemper but it Cures; No Condition but it hath a Comfort to suit it. 'It is a Garden which the hand of Divine Bounty hath planted for us; In it he condescends to shadow himself in those Expressions that render him in some manner intelligible to us. Had God wrote in a loftiness of Style suitable to the greatness of his Majesty, his Writing had been as little understood by us, as the brightness of his Glory can be beheld by us. But he draws Phrases from our affairs, to express his mind to us; He incarnates himself in his Word to our Minds, before his Son was incarnate in the Flesh to the Eyes of Men: He ascribes to himself Eyes, Ears, Hands, that we might have from the consideration of ourselves, and the whole Human Nature, a conception of his Perfections: He assumes to himself the Members of our Bodies, to direct our Understandings in the knowledge of his Deity: This is his Goodness.

Again, Though the Scripture was written upon several occasions, yet in the dictating of it, the Goodness of God cast his Eye upon the last Ages of the World, They are written for our admonition, upon whom the end • of the World are come. It was given to the Israelites, but Divine Goodness intended it for the future Gentiles. The old Writings of the Prophets were thus designed, much more the later Writings of the Apostles. Thus did Divine Goodness think of us, and prepare his Records for us, before we were in the World: These he hath written plain for our instruction, and wrapped up in them, what is necessary for our Salvation: 'It is clear to inform our Understanding, and rich to comfort us in our Misery: 'It is a Light to guide us, and a Cordial to refresh us; 'It is a Lamp to our Feet, and a Medicine for our Diseases; a Purifier of our Filth, and a Restorer of us in our faintings. He hath by his Goodness sealed the truth of it, by his efficacy on multitudes of Men: He hath made it the Word of Regeneration . Men wilder, and more monstrous than Beasts, have been tamed and changed by the power of it: It hath raised multitudes of dead Men from a Grave fuller of horror than any Earthly one. Again, Goodness was in all ages sending his Letters of Advice and Counsel from Heaven, till the Canon of the Scripture was closed; Sometimes he wrote to chide a froward People, sometimes to cheer up an oppressed and disconsolate People, according to the State wherein they were; as we may observe by the several Seasons wherein parts of Scripture were written. It was his Goodness that he first revealed anything of his Will after the Fall; it was a further degree of Goodness, that he would add more Cubits to its Stature; before he would lay aside his Pensil it grew up to that bulk, wherein we have it. And his Goodness is further seen in the preserving it; He hath triumphed over the powers that opposed it, and shown himself good in the Instruments that propagated it: He hath maintained it against the blasts of Hell, and spread it in all Languages against the obstructions of Men and Devils. The Sun of his Word is by his kindness preserved in our Horizon, as well as the Sun in the Heavens. How admirable is Divine Goodness! He hath sent his Son to die for us, and his written Word to instruct us, and his Spirit to edge it for an entrance into our Souls: He hath opened the Womb of the Earth to nourish us; and sent down the Records of Heaven, to direct us in our Pilgrimage: He hath provided the Earth for our habitation, while we are Travelers; and sent his Word to acquaint us with a felicity at the end of our Journey, and the way to attain in another World, what we want in this, viz. a happy Immortality.

5. His Goodness in his Government is evident. In Conversions of Men. Though this Work be wrought by his Power, yet his Power was first solicited by his Goodness. It was his rich Goodness, that he would employ his power to pierce the scales of a heart as hard as those of the Leviathan. It was this that opened the Ears of Men to hear him, and draws them from the hurry of Worldly cares, and the Charms of Sensual Pleasures, and, which is the top of all, the impostures and Cheats of their own hearts. It is this that sends a spark of his wrath into Men's consciencies, to put them to a stand in sin, that he might not send down a shower of Brimstone eternally to consume their persons. This it was that first shown you the Excellency of the Redeemer, and brought you to taste the sweetness of his Blood, and find your security in the Agonies of his Death. 'It is his Goodness to call one man and not another, to turn Paul in his course, and lay hold of no other of his companions. 'It is his Goodness to call any, when he is not bound to call one.

1. 'It is his Goodness, To pitch upon mean and despicable Men in the eye of the World. To call this poor Publican, and overlook that proud Pharisee, this Man that sits upon a Dunghil, and neglect him that glisters in his Purple. His Majesty is not enticed by the lofty Titles of Men, nor, which is more worth, by the Learning and Knowledge of Men. Not many Wise; not many Mighty; not many Doct • rs, not many Lord's, though some of them; but his Goodness condescends to the base things of the World, and things which are despised. The Poor receive the Gospel ; when those that are more acute, and furnished with a more apprehensive Reason, are not touched by it.

2. The worst Men. He seizeth sometimes upon Men most soil'd, and neglects others that seem more clean and less polluted. He turns Men in their course in sin, that by their infernal practices have seemed to have gone to School to Hell, and to have sucked in the sole instructions of the Devil. He lays hold upon some when they are most under actual demerit, and snatcheth them as Fire-brands out of the Fire; as upon Paul when fullest of rage against him; And shoots a Beam of Grace, where nothing could be justly expected but a Thunder-bolt of Wrath. 'It is his Goodness to visit any, when they lie putrifying in their loathsome Lusts; To draw near to them who have been guilty of the greatest contempt of God, and the light of Nature; The murdering Manasseh's, persecuting Saul's, Christ-crucifying Jews, Persons in whom Lusts had had a peaceable possession and Empire for many years.

3. His Goodness appears, In converting Men possessed with the greatest enmity against him, while he was dealing with them. All were in such a state, and framing contrivances against him, when Divine Goodness knocked at the door . He looked after us, when our backs were turned upon him, and sought us, when we slighted him, and were a gain-saying People ; when we had shaken off his convictions, and contended with our Maker, and mustered up the Powers of Nature against the Alarms of Conscience; struggled like wild Bulls in a Net, and blunted those Darts which stuck in our Souls. Not a Man that is turned to him, but had lifted up the heel against his Gospel-Grace, as well as made light of his Creating Goodness. Yet it hath employed itself about such ungrateful Wretches, to polish those knotty and rugged pieces for Heaven; And so invincibly, that he would not have his Goodness defeated by the fierceness and rebellion of the Flesh. Though the thing was more difficult in itself (if anything may be said to have a difficulty to Omnipotency) than to make a Stone live, or to turn a Straw into a Marble-Pillar. The Malice of the Flesh makes a Man more unfit for the one, than the nature of the straw unfits it for the other.

4. His Goodness appears in turning Men, When they were pleased with their own misery, and unable to deliver themselves. When they prefer'd a Hell before him, and were in love with their own Vileness; when his Call was our torment, and his neglect of us had been accounted our felicity. Was it not a mighty Goodness to keep the Light close to our Eyes, when we endeavored to blow it out, and the corrosive near to our hearts when we endeavored to tear it off, being more fond of our Disease, than the Remedy? We should have been scalded to death with the Sodomites, had not God laid his good hand upon us, and drawn us from the approaching ruin we affected, and were loath to be freed from. And had we been displeased with our state, yet we had been as unable Spiritually to raise ourselves from Sin to Grace, as to raise ourselves naturally from Nothing to Being: In this state we were when his Goodness triumphed over us; when he put a hook into our nostrils, to turn us in order to our Salvation; and drew us out of the Pit, which we had digged, when he might left us to sink under the rigors of his Justice, we had merited. Now this Goodness in Conversion is greater than that in Creation; as in Creation there was nothing to oppose him, so there was nothing to disoblige him: Creation was terminated to the good of a mutable Nature, and Conversion tends to a supernatural Good. God pronounced all Creatures good at first, and Man among the rest, but did not pronounce any of them, or Man himself, his Portion, his Inheritance, his Segullah, his House, his Diadem. He speaks slightly of all those things which he made, the noblest Heavens, as well as the lowest Earth in comparison of a true Convert. All those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, but to this Man will I look, to him that is of a contrite Spirit. 'It is more goodness to give the espousing Grace of the Covenant, than the completing Glory of Heaven. As it is more for a Prince to marry a Beggar, than only to bring her to live deliciously in his Courts; all other benefits are of a meaner strain, if compared with this; there is little less of Goodness in imparting the Holiness of his Nature, than imputing the Righteousness of his Son.

6. The Divine Goodness doth appear in answering Prayers. He delights to be familiarly acquainted with his People, and to hear them call upon him. He indulgeth them a free access to him, and delights in every address of an upright Man . The wonderful efficacy of Prayet depends not upon the nature of our Petitions, or the temper of our Soul, but the Goodness of God to whom we address. Christ establisheth it upon this bottom; when he exhorts to ask in his name, he tells them the Spring of all their Grants, is the Fathers love. I say not I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. And since it is of itself incredible, that a Majesty exalted above the Cherubims, should stoop so low, as to give a miserable and rebellious Creature admittance to him, and afford him a gracious hearing, and a quick supply, Christ ushers in the Promise of answering Prayer, with a Note of great Assurance. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. I that know the Mind of my Father, and his good disposition, assure you, your Prayer shall not be in vain. Perhaps you will not be so ready of yourselves, to imagine so great a Liberality; but take it upon my word, 'tis true, and so you will find it. And his Bounty travels as it were in Birth, to give the greatest Blessings, upon our asking, rather than the smallest. Your Heavenly Father shall give his Holy Sp • rit to them that ask him: Which in Mat. 7.11. is called good things. Of all the good and rich things Divine Goodness hath in its Treasury, he delights to give the best upon asking, because God doth act so, as to manifest the greatness of his Bounty and Magnificence to Men; and therefore is delighted, when Men by their Petitioning him, own such a liberal disposition in him, and put him upon the manifesting it. He would rather you should ask the greatest things Heaven can afford, than the trifles of this World▪ Because his Bounty is not discovered in meaner Gifts, he loves to have an opportunity to manifest his affection above the liberality and tenderness of Worldly Fathers. He doth more wait to give in a way of Grace, than we to beg. And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you. He stands expecting your Suits, and employs his Wisdom in pitching upon the fittest seasons, when the manifestation of his Goodness may be most gracious in itself, and the Mercy you want most welcome to you; as it follows; for the Lord is a God of Judgment. He chooseth the time, wherein his doles may be most acceptable to his Suppliants; In an acceptable time have I heard thee. He often opens his hand, while we are opening our Lips, and his Blessings meet our Petitions, at the first setting out upon their Journey to Heaven. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. How often do we hear a secret Voice within us, while we are Praying, saying, Your Prayer is granted: As well as hear a Voice behind us, while we are Erring, saying, This is the way, walk in it? And his liberality exceeds often our desires, as well as our deserts; and gives out more than we had the wisdom or confidence to ask. The Apostle intimates it in that Doxology, Unto him who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think. This Power would not have been so strong an Argument of comfort, if it were never put in practice, He is more liberal than his Creatures are craving. Abraham petition'd for the life of Ishmael, and God promiseth him the birth of Isaac . Isaac asks for a Child, and God gives him two, Gen. 25.21, 22. Jacob desires Food to eat, and Raiment to put on; God confines not his Bounty within the narrow limits of his Petition, but instead of a Staff wherewith he passed Jordan, makes him repass it with two Bands . David asked life of God, and he gave him Life and a Crown to boot . The Israelites would have been contented with a free life in Egypt, they only cried to have their Chains struck off; God gave them that, and adopts them to be his peculiar People, and raises them into a famous State. 'It is a wonder that God should condescend so much, that he should hear Prayers so weak, so cold, so wandering, and gather up our sincere Petitions from the dung of our distractions and diffidence. David vents his astonishment at it; Blessed be God, for he hath shown me marvelous kindness. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thy Eyes, nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication. How do we wonder at the goodness of a petty Man in granting our desires; how much more should we at the Humility and Goodness of the most Sovereign Majesty of Heaven and Earth?

6. The Goodness of God is seen in bearing with the infirmities of his People, and accepting imperfect Obedience. Though Asa had many blots in his Scutcheon, yet they are overlooked, and this Note set upon Record by Divine Goodness, That his heart was perfect towards the Lord all his days; But the high places were not removed, nevertheless Asa 's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. He takes notice of a sincere, though chequer'd Obedience, to reward it, which could claim nothing but a slight from him, if he were extreme to mark what is done amiss. When there is not an opportunity to work, but only to will, he accepts the will, as if it had past into work and act. He sees no iniquity in Jacob, i. e. He sees it not so as to cast off a respect to their Persons, and the acceptance of their Services: His Omniscience knows their Sins, but his Goodness doth not reject their Persons. He is of so good a disposition, that he delights in a weak Obedience of his Servants, not in the Imperfection but in the Obedience; He delights in the way of a good Man, though he sometimes slips in it: He accepts a poor Mans Pigeon, as well as a rich Mans Ox; He hath a Bottle for the Tears, and a Book for the services of the Upright, as well as for the most perfect Obedience of Angels: He preserves their Tears, as if they were a rich and generous Wine, as the Vine-dresser doth the Expressions of the Grape.

8. The Goodness of God is seen in Afflictions and Persecutions. If it be good for us to be afflicted, for which we have the Psalmist's Vote, then Goodness in God is the principal cause and orderer of the Afflictions. 'It is his Goodness to snatch away that, whence we fetch supports for our security, and encouragements for our insolence against him: He takes away the thing which we have some value for, but such as his Infinite Wisdom sees inconsistent with our true happiness. 'It is no ill will in the Physician to take away the hurtful Matter the Patient loves, and prescribe bitter Potions, to advance that health which the other impaired. Nor any mark of unkindness in a Friend, to wrest a Sword out of a mad Mans hand, wherewith he was about to stab himself, though it were beset with the most Orient Pearls. To prevent what is evil, is to do us the greatest good. 'It is a kindness to prevent a Man from falling down a Precipice, though it be with a violent blow, that lays him flat upon the ground at some distance from the edge of it. By Afflictions he often snaps asunder those Chains which fettered us, and quells those Passions which ravag'd us: He sharpens our Faith, and quickens our Prayers, he brings us into the secret Chamber of our own heart, which we had little mind before to visit by a self-examination. 'It is such a Goodness that he will vouchsafe to correct Man in order to his Eternal Happiness, that Job makes it one part of his astonishment; What is Man, that thou shouldest magnify him? That thou shouldest set thy heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning? And try him every moment? His strokes are often the magnifyings and exaltings of Man. He sets his heart upon Man, while he inflicts the smart of his Rod: He shows thereby, what a high account he makes of him, and what a special affection he bears to him. When he might treat us with more severity after the breach of his Covenant, and make his jealousy flame out against us in furious Methods; he will not destroy his Relation to us, and leave us to our own inclinations, but deal with us as a Father with his Children; and when he takes this course with us, 'tis when it cannot be avoided without our ruin: His Goodness would not suffer him to do it, if our badness did not force him to it, I will melt them and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my People? What other Course can I take but this, according to the nature of Man? The Goldsmith hath no other way to separate the Dross from the Metal, but by melting it down. And when the impurities of his People necessitate him to this proceeding, he sits as a Refiner : He watches for the purifying the Silver, not for his own profit as the Goldsmith, but out of a Care of them, and good will to them; As himself speaks, I have Refin'd thee but not with Silver; Or as some read it, not for Silver. As when he scatters his People abroad for their Sin, he will not leave them without his Presence for their Sanctuary : He would by his Presence with them supply the place of Ordinances, or be an Ark to them in the midst of the Deluge: His hand that struck them, is never without a Goodness to comfort them, and pity them. When Jacob was to go into Egypt, which was to prove a furnace of Affliction to his Offspring, God promises to go down with him, and to bring him up again . A Promise not only made to Jacob in his Person, but to Jacob in his Posterity. He returned not out of Egypt in his Person, but as the Father of a numerous Posterity. He that would go down with their Root, and afterwards bring up the Branches, was certainly with them in all their Oppressions; I will go down with thee. Down, saith one, What a word is that for a Deity? into Egypt, Idolatrous Egypt, What a place is that for his Holiness? Yet, Oh the Goodness of God! He never thinks himself low enough to do his People good, nor any place too bad for his Society with them. So when he had sent away into Captivity the People of Israel by the hand of the Assyrian, his bowels yearn after them in their affliction; The Assyrian Opprest them without Cause, i. e. without a just Cause in the Conqueror to inflict so great an evil upon them, but not without Cause from God, whom they had provoked. Now therefore what have I here, saith the Lord? What do I here? I will not stay behind them. What do I longer here? For I will redeem again those Jewels the Enemy hath carried away. That Chapter is a Prophesy of Redemption: God shows himself so good to his People in their Persecutions, that he gives them occasion to glorify him in the very Fires, as the Divine Order is, Wherefore glorify the Lord in the Fires.

9. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations. In those he takes occasion to show his care and watchfulness, as a Father uses the distress of a Child as an opportunity for manifesting the tenderness of his affection. God is at the beginning and end of every Temptation; He measures out both the quality and quantity: He exposeth them not to Temptation beyond the ability he hath already granted them, or will at the time, or afterwards multiply in them. He hath promised his People, that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them: That in all things they shall be more than Conquerors through him that loved them: That the most raging Malice of Hell, shall not wrest them out of his hands. His Goodness is not less in performing, than it was in promising: And as the care of his Providence extends to the least as well as the greatest; so the watchfulness of his Goodness extends to us in the least as well as in the greatest Temptation.

1. The Goodness of God appears in shortening Temptations. None of them can go beyond their appointed times: The strong blast Satan breaths, cannot blow, nor the Waves he raises, rage one minute beyond the time God allows them; when they have done their work, and come to the period of their time, God speaks the word, and the Wind and Sea of Hell must obey him, and retire into their Dens. The more violent Temptations are, the shorter time doth God allot them. The assaults Christ had at the time of his Death, were of the most pressing and urging nature: The Powers of Darkness were all in Arms against him; the Reproaches and scorns put upon him, questioning his Sonship, were very sharp; yet a little before his Suffering he calls it but an hour, This is your hour and the Power of Darkness. A short time that Men and Devils were combined against him; and the time of Temptation that is to come upon all the World for their trial, is called but an hour . In all such attempts, the greatness of the rage is a certain Prognostick of the shortness of the Season, Revel. 12.12.

2. The Goodness of God appears in strengthening his People under Temptations. If he doth not restrain the Arm of Satan from striking, he gives us a Sword to manage the Combat, and a Shield to bear off the blow. If he obscures his Goodness in one part, he clears and brightens it in another: He either binds the strong Man that he shall not stir, or gives us Armor to render us victorious. If we fall, it is not for want of provision from him, but for want of our putting on the Armor of God . When we have not a strength by Nature, he gives it us by Grace: He often quells those Passions within, which would join hands with, and second the Temptation without. He either qualifies the Temptation, suitably to the force we have, or else supplies us with a new strength to mate the Temptation, he intends to let loose against us: He knows we are but Dust, and his Goodness will not have us unequally matched. The Jews that in Antiochus his time were under great Temptation to Apostasy, by reason of the violence of their Persecutions, were out of weakness made strong for the Combat . The Spirit came more strongly upon Sampson, when the Philistines most furiously and confidently assaulted him. His Spirit is sent to strengthen his People, before the Devil is permitted to tempt them; Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit. Then: When? When the Spirit had in an extraordinary manner descended upon him, Matth. 3.16. Then, and not before. As the Angels appeared to Christ after his Temptation, to Minister to him, so they appeared to him before his Passion, the time of the strongest Powers of Darkness, to strengthen him for it: He is so Good, that when he knows our Pot-sheard strength too weak, he furnisheth our Recruits from his own Omnipotence; Be strong in the Lord, and in the Power of his Might. He doth as it were breath in something of his own Almightiness, to assist us in our wrestling against Principalities and Powers, and make us capable to sustain the violent Storms of the Enemies.

3. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations, in giving great Comforts in on after them. The Israelites had a more immediate provision of Manna from Heaven, when they were in the Wilderness. We read not that the Father spake audibly to the Son, and gave him so loud a Testimony, that he was his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, till he was upon the brink of strong Temptations : Nor sent Angels to Minister immediately to his Person, till after his success . Job never had such evidences of Divine Love, till after he had felt the sharp strokes of Satan's Malice; he had heard of God before by the hearing of the Ear, but afterwards is admitted into greater familiarity : He had more choice appearances, clearer illuminations, and more lively instructions. And though his People fall into Temptation, yet after their rising, they have more signal Marks of his favor, than others have, or themselves, before they fell. Peter had been the Butt of Satan's rage, in tempting him to deny Christ, and he had shamefully comply'd with the Temptation; yet to him particularly must the first news of the Redeemers Resurrection be carried by God's order in the mouth of an Angel; Go your ways, tell his Disciples and Peter. We have the greatest Communion with God after a Victory: The most refreshing truths after the Devil hath done his worst. God is ready to furnish us with strength in a Combat, and Cordials after it.

4. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations, in discovering and advancing inward Grace by this means. The issue of a Temptation of a Christian is often like that of Christ's, the manifesting a greater vigor of the Divine Nature in affections to God, and enmity to Sin. Spices perfume not the Air with their scent, till they are invaded by the Fire; the truth of Grace is evidenced by them. The assault of an Enemy revives, and actuates that Strength and Courage, which is in a Man perhaps unknown to himself as well as others, till he meets with an Adversary. Many seem good, not that they are so in themselves, but for want of a Temptation. This many times verifies a Virtue, which was owned upon trust before, and discovers that we had more Grace than we thought we had. The solicitations of Josephs Mistress cleared up his Chastity. We are many times under Temptation, as a Candle under the Snuffer, it seems to be out, but presently burns the clearer. Afflictions are like those Clouds, which look black, and Eclipse the Sun from the Earth, but yet when they drop, refresh that Ground they seem to threaten, and multiply the Grain on the Earth, to serve for our Food; and so our troubles while they wet us to the Skin, wash much of that dust from our Graces, which in a clearer day had been blown upon us. Too much rest Corrupts; Exercise teacheth us to manage our Weapons: The Spiritual Armor would grow rusty, without opportunity to furbish it up. Faith receives a new heart by every Combat, and by every Victory; like a Fire it spreads itself further, and gathers strength by the blowing of the Wind. While the Gardener commands his Servant to shake the Tree, he intends to fasten its Roots, and settle it firmer in its place; And is this an ill will to the Plant?

5. His Goodness is seen in Temptations, in preventing Sin which we were likely to fall into. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh was to prevent the pride of his Spirit, and let out the windiness of his heart, lest it should be exalted above measure. The Goodness of God makes the Devil a Polisher, while he intends to be a Destroyer. The Devil never works, but suitably to some Corruption lurking in us: Divine Goodness makes his fiery Darts a means to discover, and so to prevent the treachery of that perfidious inmate in our own hearts. Humility is a greater benefit than a putrifying pride; If God brings us into a Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, 'tis to bring down our loftiness, to starve our Carnal Confidence, and expel our rusting security ; We many times fly under a Temptation to God, from whom we sat too loose before. Is it not Goodness to use those means that may drive us into his own Arms? 'It is not a want of goodness to Soap the Garment, in order to take away the Spots: We have reason to bless God for the Assaults from Hell, as well as pure Mercies from Heaven; and it is a Sin to overlook the one, as well as the other, since Divine Goodness shines in both.

6. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations, in fitting us more for his Service. Those whom God intends to make choice Instruments in his Service, are first seasoned with strong Temptations, as Timber reserved for the strong Beams of a Building, is first exposed to Sun and Wind, to make it more compact for its proper use. By this Men are brought to answer the end of their Creation, the Service of God, which is their proper Goodness. Peter was after his foil by a Temptation more Courageous in his Masters Cause than before, and the more fitted to strengthen his Brethren. Thus the Goodness of God appears in all parts of his Government.

I shall now come to the USE.

First, Of Instruction.

1. If God be so Good, how unworthy is the contempt or abuse of his Goodness?

1. The contempt and abuse of Divine Goodness is frequent and common; it began in the first Ages of the World, and commenced a few moments after the Creation; it hath not to this day diminished its affronts; Adam began the Dance, and his Posterity have followed him; The injury was directed against this, when he entertained the Seducers Notion of God's being an envious Deity, in not indulging such a Knowledge, as he might have afforded him: God doth know, that you shall be as God's, knowing Good and Evil. The charge of Envy is utterly inconsistent with pure Goodness. What was the language of this Notion so easily entertained by Adam, but that the Tempter was better than God, and the Nature of God as base and sordid as the Nature of a Devil? Satan Paints God with his own Colours, Represents him as Envious and Malicious as himself: Adam admires, and believes the Picture to be true, and hangs it up as a beloved one in the Closet of his heart. The Devil still drives on the same Game, fills Men's hearts with the same Sentiments, and by the same means he Murder'd our first Parents, he redoubles the Stabs to his Posterity. Every violation of the Divine Law is a contempt of God's Goodness, as well as his Sovereignty, because his Laws are the Products both of the one and the other. Goodness animates them while Sovereignty enjoys them: God hath Commanded nothing but what doth conduce to our happiness. All disobedience implies, that his Law is a snare to entrap us, and make us miserable, and not an act of Kindness, to render us happy, which is a disparagement to this Perfection, as if he had Commanded what would promote our Misery, and prohibited what would conduce to our Blessedness: To go far from him, and walk after vanity, is to charge him with our Iniquity, and Unrighteousness, Baseness, and Cruelty in his Commands; God implies it by his Speech, What iniquity have your Fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and walked after vanity? As if like a Tyrant he had consulted Cruelty in the composure of them, and designed to Feast himself with the Blood and Misery of his Creatures. Every Sin is in its own Nature a denial of God to be the chiefest Good and Happiness, and implies that it is no great matter to lose him; 'tis a forsaking him as the Fountain of Life, and a preferring a cracked and empty Cistern as the chief Happiness before him . Though Sin is not so Evil as God is Good, yet it is the greatest Evil, and stands in opposition to God as the greatest Good. Sin disorders the Frame of the World, it endeavor'd to frustrate all the Communications of Divine Goodness in Creation, and to stop up the way of any further Streams of it to his Creatures.

2. The abuse and contempt of the Divine Goodness is base and disingenuous. 'It is the highest Wickedness, because God is the highest Goodness, pure Goodness that cannot have anything in him worthy of our contempt. Let Men injure God under what Notion they will, they injure his Goodness; because all his Attributes are sum'd up in this one, and all as it were Deified by it. For whatsoever Power or Wisdom he might have, if he were destitute of this, he were not God: The contempt of his Goodness implies him to be the greatest Evil, and worst of Beings. Badness, not Goodness is the proper Object of Contempt: As Respect is a propension of Mind to something that is Good, so Contempt is an alienation of the Mind from something as Evil, either simply or supposedly Evil in its Nature, or base or unworthy in its action towards that Person that contemns it. As Men desire nothing but what they apprehend to be Good, so they slight nothing but what they apprehend to be Evil: Since nothing therefore is more Contemned by us than God, nothing more spurn'd at by us than God, it will follow that we regard him as the most loathsome and despicable Being, which is the greatest Baseness. And our Contempt of him is worse than that of the Devils; they injure him under the inevitable strokes of his Justice, and we slight him when we are surrounded with the Expressions of his Bounty; They abuse him under Vials of Wrath, and we under a plenteous Liberality; They malice him, because he inflicts on them what is hurtful, and we despise him, because he Commands what is profitable, holy, and honorable in its own Nature, though not in our Esteem. They are not under those high Obligations as we, they abuse his Creating, and we his Redeeming Goodness: He never sent his Son to shed a drop of Blood for their Recovery, they can expect nothing but the torment of their Persons, and the destruction of their Works: But we abuse that Goodness, that would Rescue us since we are Miserable, as well as that Righteousness which Created us Innocent. How base is it to use him so ill, that is not once or twice, but a daily, hourly Benefactor to us; whose Rain drops upon the Earth for our Food, and whose Sun shines upon the Earth for our pleasure as well as profit; such a Benefactor as is the true Proprietor of what we have, and thinks nothing too good for them, that think everything too much for his Service? How unworthy is it to be guilty of such base Carriage towards him, whose benefits we cannot want, nor live without? How disingenuous both to God and ourselves, to despise the riches of his Goodness, that are designed to lead us to Repentance, and by that to Happiness? And more heinous are the Sins of Renew'd Men upon this account, because they are against his Goodness, not only offered to them, but tasted by them; not only against the Notion of Goodness, but the Experience of Goodness, and the relisht sweetness of choicest Bounty.

3. God takes this Contempt of his Goodness heinously. He never upbraids Men with anything in the Scripture, but with the abuse of the good things he hath vouchsafed them, and the unmindfulness of the Obligations arising from them. This he bears with the greatest regret and indignation. Thus he upbraids Eli with the preference of him to the Priesthood, above other Families : And David with his Exaltation to the Crown of Israel, when they abused those Honors to carelessness and licentiousness. All Sins offend God, but Sins against his Goodness do more disparage him; and therefore his fury is the greater, by how much the more liberally his benefits have been dispensed. It was for abuse of Divine Goodness, as soon as it was tasted, that some Angels were hurled from their Blessed Habitation and more happy Nature: It was for this Adam lost his present Enjoyments, and future Happiness; for the abuse of God's Goodness in Creation. For the abuse of God's Goodness the old World fell under the fury of the Flood; and for the Contempt of the Divine Goodness in Redemption, Jerusalem once the darling City of the infinite Monarch of the World, was made an Aceldema, a Field of Blood. For this Cause it is, that Candlesticks have been removed, great Lights put out, Nations overturned, and Ignorance hath triumphed in places bright before with the Beams of Heaven. God would have little care of his own Goodness, if he always prostituted the Fruits of it to our Contempt: Why should we expect, he should always continue that to us, which he sees, we will never use to his Service? When the Israelites would Dedicate the Gifts of God to the service of Baal, then he would return, and take away his Corn, and his Wine, and make them know by the less, that those things were his in Dominion, which they abused, as if they had been Sovereign Lord's of them . Benefits are Entail'd up us no longer than we obey; If you forsake the Lord, he will do you hurt, after he hath done you good. While we obey, his Bounty shall shower upon us, and when we revolt, his Justice shall consume us. Present Mercies abused, are no Bulwarks against impendent Judgments. God hath Curses as well as Blessings, and they shall light more heavy, when his Blessings have been more weighty: Justice is never so severe, as when it comes to right Goodness, and revenge its quarrel for the injuries received.

A convenient Enquiry may be here, How God's Goodness is contemned or abused?

1. By a forgetfulness of his Benefits. We enjoy the Mercies, and forget the Donor; we take what he gives, and pay not the Tribute he deserves; The Israelites forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt . We send God's Mercies, where we would have God send our Sins, into the Land of forgetfulness, and write his Benefits, where himself will write the Names of the Wicked, in the Dust, which every Wind defaceth: The remembrance soon wears out of our Minds, and we are so far from remembering what we had before, that we scarce think of that Hand that gives, the very instant wherein his Benefits drop upon us. Adam basely forgot his Benefactor, presently after he had been made capable to remember him, and reflect upon him; the first remark we hear of him, is of his forgetfulness, not a syllable of his thankfulness. We f • rget those Souls he hath lodged in us, to acknowledge his favors to our Bodies; we forget that Image wherewith he beautified us; and that Christ he exposed as a Criminal to Death for our Rescue, which is such an act of Goodness as cannot be expressed by the Eloquence of the Tongue, or conceived by the acuteness of the Mind. Those things which are so common, that they cannot be invisible to our Eyes, are unregarded by our Minds; our Sense prompts our Understanding, and our Understanding is deaf to the plain dictates of our Sense. We forget his Goodness in the Sun, while it warms us, and his Showers while they enrich us; in the Corn while it nourisheth us, and the Wine while it refresheth us; She did not know that I gave her Corn, and Wine, and Oil: She that might have read my Hand in every bit of Bread, and every drop of Drink, did not consider this. 'It is an injustice to forget the benefits we receive from Man; 'tis a Crime of a higher Nature to forget those dispensed to us by the hand of God, who gives us those things that all the World cannot furnish us with, without him. The Inhabitants of Troas will condemn us, who worshipped Mice, in a grateful remembrace of the Victory they had made easy for them, by gnawing their Enemies Bow-strings. They were mindful of the Courtesie of Animals, though unintended by those Creatures; and we are regardless of the fore-meditated Bounty of God. 'It is in God's Judgment a brutishness beyond that of a stupid Ox, or a duller Ass; The Ox knows his Owner, and the Ass his Masters Crib, but Israel doth not know, my People do not consider. The Ox knows his Owner that Pastures him, and the Ass his Master that feeds him; but Man is not so good as to be like to them, but so bad as to be inferior to them: He forgets him that sustains him, and spurns at him, instead of valuing him for the benefits confer'd by him. How horrible is it, that God should loose more by his Bounty, than he would do by his Patrimony? If we had Blessings more sparingly, we should remember him more gratefully. If he had sent us a bit of Bread in a distress by a Miracle, as he did to Elijah by the Ravens, it would have stuck longer in our memories, but the sense of daily favors soonest wears out of our minds, which are as great Miracles as any in their own Nature, and the products of the same Power; But the wonder they should beget in us, is obscured by their frequency.

2. The Goodness of God is contemned by an impatient murmuring. Our repinings proceed from an inconsideration of God's free liberality, and an ungrateful temper of Spirit. Most Men are guilty of this. 'It is implied in the commendation of Job under his Pressures; In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly, as if it were a Character peculiar to him, whereby he verified the Elogy, God had given of him before, v: 8. That there was none like him in the Earth, a perfect and an upright Man. What is implied by the Expression? but that scarce a Man is to be found without unjust complaints of God, and charging him under their Crosses with Cruelty; when in the greatest, they have much more reason to bless him for his Bounty in the remainder. Good Men have not been innocent. Baruch complains of God, for adding grief to his sorrow, not furnishing him with those great things he expected, whereas he had matter of thankfulness in God's gift of his life as a prey. But his Master chargeth God in a higher strain, Oh Lord thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived, I am in derision daily. When he met with reproach instead of success in the execution of his Function, he quarrels with God, as if he had a mind to cheat him into a mischief, when he had more reason to bless him for the honor of being employed in his Service. Because we have not what we expect, we slight his Goodness in what we enjoy. If he Cross us in one thing, he might have made us successless in more: If he take away some things, he might as well have taken away all. The unmerited remainder, though never so little, deserves our acknowledgments more than the deserved loss, can justify our repining. And for that which is snatched from us, there is more cause to be thankful, that we have enjoyed it so long, than to murmur that we possess it no longer. Adams Sin implies a repining: He imagined God had been short in his Goodness, in not giving him a knowledge he foolishly conceived himself capable of, and would venture a forfeiture of what already had been bountifully bestowed upon him. Man thought God had envied him, and ever since, Man studies to be even with God, and envies him the free disposal of his own Doles: All murmuring either in our own Cause or others, charges God with a want of Goodness, because there is a want of that, which he foolishly thinks would make himself or others happy. The language of this Sin is, that Man thinks himself better than God, and if it were in his Power, would express a more plentiful Goodness than his Maker. As Man is apt to think himself more pure than God, so of a kinder Nature also than an Infinite Goodness. The Israelites are a wonderful Example of this contempt of Divine Goodness; They had been Spectators of the greatest Miracles, and partakers of the choicest deliverance: He had solicited their Redemption from Captivity, and when words would not do, he came to blows for them; Musters up his Judgments against their Enemies, and at last, as the Lord of Hosts, and God of Battles, totally defeats their Pursuers, and drowns them and their proud hopes of Victory in the Red Sea. Little account was made of all this by the Redeem'd ones, They lightly esteemed the Rock of their Salvation, and launch into greater unworthiness instead of being thankful for the breaking their Yoak: They are angry with him, that he had done so much for them: They repented that ever they had complied with him, for their own deliverance, and had a regret, that they had been brought out of Egypt: They were angry that they were Freemen, and that their Chains had been knocked off: They were more desirous to return to the Oppression of their Egyptian Tyrants, than have God for their Governor, and Caterer, and be fed with his Manna. It was well with us in Egypt, Why came we forth out of Egypt? which is called a despising the Lord: They were so far from rejoicing in the expectation of the future benefits promised them, that they murmur'd, that they had not enjoyed less; They were so sottish, as to be desirous to put themselves into the Irons whence God had delivered them; They would seek a Remedy in that Egypt, which had been the Prison of their Nation, and under the Successors of that Pharaoh, who had been the Invader of their Liberties; They would snatch Moses from the place, where the Lord by an extraordinary Providence hath established him; They would stone those that minded them of the Goodness of God to them, and thereupon of their Crime and their Duty; They rose against their Benefactors, and murmur'd against God, that had strengthened the hands of their Deliverers; they despised the Manna he had sent them, and despised the pleasant Land he intended them: All which was a high contempt of God and his unparalleled Goodness and Care of them. All murmuring is an accusation of Divine Goodness.

