Part 19
All his attributes, which are parts of his goodness, engage him to punish sin ; without it, his authority would be vilified, his purity stained, his power derided, his truth disgraced, his justice scorned, his wisdom slighted ; he would be thought to have dissembled in his laws, and be judged, according to the rules of reason, to be void of true goodness.
Fourthly, Punishment is not the primary intention of God. It is his goodness that he hath no mind to punish ; and therefore he hath put a bar to evil by his prohibitions and threatenings, that he might prevent sin, and
consequently any occasions of severity against his creature.* The principal intention of God in his law was to encourage goodness, that he might reward
it ; and when, by the commission of evil, God is provoked to punish, and takes the sword into his hand, he doth not act against the nature of his good ness, but against the first intention of his goodness in his precepts, which was to reward. As a good judge principally intends, in the exercise of his office, to protect good men from violence, and maintain the honour of the laws ; yet consequently to punish bad men, without which the protection of the good would not be secured, nor the honour of the law be supported. And a good judge, in the exercise of his office, doth principally intend the encouragement of the good, and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion punishment ; and when he doth sentence a malefactor in order to the execution of him, he doth not act against the goodness of his nature, but pursuant to the duty of his place ; but wisheth he had no occa sion for such severity. Thus God seems to speak of himself: Isa. xxviii. 21,
he calls the act of his wrath, his ' strange work,' his ' strange act ;' a work not against his nature, as the governor of the world, but against his first intention as creator, which was to manifest his goodness. Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those acts, brings out his judgments with relentings of heart, and seems to cast out his thunderbolts with a trembling hand.
' He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men,' Lam. iii. 33. And therefore he ' delights not in the death of a sinner,' Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Not in death as death, in punishment as punishment, but as it reduceth the suffering creature to the order of his precept, or reduceth him into order under his power, or reforms others who are spectators of the punishment upon a criminal of their own nature. God only hates the sin, not the pin ner, f He desires only the destruction of the one, not the other. The nature of a man doth not displease him, because it is a work of his own goodness ; but the nature of the sinner displeaseth him, because it is a
work of the sinner's own extravagance. Divine goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the sinner, but upon the sin ; but since he cannot punish the sin without punishing the subject to which it cleaves, the sinner falls under his lash. Who ever regards a good judge as an enemy to the malefactor, but as an enemy to his crime, when he doth sentence and exe cute him ?
* Zarnovecius, De Satisfact. part i. cap. i. p. 3, 4. | Suarez, vol. i. De Deo, lib. iii. cap. 7, p. 146.
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Fifthly, Judgments in the world have a goodness in them, therefore they are no impeachments of the goodness of God.
1st, A goodness in their preparations. He sends not judgments without giving warnings ; his justice is so far from extinguishing his goodness, that his goodness rather shines out in the preparations of his justice. He gives men time, and sends them messengers to persuade them to another temper of mind, that he may change his hand, and exercise his liberality, where he threatened his severity. When the heathen had presages of some evil upon their persons or countries, they took them for invitations to repentance, excited themselves to many acts of devotion, implored his favour, and often experimented it. The Ninevites, upon the proclamation of the destruction of their city by Jonah, fell to petitioning him ; whereby they signified that they thought him good, though he were just, and more prone to pity than severity ; and their humble carriage caused the arrows he had ready against them to drop out of his hands, Jonah iii. 9, 10. When he brandisheth his sword, he wishes for some to stand in that gap to mollify his anger, that he might not strike the fatal blow : Ezek. xxii. 30, ' I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before
me in the land, that I should not destroy it.' He was desirous that his creatures might be in a capacity to receive the marks of his bounty.* This he signified not obscurely to Moses, Exod. xxxii. 10, when he spoke to him to let him alone, that his anger might wax hot against the people, after they
had made a golden calf and worshipped it. ' Let me alone,' said God : not that Moses restrained him, saith Chrysostom, who spake nothing to him, but
stood silent before him, and knew nothing of the people's idolatry ; but God would give him an occasion of praying for them, that he might exercise his mercy towards them ; yet in such a manner, that the people being struck with a sense of their crime, and the horror of divine justice, they might be amended for the future ; when they should understand that their death was not averted by their own merit or intercession, but by Moses his patronage of them, and pleading for them ; as we see sometimes masters and fathers angry with their servants and children, and preparing themselves to punish them, but secretly wish some friend to intercede for them, and take them out of their hands. There is a goodness shining in the preparation of his judgments.
