Part 17
(2.) This is the prime way of honouring God. We do not so glorify God by elevated admirations, or eloquent expressions, or pompous services of him, as when we aspire to a conversing with him with unstained spirits, and live to him in living like him. The angels are not called holy for applauding his purity, but conforming to it. The more perfect any creature is in the rank of beings, the more is the Creator honoured ; as it is more for the honour of God to create an angel or man, than a mere animal ; because there are in such, clearer characters of divine power and goodness, than in those that are inferior. The more perfect any creature is morally, the more
is God glorified by that creature ; it is a real declaration that God is the best and most amiable being, that nothing besides him is valuable, and worthy to be the object of our imitation. It is a greater honouring of him, than the highest acts of devotion, and the most religious bodily exercise, or
* In this, saith Plato, God is sv [lieu iragadt f Eugub. de perenni Philoso. lib. vi. cap. vi.
EXOD. XV. 11. J GOD'S HOLINESS. 2C9
the singing this song of Moses in the text, with, a triumphant spirit ; as it is more the honour of a father to be imitated in his virtues by his son, than to have all the glavering commendations by the tongue or pen of a vicious and debauched child. By this we honour him in that perfection which is dearest to him, and counted by him as the chiefest glory of his nature. God seems to accept the glorifying this attribute, as if it were a real addition to that holiness which is infinite in his nature, and because infinite, cannot admit of any increase ; and therefore the word sanctified is used instead of glorified. Isa. viii. 13, ' Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.' And xxix. 23, They shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and fear the God of Israel.' This sanctification of God is by the fear of him, which signifies in the language of the Old Testa ment, a reverense of him, and a righteousness before him. He doth not
say, when he would have his power or wisdom glorified, ' Empower me,' or ' Make me wise ;' but when he would have holiness glorified by the creature, it is ' Sanctify me ;' that is, manifest the purity of my nature by the holiness of your lives. But he expresseth it in such a term, as if it were an addi tion to this infinite perfection ; so acceptable it is to him, as if it were a
contribution from his creature for the enlarging an attribute so pleasing to him, and so glorious in his eye. It is, as much as in the creature lies, a preserving the life of God, since this perfection is his life ; and that he would as soon part with his life as part with his purity. It keeps up the reputa tion of God in the world, and attracts others to a love of him ; whereas un worthy carringes defame God in the eyes of men, and bring up an ill report of him, as if he were such a one as those that profess him, and walk un suitably to their profession, appear to be.
(3.) This is the excellency and beauty of a creature. The title of beauty is given to it in Ps. ex. 3, beauties, in the plural number, as comprehending in it all other beauties whatsoever. What is a divine excellency cannot be
a creature's deformity. The natural beauty of it is a representation of the divinity ; and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent, it being such in his measure as his God is, and puts his principal felicity in the pos session of the same purity in truth. This is the refined complexion of the angels that stand before his throne. The devils lost their comeliness when they fell from it. It was the honour of the human nature of our Saviour,
not only to be united to the Deity, but to be sanctified by it. He was ' fairer than all the children of men,' because he had a holiness above the children of
en : ' grace was poured into his lips,' Ps. xlv. 2. It was the jewel of the asonable nature in paradise. Conformity to God was man's original hap piness in his created state, and what was naturally so, cannot but be immu tably so in its own nature. The beauty of every copied thing consists in its likeness to the original ; everything hath more of loveliness, as it hath greater impressions of its first pattern ; in this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it, than the whole creation, because it partakes of a greater excel lency of God than the sun, moon, and stars. No greater glory can be, than to be a conspicuous and visible image of the invisible, and holy, and blessed
God. As this is the splendour of all the divine attributes, so it is the flower of
all a Christian's graces, the crown of all religion ; it is the glory of the Spirit,
this regard the ' king's daughter' is said to be ' all glorious within,' Ps. v. 13. It is more excellent than the soul itself, since the greatest soul is
t a deformed piece without it, a diamond without lustre.* What are the oble faculties of the soul without it, but as a curious rusty watch, a delicate ,eap of disorder and confusion ! It is impossible there can be beauty,
* Vanghan, p. 4, 5.
270 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Exoo. XV. 11.
where there are a multitude of ' spots and wrinkles,' that blemish a counte nance, Eph. v. 27. It can never be in its true brightness, but when it is perfect in purity, when it regains what it was possessed of by creation, and dispossessed of by the fall, and recovers its primitive temper. We are not so beautiful by being the work of God, as by having a stamp of God upon us. Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms. Soft lives, ambitious reaches, luxurious pleasures, and a pompous religion, render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God. This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble ; other lines of a divine image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent.
(4.) It is our life. What is the life of God, is truly the life of a rational creature.* The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its members, and in the integrity of its organs ; these remain when the body becomes a carcass ; but in the presence of the soul, and its vigorous animation of every part, to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them. The life of the soul consists not in its being, or spiritual substance, or the excellency of its faculties of understanding and will, but in the moral and becoming
operations of them. The spirit is only ' life because of righteousness,' Eom. viii. 10. The faculties are turned by it, to acquit themselves in their functions, according to the will of God ; the absence of this doth not only deform the soul, but in a sort annihilate it, in regard of its true essence and end. Grace gives a Christian being, and a want of it is the want of a true being, 1 Cor. xv. 10. When Adam divested himself of his original right eousness, he came under the force of the threatening, in regard of a spiritual
death. Every person is morally ' dead whiles he lives' an unholy life, 1 Tim. v. 6. What life is to the body, that is righteousness to the Spirit ; and the greater measure of holiness it hath, the more of life it hath, because it is in a greater nearness, and partakes more fully of the fountain of life. Is not that the most worthy life, which God makes most account of, with out which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life, but a life worse than death ! What a miserable life is that of the men of the world, that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness, whither their interests or their lusts invite them ! The most beautiful body is a carcass, and the most honourable person hath but a brutish life, Ps. xlix. 20 ; miserable creatures when their life shall be extinct without a divine rectitude, when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appear ance of the sun.
Holiness is our life.