3. By unbelief and impenitency. What is the reason we come not to him, when he calls us, but some secret imagination that he is of an ill Nature, means not as he speaks, but intends to mock us, instead of welcoming us? When we neglect his Call, spurn at his bowels, slight the riches of his Grace; As it is a disparagement to his Wisdom, to despise his Counsel, so it is to his Goodness, to slight his Offers, as though you could make better provision for yourselves, than he is able or willing to do. It disgraceth that which is designed to the praise of the glory of his Grace: And renders God Cruel to his own Son, as being an unnecessary shedder of his Blood. As the Devil by his Temptation of Adam, envied God the glory of his Creating Goodness; so unbelief envies God the glory of his Redeeming Grace: 'It is a bidding defiance to him, and challenging him to Muster up the Legions of his Judgments, rather than have sent his Son to suffer for us, or his Spirit to solicit us. Since the sending his Son was the greatest act of Goodness, that God could express, the refusal of him must be the highest Reproach of th • t Liberality, God designed to commend to the World in so rare a Gift: The ingratitude in this refusal must be as high in the Rank of Sins, as the Person slighted is in the Rank of Beings, or Rank of Gifts. Christ is a Gift, the Royallest Gift, an unparalleled Gift, springing from inconceivable Treasures of Goodness: What is our turning our backs upon this Gift but a low opinion of it? As though the richest Jewel of Heaven were not so valuable as a Swinish pleasure on Earth; and deserved to be treated at no other rate, than if mere Offals had been presented to us. The plain language of it is, that there were no gracious intentions for our welfare in this present; and that he is not as good in the Mission of his Son, as he would induce us to imagine. Impenitence is also an abuse of this Goodness, either by presumption as if God would entertain Rebels, that bid defiance against him, with the same respect that he doth his prostrate and weeping Suppliants; That he will have the same regard to the Swine as to the Children, and lodge them in the same Habitation: Or it speaks a suspicion of God, as a deceitful Master, one of a pretended, not a real Goodness; That makes promises to mock Men, and invitations to delude them; That he is an implacable Tyrant, rather than a good Father; A rigid, not a kind Being, delightful only to mark our Faults, and overlook our Services.

4. The Goodness of God is contemned by a distrust of his Providence. As all trust in him supposeth him Good, so all distrust of him supposeth him Evil, either without Goodness to exert his Power, or without Power to display his Goodness. Job seems to have a Spice of this in his complaint, I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me, I stand up, and thou regardest me not. 'It is a fume of the Serpents Venom, first breathed into Man, to suspect him of Cruelty, Severity, Regardlesness, even under the daily Evidences of his good Disposition: And it is ordinary not to believe him when he speaks, nor Credit him when he acts: To question the goodness of his Precepts, and misinterpret the kindness of his Providence; As if they were designed for the supports of a Tyranny, and the deceit of the Miserable. Thus the Israelites thought their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and the placing them in security in the Wilderness, was intended only to pound them up for a slaughter . Thus they defiled the luster of Divine Goodness, which they had so highly Experimented, and placed not that confidence in him, which was due to so frequent a Benefactor; and thereby Crucify'd the rich Kindness of God, as Genebrard translates the word, limited . 'It is also a jealousy of Divine Goodness, when we seek to deliver ourselves from our straights by unlawful ways; as though God had not kindness enough to deliver us without committing Evil. What did God make a World and all Creatures in it, to think of them no more, not to concern himself in their Affairs? If he be Good, he is diffusive, and delights to Communicate himself, and what Subjects should there be for it, but those that seek him and implore his assistance? 'It is an indignity to Divine Bounty, to have such mean thoughts of it, that it should be of a Nature contrary to that of his Works, which the better they are, the more diffusive they are. Doth a Man distrust that the Sun will not shine anymore, or the Earth not bring forth its Fruit? Doth he distrust the goodness of an approved Medicine, for the expelling his Distemper? If we distrust those things, should we not render ourselves ridiculous, and sottish? And if we distrust the Creator of those things, do we not make ourselves contemners of his Goodness? If his Careing for us be a principal Argument, to move us to cast our Care upon him, as it is, 1 Pet. 5.7. Casting your Care upon him; for he Cares for you; then if we cast not our Care upon him, 'tis a denial of his Gracious Care of us; as if he regarded not what becomes of us.

5. We do contemn or abuse his Goodness by omissions of Duty. These sometimes spring from injurious conceits of God, which end in desperate Resolutions. It was the Crime of a good Prophet in his passion, This Evil is of the Lord, Why should I wait on the Lord any longer? God designs nothing but mischief to us, and we will seek him no longer. And the complaint of those in Malachi, Mal. 3.14. is of the same nature: Ye have said, 'tis vain to serve God, and what profit is it, that we have kept his Ordinances? We have all this while served a hard Master, not a Benefactor, and have not been answered with advantages proportionable to our services: We have met with a hand too niggardly, to dispense that Reward, which is due to the largeness of our Offerings. When Men will not lift up their Eyes to Heaven, and solicit nothing but the contrivance of their own brain, and the industry of their own heads, they disown Divine Goodness, and approve themselves as their own God's, and the Spring of their own Prosperity. Those that run not to God in their necessity, to crave his support, deny either the Arm of his Power, or the disposition of his Will, to sustain and deliver them: They must have very mean sentiments, or none at all of this Perfection, or think him either too empty to fill them, or too churlish to relieve them: That he is of a narrow and contracted Temper, and that they may sooner expect to be made better and happier by anything else than by him. And as we contemn his Goodness by a total omission of those Duties which respect our own advantage and supply, as Prayer; so we contemn him as the chiefest Good, by an omission of the due manner of any act of Worship, which is designed purely for the acknowledgment of him. As every omission of the material part of a Duty is a denial of his Sovereignty as Commanding it; So every omission of the manner of it, not performing it with a due esteem and valuation of him, a surrender of all the Powers of our Souls to him, is a denial of him, as the most amiable Object. But certainly to omit those Addresses to God, which his Precept enjoins, and his Excellency deserves, speaks this language, that they can be well enough, and do well enough without God, and stand in no need of his Goodness to maintain them. The neglect or refusal in a Malefactor to supplicate for his Pardon, is a wrong to, and contempt of the Princes goodness: Either implying, that he hath not a goodness in his Nature worthy of an Address, or that he scorns to be obliged to him for any Exercise of it.

6. The Goodness of God is contemned or abused, in relying upon our Services, to procure God's good Will to us. As when we stand in need either of some particular Mercy, or special Assistance: When Pressures are heavy, and we have little hopes of ease in an ordinary way: When the Devotions in course have not prevailed for what we want: We engage ourselves by extraordinary Vows and Promises to God, hereby to open that Goodness, which seems to be locked up from us. Sometimes indeed Vows may proceed from a sole desire, to engage ourselves to God, from a sense of the levity and inconstancy of our Spirits: Binding ourselves to God by something more sacred and inviolable than a common Resolution. But many times the Vowing the building of a Temple, Endowing an Hospital, giving so much in Alms, if God will free them from a Fit of Sickness, and spin out the thread of their Lives a little longer, (as hath been frequent among the Romanists ) arises from an opinion of Laziness, and a Selfishness in the Divine Goodness; that it must be squeezed out by some solemn Promises of Returns to him, before it will exercise itself to take their parts. Popular Vows are often the effects of an ignorance of the free and bubbling Nature of this Perfection of the Generousness and Royalty of Divine Goodness: As if God were of a mean and Mechanic Temper, not to part with anything, unless he were in some measure paid for it: And of so bad a Nature, as not to give passage to any kindness to his Creature without a Bribe. It implies also, that he is of an ignorant, as well as contracted Goodness; that he hath so little understanding, and so much weakness of Judgment, as to be taken with such trifles and Ceremonial Courtships and little Promises; And meditated only low designs, in imparting his Bounty: 'It is just as if a Malefactor should speak to a Prince, Sir, If you will but bestow a Pardon upon me, and prevent the Death I have merited for this Crime, I will give you this Rattle. All Vows made with such a temper of Spirit to God, are as injurious and abusive to his Goodness, as any Man will judge such an offer to be to a Majestick and Gracious Prince; as if it were a Trading, not a free and Royal Goodness.

7. The Goodness of God is abused, when we give up our Souls and Affections to those Benefits we have from God. When we make those things God's Rivals, which were sent to Woe us for him, and offer those Affections to the Presents themselves, which they were sent to solicit for the Master. This is done, when either we place our trust in them, or glue our choicest Affections to them. This Charge God brings against Jerusalem, the trusting in her own Beauty, Glory, and Strength, though it was a Comeliness put upon her by God . When a little Sun-shine of Prosperity breaks out upon us, we are apt to grasp it with so much eagerness and closeness, as if we had no other Foundation to settle ourselves upon, no other Being that might challenge from us our sole dependence. And the love of ourselves, and of Creatures above God, is very natural to us: Lovers of themselves and lovers of Pleasure more than of God. Self-love is the Root, and the love of Pleasures the top Branch, that mounts its head highest against Heaven. 'It is for the love of the World that the dangers of the Sea are past over, that Men descend into the Bowels of the Earth, pass Nights without sleep, undertake Suits without intermission, wade through many inconveniencies, venture their Souls, and contemn God; In those things Men glory, and foolishly grow proud by them, and think themselves safe and happy in them. Now to love ourselves above God, is to own ourselves better than God, and that we transcend him in an amiable Goodness; Or if we love ourselves equal with God, it at least manifests, that we think God no better than ourselves, and think ourselves our own chief good, and deny anything above us, to out-strip us in goodness, whereby to deserve to be the Center of our Affections and Actions: And to love any other Creature above him, is to conclude some defect in God, that he hath not so much goodness in his own Nature, as that Creature hath, to complete our felicity; that God is a slighter thing than that Creature. 'It is to account God, what all the things in the World are, an imaginary happiness, a goodness of Clay, and them what God is, a Supreme Goodness. 'It is to value the goodness of a Drop above that of the Spring, and the goodness of the Spark above that of the Sun. As if the Bounty of God were of a less alloy, than the advantages we immediately receive from the hands of a silly Worm. By how much the better we think a Creature to be, and place our Affections chiefly upon it; by so much the more deficient and indigent we conclude God: For God wants so much in our conception, as the other thing hath goodness above him in our thoughts. Thus is God lessened below the Creature, as if he had a mixture of evil in him, and were capable of an imperfect goodness. He that esteems the Sun that shines upon him, the Clothes that warm him, the Food that nourisheth him, or any other Benefit above the Donor, regards them as more Comely and useful than God himself; and behaves himself, as if he were more obliged to them, than to God, who bestowed those advantageous qualities upon them.

8. The Divine Goodness is contemned, in sinning more freely upon the account of that Goodness, and employing God's Benefits in a drudgery for our Lusts. This is a treachery to his Goodness, to make his Benefits serve for an end quite contrary to that for which he sent them. As if God had been plentiful in his Blessings, to hire them to be more fierce in their Rebellions, and fed them to no other purpose, but that they might more strongly kick against him: This is the Fruit which Corrupt Nature produceth. Thus the Egyptians who had so fertile a Country, prove unthankful to the Creator, by adoring the meanest Creatures, and putting the Scepter of the Monarch of the World, into the hands of the Sottishest and Cruellest Beasts. And the Romans multiply their Idols, as God multiplied their Victories. This is also the complaint of God concerning Israel, She did not know, that I gave her Corn, and Wine, and Oil, and multiplied her Silver and Gold, which they prepared for Baal. They ungratefully employed the Blessings of God in the Worship of an Idol against the will of the Donor. So in Hos. 10.1. According to the multitude of his Fruit, he hath increased the Altars, according to the goodness of his Land they have made goodly Images. They followed their own inventions with the strength of my outward Blessings. As their Wealth increased, they increased the Ornaments of their Images; so that what were before of Wood and Stone, they advanced to Gold and Silver. And the like complaint you may see, Ezek. 16.17. Thus,

1. The Benefits of God are abused to Pride; when Men standing upon a higher ground of outward Prosperity, vaunt it loftily above their Neighbors; the common fault of those that enjoy a Worldly Sun-shine, which the Apostle observes in his Direction to Timothy; Charge them that are rich in this World, that they be not high-m • nded. 'It is an ill use of Divine Blessings, to be filled by them with Pride and Wind. Also,

2. When Men abuse Plenty to Ease; because they have abundance, spend their time in idleness, and make no other use of Divine Benefits, than to trifle away their time, and be utterly useless to the World.

3. When they also abuse Peace and other Blessings to security. As they which would not believe the threatenings of Judgment and the Storm coming from a far Country, because the Lord was in Zion, and her King in her; Is not the Lord in Zion, is not her King in her? thinking they might continue their progress in their Sin, because they had the Temple, the Seat of the Divine Glory, Zion, and the promise of an everlasting Kingdom to David; abusing the Promise of God to presumption and security, and turning the Grace of God into wantonness.

4. Again, When they abuse the Bounty of God to sensuality and luxury, misemploying the Provisions God gives them, in resolving to live like Beasts, when by a good improvement of them, they might attain the Life of Angels. Thus is the light of the Sun abused to conduct them, and the Fruits of the Earth abused to enable them to their prodigious Debauchery: As we do, saith one, with the Thames, which brings us in Provision, and we soil it with our Rubbish. The more God sows his Gifts, the more we sow our Cockle and Darnel. Thus we make our outward Happiness the most unhappy part of of our lives, and by the strength of Divine Blessings exceed all Laws of Reason and Religion too.

How unworthy a Carriage is this, to use the Expressions of Divine Goodness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him? When we stab his Honor by those Instruments he puts into our hands to glorify him; as if a favorite should turn that Sword into the Bowels of his Prince, wherewith he Knighted him. And a Servant enriched by a Lord, should hire by that Wealth Murderers to take away his life. How brutish is it, the more God Courts us with his Blessings, the more to spurn at him with our Feet? Like the Mule that lifts up its Heel against the Dam, as soon as ever it hath sucked her. We never beat God out of our hearts, but by his own Gifts: He receives no blows from Men, but by those Instruments he gave them to promote their Happiness. While Man is an Enjoyer, he makes God a Looser by his own Blessings; inflames his Rebellion by those Benefits, which should kindle his love; and runs from him by the strength of those favors, which should endear the Donor to him. Do you thus requite the Lord, Oh foolish People and unwise? is the Expostulati n, Deut. 32.6. Divine Goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it, in giving them Titles below their Crime, and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own Interest, than Enemies to his Glory. Foolish and unwise in neglecting their own Happiness, a Charge below the Crime, which deserved to be abominable, ungrateful People to a Prodigy. All this Carriage towards God, is as if a Man should knock the Chirurgeon on the Head, as soon as he hath set and bound up his Dislocated Members. So God compares the ungrateful behavior of the Israelites against him, Though I have bound, and strengthn'd their Arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. A Metaphor taken from a Chirurgeon that applies Corroborating Playsters to a broken Limb.

9. We contemn the Goodness of God, in ascribing our Benefits to other Causes than Divine Goodness. Thus Israel ascribed her Felicity, Plenty, and Success to her Idols, as Rewards which her lovers had given her . And this Charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazz • r; Thou hast praised the God's of Silver, and Gold, and Brass, and Iron, and the God in whose hand is thy breath, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. The God who hath given success to the Arms of thy Ancestors, and conveyed by their hands so large a Dominion to thee, thou hast not honor'd in the same Rank with the sordidest of thy Idols. 'It is the same case, when we own him not as the Author of any success in our Affairs, but by an over-weening conceit of our own Sagacity, applaud and admire ourselves, and overlook the Hand, that conducted us, and brought our endeavors to a good issue. We Eclipse the Glory of Divine Goodness, by setting the Crown that is due to it upon the head of our own Industry. A Sacrilege worse than Belshazzar 's drinking of Wine with his Lord's and Concubines in the Sacred Vessels pilfer'd from the Temple; as in that place of Daniel. This was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian Conqueror, for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart; By the strength of my hand, I have done it, and by my Wisdom: for I am prudent, and I have removed the bounds of the People, and have robbed their Treasures, and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant Man. Not a word of Divine Goodness and Assistance in all this, but applauding his own Courage and Conduct. This is a robbing of God, to set up ourselves, and making Divine Goodness a Footstool, to ascend into his Throne. And as it is unjust, so it is ridiculous, to ascribe to ourselves or Instruments, the chief honor of any work: As ridiculous as if a Soldier after a Victory should Erect an Altar to the honor of his Sword, or an Artificer offer Sacrifices to the Tools, whereby he completed some excellent and useful Invention. A practice that every Rational Man would disdain, where he should see it. 'It is a discarding any thoughts of the Goodness of God, when we imagine, that we chiefly owe anything in this World to our own Industry or Wit, to Friends or Means, as though Divine Goodness did not open its hand, to interest itself in our Affairs, support our Ability, direct our Counsels, and mingle itself with anything we do. God is the principal Author of any advantage that accrues to us, of any wise Resolution we fix upon, or any proper way we take to compass it; No Man can be wise in opposition to God, act wisely or well without him; His Goodness inspires Men with generous and magnificent Counsels, and furnisheth them with fit and proportionable Means; When he withdraws his hand, Men's heads grow foolish, and their hands feeble; folly and weakness drops upon them as darkness upon the World upon the removal of the Sun. 'It is an abuse of Divine Goodness, not to own it, but erect an Idol in its place. Ezra was of another mind, when he ascribed to the good hand of God, the providing Ministers for the Temple, and not to his own care and diligence : And Nehemiah the success he had with the King in the behalf of his Nation, and not solely to his favor with the Prince, or the arts he used to please him.

2. The second Information is this, If God be so good, 'tis a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State. 'It is the complaint of Man sometimes, that other Creatures have more of Earthly Happiness than Men have, live freer from cares and trouble, and are not racked with that sollicitousness and anxiety as Man is: Have not such distempers to embitter their lives. 'It is a good ground for Man to look into himself, and consider whether he hath not some ways or other, disobliged God more than other Creatures can possibly do. We often find that the Creatures Men have need of in this State, do not answer the expectation of Man. Cursed be the ground for thy sake . A fruitful Land is made barren, Thorns and Thistles triumph upon the face of the Earth instead of good Fruit. Is it like that that Goodness which is as infinite as his Power, and knows no more limits than his Almightiness, should imprint so many scars upon the World, if he had not been heinously provoked by some miscarriage of his Creature? Infinite Goodness could never move Infinite Justice to inflict Punishment upon Creatures, if they had not highly Merited it: We cannot think, that any Creature was blemisht with a Principle of Disturbance, as it came first out of the hand of God. All things were certainly settled in a due order and dependence upon one another: Nothing could be ungrateful, and unuseful to Man by the Original Law of their Creation: If there had, it had not been Goodness, but Evil and Baseness, that had Created the World. When we see therefore the Course of Nature overturned, the Order Divine Goodness had placed, disturbed; and the Creatures pronounced good and useful to Man, employed as Instruments of Vengeance against him; We must conclude some horrible blot upon Human Nature, and very odious to a God of Infinite Goodness; And that this blot was dashed upon Man by himself, and his own fault; for it is repugnant to the Infinite Goodness of God, to put into the Creature, a Sinning Nature, to hurry him into Sin, and then punish him for that, which he had imprest upon him. The Goodness of God inclines him to love goodness, wherever he finds it, and not to punish any, that have not deserved it by their own Crimes. The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under, the disorders in Nature, the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests, the trouble he is continually exposed to in the World, which tedders down his Spirit from more generous Employments, shows, that Man is not what he was, when Divine Goodness first Erected him; but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God; and so heinous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand, and makes him lay aside the Blessings, his hand was filled with, to take up the Arms of Vengeance, wherewith to fight against the World. Divine Goodness would have secured his Creatures from any such invasions, and never used those things against Man, which he designed in the first frame for Mans service, were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man, which makes God with-hold his Liberality, and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments. The Consideration of the Divine Goodness, which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity, would to an unbyast Reason, verify the History of those Punishments, settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis, and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation. This instruction naturally flows from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness. If God be so good, it is a certain Argument, that Man is fallen from his Original State.