%dly, A goodness in the execution of them. They are good, as they shew God disaffected to evil, and conduce to the glory of his holiness, and
deter others from presumptuous sins : Lev. x. 3, ' I will be glorified in all that draw near unto me ;' in his judgment upon Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, for offering strange fire.
By them God preserves the excellent footsteps of his own goodness in his creation and his law, and curbs the licentiousness of men, and contains
them within the bounds of their duty. ' Thy judgments are good,' saith the psalmist, Ps. cxix. 89, i. e. thy judicial proceedings upon the
wicked ; for he desires God there to turn 'away, by some signal act, the reproach the wicked cast upon him. Can there be anything more miserable than to live in a world full of wickedness, and void of the marks of divine goodness and justice to repress it ? Were there not judgments in the world, men would forget God, be insensible of his government of the world, neglect the exercises of natural and Christian duties ; religion would be at its last
gasp, and expire among them, and men would pretend to break God's precepts by God's authority. Are they not good, then, as they restrain the creature from further evils ? affright others from the same crimes which
* Cressel, Antholog. Decad. ii. p. 162.
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they were inclinable to commit ? He strikes some, to reform others that are spectators ; as Apollonius tamed pigeons by beating dogs before them. Punishments are God's gracious warnings to others, not to venture upon those crimes which they see attended with such judgments. The censers of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were to be wrought into plates for a covering of the altar, to abide there as a memento to others, not to approach to the exercise of the priestly office, without an authoritative call from God, Num. xvi. 38, 40 ; and those judgments exercised in the former ages of the world, were intended by divine goodness for warnings, even in evangelical times.
Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, to prevent men from apostasy. That use Christ himself makes of it, in the exhortation against turning
back, Luke xvii. 32, 33. And Ps. Iviii. 10, ' The righteous shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.' When God shall drench his sword in the blood of the wicked, the righteous shall take occasion from thence to purify themselves, and reform their ways, and look to the paths of their feet. Would not impunity be hurtful to the world, and men receive encourage ment to sin, if severities sometimes did not bridle them from the practice of their inclinations ? Sometimes the sinner himself is reformed, and some times removed from being an example to others. Though thunder be an affrighting noise, and lightning a scaring flash, yet they have a liberal goodness in them, in shattering and consuming those contagious vapours which burden and infect the air, and thereby render it more clear and healthful.
Again, there are few acts of divine justice upon a people, but are, in the very execution of them, attended with demonstrations of his goodness to others. He is a protector of his own, while he is a revenger on his enemies ; when he rides upon his horses in anger against some, his chariots are
' chariots of salvation ' to others, Hab. iii. 8. Terror makes way for salva tion : the overthrow of Pharaoh, and the strength of his nation, completed the deliverance of the Israelites. Had not the Egyptians met with their destruction, the Israelites had unavoidably met with their ruin, against all the promises God had made to them, and to the defamation of his former justice in the former plagues upon their oppressors. The death of Herod
was the security of Peter, and the rest of the maliced Christians. The gracious deliverance of good men is often occasioned by some severe stroke upon some eminent persecutor; the destruction of the oppressor is the rescue of the innocent.
Again, where is there a judgment but leaves more criminals behind than it sweeps away, that deserved to be involved in the same fate with the rest ? More Egyptians were left behind, to possess and enjoy the goodness of their fruitful land, than they were that were hurried into another world by the overflowing waves. Is not this a mark of goodness as well as severity ?
Again, is it not a goodness in him not to pour out judgments according to the greatness of his power ; to go gradually to work with those whom he might in a moment blow to destruction with one breath of his mouth ?
Again, he sometimes exerciseth judgments upon some, to form a new generation for himself; he destroyed an old world, to raise a new one more righteous — as a man pulls down his own buildings, to erect a sounder and more stately fabric.
To sum up what hath been said in this particular : How could God be a friend to goodness, if he were not an enemy to evil ? How could he shew his enmity to evil, without revenging the abuse and contempt of his good ness ? God would rather have the repentance of a sinner than his punish ment ; but the sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of
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God, than pursue those methods wherein he hath settled the conveyances
of his kindness. ' You will not come to me, that you might have life,' saith Christ. How is eternity of punishment inconsistent with the goodness of God ? Nay, how can God be good without it ? If wickedness always remain in the nature of man, is it not fit the rod should always remain on the back of man ? Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible offender in chains, in a bridewell ? While sin remains, it is fit it should be punished. Would not God else be an enemy to his own goodness, and shew favour to that which doth abuse it, and is contrary to it ? He hath threatened eternal flames to sinners, that he might the more strongly excite them to a reformation of their ways, and a practice of his precepts.