(5.) It is this only fits us for communion with God. Since it is our beauty and our life, without it, what communion can an excellent God have with deformed creatures, a living God with dead creatures ? ' Without
holiness none shall see God,' Heb. xii. 14. The creature must be stripped of his unrighteousness, or God of his purity, before they can come together. Likeness is the ground of communion and of delight in it. The opposition between God and unholy souls is as great as that between light and dark ness, 1 John i. 6. Divine fruition is not so much by a union of presence as a union of nature. Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life ; the foundation of glory is laid in grace ; a resemblance to God is our vital happiness, without which the vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness, but rather a torment than a felicity ; unless we be of a like nature to God, we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him. Some philosophers think that if our bodies were of the same nature with the
* Amyrald in Heb. p. 101, 102.
EXOD. Xy. 11.] GOD'S HOLINESS. 271
heavens, of an ethereal substance, the nearness of the sun would cherish, not scorch us. Were we partakers of a divine nature, we might enjoy God with delight ; whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him, we cannot think of him, and approach to him without terror. As soon as sin had stripped
man "of the image of God, he was an exile from the comfortable presence of God, unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with. He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a toad into intimate converse with him ; he would hereby discredit his own nature, and justify our im purity. The holiness of a creature only prepares him for an eternal con
junction with God in glory. Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place full of a fruition of him ; he hath as much delight in such as in heaven itself; one is his habitation as well as the other. The one is his habitation of glory, and the other is the house of
his pleasure. If he dwell in Zion, it must be a ' holy mountain,' Joel iii. 17, and the members of Zion must be upheld in their rectitude and integrity
before they be ' set before the face of God for ever,' Ps. xli. 12. Such are styled his jewels, his portion, as if he lived upon them, as a man upon his inheritance. As God cannot delight in us, so neither can we delight in
God without it. We must ' purify ourselves as he is pure,' if we expect to
4 see him as he is,' 1 John iii. 2, 3, in the comfortable glory and beauty of his nature, else the sight of God would be terrible and troublesome. We cannot be satisfied with the likeness of God at the resurrection, unless we
have a righteousness wherewith to 'behold his face,' Ps. xvii. 15. It is a vain imagination in any to think that heaven can be a place of happiness to him, in whose eye the beauty of holiness, which fills and adorns it, is an unlovely thing ; or that any can have a satisfaction in that divine purity which is loathsome to him in the imitations of it. We cannot enjoy him, unless we resemble him ; nor take any pleasure in him if we were with him,
ithout something of likeness to him.
Holiness fits us for communion with God.
(6.) We can have no evidence of our election and adoption without it. mformity to God in purity is the fruit of electing love : Eph. i. 4, ' He
,th chosen us that we should be holy.' The goodness of the fruit eviinceth the nature of the root. This is the seal that assures us the patent
the authentic grant of the prince. Whatsoever is holy speaks itself to be >m God, and whosoever is holy speaks himself to belong to God. This
the only evidence that we are ' born of God,' 1 John ii. 29. The subing our souls to him, the forming us into a resemblance to himself, is a tore certain sign we belong to him, than if we had with Isaiah seen his glory in the vision with all his train of angels about him. This justifies us to be the seed of God, when he hath as it were taken a slip from his own
nrity, and engrafted it in our spirits. He can never own us for his children
ithout his mark, the stamp of holiness. The devil's stamp is none of rod's badge. Our spiritual extraction from him is but pretended, unless
e do things worthy of so illustrious a birth, and becoming the honour of so
•eat a Father. What evidence can we else have of any child-like love to d, since the proper act of love is to imitate the object of our affections ? And that we may be in some measure like to God in this excellent perition,
[l.J Let us be often viewing and ruminating on the holiness of God, pecially as discovered in Christ. It is by a believing meditation on him
that we are ' changed into the same image,' 2 Cor. iii. 18. We can think often of nothing that is excellent in the world but it draws our faculties to Borne kind of suitable operation ; and why should not such an excellent idea
272 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [Exoo. XV. 11.
of the holiness of God in Christ perfect our understandings, and awaken all the powers of our souls to be formed to actions worthy of him ? A painter, employed in the limning some excellent piece, has not only his pattern before his eyes, but his eye frequently upon the pattern, to possess his fancy to
draw forth an exact resemblance. He that would 'express the image of God must imprint upon his mind the purity of his nature, cherish it in his thoughts, that the excellent beauty of it may pass from his understanding to his affections, and from his affections to his practice. How can we arise to a conformity to God in Christ, whose most holy nature we seldom glance upon, and more rarely sink our souls into the depths of it by meditation ! Be frequent in the meditation of the holiness of God.
[2.] Let us often exercise ourselves in acts of love to God, because of this perfection. The more adoring thoughts we have of God, the more delight fully we shall aspire to, and more ravishingly catch after, anything that may promote the more full draught of his divine image in our hearts. What we intensely affect, we desire to be as near as we can, and to be that very thing rather than ourselves. All imitations of others arise from an intense love
to their persons or excellency. When the soul is ravished with this perfec tion of God, it will desire to be united with it, to have it drawn in it, more than to have its own being continued to it. It will desire and delight in its own being, in order to this heavenly and spiritual work. The impres sions of the nature of God upon it, and the imitations of the nature of God by it, will be more desirable than any natural perfection whatsoever. The will in loving is rendered like the object beloved, is turned into its nature,* and imbibes its qualities. The soul by loving God will find itself more and more transformed into the divine image, whereas slighted ensamples are never thought worthy of imitation.
[3.] Let us make God our end. Every man's mind forms itself to a like ness to that which it makes its chief end. An earthly soul is as drossy as the earth he gapes for ; an ambitious soul is as elevated as the honour he reaches at ; the same characters that are upon the thing aimed at, will be imprinted upon the spirit of him that aims at it. When God and his glory are made our end, we shall find a silent likeness pass in upon us ; the beauty of God will by degrees enter upon our souls.
[4.J In every deliberate action, let us reflect upon the divine purity as a pattern. Let us examine whether anything we are prompted unto, bear an impression of God upon it, whether it looks like a thing that God himself would do in that case, were he in our natures and in cur circumstances.
See whether it hath the livery of God upon it, how congruous it is to his nature ; whether, and in what manner, the holiness of God can be glorified thereby ; and let us be industrious in all this : for can such an imitation be easy which is resisted by the constant assaults of the flesh, which is dis couraged by our ignorance, and depressed by our faint and languishing desires after it ? Oh, happy we, if there were such a heart in us !