3. The third Information is this, If God be infinitely good, there can be no just complaint against God, if Men be punished for abusing his Goodness. Man had nothing, nay, it was impossible he could have anything from infinite Goodness to disoblige him, but to engage him. God never did, nay, never could draw his Sword against Man, till Man had had slighted him, and affronted him by the strength of his own Bounty. 'It is by this, God doth justify his severest proceedings against Men, and very seldom charges them with any else as the matter of their provocations; Therefore will I return, and take away my Corn in the time thereof, and my Wine in the season thereof, and will recover my Wool and my Flax. And in Ezek. 16. after he had drawn out a Bill of Complaint against them, and inserted on • y the abuse of his Benefits, as a justification of what he intended to do; He concludes Verse 27. Behold therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and dim • nisht thy ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee. When Men suffer, they suffer justly; they were not constrained by any Violence, or forced by any necessity, nor provokit by any ill usage, to turn head against God, but broke the bands of the strongest Obligations, and most tender Allurements. What Man, what Devil can justly blame God for punishing them, after they had been so intolerably bold, as to fly in the face of that Goodness that had obliged them, by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior Creatures, and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first Habitation? Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigor than Devils, since after his unreasonable Revolt, a more express Goodness than that which Created him, hath solicited him to Repentance, Courted him by melting Promises and Expostulations, added undeniable Arguments of Bounty, and drawn out the choicest Treasures of Heaven in the gift of his Son, to prevail over Men's perversity. And yet Man after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an Angel, will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a Devil; and more strongly link himself to the Society of the damned Spirits, wherein by his first Rebellion he had incorporated himself. Who can blame God for vindicating his own Goodness from such desperate contempts, and the extreme ingratitude of Man? If God be good, 'tis our happiness to adhere to him: If we depart from him, we depart from Goodness, and if Evil happen to us, we cannot blame God but ourselves, for our departure. Why are Men happy? Because they cleave to God; Why are Men miserable? Because they recede from God; 'It is then our own fault that we are miserable; God cannot be charged with any injustice, if we be miserable, since his Goodness gave means to prevent it, and afterwards added means to recover us from it, but all despised by us. The Doctrine of Divine Goodness justifies every Stone laid in the Foundation of Hell, and every Spark in that burning Furnace, since it is for the abuse of Infinite Goodness, that it was kindled.

4. The fourth Information, Here is a certain Argument, both for God's fitness to govern the World, and his actual Government of it.

1. This renders him fit for the Government of the World, and gives him a full Title to it. This Perfection doth the Psalmist Celebrate throughout the 107 Psalm, where he declares God's Works of Providence, verse. 8, 15, 21, 32. Power without goodness would deface, instead of preserving; Ruin is the fruit of rigor without kindness; But God because of his infinite and immutable goodness cannot do anything unworthy of himself, and uncomely in itself, or destructive to any Moral goodness in the Creature. 'It is impossible he should do anything that is base, or act anything but for the best, because he is essentially and naturally, and therefore necessarily good. As a good Tree cannot bring forth bad Fruit, so a good God cannot produce evil acts; no more than a pure Beam of the Sun can engender so much as a mite of darkness; or infinite Heat produce any particle of Cold. As God is so much Light, that he can be no Darkness, so he is so much G • od, that he can have no Evil; and because there is no Evil in him, nothing simply Evil can be produced by him. Since he is good by Nature, all evil is against his Nature, and God can do nothing against his Nature: It would be a part of impotence in him, to Will that which is Evil; and therefore the Misery Man feels, as well as the Sin whereby he deserves that Misery, are said to be from himself; Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thyself. And though God sends Judgments upon the World, we have shewn these to be intended for the support and vindication of his Goodness. And Hezekiah judged no otherewise, when after the threatening of the Devastation of his House, the Plundering his Treasures, and Captivity of his Posterity, He replies, Good is the Word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken . God cannot act anything that is base and Cruel, because his Goodness is as infinite as his Power, and his Power acts nothing, but what his Wisdom directs, and his Goodness moves him to. Wisdom is the Head in Government, Omniscience the Eye, Power the Arm, and Goodness the Heart and Spirit in them, that animates all.

2. As Goodness renders him fit to govern the World, so God doth actually govern the World. Can we understand this Perfection aright, and yet imagine, that he is of so Morose a Disposition, as to neglect the care of his Creatures? That his Excellency which was displayed in framing the World, should withdraw and wrap up itself in his own Bosom, without looking out, and darting itself out in the disposal of them? Can that which moved him first to Erect a World, suffer him to be unmindful of his own Work? Would he design first to display it in Creation, and afterwards obscure the Honor of it? That cannot be Entitled an Infinite permanent Goodness, which should be so indifferent, as to let the Creatures tumble together, as they please, without any order, after he had Moulded them in his hand. If Goodness be diffusive and communicative of itself, can it consist with the Nature of it, to extend itself to the giving the Creatures Being, and then withdraw and contract itself, not caring what becomes of them? 'It is the Nature of Goodness after it hath communicated itself, to enlarge its Channels; That Fountain that springs up in a little hollow part of the Earth, doth in a short progress increase its Streams, and widen the Passages through which it runs: It would be a blemish to Divine Goodness, if it did desert what it made, and leave things to wild Confusions, which would be, if a good hand did not manage them, and a good Mind preside over them. This is the Lesson intended to us by all his Judgments, That the living may know, that the Most High Rules in the Kingdoms of Men. If he doth not actually govern the World, he must have devolv'd it somewhere, either to Men or Angels; Not to Men, who naturally want a goodness and Wisdom to govern themselves, much more to govern others exactly. And besides the misinterpretations of actions, they are liable to the want of Patience, to bear with the provocations of the World. Since some of the best at one time in the World, and in the greatest example of meekness and sweetness, would have kindled a Fire in Heaven to have consumed the Samaritans, for no other affront than a non Entertainment of their Master, and themselves . Nor hath he committed the disposal of things to Angels, either good or bad; though he useth them as Instruments in his Government, yet they are not the principal Pilots to Steer the World. Bad Angels certainly are not; they would make continual Ravages, meditate Ruin, never defeat their own Counsels, which they manage by the Wicked as their Instruments in the World, nor fill their Spirits with disquiet and restlessness when they are engaged in some Ruinous Design, as often is experienced: Nor hath he committed it to the good Angels, who for ought we know, are not more numerous than the evil ones are: But besides, we can scarcely think their Finite Nature capable of so much goodness, as to bear the innumerable Debaucheries, Villanies, Blasphemies vented in one year, one week, one day, one hour throughout the World; Their Zeal for their Creator might well be supposed to move them to testify their affection to him in a constant and speedy Righting of his injured Honor upon the heads of the Offenders. The evil Angels have too much Cruelty, and would have no care of Justice, but take pleasure in the Blood of the most Innocent, as well as the most Criminal. And the good Angels have too little tenderness, to suffer so many Crimes; Since the World therefore continues without those floods of Judgments, which it daily merits, since notwithstanding all the provocations, the order of it is preserved; 'It is a testimony, that an Infinite Goodness holds the Helm in his hands, and spreads its warm Wings over it.

5. The fifth Information is this; Hence we may infer the ground of all Religion, 'tis this Perfection of Goodness. As the Goodness of God is the luster of all his Attributes, so it is the Foundation and Link of all true Religious Worship: The natural Religion of the Heathens was introduced by the consideration of Divine Goodness, in the Being he had bestowed upon them, and the Provisions that were made for them. Divine Bounty was the Motive to Erect Altars, and present Sacrifices; though they mistook the Object of their Worship, and offered the dues of the Creator, to the Instruments whereby he conveyed his Benefits to them. And you find, that the Religion instituted by him among the Jews, was enforced upon them by the consideration of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, the preservation of them in the Wilderness, and the infeoffing them in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. Every act of bounty and success the Heathens received, moved them to appoint new Feasts, and repeat their adorations of those Deities, they thought the Authors and Promoters of their Victories and Welfare. The Devil did not mistake the common Sentiment of the World in Divine Service, when he alleged to God, that Job did not fear him for naught, i. e. worship him for nothing . All acts of Devotion take their rise from God's liberality, either from what they have, or from what they hope: Praise speaks the Possession, and Prayer the Expectation of some Benefit from his Hand. Though some of the Heathens made fear, to be the prime Cause of the acknowledgment and worship of a Deity, yet surely something else besides and beyond this Establisht so great a thing as Religion in the World; an ingenuous Religion could never have been born into the World, without a Notion of Goodness; and would have gaspt its last, as soon as this Notion should have expired in the minds of Men. What encouragement can fear of Power give, without sense of Goodness? just as much as Thunder hath, to invite a Man to the place where it is like to fall, and crush him. The nature of fear is to drive from, and the nature of goodness to allure to the Object. The Divine Thunders, Prodigies, and other Armies of his Justice in the World, which are the Marks of his Power, could conclude in nothing but a slavish Worship: Fear alone, would have made Men blaspheme the Deity; instead of serving him, they would have fretted against him; they might have offered him a trembling Worship, but they could never have in their minds, thought him worthy of an Adoration; they would rather have secretly complained of him, and cursed him in their heart, than inwardly have admired him: The issue would have been the same, which Job 's Wife advised him to, when God withdrew his Protection from his Goods and Body, Curse God and die . 'It is certainly the common sentiment of Men, that he that acts Cruelly and Tyrannically, is not worthy of an integrity to be retained towards him in the hearts of his Subjects: But Job fortifies himself against this Temptation from his Bosom Friend, by the consideration of the good he had received from God, which did more deserve a worship from him, than the present evil had reason to discourage it. Alas! what is only feared, is hated, not adored: Would any seek to an irreconcilable Enemy? Would any person affectionately list himself in the service of a Man void of all good disposition? Would any distressed person put up a Petition to that Prince, who never gave any experiment of the sweetness of his Nature, but always satiated himself with the Blood of the meanest Criminals? All affection to service is rooted up, when hopes of receiving good are extinguished. There could not be a spark of that in the World, which is properly called Religion without a Notion of Goodness: The Existence of God is the first Pillar, and the Goodness of God in rewarding the next, upon which coming to him (which includes all acts of Devotion) is established, He that comes unto God, must believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him: If either of those Pillars be not thought to stand firm, all Religion falls to the ground. 'It is this as the most agreeable Motive, that the Apostle James uses, to encourage Men's approach to God, because he gives liberally, and upbraideth not . A Man of a kind heart and bountiful hand, shall have his gate thronged with suppliants, who sometimes would be willing to lay down their lives: For a good Man one would even dare to die; when one of a niggardly or tyrannical temper, shall be destitute of all free and affectionate applications. What Eyes would be lifted up to Heaven? What hands stretched out, if there were not a knowledge of goodness there to enliven their hopes of speeding in their Petitions? Therefore Christ orders our Prayers to be directed to God as a Father, which is a Title of tenderness, as well as a Father in Heaven, a Mark of his greatness; The one to support our confidence, as well as the other to preserve our distance. God could not be ingenuously adored and acknowledged, if he were not liberal as well as powerful: The Goodness of God is the foundation of all ingenuous Religion, Devotion, and Worship.

6. The sixth Instruction: The Goodness of God renders God amiable. His Goodness renders him beautiful, and his Beauty renders him lovely, both are linked together: How great is his Goodness? And how great is his Beauty? This is the most powerful Attractive, and masters the affections of the Soul: 'It is goodness only supposed, or real, that is thought worthy to demerit our affections to anything. If there be not a reality of this, or at least an opinion and estimation of it in an Object, it would want a force and vigor to allure our Will. This Perfection of God is the Loadstone to draw us, and the Center for our Spirits to rest in.

1. This renders God amiable to himself. His Goodness is his Godhead, By his Godhead is meant his Goodness: If he loves his Godhead for itself, he loves his Goodness for itself: He would not be good, if he did not love himself: And if there were anything more Excellent, and had a greater goodness than himself, he would not be good, if he did not love that greater Goodness above himself: For not only a hatred of goodness is evil, but an indifferent or cold affection to goodness, hath a tincture of evil in it. If God were not good, and yet should love himself in the highest manner, he would be the greatest Evil, and do the greatest evil in that act; for he would set his love upon that which is not the proper Object of such an affection, but the Object of a version. His own Infinite Excellency and Goodness of his Nature, renders him lovely and delightful to himself; without this he could not love himself in a commendable and worthy way, and becoming the purity of a Deity; and he cannot but love himself for this: For as Creatures by not loving him as the Supreme Good, deny him to be the choicest good, so God would deny himself and his own goodness, if he did not love himself, and that for his goodness. But the Apostle tells us, That God cannot deny himself : Self-love upon this account is the only Prerogative of God, because there is not anything better than himself, that can lay any just claim to his affections: He only ought to love himself, and it would be an injustice in him to himself, if he did not. He only can love himself, for this: An Infinite Goodness ought to be infinitely loved, but he only being Infinite, can only love himself according to the due Merit of his own Goodness. He cannot be so amiable to any Man, to any Angel, to the highest Seraphim, as he is to himself; because he is only capable in regard of his Infinite Wisdom, to know the infiniteness of his own Goodness. And no Creature can love him, as he ought to be loved, unless it had the same infinite capacity of Understanding to know him, and of Affection to embrace him. This first renders God amiable to himself.

2. It ought therefore to render him amiable to us. What renders him lovely to his own Eye, ought to render him so to ours; and since by the shortness of our Understandings we cannot love him, as he Merits, yet we should be induced by the measures of his Bounty, to love him, as we can. If this do not present him lovely to us, we own him rather a Devil than a God: If his Goodness moved him to frame Creatures, his Goodness moved him also to frame Creatures for himself, and his own glory. 'It is a mighty wrong to him, not to look with a delightful Eye upon the Marks of it, and return an Affection to God in some measure suitable to his liberality to us; We are descended as low as Brutes, if we understand him not to be the Perfect Good; and we are descended as low as Devils, if our Affections are not attracted by it.

1. If God were not Infinitely Good, he could not be the Object of Supreme Love. If he were Finitely Good, there might be other things as good as God, and then God in justice could not challenge our choicest Affections to him, above anything else: It would be a defect of goodness in him, to demand it, because he would despoil that, which were equally good with him, of its due and right to our affections, which it might claim from us upon the account of its goodness: God would be unjust to challenge more than was due to him; for he would claim that chiefly to himself, which another had a lawful share in. Nothing can be supremely loved, that hath not a Triumphant Excellency above all other things: Where there is an equality of goodness, neither can justly challenge a Supremacy, but only an equality of Affection.

2. This Attribute of Goodness renders him more lovely than any other Attribute. He never requires our Adoration of him so much, as the strongest or wisest, but as the best of Beings: He uses this chiefly, to constrain and allure us. Why would he be feared or worshipped, but because there is forgiveness with him ? 'It is for his goodness sake, that he is sued to by his People in distress, For thy goodness sake, O Lord. Men may be admired because of their knowledge, but they are affected because of their goodness: The will in all the variety of Objects it pursues, centers in this one thing of good as the term of its appetite. All things are beloved by Men, because they have been bettered by them, or because they expect to be the better for them. Severity can never conquer enmity, and kindle love: Were there nothing but wrath in the Deity, it would make him be feared, but render him odious, and that to an innocent Nature. As the Spouse speaks of Christ, s • we may of God: Though she commends him for his Head, the excellency of his Wisdom, his Eyes, the extent of his Omniscence, his Hands, the greateness of his Power, and his Legs, the swiftness of his Motions, and ways to and for his People, yet the sweetness of his Mouth, in his gracious Words and Promises closes all, and is followed with nothing but an Exclamation, that he is altogether lovely, Verse 16. His Mouth in pronouncing Pardon of Sin, and justification of the Person, presents him most lovely. His Power to do good is admirable, but his Will to do good is amiable: This puts a gloss upon all his other Attributes. Though he had knowledge to understand the depth of our necessities, and power to prevent them, or rescue us from them, yet his knowledge would be fruitless, and his power useless, if he were of a rigid Nature, and not touched with any sentiments of kindness.

3. This Goodness therefore lays a strong Obligation upon us. 'It is true he is lovely in regard of his absolute goodness, or the goodness of his Nature, but we should hardly be persuaded to return him an affection, without his Relative goodness, his Benefits to his Creatures; We are obliged by both to love him.

1. By his Absolute Goodness, or the Goodness of his Nature. Suppose a Creature had drawn its Original from something else, wherein God had no influx; and had never received the least mite of a benefit from him, but from some other hand, yet the infinite Excellency and goodness of his Nature, would merit the love of that Creature, and it would act sordidly and disingenuously, if it did not discover a mighty Respect for God: For what ingenuity could there be in a Rational Creature, that were possessed with no esteem for any Nature filled with unbounded goodness and Excellency, though he had never been obliged to him for any favor? That Man is accounted odious, and justly despicable by Man, that reproaches and disesteems, nay, that doth not value a Person of a high Virtue in himself, and an universal goodness and Charity to others, though himself never stood in need of his Charity, and never had any benefit conveyed from his hands, nor ever saw his face, or had any commerce with him: A value of such a Person is but a just due to the natural claim of Virtue. And indeed, the first Object of Love is God in the Excellency of his own Nature, as the first Object of Love in Marriage, is the Person; the Portion is a thing consequent upon it. To love God only for his Benefits, is to love ourselves first, and him secondarily: To love God for his own Goodness and Excellency, is a true love of God; a love of him for himself. That flaming Fire in his own Breast, though we have not a Spark of it, hath a right to kindle one in ours to him.