In those threatenings he hath manifested his goodness ; and can it be bad in him to defend what his goodness hath commanded, and execute what his goodness hath threatened ? His truth is also a part of his goodness ; for it is nothing but his goodness performing that which it obliged him to do. That is the first thing ; severe judgments in the world are no impeach ments of his goodness.
Secondly, The afflictions God inflicts upon his servants, are no violations of his goodness. Sometimes God afflicts men for their temporal and eternal good ; for the good of their grace in order to the good of their glory, which is a more excellent good than afflictions can be an evil. The heathens
reflected upon Ulysses his hardship, as a mark of Jupiter's goodness and love to him, that his virtue might be more conspicuous. By strong perse cutions brought upon the church, her lethargy is cured, her chaff purged, the glorious fruit of the gospel brought forth in the lives of her children ; the number of her proselytes multiply, and the strength of her weak ones is increased, by the testimonies of courage and constancy which the stronger present to them in their sufferings. Do those good effects speak a want of goodness in God, who brings them into this condition ? By those he cures his people of their corruptions, and promotes their glory by giving them the honour of suffering for the truth, and raiseth their spirits to a divine pitch. The Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, wrote
by him while he was in Nero's chains, seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when he was at liberty.
As for afflictions, they are marks of a greater measure of fatherly good ness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted prosperity, who are not dignified with that glorious title of sons, as those are that he chasteneth, Heb. xii. 6, 7. Can any question the goodness of the father that corrects his child to prevent his vice and ruin, and breed him up to virtue and honour ? It would be a cruelty in a father leaving his child without chastisement, to leave him to that misery an ill education would reduce him
to. ' God judges us that we might not be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor. xi. 82. Is it not a greater goodness to separate us from the world to happi ness by his scourge, than to leave us to the condemnation of the world for our sins ? Is it not a greater goodness to make us smart here, than to see us scorched hereafter ? As he is our shepherd, it is no part of his enmity
ill will to us, to make us feel sometimes the weight of his shepherd's ok, to reduce us from our straggling. The ' visiting our transgressions
rods, and our iniquities with stripes,' is one of the articles of the covet of grace, wherein the greatest lustre of his goodness appears, PS.
ix. 82, 33. The advantage and gain of our afflictions is a greater testi mony of his goodness to us, than the pain can be of his unkindness ; the
Bmart is well recompensed by the accession of clearer graces.
It is rather a high mark of bis goodness, than an argument for the want VOL. II. U
306 CHAENOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
of it, that he treats us as his children, and will not suffer us to run into that destruction we are more ambitious of, than the happiness he hath prepared for us, and by afflictions he fits us for the partaking of, by imparting his holiness together with the inflicting his rod, Heb. xii. 10. That is the third thing, God is good.
IV. The fourth thing is, the manifestation of this goodness in creation, redemption, and providence.
1. In creation. This is apparent from what hath been said before, that no other attribute could be the motive of his creating, but his goodness. His goodness was the cause that he made anything, and his wisdom was the
cause that he made everything in order and harmony ; he pronounced every thing good, i. e. such as became his goodness to bring forth into being ; and rested in them more as they were stamps of his goodness, than as they were marks of his power, or beams of his wisdom ; and if all creatures were able to answer to this question, what that was which created them, the answer would be, almighty power, but employed by the motion of infinite good ness.* All the varieties of creatures are so many apparitions of this goodness. Though God be one, yet he cannot appear as a God, but in variety. As the greatness of power is not manifest but in variety of works, and an acute understanding not discovered but in variety of rea sonings, so an infinite goodness is not so apparent as in variety of communi cations.
(1.) The creation proceeds from goodness. It is the goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing. Because God is good, things have a being. If he had not been good, nothing could have been good, nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not, nothing but goodness could have communicated to things an excellency, which be fore they wanted. Being is much more excellent than nothing. By this goodness therefore the whole creation was brought out of the dark womb of nothing ; this formed their natures, this beautified them with several ornaments and perfections, whereby everything was enabled to act for the good of the common world. God did not create things because he was a
living being, but because he was a'good being. No creature brought forth anything in the world merely because it is, but because it is good, and by a communicated goodness fitted for such a production. If God had been the creating principle of things, only as he was a living being, or as he was an understanding being, then all things should have partaken of life and under standing, because all things were to bear some characters of the Deity upon them. If by understanding solely God were the Creator of all things, all things should have borne the mark of the Deity upon them, and should have been more or less understanding ; but he created things as he was good, and by goodness he renders all things more or less like himself; hence everything is accounted more noble, not in regard of its being, but in regard of the beneficialness of its nature. The being of things was not the end of God in creating, but the goodness of their being. God did not rest from his works, because they were his works, i. e. because they had a being, but be cause they had a good being, Gen. i. 81 ; because they were naturally useful to the universe. Nothing was more pleasing to him, than to behold those shadows and copies of his own goodness in his works.