4. A fourth exhortation. If holiness be a perfection belonging to the nature of God, then, where there is some weak conformity to the holiness of God, let us labour to grow up in it, and breathe after fuller measures of it. The more likeness we have to him, the more love we shall have from him. Communion will be suitable to our imitation, his love to himself in his essence will cast out beams of love to himself in his image. If God loves holiness in a lower measure, much more will he love it in a higher degree, because then his image is more illustrious and beautiful, and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own infinite purity. Perfection in anything
* Amor naturam induit et mores imbibit rei amatse.
EXOD. XV. 11.] GOD'S HOLINESS. 273
is more lovely and amiable than imperfection in any state, and the nearer
anything arrives to perfection, the further are those things separated from it which might cool an affection to it. An increase in holiness is attended with
a manifestation of his love : John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me, and he shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him.' It is a testimony of love to God, and God will not be behind hand with the creature in kind ness ; he loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his nature, but when there is an abounding in sanctified dispositions suitable to it, there is an increase of favour ; the more we resemble the original, the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that original ; as any partake more of the divine likeness, they partake more of the divine happiness.
5. Exhortation. Let us carry ourselves holily in a spiritual manner in
all our religious approaches to God : Ps. xciii. 5, ' Holiness becomes thy house, 0 Lord, for ever.' This attribute should work in us a deep and reve rential respect to God. This is the reason rendered why we should ' wor ship at his footstool,' in the lowest posture of humility, prostrate before him, because ' he is holy,' Ps. xcix. 5. Shoes must be put off from our feet, Exod. iii. 5, that is, lusts from our affections, everything that our souls are clogged and bemired with, as the shoe is with dirt. He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul, mired hearts, rotten carcasses, putrefied in vice, rotten in iniquity. Our services are to be as free from profanenesa as the sacrifices of the law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish. Whatsoever is contrary to his purity is abhorred by him, and unlovely in his sight, and can meet with no other success at his hands, but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear, Isa. i. 15. Since he is an immense purity, he will reject from his presence, and from having any communion with him, all that which is not conformable to him ; as light chases away
the darkness of the night, and will not mix with it. If we ' stretch out our hands towards him,' we must ' put iniquity far away from us,' Job xi. 13, 14 ; the fruits of all service will else drop off to nothing. ' Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord.' When ? When the heart is purged by Christ ' sitting as a purifier of silver,' Mai. iii. 3, 4. Not all the incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a savour, as one spiritual act of wor ship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the world, and ravished with an affection to, and a desire of imitating, the purity of his nature.
6. Exhortation. Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it. As he is the author of bodily life in the creature, so he is the author of his own life, the life of God in the soul. By his holiness he makes men holy, as the sun by his light enlightens the air. He is not only the holy One,
but our holy One, Isa. xliii. 15 ' The Lord that sanctifies us,' Lev. xx. 8. As he hath mercy to pardon us, so he hath holiness to purify us, the excel
lency of being a sun to comfort us, and a shield to protect us, ' giving grace and glory," Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 : grace whereby we may have communion with him to our comfort, and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence ; grace as our preparatory to glory, and grace growing up till it ripen in glory. He only can mould us into a divine frame. The great original can only derive the excellency of his own nature to us. We are too low, too lame to lift up ourselves to it ; too much in love with our own deformity, to admit of this beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it, our affections to it, our willingness to be partakers of it. He can as soon set the beauty of holiness in a deformed heart, as the beauty of harmony in a confused mass when he made the world. He can as soon cause the light of purity to rise out of the darkness of corruption, as frame glorious spirits out
VOL. II. S
CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [Exoo. XV. 11.
of the insufficiency of nothing. His beauty doth not decay, he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity : he is as ready to impart it as he was at the creation ; only we must wait upon him for it, and be content to have it by small measures and degrees. There is no fear of our sanctification, if we come to him as a God of holiness, since he is a God of peace, and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ : 1 Thess. v. 23, ' And
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly,' &c. He restores the sanctifying Spirit which was withdrawn by the fall, as he is a God pacified, and his holiness righted by the Kedeemer. The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ, and is as ready to impart itself to the reconciled creature, as before justice was to punish the rebellious one. He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created channels, more than any else. He did not design the making the creature so powerful as he might, because power is not such an excellency in its own nature, but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency. Power is indifferent, and may be used well or ill, according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous. God makes not the creature so powerful as he might, but he delights to make the creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be, begin ning it in this world, and ripening it in the other. It is from him we must expect it, and from him that we must beg it, and draw arguments from the holiness of his nature to move him to work holiness in our spirits. We can not have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own nature, and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the creature. Let us also go to God, to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted. As we can not attain it, so we cannot maintain it without him. God gave it Adam, and he lost it : when God gives it us, we shall lose it without his influenc ing and preserving grace. The channel will be without a stream, if the fountain do not bubble it forth ; and the streams will vanish, if the fountain doth not constantly supply them. Let us apply ourselves to him for holi
ness, as he is a God ' glorious in holiness.' By this we honour God, and advantage ourselves.
A DISCOURSE UPON THE GOODNESS OF GOD.
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good ? There is none good
but one, that is, God. — MABK X. 18.
THE words are part of a reply of our Saviour to the young man's petition to him. A certain person came in haste, running, as being eager for satis faction, to entreat his directions, what he should do to inherit everlasting life.
The person is described only in general : ver. 17, ' There came one,' a certain man; but Luke describes him by his dignity: Luke xviii. 18, 'A certain ruler,' one of authority among the Jews. He desires of him an answer to a legal question, what he should do ; or as Matthew hath it, chap. xix. 16,
' What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? ' He imagined everlasting felicity was to be purchased by the works of the law; he had
not the least sentiments of faith. Christ's answer implies there was no hopes of the happiness of another world by the works of the law, unless they were perfect and answerable to every divine precept. He doth not seem to have any ill or hypocritical intent in his address to Christ ; not to tempt him, but to be instructed by him. He seems to come with an ardent desire to be satis
fied in his demand ; he performed a solemn act of respect to him, ' he kneeled
to him,' yowwtTTiaag, prostrated himself upon the ground. Besides, Christ
is said, verse 21, to ' love him,' which had been inconsistent with the know ledge Christ had of the hearts and thoughts of men, and the abhorrence he §d of hypocrites, had he been only a counterfeit in this question.