2. By his Relative Goodness, or that of his Benefits. Though the Excellency of his own Nature, wherein there is a combination of Goodness, must needs ravish an apprehensive Mind; yet a reflection upon his imparted Kindness, both in the Beings we have from him, and the support we have by him, must enhance this Estimation. When the Excellency of his Nature, and the Expressions of his Bounty are in conjunction, the Excellency of his own Nature, renders him estimable in a way of Justice, and the greatness of his Benefits renders him valuable in a way of Gratitude: The first ravisheth, and the other allures and melts: He hath enough in his Nature to attract, and sufficient in his Bounty to engage our Affections. The Excellency of his Nature is strong enough of itself, to blow up our Affections to him, were there not a Malignity in our hearts, that represents him under the Notion of an Enemy; therefore in regard of our Corrupt State, the consideration of Divine Largesses, comes in for a share in the Elevation of our Affections. For indeed 'tis a very hard thing, for a Man to love another, though never so well qualified, and of an eminent Virtue, while he believes him to be his Enemy, and one that will severely handle him; though he hath before received many good turns from him: The Virtue, Valour, and Courtesie of a Prince, will hardly make him affected by those, against whom he is in Arms, and that are daily pilfer'd by his Soldiers, unless they have hopes of a Reparation from him, and future security from injuries. Christ in the Repetition of the Command to love God with all our mind, with all our heart, and with all our Soul, i. e. with such an ardency, above all things which glitter in our Eye, or can be Created by him, considers him as our God . And the Psalmist considers him as one, that had kindly employed his power for him, in the eruption of his love, Psal. 18.1. I will love thee Oh Lord my strength; And so in Psal. 116.1. I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. An esteem of the Benefactor, is inseparable from gratitude for the received Benefits: And should not then the unparalleled kindness of God, advance him in our thoughts, much more than slighter Courtesies do a Created Benefactor in ours? 'It is an obligation on every Mans Nature, to answer Bounty with gratitude, and Goodness with love. Hence you never knew any Man, nor can the Records of Eternity produce any Man, or Devil, that ever hated any Person, or anything as good in itself: 'It is a thing absolutely repugnant to the Nature of any Rational Creature. The Devils hate not God, because he is good; but because he is not so good to them, as they would have him; because he will not unlock their Chains, turn them into liberty, and restore them to Happiness, i. e. because he will not desert the Rights of abused Goodness. But how should we send up flames of love to that God, since we are under his direct Beams, and enjoy such plentiful influences! If the Sun is comely in itself, yet 'tis more ami • ble to us, by the light we see, and the warmth we feel.

1. The greatness of his Benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him. The Impress he made upon our Souls, when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing: The Comeliness he hath put upon us, by his own Breath: The Care he took of our Recovery, when we had lost ourselves: The Expence he was at for our Regaining our defaced Beauty: The gift he made of his Son: The Affectionate Calls we have heard to over-master our Corrupt Appetites, move us to Repentance, and make us disaffect our beloved Misery: The loud sound of his Word in our Ears, and the more inward knockings of his Spirit in our Heart: The offering us the Gift of himself, and the Everlasting Happiness he Courts us to; besides those common favors we enjoy in the World, which are all the Streams of his rich Bounty. The voice of all is loud enough to solicit our love, and the Merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love: There is none like the God of Jesurun, who rides upon the Heaven in thy help, and in his Excellency on the Sky .

2. The unmeritedness of them doth inhance this. 'It is but reason to love him, who hath loved us first : Hath he placed his delight upon were nothing, and after they were Sinful; and shall he set his delight upon such vile Persons, and shall not we set our love upon so Excellent an Object as himself? How base are we, if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him, who hath been so free in his favor to us, who have merited the quite contrary at his hands? If his tender Mercies are over all his Works , He ought for it, to be esteemed by all his Works, that are capable of a Rational Estimation.

3. Goodness in Creatures makes them estimable, much more should the Goodness of God render him lovely to us. If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that Creature, if a drop be so delicious to us, shall not the immense Sun of Goodness, the ever-flowing Fountain of all, be much more delightful? The Original Excellency always out-strips what is derived from it: If so mean and contracted an Object as a little Creature deserves Estimation for a little Mite communicated to it, so great and extended a goodness, as is in the Creator, much more merits it at our hands: He is good after the infinite methods of a Deity; A weak Resemblance is lovely, much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible Original of that Beauty. We love Creatures for what we think to be good in them, though it may be hurtful; And shall we not love God, who is a real and unblemisht Goodness? And from whose hand are poured out, all those Blessings, that are conveyed to us by second Causes. The Object that delights us, the Capacity we have to delight in it, are both from him; Our love therefore to him should transcend the Affection we bear to any Instruments he moves for our welfare. Among the God's, there is none like thee O Lord, neither are there any Works like unto thy Works . Among the pleasantest Creatures there is none like the Creator, nor any Goodness like unto his Goodness. Shall we love the Food that Nourisheth us, and the Medicine that Cures us, and the Silver whereby we furnish ourselves with useful Commodities? Shall we love a Horse, or Dog, for the benefits we have by them? And shall not the Spring of all those, draw our Souls after it, and make us aspire to the honor of loving, and embracing him, who hath stored every Creature with that which may pleasure us? But instead of endeavoring to parallel our Affection with his Kindness, we endeavor to make our Disingenuity as extensive and towering as his Divine Goodness.

4. This is the true end of the manifestation of his Goodness, that he might appear amiable, and have a Return of Affection. Did God display his Goodness only to be thought of, or to be loved? 'It is the want of such a return, that he hath usually aggravated, from the Benefits he hath bestowed upon Men. Every thought of him should be attended with a Motion suitable to the Excellency of his Nature and Works. Can we think those nobler Spirits, the Angels, look upon themselves, or those Frames of things in the Heavens and Earth without starting some practical Affection to him for them? Their knowledge of his Excellency and Works, cannot be a lazy Contemplation: 'It is impossible their Wills and Affections should be a thousand Miles distant from their Understandings in their Operations. 'It is not the least part of his condescending Goodness, to Court in such Methods the Affections of us Worms, and manifest his desire to be beloved by us. Let us give him then that Affection he deserves, as well as demands, and which cannot be withheld from him without horrible Sacrilege. There is nothing worthy of love besides him; Let no Fire be kindled in our hearts, but what may ascend directly to him.

7. The seventh Instruction is this, This renders God a fit Object of trust and confidence. Since none is good but God, none can be a full and satisfactory Ground or Object of confidence but God; As all things derive their beings, so they derive their helpfulness to us from God; they are not therefore the principal Objects of trust, but that Goodness alone that renders them fit Instruments of our support; They can no more challenge from us a stable Confidence, than they can a Supreme Affection. 'It is by this the Psalmist allures Men to a trust in him; Taste, and see, how good the Lord is, What is the consequence? Blessed is the Man, that trusts in thee. The Voice of Divine Goodness sounds nothing more intelligibly, and a taste of it produceth nothing more effectually than this. As the Vials of his Justice are to make us fear him, so the Streams of his Goodness are to make us rely on him. As his Patience is designed to broach our Repentance, so his Goodness is most proper to strengthen our assurance in him: That Goodness which surmounted so many difficulties, and conquered so many motions, that might be made against any repeated Exercise of it, after it had been abused by the first Rebellion of Man: That Goodness that after so much contempt of it, appeared in such a Majestick tenderness, and threw aside those impediments, which Men had cast in the way of Divine Inclinations: This Goodness is the foundation of all reliance upon God. Who is better than God? And therefore, Who more to be trusted than God? As his Power cannot act anything weakly, so his Goodness cannot act anything unbecomingly, and unworthy of his Infinite Majesty. And here consider,

1. Goodness is the first motive of trust. Nothing but this could be the encouragement to Man, had he stood in a State of Innocence, to present himself before God; The Majesty of God would have constrained him to keep his due distance, but the Goodness of God could only hearten his Confidence; 'It is nothing else now, that can preserve the same temper in us in our lapsed Condition. To regard him only as the Judge of our Crimes, will drive us from him; but only the regard of him as the Donor of our Blessings, will allure us to him. The principal Foundation of Faith is not the Word of God, but God himself, and God as considered in this Perfection. As the Goodness of God in his Invitations, and Providential Blessings, leads us to Repentance ; so by the same reason the Goodness of God by his Promises, leads us to Reliance. If God be not first believed to be good, he would not be believed at all, in anything that he speaks or swears: If you were not satisfied in the goodness of a Man, though he should swear a thousand times, you would value neither his Word nor Oath, as any security. Many times where we are certain of the goodness of a Man, we are willing to trust him without his promise. This Divine Perfection gives Credit to the Divine Promises; they of themselves would not be a sufficient ground of trust, without an apprehension of his truth; nor would his truth be very comfortable, without a belief of his good will, whereby we are assured, that what he promises to give, he gives liberally, free, and without regret. The truth of the Promiser, makes the Promise Credible, but the goodness of the Promiser makes it cheerfully relied on. In Psal. 73. Asaphs Penitential Psalm for his distrust of God, he begins the first Verse with an assertion of this Attribute, v. 1. Truly God is good to Israel, and ends with this fruit of it, Verse 28. I will put my trust in the Lord God. 'It is a mighty ill Nature, that receives not with assurance the Dictates of Infinite Goodness, (that cannot deceive or frustrate the hopes, we conceive of him) that is inconceivably more abundant in the breast and inclinations of the Promiser, than expressible in the words of his Promise: All true faith works by love , and therefore necessarily includes a particular eying of this Excellency in the Divine Nature, which renders him amiable, and is the Motive and Encouragement of a love to him. His Power indeed is a foundation of trust, but his Goodness is the principal Motive of it. His Power without good Will would be dangerous, and could not allure Affection; and his good Will without Power, would be useless; and though it might merit a love, yet could not create a Confidence; both in conjunction are strong grounds of hope; Especially since his Goodness is of the same infinity with his Wisdom and Power; and that he can be no more wanting in the effusions of this upon them that seek him, than in his Wisdom to contrive, or his Power to effect his Designs and Works.

2. This goodness is more the foundation and motive of trust under the Gospel, than under the Law. They under the Law had more evidences of Divine Power, and their trust eyed that much; though there was an eminency of goodness in the frequent deliverances they had, yet the Power of God had a more glorious dress, than his Goodness, because of the extraordinary and miraculous ways whereby he brought those deliverances about. Therefore in the Catalogue of Believers in Heb. 11. you shall find the Power of God, to be the Center of their Rest and Trust; and their Faith was built upon the extraordinary Marks of Divine Power, which were frequently visible to them. But under the Gospel, goodness and love was intended by God, to be the chief Object of trust; suitable to the Excellency of that Dispensation, he would have an Exercise of more ingenuity in the Creatures: Therefore 'tis said, Hosea 3.5. A promise of Gospel-times, They shall fear God and his goodness in the later days, when they shall return to seek the Lord, and David their King. 'It is not said, they shall fear God, and his Power, but the Lord and his goodness, or the Lord for his goodness: Fear is often in the Old Testament taken for Faith, or Trust. This Divine Goodness, the Object of Faith, is that goodness discovered in David their King; the Messiah, our Jesus. God in this Dispensation recommends his goodness and love, and reveals it more clearly than other Attributes, that the Soul might have more prevailing and sweeter attractives, to confide in him.

3. A confidence in him gives him the glory of his goodness. Most Nations that had nothing but the light of Nature, thought it a great part of the Honor that was due to God, to implore his Goodness; and cast their Cares upon it. To do good, is the most honorable thing in the World, and to acknowledge a goodness in a way of confidence, is as high an honor as we can give to it, and a great part of gratitude for what it hath already expressed: Therefore we find often, that an acknowledgment of one Benefit received, was attended with a trust in him, for what they should in the future need; Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death, wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling? So 2 Cor. 1.10. And they who have been most eminent for their trust in him, have had the greatest Elogies and Commendations from him. As a diffidence doth disparage this Perfection, thinking it meaner and shallower, than it is; so Confidence highly honors it. We never please him more, than when we trust in him, The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his Mercy. He takes it for an Honor, to have this Attribute exalted by such a Carriage of his Creature. He is no less offended, when we think his heart straitened, as if he were a Parcimonious God, than when we think his Arm shortened, as if he were an impotent and feeble God.

Let us therefore make this use of his Goodness, to hearten our Faith. When we are scared by the terrors of his Justice, when we are dazzled by the arts of his Wisdom, and confounded by the splendor of his Majesty, we may take refuge in the Sanctuary of his Goodness; this will encourage us, as well as astonish us; Whereas the consideration of his other Attributes would only amaze us, but can never refresh us, but when they are considered, marching under the Conduct and Banners of this. When all the other Perfections of the Divine Nature are looked upon in conjunction with this Excellency, each of them send forth ravishing and benign influences upon the applying Creature. 'It is more advantageous to depend upon Divine Bounty, than our own Cares; We may have better assurance upon this account in his Cares for us, than in ours for ourselves. Our goodness for ourselves is Finite, and besides we are too ignorant: His goodness is Infinite, and attended with an infinite Wisdom; we have reason to distrust ourselves, not God. We have reason to be at rest, under that kind influence we have so often experimented; He hath so much goodness, that he can have no deceit: His goodness in making the Promise, and his goodness in working the heart to a Reliance on it, are grounds of trust in him; Remember thy word to thy Servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. If his Promise did not please him, why did he make it? If Reliance on the Promise, doth not please him, why did his Goodness work it? It would be inconsistent with his Goodness, to mock his Creature, and it would be the highest Mockery to publish his Word, and Create a temper in the heart of his supplicant, suited to his Promise, which he never intended to satisfy. He can as little wrong his Creature, as wrong himself; and therefore can never disappoint that Faith, which in his own methods casts itself into the arms of his Kindness, and is his own Workmanship, and calls him Author. That Goodness that imparted itself so freely in Creation, will not neglect those nobler Creatures that put their trust in him. This renders God a fit Object for trust and confidence.

8. The eighth Instruction; This renders God worthy to be obeyed and honor'd. There is an Excellency in God, to allure, as well as Sovereignty to enjoin Obedience: The infinite Excellency of his Nature is so great, that if his Goodness had promised us nothing to encourage our Obedience, we ought to prefer him before ourselves, devote ourselves to serve him, and make his glory our greatest content; but much more when he hath given such admirable Expressions of his Liberality, and stored us with hopes of richer and fuller Streams of it. When David considered the Absolute Goodness of his Nature, and the Relative Goodness of his Benefits, he presently expresseth an ardent desire to be acquainted with the Divine Statutes, that he might make ingenuous returns in a dutiful observance; Thou art good, and thou dost good, teach me thy Statutes. As his Goodness is the Original, so the acknowledgment of it is the end of all, which cannot be without an observance of his Will. His Goodness requires of us an ingenuous, not a servile Obedience.

And this is Establisht upon two Foundations.

1. Because the Bounty of God hath laid upon us the strongest Obligations. The strength of an Obligation depends upon the greatness and numerousness of the Benefits received. The more Excellent the favors are, which are confer'd upon any Person, the more right hath the Benefactor, to claim an observance from the Person bettered by him. Much of the Rule and Empire, which hath been in several Ages conferred by Communities upon Princes, hath had its first spring from a sense of the advantages they have received by them, either in protecting them from their Enemies, or rescuing them from an ignoble Captivity; in enlarging their Territories, or increasing their Wealth. Conquest hath been the Original of a constrained, but Beneficence always the Original of a voluntary and free Subjection . Obedience to Parents is founded upon their right, because they are instrumental in bestowing upon us Being and Life; and because this of life is so great a benefit, the Law of Nature never dissolves this Obligation of Obeying, and Honouring Parents; 'It is as long lived as the Law of Nature, and hath an universal practice, by the strength of that Law in all parts of the World: And those rightful Chains are not unlocked, but by that which unties the knot between Soul and Body. Much more hath God a Right to be obeyed and reverenced, who is the principal Benefactor, and moved all those second Causes, to impart to us, what conduc'd to our advantage. The just Authority of God over us, results from the superlativeness of his Blessings he hath poured down upon us, which cannot be equal'd, much less exceeded by any other. As therefore upon this account he hath a claim to our choicest Affections, so he hath also to most exact Obedience; and neither one, nor other can be denied him, without a sordid and disingenuous ingratitude; God therefore aggravates the Rebellion of the Jews, from the cares he had in the bringing them up , and the miraculous deliverance from Egypt , implying that those Benefits were strong Obligations to an ingenuous observance of him.

2. It is Establisht upon this, That God can enjoin the observance of nothing but what is good. He may by the Right of his Sovereign Dominion, command that which is indifferent in its own Nature; As in positive Laws, The not eating the Fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which had not been evil in itself, set aside the Command of God to the contrary; and likewise in those Ceremonial Laws he gave the Jews: But in regard of the transcendent Goodness and Righteousness of his Nature, he will not, he cannot Command anything that is evil in itself, or repugnant to the true interest of his Creature: And God never obliged the Creature to anything, but what was so free from damaging it, that it highly conduced to its good and welfare; and therefore it is said, That his Commands are not grievous: Not grievous in their own Nature, nor grievous to one possessed with a true Reason. The Command given to Adam in Paradise was not grievous in itself, nor could he ever have thought it so, but upon a false supposition instill'd into him by the Tempter. There is a pleasure results from the Law of God to a holy Rational Nature, a sweetness tasted both by the Understanding and by the Will, for they both rejoice the heart, and enlighten the Eyes of the Mind . God being Essentially Wisdom and Goodness, cannot deviate from that Goodness in any Orders he gives the Creature; whatsoever he Enacts, must be agreeable to that Rule, and therefore he can Will nothing, but what is good and excellent, and what is good for the Creature; For since he hath put Originally into Man a Natural Instinct, to desire that which is good, He would never Enact anything for the Creatures observance, that might control that desire imprinted by himself, but what might countenance that Impression of his own hand; for if God did otherwise, he would contradict his own Natural Law, and be a Deluder of his Creatures, if he imprest upon them desires one way, and ordered directions another. The truth is, all his Moral Precepts are Comely in themselves, and they receive not their goodness from God's positive Command, but that Command supposeth their goodness: If everything were good because God loves it, or because God wills it, i. e. That God's loving it, or willing it, made that good, which was not good before, then as Cameron well argues somewhere, God's goodness would depend upon his loving himself; He was good because he loved himself, and was not good, till he loved himself; whereas indeed God's loving himself, doth not make him good, but supposeth him good: He was good in the Order of Nature, before he loved himself, and his being good, was the ground of his loving himself, because as was said before, if there were anything better than God, God would love that: For it is inconsistent with the Nature of God, and Infinite Goodness, not to love that which is good, and not to love that supremely, which is the Supreme Good. Further to understand it, you may consider, If the Question be asked, Why God loves himself? You would think it a reasonable Answer to say; Because he is good. But if the Question be asked, Why God is good? You would think that Answer, because he loves himself, would be destitute of Reason; but the true Answer would be, Because his Nature is so, and he could not be God, if he were not good: Therefore God's goodness is in order of our conception before his self-love, and not his self-love before his goodness: So the Moral things God Commands, are good in themselves, before God Commands them; and such, that if God should Command the contrary, it would openly speak him evil, and unrighteous. Abstract from Scripture, and weigh things in your own Reason; Could you conceive God good, if he should Command a Creature not to love him? Could you preserve the Notion of a good Nature in him, if he did Command Murder, Adultery, Tyranny, and Cutting of Throats? You would wonder, to what purpose he made the World, and framed it for Society, if such things were ordered, that should deface all Comeliness of Society: The Moral Commands given in the Word, appeared of themselves very beautiful to mere Reason, that had no knowledge of the Written Law; they are good, and because they are so, his goodness had moved his Sovereign Authority strictly to enjoin them. Now this goodness whereby he cannot oblige a Creature to anything that is evil, speaks him highly worthy of our Observance, and our Disobedience to his Law to be full of inconceivable Malignity: That is the last thing.