(2.) Creation was the first act of goodness without himself. When he was alone from eternity, he contented himself with himself, abounding in his own blessedness, delighting in that abundance.! He was incomprehen-
* Cusan, p. 228 f petav. Theolog. Dogmat. torn. i. p. 402.
MAEK X.- 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 307
sively* rich in the possession of an unstained felicity. This creation was the first efflux of his goodness without himself, for the work of creation
cannot be called a work of mercy ;f mercy supposeth a'creature miserable, but that which hath no being is subject to no misery ; for to be miserable, supposeth a nature in being, and deprived of that good which belongs to the pleasure and felicity of nature ; but since there was no being, there could be no misery. The creation, therefore, was not an act of mercy, but an act of sole goodness ; and therefore it was the speech of an heathen, that when God first set upon the creation of the world, he trans
formed himself into love and goodness : 'E/j ggwra /isra/Sx^a; rbv 6ebv psX-
Xoi/ra dri/j,iovg'ysTv.$ This led forth and animated his power, the first moment it drew the universe out of the womb of nothing. And,
(3.) There is not one creature but hath a character of his goodness. The whole world is a map to represent, and a herald to proclaim, this perfection. It is as difficult not to see something of it in every creature with the eye of our minds, as it is not to see the beams of the shining sun with those of
our bodies. ' He is good to all,' Ps. cxlv. 9, he therefore is good in all ; not a drop of the creation, but is a drop of his goodness.
These are the colours worn upon the heads of every creature. As in every spark the light of the fire is manifested, so doth every grain of the crea tion wear the visible badges of this perfection. In all the lights, the Father of lights hath made the riches of goodness apparent ; no creature is silent in it, it is legible to all nations in every work of his hands ; that as it is said
of Christ, Ps. xl. 7, ' In the volume of thy book it is written of me ;' in the volume of the book of the Scripture it is written of me, and my good ness in redemption ; so it may be said of God in the volume of the book of the creature, it is written of me and my goodness in creation. Every
creature is a page in this book, whose ' line is gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world,' Ps. xix. 4, though indeed the less goodness in some is obscured by the more resplendent goodness he hath imparted to others. What an admirable piece of goodness is it to communicate life to a fly ! How should we stand gazing upon it, till we turn our eye inwards, and view our own frame, which is much more ravishing !
But let us see the goodness of God in the creation of man. (1.) In the being and nature of man. God hath with a liberal hand con ferred upon every creature the best being it was capable of, in that station and order, and conducing to that end and use in the world he intended it for ; but when you have run over all the measures of goodness God hath poured forth upon other creatures, you will find a greater fulness of it in the nature of man, whom he hath placed in a more sublime condition, and en dued with choicer prerogatives than other creatures. He was made but
' little lower than the angels,' and much more loftily « crowned with glory and honour ' than other creatures, Ps. viii. 5. Had it not been for divine goodness, this excellent creature had lain wrapped up in the abyss of nothing ; or, if he had called it out of nothing, there might have been less of skill and less of goodness displayed in the forming of it, and a lesser kind of being imparted to it, than what he hath conferred.
[1.] How much of goodness is visible in his body ? God drew out some part of the dust of the ground, and copied out this perfection, as well as that of his power, on that mean matter, by erecting it into the form of man, quickening that earth by the inspiration of a living soul, Gen. ii. 7. Of this matter he composed an excellent body in regard of the majesty of the
* Qu. ' incomprehensibly ?' — ED. t Fherecydes. f Lessius do Perfect, div. p. 100.
808 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
face, erectness of his stature, and grace of every part. How neatly hath he wrought this tabernacle of clay, this earthly house, as the apostle calls it !