But the first reply Christ makes to him respects the title of ' good Master,' lich this ruler gave him in his salutation.
1. Some think that Christ hereby would draw him to an acknowledgment of him as God : You acknowledge me good, how come you to salute me with so great a title, since you do not afford it to your greatest doctors ? Lightfoot in loc. observes, that the title of Rabbi bone is not in all the Talmud.
Tou must own me to be God, since you own me to be good, goodness being . title only due and properly belonging to the Supreme Being.
If you take me for a common man, with what conscience can you salute
in a manner proper to God, since no man is good, no, not one, but the sart of man is evil continually ? The Arians used this place to back their mying the deity of Christ ; because, say they, he did not acknowledge him self good, therefore he did not acknowledge himself God. But he doth not here deny his deity, but reproves him for calling him good, when he had not
276 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18. <
yet confessed him to be more than a man.* You behold my flesh, but you
consider not the fulness of my deity; if you account me good, account me God, and imagine me not to be a simple and a mere man.f He disowns not his own deity, but allures the young man to a confession of it. Why callest thou me good, since thou dost not discover any apprehensions of my being taore than a man ? Though thou comest with a greater esteem to me than is commonly entertained of the doctors of the chair, why dost thou own me to be good, unless thou own me to God ? If Christ had denied himself in this speech to be good, he had rather entertained this person with a frown and sharp reproof for giving him a title due to God alone, than have received him with that courtesy and complaisance as he did.J Had he said there is none good but the Father, he had excluded himself; but in saying, there is none good but God, he comprehends himself.
2. Others say that Christ had no intention to draw him to an acknowledg ment of his Deity, but only asserts his divine authority or mission from God ; for which interpretation Maldonat calls Calvin an Arianiser.§ He doth not here assert the essence of his deity, but the authority of his doctrine ; as if he should have said, You do without ground give me the title of good, unless you believe I have a divine commission for what I declare and act. Many do think me an impostor, an enemy of God, and a friend to devils ; you must firmly believe that I am not so as your rulers report me, but that I am sent of God, and authorised by him ; you cannot else give me the title of good, but of wicked. And the reason they give for this interpretation is, because it is a question whether any of the apostles understood him at this time to be God, which seems to have no great strength in it, since not only the devil had publicly owned him to be the holy One of God, Luke iv. 34, but John the Baptist had borne record that he was the Son of God, John i. 82, 84, and before this time Peter had confessed him openly, in the hear
ing of the rest of the disciples, that he was ' the Christ, the Son of the living God,' Mat. xvi. 16. But I think Parasus his interpretation is best, which takes in both those : Either you are serious or deceitful in this address ; if you are serious, why do you call me good, and make bold to fix so great a title upon one you have no higher thoughts of than of a mere man ? Christ takes occasion from hence to assert God to be the only and sovereignly good:
' There is none good but God.' || God only hath the honour of absolute goodness, and none but God merits the name of good. A heathen could
say much after the same manner : ' All other things are far from the nature of good. Call none else good but God, for this would be a profane error. Other things are only good in opinion, but have not the true substance of goodness. He is good in a more excellent way than any creature can be
denominated good.' IF
(1.) God is only originally good of himself. All created goodness is a rivulet from this fountain, but divine goodness hath no spring ; God depends upon no other for his goodness, he hath it in and of himself. Man hath no goodness from himself, God hath no goodness from without himself; his goodness is no more derived from another than his being. If he were good by any external thing, that thing must be in being before him, or after him : if before him, he was not then himself from eternity ; if after him, he was not good in himself from eternity. The end of his creating things, then, was not to confer a goodness upon his creatures, but to partake of a good ness from his creatures. God is good by and in himself, since all things are
* Erasm. in loc. \ Calvin in loc. t Augustin. || Trismegist. Paemond, cap. 2. j Hensius in Mat. *jf Eugubin, de Peren. Philos. lib. v. «ap. 9.
MARK X. 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 277
only good by him, and all that goodness which is in creatures is but the breath ing of his own goodness upon them. They have all their loveliness from the same hand they have their being from. Though by creation God was declared good, yet he was not made good by any, or by all the creatures. He partakes of none, but all things partake of him. He is so good that he gives all, and receives nothing ; only good, because nothing is good but by him ; nothing hath a goodness but from him. t (2.) God only is infinitely good.
A boundless goodness that knows no limits, a goodness as infinite as his essence, not only good, but best ; not only good, but goodness itself, the supreme unconceivable goodness. All things else are but little particles of God, small sparks from this immense flame, sips of goodness to this foun tain. Nothing that is good by his influence can equal him, who is good by himself; derived goodness can never equal primitive goodness. Divine good ness communicates itself to a vast number of creatures in various degrees ; to angels, glorified spirits, men on earth, to every creature, and when it hath communicated all that the present world is capable of, there is still less displayed than left to enrich another world. All possible creatures are not capable of exhausting the wealth, the treasures, that divine bounty is filled with.
(8.) God is only perfectly good, because only infinitely good. He is good without indigence, because he hath the whole nature of good ness, not only some beams, that may admit of increase of degree. As in him is the whole nature of entity, so in him is the whole nature of excel lency. As nothing hath an absolute perfect being but God, so nothing hath an absolutely perfect goodness but God. As the sun hath a perfection of heat in it, but what is warmed by the sun is but imperfectly hot, and equals not the sun in that perfection of heat wherewith it is naturally endued. The goodness of God is the measure and rule of goodness in every thing else.
(4.) God only is immutably good. Other things may be perpetually good by supernatural power, but not immutably good in their own nature. Other things are not so good, but they may be bad ; God is so good that he cannot be bad. It was the
speech of a philosopher,* that it was a hard thing to find a good man, yea,
ipossible, but though it were possible to find a good man, he would be )od but for some moment, or a short time ; for though he should be good it this instant, it was above the nature of man to continue in a habit of
jodness, without going awry and warping. But ' the goodness of God idureth for ever,' Ps. Hi. 1. God always glitters in goodness, as the sun, rhich the heathens called the visible image of the divinity, doth with light. There is not such a perpetual light in the sun as there is a fulness of good-
less in God ; ' no variableness' in him, as he is ' the Father of lights,' James ii. 17.