2. Use is a Use of Comfort. He is a Good without mixture, Good without weariness, none good but God, none good purely, none good inexhaustibly but God; because he is good, we may upon our speaking expect his instruction; Good is the Lord, therefore will he teach Sinners in his way. His goodness makes him stoop to be the Tutor to those Worms that lie prostrate before him; and though they are Sinners full of filth, he drives them not from his School, nor denies them his Medicines, if they apply themselves to him as a Physician. He is good in removing the Punishment due to our Crimes, and good in bestowing Benefits, not due to our Merits; because he is good, Penitent Believers may expect forgiveness, Thou Lord art good, and ready to forgive. He acts not according to the rigor of the Law, but willingly grants his Pardon to those that fly into the Arms of the Mediator: His goodness makes him more ready to forgive, than our necessities make us desirous to enjoy: He charged not upon Job his impatient Expressions in Cursing the day of his Birth, his goodness passed that over in silence, and extolls him, for speaking the thing that is right, right in the main, ( when he charges his Friends, for not speaking of him, the thing that is right, as his Servant Job had done. ) He is so good, that if we offer the least thing sincerely, he will graciously receive it; If we have not a Lamb to offer, a Pigeon, or Turtle shall be accepted upon his Altar: He stands not upon Costly presents, but sincerely tendered Services. All Conditions are sweetened by it; whatsoever any in the World enjoy, is from a redundancy of this goodness; but whatsoever a good Man enjoys, is from a propriety in this goodness.

1. Here is Comfort in our Addresses to him. If he be a Fountain and Sea of Goodness, he cannot be weary of doing good, no more than a Fountain or Sea are of flowing. All goodness delights to communicate itself: Infinite goodness hath then an infinite delight, in expressing itself; 'tis a part of his goodness, not to be weary of showing it; He can never then be weary of being solicited, for the effusions of it; If he rejoices over his People to do them good, he will rejoice in any opportunities offered to him, to honor his Goodness, and gladly meet with a fit Subject for it: He therefore delights in Prayer; Never can we so delight in addressing, as he doth in imparting: He delights more in our Prayers, than we can ourselves: Goodness is not pleased with shyness. To what purpose did his immense Bounty bestow his Son upon us, but that we should be accepted both in our Persons and Petitions? His Eyes are upon the Righteous, and his Ears are open to their Cry; He fixes the Eye of his Goodness upon them, and opens the Ears of his Goodness for them; He is pleased to behold them, and pleased to listen to them, as if he had no pleasure in anything else: He loves to be sought to, to give a vent to his Bounty; Acquaint thyself with God, and thereby good shall come unto thee. The word signifies, to accustom ourselves to God; The more we accustom ourselves in speaking, the more he will accustom himself in giving: He loves not to keep his Goodness close under lock and key, as Men do their Treasures. If we knock, he opens his Exchequer; His Goodness is as flexible to our importunities, as his Power is invincible by the Arm of a silly Worm: He thinks his Liberality Honor'd, by being applied to, and your Address to be a Recompense for his Expence. There is no reason to fear, since he hath so kindly invited us, but he will as heartily welcome us: The Nature of Goodness is to compassionate, and communicate, to pity and relieve, and that with a heartiness and cheerfulness: Man is weary of being often solicited, because he hath a finite, not a bottomless goodness: He gives sometimes to be rid of his Suppliant, not to encourage him to a second approach. But every Experience God gives us of his Bounty, is a Motive to solicit him afresh, and a kind of Obligation he hath laid upon himself, to renew it : 'It is one part of his goodness, that it is boundless and bottomless; We need not fear the wasting of it, nor any weariness in him to bestow it. The Stock cannot be spent, and infinite Kindness can never become niggardly; When we have enjoyed it, there is still an infinite Ocean in him to refresh us, and as full Streams as ever to supply us. What an encouragement have we to draw near to God? We run in our straights, to those that we think have most good will, as well as power to relieve and protect us. The oftener we come to him, and the nearer we approach to him, the more of his influences we shall feel: As the nearer the Sun, the more of its heat insinuates itself into us. The greatness of God joined with his goodness, hath more reason to encourage our approach to him, than our flight from him, because his greatness never goes unattended with his goodness; and if he were not so good, he would not be so great in the apprehensions of any Creature. How may his goodness, in the great gift of his Son encourage us to apply to him; since he hath set him as a days-Man between himself and us; and appointed him an Advocate, to present our Requests for us, and speed them at the Throne of Grace, and he never leaves, till Divine Goodness subscribes a Fiat, to our believing and just Petitions?

2. Here is Comfort in Afflictions. What can we fear from the conduct of infinite Goodness? Can his hand be heavy upon those that are humble before him? They are the hands of infinite Power indeed, but there is not any motion of it upon his People, but is ordered by a Goodness, as infinite as his Power; which will not suffer any Affliction, to be too sharp or too long. By what ways soever he conveys Grace to us here, and prepares us for glory hereafter, they are good, and those are the good things, he hath chiefly obliged himself to give; Grace and glory will he give, and no good thing will he with-hold from them, that walk uprightly. This David comforted himself with, in that which his devout Soul accounted the greatest Calamity, his absence from the Courts, and House of God. Not an ill will, but a good will directs his Scourges; He is not an idle Spectator of our Combats; His thoughts are fuller of kindness, than ours in any case can be of trouble: And because he is good, he wills the best good in everything he acts; in Exercising Virtue, or Correcting Vice: There is no Affliction without some apparent mixtures of goodness; When he speaks, how he had smitten Israel ; He presently adds, Have I been a Wilderness to Israel, a Land of darkness? Though he led them through a Desert, yet he was not a desert to them; He was no Land of darkness to them; While they marched through a Land of barrenness, he was a Caterer to provide them Manna, and a place of broad Rivers, and Streams. How often hath Divine Goodness made our Afflictions our Consolations? Our Diseases our Medicines, and his gentle Strokes reviving Cordials? How doth he provide for us above our deserts, even while he doth punish us beneath our Merits? Divine Goodness can no more mean ill, than Divine Wisdom can be mistaken in its End, or Divine Power over-ruled in its Actions. Charity thinks no evil , Charity in the Stream doth not, much less doth Charity in the Fountain. To be afflicted by a hand of Goodness, hath something comfortable in it, when to be afflicted by an Evil hand, is very odious. Elijah who was loath to die by the hand of a Whorish, Idolatrous Jezebel, was very desirous to die by the hand of God . He accounted it a misery, to have died by her hand, who hated him, and had nothing but Cruelty; and therefore fled from her, when he wished for death, as a desirable thing by the hand of that God, who had been good to him, and could not but be good in whatsoever he acted.

3. The third Comfort flowing from this Doctrine of the Goodness of God, is, 'It is a ground of assurance of Happiness. If God be so good, that nothing is better, and loves himself, as he is good, he cannot be wanting in love to those, that resemble his Nature, and imitate his Goodness: He cannot but love his own Image of goodness; where ever he finds it, he cannot but be bountiful to it; for it is impossible there can be any love to any Object, without wishing well to it, and doing well for it. If the Soul loves God as its chiefest good, God will love the Soul as his pious Servant: As he hath offered to them the highest allurements, so he will not with-hold the choicest communications. Goodness cannot be a deluding thing; It cannot consist with the nobleness and largeness of this Perfection, to invite the Creature to him, and leave the Creature empty of him, when it comes. 'It is inconsistent with this Perfection, to give the Creature a knowledge of himself, and a desire of enjoyment larger than that knowledge, a desire to know, and enjoy him perpetually, yet never intend to bestow an Eternal Communication of himself upon it. The Nature of Man was erected by the goodness of God, but with an enlarged desire for the highest Good, and a Capacity of enjoying it. Can Goodness be thought to be deceitful, to frustrate its own Work, be tired with its own Effusions, to let a gracious Soul groan under its burden, and never resolve to ease him of it? To see delightfully the aspirings of the Creature to another State, and resolve, never to admit him to a happy issue of those desires? 'It is not agreeable to this inconceivable Perfection, to be unconcerned in the longings of his Creature, since their first longings were placed in them, by that Goodness which is so free from mocking the Creature, or falling short of its well grounded Expectations or Desires, that it infinitely exceeds them. If Man had continued in Innocence, the goodness of God without question would have continued him in Happiness: And since he hath had so much goodness, to restore Man, would it not be dishonorable to that goodness, to break his own Conditions, and defeat the believing Creature of Happiness, after it hath complied with his terms? He is a Believers God in Covenant, and is a God in the utmost extent of this Attribute, as well as of any other; and therefore will not communicate mean and shallow Benefits, but according to the grandeur of it, Sovereign and Divine, such as the gift of a happy Immortality. Since he had no obligation upon him, to make any promise, but the sweetness of his own Nature, the same is as strong upon him, to make all the words of his Grace good; They cannot be invalid in any one tittle of them, as long as his Nature remains the same; And his goodness cannot be diminished, without the impairing of his Godhead, since it is inseparable from it. Divine Goodness will not let any Man serve God for naught; He hath promised our weak Obedience, more than any Man in his right Wits can say it Merits: A Cup of cold Water shall not lose its Reward. He will manifest our good actions, as he gave so high a testimony to Job, in the face of the Devil his Accuser: It will not only be the happiness of the Soul, but of the Body, the whole Man, since Soul and Body were in conjunction in the acts of Righteousness; it consists not with the goodness of God to reward the one, and to let the other lie in the ruins of its first nothing: To bestow joy upon the one, for its being principal, and leave the other without any Sentiments of joy, that was instrumental in those good Works, both commanded, and approved by God: He that had the goodness to pity our Original Dust, will not want a goodness to advance it: And if we put off our Bodies, 'tis but afterwards to put them on repaired, and fresher. From this Goodness, the Upright may expect all the Happiness their Nature is capable of.

4. It is a ground of Comfort in the midst of public dangers. This hath more sweetness in it to support us, than the malice of Enemies hath to deject us; because he is good, he is a strong hold in the day of trouble . If his goodness extends to all his Creatures, it will much more extend to those that honor him: If the Earth be full of his goodness, that part of Heaven which he hath upon Earth, shall not be empty of it. He hath a Goodness often to deliver the Righteous, and a Justice to put the Wicked in his stead . When his People have been under the power of their Enemies, he hath changed the Scene, and put the Enemies under the power of his People: He hath clapt upon them the same Bolts, which they did upon his Servants. How comfortable is this Goodness, that hath yet maintained us in the midst of dangers, preserved us in the mouth of Lions, quenched kindled Fire; Hitherto rescued us from designed ruin subtly hatched, and supported us in the midst of Men, very passionate for our destruction? How hath this watchful goodness been a Sanctuary to us in the midst of an upper Hell?

3. The third Use is of Exhortation.

1. How should we endeavor after the enjoyment of God as good? How earnestly should we desire him? As there is no other Goodness worthy of our supreme love, so there is no other Goodness worthy our most ardent thirst. Nothing deserves the name of a desirable good, but as it tends to the attainment of this: Here we must pitch our desires, which otherwise will terminate in nullities; or inconceivable disturbances.

1. Consider, nothing but good can be the Object of a Rational Appetite. The Will cannot direct its motion to anything under the notion of evil, evil in itself, or evil to it; whatsoever Courts it, must present itself in the quality of a good in its own nature, or in its present Circumstances to the present state and condition of the desire; it will not else else touch or affect the Will. This is the language of that faculty, Who will show me any good ? And good is as inseparably the Object of the wills motion, as truth is of the understandings inquiry. Whatsoever a Man would allure another to comply with, he must propose to the Person under the notion of some beneficialness to him in point of honor, profit, or pleasure; To act after this manner, is the proper Character of a Rational Creature. And though that which is evil, is often embraced, instead of that which is good; and what we entertain as conducing to our felicity, proves our misfortune, yet that is from our ignorance, and not from a formal choice of it as evil; for what evil is chosen, it is not possible to choose under the conception of evil, but under the appearance of a good, though it be not so in reality. 'It is inseparable from the Wills of all Men, to propose to themselves that which in the opinion and judgment of their understandings or imagination is good, though they often mistake and cheat themselves.

2. Since that Good is the Object of a Rational Appetite, the purest, best, and most universal good, such as God is, ought to be most sought after. Since good only is the Object of a Rational Appetite, all the motions of our Souls should be carried to the first and best Good: A real good is most desirable; The greatest Excellency of the Creatures cannot speak them so, since by the Corruption of Man they are subjected to vanity . God is the most Excellent Good without any shadow: A real something without that nothing, which every Creature hath in its nature . A perfect good can only give us content; the best goodness in the Creature is but slender and imperfect; had not the venom of Corruption infused a vanity into it, the make of it speaks it finite, and the best qualities in it are bounded, and cannot give satisfaction to a Rational Appetite, which bears in its nature an imitation of Divine Infiniteness; and therefore can never find an Eternal rest in mean trifles. God is above the imperfection of all Creatures; Creatures are but drops of goodness, at best but shallow Streams; God is like a teeming Ocean, that can fill the largest as well as the narrowest Creek. He hath an accumulative goodness; several Creatures answer several necessities, but one God can answer all our wants: He hath an universal fullness, to overtop our universal emptiness: He contains in himself the sweetness of all other goods, and holds in his Bosom plentifully, what Creatures have in their Natures sparingly. Creatures are uncertain goods; As they begin to exist, so they may cease to be; they may be gone with a breath, they will certainly languish, if God blows upon them: The same Breath that raised them, can blast them; but who can rifle God of the least part of his Excellency? Mutability is inherent in the Nature of every Creature, as a Creature. All sublunary things are as gourds, that refresh us one moment with their presence, and the next fret us with their absence; Like fading Flowers strutting today, and drooping tomorrow ; While we possess them, we cannot clip their Wings, that may carry them away from us, and may make us vainly seek, what we thought we firmly held. But God is as permanent a good, as he is a real one: He hath Wings to fly to them that seek him, but no Wings to fly from them forever, and leave them. God is an universal good; that which is good to one, may be evil to another, what is desirable by one, may be refused as inconvenient for another: But God being an universal, unstained good, is useful for all, convenient to the natures of all, but such as will continue in enmity against him: There is nothing in God can displease a Soul, that desires to please him; when we are darkness, he is a light to scatter it, when we are in want, he hath riches to relieve us, when we are in a Spiritual death, he is a Prince of life to deliver us, when we are defiled, he is Holiness to purify us: 'It is in vain to fix our hearts anywhere but on him, in the desire of whom there is a delight, and in the enjoyment of whom there is an inconceivable pleasure.

3. He is to be most sought after, since all things else that are desirable, had their goodness from him. If anything be desirable because of its goodness, God is much more desirable because of his, since all things are good by a participation, and nothing good but by his print upon it: As what Being Creatures have, was derived to them by God, so what goodness they are possessed with, they were furnished with it by God: All goodness flowed from him, and all Created goodness is summed up in him. The Streams should not terminate our appetite, without aspiring to the Fountain. If the Waters in the Chanel which receive mixture, communicate a pleasure, the taste of the Fountain must be much more delicious: That Original Perfection of all things, hath an inconceivable beauty, above those things it hath framed. Since those things live not by their own strength, nor nourish us by their own liberality, but by the Word of God , that God that speaks them into life, and speaks them into usefulness, should be most ardently desired as the best. If the sparkling glory of the visible Heavens delight us, and the beauty, and bounty of the Earth please and refresh us, what should be the language of our Souls upon those views and tastes, but that of the Psalmist? Whom have I in Heaven but thee, and there is none upon Earth, that I can desire beside thee ? No greater good can possibly be desired, and no less good should be ardently desired: As he is the supreme Good, so we should bear that regard to him as supremely, and above all to thirst for him: As he is good, he is the Object of desire; as the choicest and first goodness, he is desirable with the greatest vehemency. Give me Children, or else I die, was an uncomely speech, the one was granted, and the other inflicted; she had Children, but the last cost her her life: But give me God, or I will not be content, is a gracious speech, wherein we cannot miscarry; All that God demands of us, is, that we should long for him, and look for our happiness only in him. That is the first thing, endeavor after the enjoyment of God as good.

2. Often meditate on the goodness of God. What was Man produced for, but to settle his thoughts upon this? What should have been Adam 's employment in Innocence, but to read over all the lines of Nature, and fix his Contemplations on that good hand, that drew them? What is Man endued with reason for, above all other Animals, but to take notice of this goodness, spread over all the Creatures, which they themselves though they felt it, could not have such a sense of, as to make answerable returns to their Benefactor? Can we satisfy ourselves, in being Spectators of it, and Enjoyers of it, only in such a manner as the Brutes are? The Beasts behold things, as well as we, they feel the warm beams of this Goodness as well as we, but without any reflection upon the Author of them. Shall Divine Blessings meet with no more from us, but a brutish view, and beholding of them? What is more just, than to spend a thought upon him, who hath enlarged his hand in so many Benefits to us? Are we indebted to any, more than we are to him? Why should we send our Souls to visit anything more than him in his Works? That we are able to meditate on him, is a part of his goodness to us, who hath bestowed that capacity upon us; and if we will not, 'tis a great part of our ingratitude. Can anything more delightful enter into us, than that of the kind and gracious disposition of that God, who first brought us out of the Abyss of an unhappy nothing, and hath hitherto spread his Wings over us? Where can we meet with a nobler Object than Divine Goodness? And what nobler work can be practiced by us, than to consider it? What is more sensible in all the Operations of his hands, than his skill as they are considered in themselves, and his goodness as they are considered in relation to us? 'It is strange, that we should miss the thoughts of it; that we should look upon this Earth, and everything in it, and yet overlook that, which it is most full of, viz. Divine Goodness; It runs through the whole web of the World, all is framed, and diversifyed by Goodness: 'It is one entire single Goodness, which appears in various garbs and dresses in every part of the Creation. Can we turn our Eyes inward, and send our Eyes outward, and see nothing of a Divinity in both, worthy of our deepest and seriousest thoughts? Is there anything in the World we can behold, but we see his Bounty, since nothing was made, but is one way or other beneficial to us? Can we think of our daily food, but we must have some reflecting thoughts on our great Caterer? Can the sweetness of the Creature to our Palate, obscure the sweetness of the Provider to our Minds? 'It is strange that we should be regardless of that, wherein every Creature without us, and every sense within us, and about us is a Tutor to instruct us! Is it not reason we should think of the times, wherein we were nothing, and from thence run back, to a never begun Eternity; and view ourselves in the thoughts of that Goodness, to be in time brought forth upon this stage, as we are at present? Can we consider but one act of our understandings, but one thought, one blossom, one spark of our Souls mounting upwards, and not reflect upon the goodness of God to us, who in that faculty that sparkles out Rational thoughts, has advanced us to a nobler State, and endued us with a nobler Principle, than all the Creatures we see on Earth, except those of our own Rank and Kind? Can we consider but one foolish thought, one sinful act, and reflect upon the guilt and filth of it, and not behold Goodness in sparing us, and Miracles of Goodness in sending his Son to die for us, for the Expiation of it? This Perfection cannot well be out of our thoughts, or at least it is horrible it should, when it is writ in every line of the Creation, and in a legible Rubric in Bloody Letters in the Cross of his Son. Let us think with ourselves, how often he hath multiplied his Blessings, when we did deserve his Wrath; how he hath sent one unexpected Benefit upon the heel of another, to bring us with a swift pace the tidings of good will to us? How often hath he delivered us from a Disease, that had the Arrows of Death in its hand, ready to pierce us? How often hath he turned our fears into joys, and our distempers into promoters of our felicity? How often hath he mated a temptation, sent seasonable supplies, in the midst of a sore distress, and prevented many dangers, which we could not be so sensible of, because we were in a great measure ignorant of them? How should we meditate upon his goodness to our Souls, in preventing some Sins, in pardoning others, in darting upon us the knowledge of his Gospel, and of himself in the face of his Son Christ? This seems to stick much upon the Spirit of Paul, since he doth so often sprinkle his Epistles with the Titles of the Grace of God, Riches of Grace, Unsearchable Riches of God, Riches of Glory, and cannot satisfy himself with the Extolling of it. Certainly we should bear upon our heart, a deep and quick sense of this Perfection; as it was the design of God to manifest it, so it would be acceptable to God, for us to have a sense of it: A dull receiver of his Blessings, is no less nauseous to him, than a dull dispenser of his Alms: He loves a cheerful giver : He doth himself, what he loves in others; He is cheerful in giving, and he loves we should be serious in thinking of him, and have a right apprehension, and sense of his Goodness.