Before I come to the doctrine, that is the chief scope of the words, some
emarks may be made upon the young man's question and carriage, ' What lust I do to inherit eternal life ? '
1. The opinion of gaining eternal life by the outward observation of the will appear very unsatisfactory to an inquisitive conscience. This ruler irmed, and certainly did confidently believe, that he had fulfilled the law:
All this have I observed from my youth,' ver. 20, yet he had not any full itisfaction in his own conscience ; his heart misgave, and started upon some sentiments in him, that something else was required, and what he
* Eugubin. peren. Philos., lib. v. cap. ix. p. 97. col. 1.
278 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
had done might be too weak, too short to shoot heaven's lock for him. And to that purpose he comes to Christ, to receive instructions for the piecing up
whatsoever was defective. Whosoever will consider the nature of God, and the relation of a creature, cannot with reason think that eternal life was of itself due from God as a recompence to Adam, had he persisted in a state of innocence. Who can think so great a reward due for having performed that which a creature in that relation was obliged to do ? Can any man think another obliged to convey an inheritance of £1000 per annum upon his payment of a few farthings, unless any compact appears to support such a conceit 9 And if it were not to be expected in the integrity of nature, but only from the goodness of God, how can it be expected since the revolt of man, and the universal deluge of natural corruption ! God owes nothing to the holiest creature ; what he gives is a present from his bounty, not the
reward of the creature's merit. And the apostle defies all creatures, from the greatest to the least, from the tallest angel to the lowest shrub, to bring
out any one creature that hath first given to God : B/om. xi. 85, ' Who hath
first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again ? ' The duty of the creature, and God's gift of eternal life, is not a bargain and sale. God gives to the creature, he doth not properly repay ; for he that repays hath received something of an equal value and worth before. When God crowns angels and men, he bestows upon them purely what is his own, not what is theirs by merit and natural obligation ; though indeed what God gives by virtue of a promise made before is upon the performance of the condition due by gracious obligation. God was not indebted to man in
innocence, but every man's conscience may now mind him that he is not upon the same level as in the state of integrity ; and that he cannot expect
anything from God, as the salary of his merit, but the free gift of divine liberality. Man is obliged to the practice of what is good, both from the
excellency of the divine precepts, and the duty he owes to God, and cannot without some declaration from God hope for any other reward than the
satisfaction of having well acquitted himself.*
2. It is the disease of human nature, since its corruption, to hope for eternal life by the tenor of the covenant of works.
Though this ruler's conscience was not thoroughly satisfied with what he had done, but imagined he might for all that fall short of eternal life, yet
he still hugs the imagination of obtaining it by doing : ver. 17, ' What shall
I do that I may inherit eternal life ? ' This is natural to corrupted man. Cain thought to be accepted for the sake of his sacrifice, and when he found his mistake he was so weary of seeking happiness by doing, that he would court misery by murdering. All men set too high a value upon their own services. Sinful creatures would fain make God a debtor to them, and be
purchasers of felicity ; they would not have it conveyed to them by God's sovereign bounty, but by an obligation of justice upon the value of their works. The heathens thought God would treat men according to the merit of their services, and it is no wonder they should have this sentiment, when the Jews, educated by God in a wiser school, were wedded to that notion. The Pharisees were highly fond of it, it was the only argument they used in prayer for divine blessing ; you have one of them boasting of his frequency in fasting, and his exactness in paying his tithes, Luke xviii. 12, as if God had been beholding to him, and could not without manifest wrong deny him his demand. And Paul confesseth it to be his own sentiment before his
conversion, he accounted this righteousnes of the law gain to him, Philip, iii. 7 ; he thought by this to make his market with God. The whole nation
* Amyraut, Morale.
MARK X. 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 279
of the Jews affected it : Rom. x. 3, ' Going about to establish their own righteousness,' ' compassing sea and land' to make out a righteousness of their own, as the Pharisees did to make proselytes.
The papists follow their steps, and dispute for justification by the merit of works, and find out another key of works of supererogation, to unlock hea
ven's gate, than what ever the Scripture informed us of. It is from hence also that men are so ready to make faith as a work the cause of our Justincation. Man foolishly thinks he hath enough to set up himself after he hath proved bankrupt, and lost all. his estate. This imagination is born with us, and thebest Christians may find some sparks of it in themselves, when there are springings up of joy in their hearts upon the more close perform ance of one duty than of another, as if they had wiped off their scores, and given God a satisfaction for their former neglects. ' We have forsaken all, and followed thee,' was the boast of his disciples. 'What shall we have, therefore ? ' was a branch of this root, Mat. xix. 27. Eternal life is a gift, not by any obligation of right, but an abundance of goodness ; it is owing not to the dignity of our works, but the magnificent bounty of the divine
nature, and must be sued for by the title of God's promise, not by the title of the creature's services. We may observe, 3. How insufficient are some assents to divine truth, and some expres sions of affection to Christ, without the practice of Christian precepts. This man addressed to Christ with a profound respect, acknowledging him more than an ordinary person, with a more reverential carriage than we read any of his disciples paid to him in the days of his flesh ; he fell down at his feet, kissed his knees, as the custom was when they would testify the great respect they had to any eminent person, especially to their Rabbins. All this some think to be included in the word yowirtrriaag, ver. 17. He seems to acknowledge him the Messiah by giving him the title of good, a title they did not give to their doctors of the chair ;* he breathes out his opinion that he was able to instruct him beyond the ability of the law ; he came with a more than ordinary affection to him, and expectation of advantage from him, evident by his departing sad when his expectations were frustrated by his
m perversity ; it was a sign he had a high esteem of him, from whom he Duld not part without marks of his grief. What was the cause of his refusjg the instructions he pretended such an affection to receive ? He had
Dssessions in the world. How soon do a few drops of worldly advantage lench the first sparks of an ill-grounded love to Christ ! How vain is a jmplimental and cringing devotion, without a supreme preference of God,
id valuation of Christ above every outward allurement ? We may observe is,
4. We should never admit anything to be ascribed to us which is proper
God. ' Why callest thou me good ? There is none good but one, that is
)d.' If you do not acknowledge me God, ascribe not to me the title of good. It takes off all those titles which fawning flatterers give to men : Miyhty, Invincible to princes, Holiness to the pope. We call one another
x>d, without considering how evil ; and wise, without considering how polish ; mighty, without considering how weak ; and knowing, without con sidering how ignorant. No man but hath more of wickedness than goodness,
ignorance than knowledge, of weakness than strength. God is a jealous rod of his own honour, he will not have the creature share with him in his
ayal titles. It is a part of idolatry to give men the titles which are due to rod ; a kind of a worship of the creature together with the Creator. Worms nil not stand out, but assault Herod in his purple when he usurps the pre-
* Lightfoot in loc.
280 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
rogative of God, and prove stiff and invincible vindicators of their Creator's honour when summoned to arms by the Creator's word, Acts xii. 22, 23. The observation which I intend to prosecute is this,
Doct. Pure and perfect goodness is only the royal prerogative of God ; goodness is a choice perfection of the divine nature.
This is the true and genuine character of God. He is good, he is good ness, good in himself, good in his essence, good in the highest degree, pos sessing whatsoever is comely, excellent, desirable ; the highest good, because the first good ; whatsoever is perfect goodness is God, whatsoever is truly goodness in any creature is a resemblance of God.* All the names of God are comprehended in this one of good. All gifts, all variety of goodness, are contained in him as one common good. He is the efficient cause of all good by an overflowing goodness of his nature. He refers all things to himself as the end for the representation of his own goodness. ' Truly God
is good,' Ps. Ixxiii. 1. Certainly, it is an undoubted truth ; it is written in his works of nature, and his acts of grace : Exod. xxxiv. 6, ' He is abundant
in goodness.'
And everything is a memorial, not of some" few sparks, but of his 'great goodness,' Ps. cxlv. 7. This is often celebrated in the Psalms, and men invited more than once to sing forth the praises of it, Ps. cvii. 8, 15, 21, 31. It may better be admired than sufficiently spoken of, or thought of, as it merits. It is discovered in all his works, as the goodness of a tree in all its fruits ; it is easy to be seen, and more pleasant to be contemplated. In general,
1. All nations in the world have acknowledged God good : TO 'A/a0ov was one of the names the Platonists expressed him by, and good and God are almost the same words in our language. All as readily consented in the notion of his goodness as in that of his deity. Whatsoever divisions or disputes there were among them in the other perfections of God, they all agreed in this without dispute, saith Synesius.t One calls him Venus, in regard of his loveliness. J Another calls him Egwra, love, as being the band which ties all things together. No perfection of the divine nature is more eminently nor more speedily visible in the whole book of the creation than this. His greatness shines not in any part of it where his goodness doth not as gloriously glister. Whatsoever is the instrument of his work, as his power ; whatsoever is the orderer of his work, as his wisdom : yet nothing can be adored as the motive of his work but the goodness of his nature. This only could induce him to resolve to create. His wisdom then steps in to dispose the methods of what he resolved, and his power follows to execute what his wisdom hath disposed, and his goodness designed. His power in making, and his wisdom in ordering, are subservient to his goodness ; and this goodness, which is the end of the creation, is as visible to the eyes of men, as legible to the understanding of men, as his power in forming them, and his wisdom in tuning them. And as the book of creation, so the records of his government must needs acquaint them with a great part of it, when they have often beheld him stretching out his hand to supply the indigent, relieve the oppressed, and punish the oppressors, and give them in their
distresses what might ' fill theirt hearts with food and gladness.' It -is this the apostle means by his Godhead, Rom. i. 20, 21, which he links with his eternity and power, as clearly seen in the things that are made, as in a pure glass. ' For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead.' The Godhead, which comprehends the whole nature
* Ficin. in Dionys. de divin. nom. cap. 511. f Empedccles. J Eesiod.
MARK X..18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 281
of God as discoverable to his creatures, was not known, yea, was impossible to be known, by the works of creation. There had been nothing then re served to be manifested in Christ. But his goodness, which is properly meant there by his Godhead, was as clearly visible as his power. The apostle upbraids them with their unthankfulness, and argues their inexcusableness, because the arm of his power in creation made no due impressions of fear upon their spirits, nor the beams of his goodness wrought in them sufficient sentiments of gratitude. Their not glorifying God was a contempt of the former, and their not being thankful was a slight of the latter. God is the object of honour as he is powerful, and the object of thankfulness properly as he is bountiful.
All the idolatry of the heathens is a clear testimony of their common sen timent of the goodness of God, since the more eminently useful any person was in some advantageous invention for the benefit of mankind, they thought he merited a rank in the number of their deities. The Italians esteemed Pythagoras a god, because he was ®i\avdguv6ra7og ;* to be good and useful was an approximation to the divine nature ; hence it was, that when the Lystrians saw a resemblance of the divine goodness in the charitable and miraculous cure of one of their crippled citizens, presently they mistook Paul and Barnabas for gods, and inferred from thence their right to divine worship, inquiring into nothing else but the visible character of their good ness and usefulness, to capacitate them for the honour of a sacrifice. Acts
xiv. 8-11. Hence it was that they adored those creatures that were a com mon benefit, as the sun and moon, which must be founded upon a pre-existent notion not only of the being, but of the bounty and goodness of God, which
was naturally implanted in them, and legible in all God's works, and the more beneficial anything was to them, and the more sensible advantages they received from it, the higher station they gave it in the rank of their idols, and bestowed upon it a more solemn worship. An absurd mistake, to think everything that was sensibly good to them to be God, clothing himself in such a form to be adored by them ; and upon this account the Egyptians worshipped God under the figure of an ox, and the East Indians in some parts of their country deify a heifer, intimating the goodness of God as their nourisher and preserver in giving them corn, whereof the ox is an instrument in serving for ploughing and preparing the ground. «2. The notion of goodness is inseparable from the notion of a God. We cannot own the existence of God, but we must confess also the goodiss of his nature ; hence the apostle gives to his goodness the title of his Godhead, as if goodness and Godhead were convertible terms. Bom. i. 20. As it is indissolubly linked with the being of a deity, so it cannot be severed from the notion of it ; we as soon undeify him by denying him good, as by denying him great ; optimus, maximus, the best, greatest, was the name whereby the Romans entitled him. His nature is as good as it is majestic ; so doth the psalmist join them : ' I will declare thy greatness ; they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness,' Ps. cxlv. 6, 7. They considered his goodnes before his greatness, in putting optimus before maximus. Greatness without sweetness is an unruly and affrighting monster in the world, like a vast turbulent sea casting out mire and dirt. Goodness is the brightness and loveliness of our majestical Creator. To fancy a God without it, is to fancy a miserable, scanty, narrow-hearted, savage God, and so an unlovely and horrible being ; for he is not a God that is not good, he is not a God that is not the highest good. Infinite goodness is more neces sary to, and more straitly joined with, an infinite Deity, than infinite power,
* lamblych. Vit. Pythag. lib. i. col. 6, p. 43.