1. A right sense of his Goodness would dispose us to an ingenuous Worship of God. It would damp our averseness to any act of Religion; What made David so resolute, and ready to Worship towards his holy Temple, but the sense of his loving kindness ? This would render him always in our mind, a worthy Object of our Devotion, a Stable Prop of our Confidence. We should then adore him, when we consider him as our God, and ourselves as the People of his Pasture, and the Sheep of his hand : We should send up Prayers with strong faith and feeling, and Praises with great joy and pleasure. The sense of his Goodness would make us love him, and our love to him would quicken our adoration of him; but if we regard not this, we shall have no mind to think of him, no mind to act anything towards him; We may tremble at his Presence, but not heartily Worship him; We shall rather look upon him as a Tyrant, and think no other affection due to him, than what we reserve for an Oppressor, viz. hatred and ill will.

2. A sense of it will keep us humble. A sense of it would effect that, for which itself was intended, viz. bring us to a Repentance for our Crimes, and not suffer us to harden ourselves against him. When we should deeply consider, how he hath made the Sun to shine upon us, and his Rain to fall upon the Earth for our support; the one to supple the Earth, and the other to assist the Juice of it to bring forth Fruits: How would it reflect upon us, our ill requitals, and make us hang down our heads before him in a low posture, pleasing to him, and advantageous to ourselves? What would the first charge be upon ourselves, but what Moses brings in his Expostulation against the Israelites; Do I thus requite the Lord? What is this goodness for me, who am so much below him; for me, who have so much incensed him; for me, who have so much abused, what he hath allowed? It would bring to remembrance the horror of our Crimes, and set us a blushing before him, when we should consider the multitude of his Benefits, and our unworthy behavior that hath not constrained him, even against the inclination of his Goodness, to punish us. How little should we plead for a further liberty in Sin, or palliate our former faults? When we set Divine Goodness in one Column, and our Transgressions in another, and compare together their several Items; it would fill us with a deep consciousness of our own guilt, and devest us of any worth of our own in our approaches to him: It would humble us, that we cannot love so obliging a God, as much as he deserves to be loved by us: It would make us humble before Men. Who would be proud of a mere Gift, which he knows he hath not Merited? How ridiculous would that Servant be, that should be proud of a rich Livery, which is a Badge of his Service, not a Token of his Merit, but of his Masters Magnificence and Bounty, which though he wear this day, he may be stripped of tomorrow, and be turned out of his Masters Family?

3. A sense of the Divine Goodness would make us faithful to him. The Goodness of God obligeth us to serve him, not to offend him: The freeness of his Goodness should make us more ready, to contribute to the advancement of his Glory. When we consider the Benefits of a Friend proceed out of kindness to us, and not out of self ends and vain applause, it works more upon us, and makes us more careful of the honor of such a Person. 'It is a pure Bounty God hath manifested in Creation, and Providence, which could not be for himself, who being Blessed forever, wanted nothing from us: It was not to draw a profit from us, but to impart an advantage to us, Our goodness extends not to him . The service of the Benefactor is but a Rational return for Benefits, whence Nehemiah aggravates the Sins of the Jews, † They have not served thee in thy great goodness, that thou gavest them, i. e. which thou didst freely bestow upon them. How should we dare to spend upon our Lusts, that which we possess, if we considered by whose liberality we came by it? How should we dare to be unfaithful in the Goods, he hath made us Trustees of? A deep sense of Divine Goodness will ennoble the Creature, and make it act for the most glorious, and noble end: It would strike Satan's Temptation dead, at a blow: It would pull off the false Mask, and Vizor from what he presents to us, to draw us from the service of our Benefactor. We could not with a sense of this, think him kinder to us, than God hath, and will be, which is the great motive of Men, to join hands with him, and turn their backs upon God.

4. A sense of the Divine Goodness, would make us patient under our Miseries. A deep sense of this, would make us give God the honor of his Goodness in whatsoever he doth, though the reason of his actions be not apparent to us, nor the event and issue of his proceedings foreseen by us. 'It is a stated case, that goodness can never intend ill, but designs good in all its acts, to them that love God : Nay, he always designs the best; when he bestows any thins upon his People, he sees it best, they should have it; and when he removes anything from them, he sees it best, they should lose it. When we have lost a thing, we loved, and refuse to be comforted, a sense of this Perfection, which acts God in all, would keep us from misjudging our sufferings, and measuring the intention of the hand, that sent them, by the sharpness of what we feel. What Patient fully persuaded of the affection of the Physician, would not value him, though that which is given to purge out the Humours, racks his Bowels? When we lose, what we love, perhaps it was some outward luster tickled our apprehensions, and we did not see the Viper, we would have harm'd ourselves by; but God seeing it, snatched it from us, and we mutter, as if he had been Cruel, and deprived us of the good we imagined, when he was kind to us, and freed us from the hurt, we should certainly have felt. We should regard that, which in goodness he takes from us, at no other rate than some guilded Poison, and lurking Venom; The sufferings of Men though upon high provocations, are often followed with rich Mercies, and many times are intended as preparations for greater goodness. When God utters that Rhetoric of his Bowels, How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim, I will not execute the fierceness of my anger! he intended them Mercy in their Captivity, and would prepare them by it, to walk after the Lord. And it is likely, the Posterity of those Ten Tribes were the first that ran to God, upon the publishing the Gospel, in the places where they lived: He doth not take away himself, when he takes away outward Comforts: While he snatcheth away the Rattles we play with, he hath a Breast in himself, for us to suck. The consideration of his Goodness, would dispose us to a composed frame of Spirit. If we are sick, 'tis Goodness it is a Disease, and not a Hell. 'It is Goodness, that it is a Cloud, and not a total Darkness. What if he transfers from us, what we have? He takes no more, than what his Goodness first imparted to us; And never takes so much from his People, as his Goodness leaves them: If he strips them of their lives, he leaves them their Souls, with those faculties he furnished them with at first, and removes them from those Houses of Clay to a richer Mansion. The time of our Sufferings here, were it the whole Course of our Life, bears not the proportion of a moment, to that endless Eternity wherein he hath designed to manifest his Goodness to us. The Consideration of Divine Goodness would teach us to draw a Calm, even from Storms, and distil Balsom from Rods; If the Reproofs of the Righteous be an excellent Oil, we should not think the Corrections of a good God, to have a less Virtue.

5. A sense of the Divine Goodness, would mount us above the World. It would damp our appetites after meaner things, we should look upon the World not as a God, but a Gift from God, and never think the Present better than the Donor. We should never lie soaking in muddy Puddles, were we always filled with a sense of the richness, and clearness of this Fountain, wherein we might bath ourselves: Little petty Particles of good would give us no content, when we were sensible of such an unbounded Ocean. Infinite Goodness rightly apprehended, would dull our desires after other things, and sharpen them with a keener edge, after that which is best of all. How earnestly do we long for the presence of a Friend, of whose good will towards us, we have full experience?

6. It would check any Motions of Envy. It would make us joy in the prosperity of good Men, and hinder us from envying the outward felicity of the Wicked. We should not dare with an evil Eye, to censure his good Hand , but approve, of what he thinks fit to do both in the matter of his Liberality, and the Subjects he chooseth for it. Though if the disposal were in our hands, we should not imitate him, as not thinking them Subjects fit for Bounty; Yet since it is in his hands, we be to approve of his actions, and not have an ill will towards him for his Goodness, or towards those he is pleased to make the Subjects of it. Since all his Doles are given, to invite Man to Repentance , to envy them those Goods, God hath bestowed upon them, is to envy God the Glory of his own Goodness, and them the felicity those things might move them to aspire to. 'It is to wish God more contracted, and thy Neighbor more miserable; But a deep sense of his Sovereign Goodness, would make us rejoice in any marks of it upon others, and move us to bless him, instead of censuring him.

7. It would make us thankful. What can be the most proper, the most natural Reflection, when we behold the most magnificent Characters, he hath imprinted upon our Souls; the conveniency of the Members, he hath compacted in our Bodies, but a Praise of him? Such Motion had David upon the first Consideration, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. What could be the most natural Reflection, when we behold the rich Prerogatives of our Natures above other Creatures, the provision he hath made for us, for our delight in the beauties of Heaven, for our support in the Creatures on Earth? What can reasonably be expected from uncorrupted Man, to be the first motion of his Soul, but an extolling the bountiful hand of the invisible Donor, whoever he be? This would make us venture at some endeavors of a grateful acknowledgment, though we should despair of rendering anything proportionable to the greatness of the Benefit; and such an acknowledgment of our own weakness, would be an acceptable part of our gratitude; Without a due and deep sense of Divine Goodness, our praise of it, and thankfulness for it, will be but cold, formal, and customary, our Tongues may bless him, and our Heart slight him. And this will lead us to the third Exhortation.

3. Which is that of thankfulness for Divine Goodness. The absolute Goodness of God, as it is the Excellency of his Nature, is the Object of Praise: The Relative Goodness of God, as he is our Benefactor, is the Object Thankfulness; This was always a Debt due from Man to God, he had Obligations in the time of his Integrity, and was then to render it; he is not less, but more obliged to it in the State of Corruption; The Benefits being the greater, by how much the more unworthy he is of them by reason of his Revolt. The Bounty bestowed upon an Enemy that merits the contrary, ought to be received with a greater Resentment, than that bestowed on a Friend, who is not unworthy of Testimonies of Respect. Gratitude to God is the Duty of every Creature, that hath a sense of itself. The more Excellent Being any enjoy, the more devout ought to be the acknowledgment. How often doth David stir up, not only himself, but summon all Creatures, even the insensible ones to join in the Consort? He calls to the Deeps, Fire, Hail, Snow, Mountains, and Hills, to bear a part in this work of Praise; Not that they are able to do it actively, but to show that Man is to call in the whole Creation to assist him passively, and should have so much Charity to all Creatures, as to receive what they offer, and so much affection to God as to present to him, what he receives from him. Snow and Hail cannot bless and praise God, but Man ought to praise God for those things, wherein there is a mixture of trouble and inconvenience, something to molest our sense, as well as something that improves the Earth for Fruit. This God requires of us, for this, he instituted several Offerings, and required a little Portion of Fruits, to be presented to him, as an acknowledgment they held the whole from his Bounty. And the end of the Festival Days among the Jews, was to revive the memory of those signal acts, wherein his Power for them, and his Goodness to them, had been extraordinarily evident. 'It is no more but our Mouths to Praise him, and our Hand to Obey him, that he exacts at our hands. He commands us not to expend, what he allows us, in the Erecting stately Temples to his Honor; all the Coyn he requires to be paid with for his Expence, is the offering of Thanksgiving : And this we ought to do, as much as we can, since we cannot do it, as much as he Merits, for who can show forth all his praise ? If we have the Fruit of his Goodness, 'tis fit he should have the Fruit of our Lips . The least Kindness should inflame our Souls with a kindly Resentment: Though some of his Benefits have a brighter, some a darker aspect towards us, yet they all come from this common Spring; His Goodness shines in all; there are the footsteps of Goodness in the least, as well as the smiles of Goodness in the greatest; the meanest therefore is not to pass without a regard of the Author. As the Glory of of God is more illustrious in some Creatures than in others, yet it glitters in all, and the lowest as well as the highest administers matter of Praise. But they are not only little things, but the choicer favors he hath bestowed upon us. How much doth it deserve our acknowledgment, that he should contrive our Recovery, when we had plotted our Ruin? That when he did from Eternity behold the Crimes, wherewith we would incense him, he should not according to the Rights of Justice, cast us into Hell, but prize us at the Rate of the Blood and Life of his only Son, in value above the Blood of Men and Lives of Angels. How should we bless that God, that we have yet a Gospel among us, that we are not driven into the utmost Regions, that we can attend upon him in the face of the Sun, and not forced to the secret obscurities of the Night? Whatsoever we enjoy, whatsoever we receive, we must own him as the Donor, and read his Hand in it. Rob him not of any Praise, to give to an Instrument. No Man hath wherewithal to do us good, nor a heart to do us good, nor opportunities of benefiting us, without him. When the Cripple received the soundness of his Limbs from Peter, he praised the Hand, that sent it, not the Hand that brought it: He praised God. When we want anything that is good, let the goodness of Divine Nature move us to David's practice, to thirst after God : And when we feel the motions of his Goodness to us, let us imitate the Temper of the same Holy Man; Bless the Lord O my Soul, and forget not all his benefits. 'It is an unworthy Carriage, to deal with him, as a Traveler doth with a Fountain, kneel down to drink of it, when he is thirsty, and turn his back upon it, and perhaps never think of it more, after he is satisfied.

4. And Lastly, Imitate this Goodness of God. If his Goodness hath such an influence upon us, as to make us love him, it will also move us with an ardent Zeal, to imitate him in it. Christ makes this use from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness, Do good to them that hate you, that you may be the Children of your Father, which is in Heaven, for he makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good. As Holiness is a Resemblance of God's Purity, so Charity is a Resemblance of God's Goodness: And this our Savior calls Perfection; Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven, is perfect. As God would not be a perfect God without Goodness, so neither can any be a perfect Christian without Kindness; Charity and Love being the splendor and loveliness of all Christian Graces, as Goodness is the splendor and loveliness of all Divine Attributes. This, and Holiness are ordered in the Scripture to be the grand Patterns of our imitation: Imitate the Goodness of God in two things.

1. In relieving, and assisting others in distress. Let our heart be as large in the capacity of Creatures, as God's is in the capacity of a Creator. A large heart from him to us, and a strait heart from us to others, will not suit: Let us not think any so far below us, as to be unworthy of our Care, since God thinks none, that are infinitely distant from him, too mean for his. His infinite Glory mounts him above the Creature, but his infinite Goodness stoops him to the meanest Works of his hands. As he lets not the Transgressions of Prosperity, pass without punishment, so he lets not the distress of his Afflicted People, pass him without support. Shall God provide for the ease of Beasts, and shall not we have some tenderness towards those, that are of the same Blood with ourselves, and have as good Blood to boast of, as runs in the Veins of the mightiest Monarch on Earth; and as mean, and as little as they are, can lay claim to as ancient a Pedigree, as the stateliest Prince in the World, who cannot ascend to Ancestors beyond Adam? Shall we glut ourselves with Divine Beneficence to us, and wear his Livery only on our own backs, forgeting the Afflictions of some dear Joseph; when God who hath an unblemisht felicity in his own Nature, looks out of himself, to view, and relieve the miseries of poor Creatures? Why hath God increased the Doles of his Treasures to some more than others? Was it merely for themselves, or rather that they might have a bottom, to attain the honor of imitating him? Shall we embezzel his Goods to our own use, as if we were absolute Proprietors, and not Stewards entrusted for others? Shall we make a difficulty, to part with something to others, out of that abundance he hath bestowed upon any of us? Did not his Goodness strip his Son of the Glory of Heaven for a time to enrich us? and shall we shrug when we are to part with a little, to pleasure him? 'It is not very becoming for any to be backward, in supplying the necessities of others with a few morsels, who have had the happiness, to have had their greatest necessities supplied with his Sons Blood. He demands not, that we should strip ourselves of all for others, but of a pittance, something of superfluity, which will turn more to our account, than what is vainly and unprofitably consumed on our Backs and Bellies. If he hath given much to any of us, 'tis rather to lay aside part of the Income for his Service; Else we would Monopolize Divine Goodness to ourselves, and seem to distrust under our present Experiments, his future Kindness, as though the last thing he gave us, was attended with this language, Hoard up this, and expect no more from me; Use it only to the glutting your Avarice, and feeding your Ambition; which would be against the whose scope of Divine Goodness. If we do not endeavor, to write after the Comely Copy, he hath set us, we may provoke him, to harden himself against us, and in wrath bestow that on the Fire, or on our Enemies, which his Goodness hath imparted to us for his Glory, and the supplying the necessities of poor Creatures. And on the contrary he is so delighted with this kind of imitation of him, that a Cup of cold Water, when there is no more to be done, shall not be unrewarded.

2. Imitate God in his Goodness, in a kindness to our worst Enemies. The best Man is more unworthy to receive anything from God, than the worst can be to receive from us. How kind is God, to those that blaspheme him, and gives them the same Sun, and the same Showers, that he doth to the best Men in the World! Is it not more our glory to imitate God, in doing good to th • se that hate us, than to imitate the Men of the World in requiting evil, by a return of a sevenfold mischief? This would be a goodness which would vanquish the hearts of Men, and render us greater than Alexanders, and Caesar's, who did only triumph over miserable Carcases; Yea, it is to triumph over ourselves, in being good against the sentiments of Corrupt Nature. Revenge makes us Slaves to our Passions, as much as the Offenders, and good Returns render us Victorious over our Adversaries; Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. When we took up our Arms against God, his Goodness contrived not our Ruin, but our Recovery. This is such a Goodness of God, as could not be discovered in an Innocent State; While Man had continued in his Duty, he could not have been guilty of an Enmity; And God could not but affect him, unless he had denied himself: So this of being good to our Enemies, could never have been practiced in a State of Rectitude; since where was a perfect Innocence, there could be no spark of Enmity to one another. It can be no disparagement to any Mans Dignity, to cast his influences on his greatest Opposers, since God who acts for his own Glory, thinks not himself disparag'd, by sending forth the Streams of his Bounty on the wickedest Persons, who are far meaner to him than those of the same Blood can be to us. Who hath the worse thoughts of the Sun, for shining upon the Earth, that sends up Vapours to Cloud it? It can be no disgrace to resemble God; if his Hand and Bowels be open to us; let not ours be shut to any.