282 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
and infinite wisdom ; we cannot conceive him God, unless we conceive him the highest good, having nothing superior to himself in goodness, as he hath nothing superior to himself in excellency and perfection. No man can possibly form a notion of God in his mind, and yet form a notion of some thing better than God, for whoever thinks anything better than God, fancieth a God with some defect. By how much the better he thinks that thing to be, by so much the more imperfect he makes God in his thoughts. This notion of the goodness of God was so natural, that some philosophers and others, being startled at the evil they saw in the world, fancied besides a good God, an evil principle, the author of all punishments in the world. This was ridiculous, for those two must be of equal power, or one inferior to the other ; if equal, the good could do nothing, but the evil one would restrain him, and the evil one could do nothing, but the good one would contradict him, so they would be always contending and never conquering ; if one were inferior to the other, then there would be nothing but what that superior ordered. Good, if the good one were superior, and nothing but evil, if the bad one were superior. In the prosecution of this let us see,
I. What this goodness is. II. Some propositions concerning the nature of it. III. That God is good. IV. The manifestation of it in creation, providence, and redemption. V. The use.
I. What this goodness is. There is a goodness of being, which is the natural perfection of a thing ; there is the goodness of will, which is the holiness and righteousness of a person ; there is the goodness of the hand, which we call liberality or beneficence, a doing good to others.
1. We mean by this, the goodness of his essence, or the perfection of his nature. God is thus good, because his nature is infinitely perfect, he hath all things requisite to the completing of a most perfect and sovereign being. All good meets in his essence, as all water meets in the ocean.
Under this notion all the attributes of God, which are requisite to so illus trious a being, are comprehended. All things that are have a goodness of being in them, derived to them by the power of God as they are creatures.
So the devil is good, as he is a creature of God's making ; he hath a natural goodness, but not a moral goodness. When he fell from God, he retained his natural goodness as a creature, because he did not cease to be, he was not reduced to that nothing from whence he was drawn; but he ceased to be morally good, being stripped of his righteousness by his apostasy. As a
creature, he was God's work ; as a creature, he remains still God's work ; and therefore, as a creature, remains still good in regard of his created being.
The more of being anything hath, the more of this sort of natural goodness it hath ; and so the devil hath more of this natural goodness than men have, because he hath more marks of the excellency of God upon him, in regard of the greatness of his knowledge, and the extent of his power, the large ness of his capacity, and the acuteness of his understanding, which are natural perfections belonging to the nature of an angel, though he hath lost his moral perfections. God is sovereignly and infinitely good in this sort of goodness. He is unsearchably perfect, Job. xi. 7 ; nothing is wanting to his essence that is necessary to the perfection of it ; yet this is not that the Scripture expresseth under the term of goodness, but a perfection of
God's nature as related to us, and which he poureth forth upon all his crea tures, as goodness which flows from this natural perfection of the Deity.
MAEK X, 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 288
2. Nor is it the same with the blessedness of God, but something flow ing from his blessedness. Were he not first infinitely blessed and full in him
self, he could not be infinite!}7 good and diffusive to us ; had he not an infinite abundance in his own nature, he could not be overflowing to his creatures.
Had not the sun a fulness of light in itself, and the sea a vastness of water, the one could not enrich the world with its beams, nor the other fill every creek with its waters.
8. Nor is it the same with the holiness of God. The holiness of God is the rectitude of his nature, whereby he is pure, and without spot in himself. The goodness of God is the efflux of his will, whereby he is beneficial to his creatures. The holiness of God is manifest in his rational creatures, but the goodness of God extends to all the works of his hands. His holi ness beams most in his law, his goodness reacheth to everything that had
a being from him : Ps. cxlv. 9, ' The Lord is good to all.' And though he be said in the same psalm, verse 17, to be 'holy in all. his works,' it is to be understood of his bounty, bountiful in all his works, the Hebrew word signifying both holy and liberal, and the margin of the Bible reads if mer ciful ' or ' bountiful.'
4. Nor is this goodness of God the same with the mercy of God. Good ness extends to more objects than mercy, goodness stretcheth itself out to all the works of his hands ; mercy extends only to a miserable object, for it is joined with a sentiment of pity, occasioned by the calamity of another. The mercy of God is exercised about those that merit punishment, the good ness of God is exercised upon objects that have not merited anything con trary to the acts of his bounty. Creation is an act of goodness, not of mercy : providence in governing some part of the world, is an act of goodness,
not of mercy.* The heavens, saith Austin, need the goodness of God to govern them, but not the mercy of God to relieve them ; the earth is full of the misery of man, and the compassions of God ; but the heavens need not the mercy of God to pity them, because they are not miserable, though they need the goodness and power of God to sustain them, because, as crea
tures, they are impotent without him. God's goodness extends to the angels, that kept their standing, and to man in innocence, who in that state stood not in need of mercy. Goodness and mercy are distinct, though mercy be a branch of goodness ; there may be a manifestation of goodness, though none of mercy. Some think Christ had been incarnate, had not man fallen ; had it been so, there had been a manifestation of goodness to our nature, but not of mercy, because sin had not made our nature miserable. The devils
are monuments of God's creating goodness, but not of his pardoning com passions. The grace of God respects the rational creature, mercy the miserable creature, goodness all his creatures, brutes, and the senseless plants, as well as reasonable man.
5. By goodness is meant the bounty of God. This is the notion of good ness in the world ; when we say a good man, we mean either a holy man in his life, or a charitable and liberal man in the management of his goods. A righteous man and a good man are distinguished : Rom. v. 7, ' For scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet for a good man one would even
dare to die.' For an innocent man, one as innocent of the crime as himself would scarce venture his life ; but for a good man, a liberal tender-hearted man, that had been a common good in the place where he lived, or had done another as great a benefit as life itself amounts to, a man out of gratitude might dare to die. The goodness of God is his inclination to deal well and
* Lombard, lib. iv. distinct 46, p. 286.
284 CHABNOCK'S WOEKS. [MARK X. 18.
bountifully with his creatures.* It is that whereby he wills there should be something besides himself for his own glory. God is good in himself, and to himself, i.e. highly amiable to himself; and therefore some define it a perfection of God, whereby he loves himself and his own excellency ; but as it stands in relation to his creatures, it is that perfection of God, whereby he delights in his works, and is beneficial to them. God is the highest
goodness, because he doth not act for his own profit, but for his creatures' welfare, and the manifestation of his own goodness. He sends out his beams, without receiving any addition to himself, or substantial advantage from his creatures. It is from this perfection that he loves whatsoever is good, and that is, whatsoever he hath made, for ' every creature of God
is good,' 1 Tim. iv. 4. Every creature hath some communications from him, which cannot be without some affection to them ; every creature hath a foot step of divine goodness upon it : God therefore loves that goodness in the creature, else he would not love himself. God hates no creature ; no, not the devils and damned, as creatures ; he is not an enemy to them, as they are the works of his hands. f He is properly an enemy, that doth simply and absolutely wish evil to another ; but God doth not absolutely wish evil to the damned ; that justice that he inflicts upon them, the deserved punish ment of their sin, is part of his goodness (as shall afterward be shewn).
This is the most pleasant perfection of the divine nature. His creating power amazes us, his conducting wisdom astonisheth us, his goodness, as furnishing us with all conveniencies, delights us, and renders both his amazing power and astonishing wisdom delightful to us.
As the sun, by effecting things, is an emblem of God's power, by disco vering things to us, is an emblem of his wisdom, but by refreshing and comforting us, is an emblem of his goodness ; and without this refreshing virtue it communicates to us, we should take no pleasure in the creatures it produceth, nor in the beauties it discovers. As God is great and powerful, he is the object of our understanding ; but as good and bountiful, he is the object of our love and desire.
6. The goodness of God comprehends all his attributes. All the acts of God are nothing else but the effluxes of his goodness, distinguished by several names, according to the objects it is exercised about. As the sea, though it be one mass of water, yet we distinguish it by several names, according to the shores it washeth and beats upon, as the British and German Ocean, though all be one sea. When Moses longed to see his glory, God tells him,
he would give him a prospect of his goodness : Exod. xxxiii. 19, ' I will make
all my goodness to pass before thee.' His goodness is his glory and God head, as much as is delightfully visible to his creatures, and whereby he doth
benefit man. ' I will cause my goodness,' or comeliness, as Calvin renders it, ' to pass before thee :' What is this but the train of all his lovely perfec tions springing from his goodness ? The whole catalogue of mercy, grace, long-suffering, abundance of truth, Exod. xxxiv. 6, summed up in this one word. All are streams from this one fountain ; he could be none of this were he not first good. When it confers happiness without merit, it is grace ; when it bestows happiness against merit, it is mercy ; when he bears with provoking rebels, it is long-suffering ; when he performs his promise, it
is truth ; when it meets with a person to whom it is not obliged, it is grace ; when he meets with a person in the world, to which he hath obliged himself
by promise, it is truth ; J when it commiserates a distressed person, it is pity ; when it supplies an indigent person, it is bounty ; when it succours an
* Coccei, Sum. p. 50. t Cajetan, in Secund Secundae, qu. 34. art. 3. J Herle upon Wisdom, cap. v. p. 41, 42.
MARK X. -18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 285
innocent person, it is righteousness ; and when it pardons a penitent person, it is mercy, — all summed up in this one name of goodness. And the psalmist expresseth the same sentiment in the same words : Ps. cxlv. 7-9, ' They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion ; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all ; and his tender mercies
are over all his works.' He is first good, and then compassionate. Right eousness is often in Scripture taken, not for justice, but charitableness. This attribute, saith one,* is so full of God, that it doth deify all the rest, and verify the adorableness of him. His wisdom might contrive against us, his power bear too hard upon us ; one might be too hard for an ignorant, and the other too mighty for an impotent creature ; his holiness would scare an impure and guilty creature, but his goodness conducts them all for us, and makes them all amiable to us. Whatever comeliness they have in the eye of a creature, whatever comfort they afford to the heart of a creature, we are obliged for all to his goodness. This puts all the rest upon a delight ful exercise, this makes his wisdom design for us, and this makes his power to act for us. This veils his holiness from affrighting us, and this spirits his mercy to relieve us.f All his acts towards man are but the workmanship of this. What moved him at first to create the world out of nothing, and erect BO noble a creature as man, endowed with such excellent gifts ? Was it not his goodness ? What made him separate his Son to be a sacrifice for us, after we had endeavoured to raze out the first marks of his favour ? Was it not a strong bubbling of goodness ? What moves him to reduce a fallen creature to the due sense of his duty, and at last bring him into an eternal felicity ? Is it not only his goodness ? This is the captain attribute that leads the rest to act ; this attends them, and spirits them all in his ways of acting. This is the complement and perfection of all his works ; had it not been for this, which set all the rest on work, nothing of his wonders had been seen in creation, nothing of his compassions had been seen in redemption.
II. The second thing is, some propositions to explain the nature of this )odness.
1. He is good by his own essence. God is not only good in his essence, but good by his essence. The essence of every created thing is good, so the unerring God pronounced everything which he had made, Gen. i. 31. The essence of the worst creatures, yea, of the impure and savage devils, is good, but they are not good per essentiam, for then they could not be bad, mali cious, and oppressive. God is good as he is God, and therefore good by himself, and from himself, not by participation from another. He made everything good, but none made him good. Since his goodness was not received from another, he is good by his own nature. He could not receive it from the things he created ; they are later than he. Since they received all from him, they could bestow nothing on him, and no God preceded him, in whose inheritance and treasures of goodness he could be a successor. He is absolutely his own goodness, he needed none to make him good ; but all things needed him to be good by him. Creatures are made good by being made so by him, and cleaving to him. He is good without cleaving to any goodness without him, and goodness is not a quality in him, but a nature, not a habit added to his essence, but his essence itself.]; He is not first