A DISCOURSE UPON GOD'S Dominion.

THE Psalm begins with the praise of God, wherein the Penman excites his soul to a right and elevated management of so great a duty. Ver. 1. Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me, bless his Holy Name: And because himself and all men were insufficient, to offer up a praise to God, answerable to the greatness of his benefits, he summons in the end of the Psalm the Angels, and all Creatures, to join in consort with him.

Observe.

1. As man is too shallow a Creature to comprehend the excellency of God, so he is too dull, and scanty a Creature to offer up a due praise to God, both in regard of the excellency of his nature, and the multitude and greatness of his benefits.

2. We are apt to forget divine benefits, our Souls must therefore be often jogg'd, and rous'd up. All that is within me, every power of my Rational, and every Affection of my Sensitive part. All his Faculties, all his Thoughts. Our Souls will hang back from God in every duty, much more in this; if we lay not a strict charge upon them. We are so void of a pure and entire love to God, that we have no mind to those duties. Wants will spur us on to Prayer, but a pure love to God can only spirit us to Praise. We are more ready to reach out a hand, to receive his Mercies, than to lift up our heart to recognize them after the receipt.

After the Psalmist had summoned his own Soul to this task, he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him, to awaken his soul by a sense of them to so noble a work. He begins at the first and foundation Mercy to himself, the pardon of his sin, and justification of his Person, the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature. Verse 3. Who forgives all thy iniquities, and heals all thy diseases. His Redemption from death or Eternal destruction; his expected glorification thereupon, which he speaks of with that certainty as if it were present. V.4. Who redeems thy life from destruction, who Crowns thee with loving kindness and tender Mercies. He makes his progress to the mercy manifested to the Church in the protection of it against, or delivery of it from oppressions. Verse 6. The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment, for all that are oppressed. In the discovery of his Will and Law, and the glory of his merciful Name to it. Verse 7, 8. He made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts unto the Children of Israel. The Lord is Merciful and Gracious, slow to Anger, and plenteous in Mercy. Which latter words may refer also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned up. Viz. The Mercy of God, which he mentions also verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; And then extols the perfection of Divine mercy, in the pardoning of sin. Ver. 11, 12. The Paternal tenderness of God. Verse 13. The eternity of his Mercy. Verse 17. But restrains it to the proper object. Verse 11.17. To them that fear him i. e. To them that believe in him: Fear being the word commonly used for Faith in the Old Testament under the legal dispensation, wherein the spirit of bondage was more eminent than the spirit of Adoption, and their fear more than their confidence.

Observe.

1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin. ver. 3. Who forgives all thine iniquities. That is the first blessing, the top and Crown of all other favors, which draws all other blessings after it; and sweetens all other blessings with it. The principal intent of Christ was Expiation of sin, Redemption from iniquity; the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it. Pardon of sin is every blessing virtually, and in the root and spring, it flows from the favor of God, and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a Curse, as outward things may.

2. Where sin is pardoned, the soul is renewed, verse 3. Who heals all thy diseases. Where guilt is remitted, the deformity and sickness of the soul is cured. Forgiveness is a teeming mercy, it never goes single; when we have an interest in Christ, as bearing the chastisement of our peace, we receive also a balsom from his blood, to heal the wounds we feel in our nature. Isaiah 53.5. The chastisement of our Peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. As there is a guilt in sin, which binds us over to punishment, so there is a contagion in sin, which fills us with pestilent diseases, when the one is removed, the other is cured. We should not know how to love the one without the other. The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of the other blessings of God. A condemned Malefactor infected with a Leprosy, or any other loathsome distemper, if pardoned, could take little comfort in his freedom from the Gibbet without a Cure of his Plague.

3. God is the sole and sovereign author of all spiritual blessings. Who forgives all thy iniquities, and heals all thy diseases. He refers all to God, nothing to himself in his own merit and strength. All, not the pardon of one sin merited by me, not the cure of one disease can I owe to my own power, and the strength of my free will, and the operations of nature. He, and he alone is the Prince of pardon, the Physician that restores me, the Redeemer that delivers me; 'tis a Sacrilege, to divide the praise between God and ourselves. God only can knock off our fetters, expel our distempers, and restore a deformed Soul to its decayed beauty.

4. Gracious Souls will bless God as much for Sanctification as for Justification. The initials of Sanctification (and there are no more in this Life) are worthy of solemn acknowledgement. 'It is a sign of growth in Grace when our Hymns are made up of acknowledgments of God's sanctifying, as well as pardoning Grace. In blessing God for the one, we rather show a love to ourselves, in blessing God for the other, we cast out a pure beam of love to God: because by purifying Grace we are fitted to the service of our maker, prepared to every good work which is delightful to him; by the other, we are eased in ourselves. Pardon fills us with inward peace, but Sanctification fills us with an activity for God. Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in a heavenly tune, as the consideration of God as a pardoner, and as a healer.

5. Where sin is pardoned, the punishment is remitted. Verse 3, 4. Who forgives all thy iniquities, and Redeems thy Life from destruction. A Malefactors pardon puts an end to his chains, frees him from the stench of the Dungeon, and fear of the Gibbet. Pardon is nothing else but the remitting of guilt, and guilt is nothing else but an obligation to punishment as a penal debt for sin. A Creditors tearing a Bond frees the Debtor from payment, and rigor.

6. Growth in Grace is always annexed to true Sanctification. Verse 3. So that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles. Interpreters trouble themselves much about the manner of the Eagles renewing its youth, and regaining its vigor: He speaks best, that saith, the Psalmist speaks only according to the opinion of the vulgar, and his design was not to write a Natural History. Growth always accompanies Grace, as well as it doth Nature in the Body; not that it is without its qualms, & languishing fits as Children are not, but still their distempers make them grow; Grace is not an idle, but an active principle. 'It is not like, the Psalmist means it of the strength of the Body, or the prosperity and stability of his Government, but the vigor of his Grace and Comfort, since they are spiritual blessings here, that are the matter of his song. The healing the Disease conduceth to the sprouting up, and flourishing of the Body. 'It is the Nature of Grace to go from strength to strength.

7. When sin is pardoned, 'tis perfectly pardoned. Verse 11, 12. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. The East and West are the greatest distance in the World, the terms can never meet together: When sin is pardoned, it is never charged again; the guilt of it can no more return, than East can become West, or West become East.

8. Obedience is necessary to an interest in the mercy of God. Verse 17. The mercy of the Lord is to them that fear him, to them that remember his Commandments, to do them. Commands are to be remembered in order to practice, a vain speculation is not the intent of the publication of them.

After the Psalmist had enumerated the benefits of God, he reflects upon the greatness of God and considers him on his Throne, encompassed with the Angels, the Ministers of his Providence. Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens, and his Kingdom Rules over all. He brings in this of his Dominion, just after he had largely treated of his mercy. Either,

1. To signify, That God is not only to be praised for his mercy, but for his Majesty, both for the heighth and extent of his Authority.

2. To extol the greatness of his mercy and 〈◊〉 . What I have said now, Oh my Soul, of the mercy of God, and his paternal pity, is commended by his Majesty; his Grandeur hinders not his Clemency: Though his Throne be High, his Bowels are Tender. He looks down upon his meanest Servants from the height of his Glory. Since his Majesty is Infinite, his Mercy must be as great as his Majesty. It must be a greater pity lodging in his Breast, than what is in any Creature, since it is not damped by the greatness of his Sovereignty.

3. To render his Mercy more Comfortable. The Mercy I have spoken of, Oh my Soul, is not the Mercy of a Subject, but of a Sovereign. An Executioner may torture a criminal, and strip him of his Life, and a vulgar pity cannot relieve him, but the Clemency of the Prince can perfectly pardon him. 'It is that God who hath none above him to control him, none below him to resist him, that hath performed all the acts of Grace to thee. If God by his supreme Authority pardons us, who can reverse it? If all the Subjects of God in the World should pardon us, and God withhold his grant, what will it profit us? Take comfort, Oh my Soul, since God from his Throne in the highest, and that God, who rules over every particular of the Creation, hath granted and sealed thy pardon to thee. What would his Grace signify, if he were not a Monarch, extending his Royal Empire over everything, and swaying all by his Scepter?

4ly. To render the Psalmists confidence more firm in any pressures. Verse 15, 16. He had considered the misery of man in the shortness of his Life; his place should know him no more, he should never return to his Authority, Employments, Opportunities, that death would take from him; but howsoever the Mercy and Majesty of God were the ground of his confidence. He draws himself from poring upon any Calamities, which may assault him, to heaven the place where God orders all things, that are done on the Earth. He is able to protect us from our dangers, and to deliver us from our distresses; whatsoever miseries thou mayst lie under, Oh my Soul, cast thy Eye up to Heaven, and see a pitying God in a Majestick Authority. A God who can perform what he hath promised to them that fear him; since he hath a Throne above the Heavens, and bears sway over all, that envy thy happiness, and would stain thy felicity. A God whose Authority cannot be curtailed and dismembered by any. When the Prophet solicits the sounding of the Divine Bowels, he urgeth him by his dwelling in Heaven, the habitation of his Holiness. Isaiah 63.15. His Kingdom ruleth over all: There is none therefore hath any Authority to make him break his Covenant or violate his promise.

5. As an incentive to Obedience, The Lord is merciful, saith he to them, that Remember his Commandments to do them, verse 17, 18. And then brings in the Text as an encouragement to observe his 'Precepts; he hath a Majesty, that deserves it from us, and an Authority to protect us in it; if a King in a small spot of Earth is to be Obeyed by his Subjects, how much more is God, who is more Majestick than all the Angels in Heaven, and Monarchs on Earth? who hath a majesty to exact our Obedience, and a Mercy to allure it! We should not set upon the performance of any Duty, without an Eye lifted up to God as a great King. It would make us willing to serve him; the more Noble the Person, the more Honorable and Powerful the Prince, the more glorious is his Service. A view of God upon his Throne, will makes us think his Service our Privilege, his Precepts our Ornaments, and Obedience to him the greatest Honor and Nobility. It will make us weighty, and serious in our performances. It would stake us down to any duty. The reason we are so loose, and unmannerly in the carriage of our Souls before God, is because we consider him not as a great King. Malachi 1.14. Our Father which art in Heaven in regard of his Majesty, is the Preface to Prayer.

Let us now consider the words in themselves. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens, and his Kingdom rules over all.

The Lord hath prepared] The word signifies Establisht, as well as prepared, and might so be rendered. Due preparation is a natural way, to the Establishment of a thing. Hasty resolve • • eak and molder. This notes,

1. The infiniteness of his Authority. He prepares it, none else for him. 'It is a Dominion that originally resides in his Nature, not derived from any by birth, or commission, he alone prepared it. He is the sole cause of his own Kingdom; his Authority therefore is unbounded, as infinite as his Nature: None can set Laws to him, because none but himself prepared his Throne for him. As he will not impair his own Happiness, so he will not abridge himself of his own Authority.

2. Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions. He hath prepared his Throne, he is not at a loss, he needs not stay for a Commission or Instructions from any, how to act. He hath all things ready for the assistance of his People, he hath Rewards, and Punishments; his Treasures, and Axes the great marks of Authority lying by him, the one for the good, the other for the wicked. His Mercy he keeps by him for Thousands, Exod. 34.7. His Arrows he hath prepared by him for Rebels. Psal. 7.13.

3. Wise management of it; 'It is prepared; preparations imply prudence; the Government of God is not a rash and heady Authority. A Prince upon his Throne, a Judge upon the Bench manages things with the greatest discretion, or should be supposed so to do.

4. Successfulness and duration of it. He hath prepared, or Established. 'It is fixed, not tottering, 'tis an immovable Dominion, all the strugglings of Men and Devils cannot overturn it, nor so much as shake it. 'It is Established above the reach of obstinate Rebels; he cannot be deposed from it, he cannot be mated in it. His Dominion, as himself, abides forever. And as his Counsel so his Authority shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure. Isaiah 46.10.

His Throne in the Heavens] This is an expression to signify the Authority of God, for as God hath no member properly, though he be so represented to us, so he hath properly no Throne. It signifies his power of Reigning, and Judging. A Throne is proper to Royalty, the Seat of Majesty in its excellency, and the place where the deepest respect and homage of Subjects is paid, and their Petitions presented. That the Throne of God is in the Heavens, that there he sits as a Sovereign, is the opinion of all that acknowledge a God; when they stand in need of his Authority to assist them, their eyes are lifted up, and their heads stretched out to Heaven; so his Son Christ prayed, he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven, as the place where his Father sat in Majesty, as the most adorable object. John 17.1. Heaven hath the Title of his Throne, as the Earth hath that of his Footstool. Isaiah 66.1. And therefore Heaven is sometimes put for the Authority of God. Dan. 4.26. After that thou shalt have known, that the Heavens do rule, i. e. That God who hath his Throne in the Heavens, orders earthly Princes and Scepters as he pleases, and rules over the Kingdoms of the World.

His Throne in the Heavens, Notes,

1. The Glory of his Dominion, The Heavens are the most stately and comely pieces of the Creation. His Majesty is there most visible, his glory most splendid. Psal. 19.1. The Heavens speak out with a full mouth his Glory. 'It is therefore called the Habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory, Isaiah 63.15. There is the greater glister and brightness of his Glory. The whole Earth indeed is full of his Glory, full of the beams of it, the Heaven is full of the body of it; as the rays of the Sun reach the Earth, but the full Glory of it is in the Firmament. In Heaven his Dominion is more acknowledged by the Angels, standing at his beck, and by their readiness, and swiftness obeying his Commands, going and returning as a flash of lightning. Ezek. 1.14. His Throne may well be said to be in the Heavens, since his Dominion is not disputed there by the Angels that attend him, as it is on Earth by the Rebels that arm themselves against him.

2. The Supremacy of his Empire, The Heavens are the loftiest part of the Creation and the only fit Palace for him; 'tis in the Heavens his Majesty and Dignity are so sublime, that they are elevated above all Earthly Empires.

3. Peculiarly of this Dominion. He rules in the Heavens alone. There is some shadow of Empire in the World. Royalty is communicated to men as his Substitutes. He hath disposed a vicarious Dominion to men in his footstool the Earth, he gives them some share in his Authority; and therefore the Title of his Name. Psal. 82.6. I have said ye are God's; but in Heaven he reigns alone without any Substitutes; his Throne is there: He gives out his orders to the Angels himself, the marks of his Immediate sovereignty are there most visible. He hath no Vicars General of that Empire. His Authority is not delegated to any Creature, he rules the blessed Spirits by himself; but he rules Men that are on his Footstool by others of the same kind, men of their own nature.

4. The vastness of his Empire. The Earth is but a spot to the Heavens; What is England in a Mapp to the whole Earth, but a spot, you may cover with your Finger? Much less must the whole Earth be to the extended Heavens; 'It is but a little point or Atom to what is visible; the Sun is vastly bigger than it, and several Stars are supposed to be of a greater bulk than the Earth; and how many and what Heavens are beyond, the ignorance of man cannot understand. If the Throne of God be there 'tis a larger Circuit he rules in, than can well be conceived. You cannot conceive the many millions of little particles there are in the Earth, and if all put together be but as one point to that place where the Throne of God is seated, how vast must his Empire be? He rules there over the Angels, which excel in strength, those Hosts of his which do his pleasure, in comparison of whom all the Men in the World, and the power of the greatest Potentates is no more than the strength of an Ant or Fly; multitudes of them encircle his Throne, and listen to his orders without roving, and execute them without disputing. And since his Throne is in the Heavens, it will follow, that all things under the Heaven are parts of his Dominion; his Throne being in the highest place, the inferior things of Earth cannot but be subject to him; and it necessarily includes his influence on all things below: because the Heavens are the cause of all the motion in the World, the immediate thing the Earth doth naturally address to for Corn, Wine, and Oil, above which there is no superior but the Lord. Hosea 2.21, 22. The Earth hears the Corn, Wine, and Oil; the Heavens hear the Earth, and the Lord hears the Heavens.

5. The easiness of managing this Government. His Throne being placed on high he cannot but behold all things, that are done below; the height of a place, gives advantage to a pure and clear Eye to behold things below it. Had the Sun an Eye, nothing could be done in the open Air out of its ken. The Throne of God being in Heaven, he easily looks from thence upon all the Children of Men. Psal. 14.2. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men, to see if there were any, that did understand. He looks not down from Heaven, as if he were in regard of his presence confined there, but he looks down majestically and by way of Authority, not as the look of a bare Spectator, but the look of a Governor, to pass a sentence upon them as a Judge. His being in the Heavens renders him capable of doing whatsoever he pleases. Psal. 115.3. His Throne being there, he can by a word in stopping the Motions of the Heavens turn the whole Earth into confusion. In this respect it is said, he rides upon the Heaven in thy help, Deut. 33.26. Discharges his Thunders upon men, and makes the influences of it, serve his people's interest. By one turn of a cock, as you see in Grottos, he can cause streams from several parts of the Heavens to refresh, or ruin the World.

6. Duration of it. The Heavens are incorruptible, his Throne is placed there in an incorruptible state. Earthly Empires have their decays and dissolutions. The Throne of God outlives the dissolution of the World.

His Kingdom rules over all.] He hath an absolute right over all things within the Circuit of Heaven and Earth; though his Throne be in Heaven, as the place where his Glory is most eminent and visible, his Authority most exactly obeyed, yet his Kingdom extends its self to the lower parts of the Earth. He doth not mufle, and cloud up himself in Heaven, or confine his Sovereignty to that place, his Royal power extends to all visible, as well as invisible things: He is proprietor and possessor of all. Deut. 10.14. The Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lord's thy God, the Earth also with all that is there. He hath right to dispose of all as he pleases. He doth not say his Kingdom Rules all that fear him, but over all, so that it is not the Kingdom of Grace he here speaks of, but his natural and universal Kingdom. Over Angels, and Men; Jews, and Gentiles; Animate, and Inanimate things.

The Psalmist considers God here as a great Monarch and General, and all Creatures as his Hosts, and Regiments under him, and takes notice principally of two things.

1. The Establishment of his Throne together with the Seat of it. [He hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens.]

2. The extent of his Empire. [His Kingdom rules over all.]

This Text in all the parts of it is a fit basis for a discourse upon the Dominion of God, and the observation will be this.

This is so clear, that nothing is more spoken of in Scripture. The very name Lord imports it, a name originally belonging to God's, and from them translated to others. And he is frequently called the Lord of Hosts, because all the Troops and Armies of Spiritual and Corporeal Creatures are in his hands, and at his service. This is one of his principal Titles. And the Angels are called his Hosts, 21. ver. following the Text; his Camp and Militia. But more plainly, 1