2 Cor. v. 1 ; a ' curious wrought ' piece of needle-work, a comely artifice, Ps. cxxxix. 15 ; an embroidered case for an harmonious lute. What variety of members, with a due proportion, without confusion, beautiful to sight, excellent for use, powerful for strength ! It hath eyes to conduct its motion, to serve in matter for the food and delight of the understanding ; ears to let in the pleasure of sounds, to convey intelligence of the affairs of the world, and the counsels of heaven to a more noble mind ; it hath a tongue to ex press and sound forth what the learned inhabitant in it thinks ; and hands to act what the inward counsellor directs ; and feet to support the fabric. It is tempered with a kindly heat and an oily moisture for motion, and endued with conveyances for air to qualify the fury of the heat, and nourish ment to supply the decays of moisture. It is a cabinet fitted by divine goodness for the enclosing a rich jewel ; a palace made of dust, to lodge in it the viceroy of the world ; an instrument disposed for the operations of the nobler soul, which he intended to unite to that refined matter. What is there in the situation of every part, in the proportion of every member, in the usefulness of every limb and string to the offices of the body, and service of the soul — what is there in the whole structure, that doth not inform us of the goodness of God ?
[2.] But what is this to that goodness which shines in the nature of the soul ? Who can express the wonders of that comeliness that is wrapped up in this mask of clay ? A soul endued with a clearness of understanding and freedom of will ; faculties no sooner framed, but they were able to pro duce the operations they were intended for ; a soul that excelled the whole world, that comprehended the whole creation ; a soul that evidenced the extent of its skill, in giving names to all that variety of creatures, which had issued out of the hand of divine power, Gen. ii. 19 ; a soul able to discover the nature of other creatures, and manage and conduct their motions. In the ruins of a palace we may see the curiosity displayed, and the cost ex pended in the building of it ; in the ruins of this fallen structure, we still find it capable of a mighty knowledge, a reason able to regulate affairs, govern states, order more mighty and massy creatures, find out witty inventions. There is still an understanding to irradiate the other faculties, a mind to contemplate its own Creator, a judgment to discern the differences between good and evil, vice and virtue, which the goodness of God hath not granted to any lower creature. These excellent faculties, together with the power of self-reflection, and the swiftness of the mind in running over the things of the creation, are astonishing gleams of the vast goodness of that divine hand which ennobled this frame. To the other creatures of this world, God had given out some small mites from his treasury ; but in the perfections of man, he hath opened the more secret parts of his exchequer, and liberally bestowed those doles, which he hath not expended upon the other creatures on earth.
[3.] Besides this, he did not only make man so noble a creature in his frame, but he made him after his own image in holiness. He imparted to him a spark of his own comeliness, in order to a communion with himself in happiness, had man stood his ground in his trial, and used those faculties well, which had been the gift of his bountiful Creator. He made man after his image, after his own image, Gen. i. 26, 27 ; that as a coin bears the image of the prince, so did the soul of man the image of God ; not the image
of angels, though the speech be in the plural number, ' Let MS make man.' It is not to a creature, but to a creator ; let us that are his makers, make
MAEK X.' 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 809
him in the image of his makers. God created man, angels did not create him ; God created man in his own image, not therefore in the image of angels. The nature of God, and the nature of angels are not the same. Where in the whole Scripture is man said to be made after the image of angels ? God made man not in the image of angels, to be conformed to them as his prototype, but in the image of the blessed God, to be conformed to the divine nature. That as he was conformed to the image of his holi ness, he might also partake of the image of his blessedness, which without it could not be attained. For as the felicity of God could not be clear without an unspotted holiness, so neither can there be a glorious happiness without purity in the creature ; this God provided for in his creation of man, giving him such accomplishments in those two excellent pieces of soul and body, that nothing was wanting to him but his own will, to instate him in an in variable felicity. He was possessed with such a nature by the hand of divine goodness, such a loftiness of understanding, and purity of faculties, that he might have been for ever happy as well as the standing angels ; and he was placed in such a condition, that moved the envy of fallen spirits ; he had as much grace bestowed upon him, as was proportionable to that covenant God then made with him, the tenor of which was, that his life should continue so long as his obedience, and his happiness endure so long as his integrity ; and as God by creation had given him an integrity of nature, so he had given him a power to persist in it, if he would. Herein is the goodness of God displayed, that he made man after his own image.
(2.) As to the life of man in this world, God by an immense goodness copied out in him the whole creation, and made him an abridgment of the higher and lower world ; a little world in a greater one ; the link of the two worlds, of heaven and earth, as the spiritual and corporeal natures are united in him, the earth in the dust of his body, and the heavens in the crystal of his soul. He hath the upper springs of the life of angels in his reason, and the nether springs of the life of animals in his sense. God displayed those virtues in man, which he had discovered in the rest of the lower creation ; but besides the communication which he had with earth in his nature, God gave him a participation with heaven in his spirit. A mere bodily being he hath given to the heavens, earth, elements ; a vegeta tive life, or a life of growth, he hath vouchsafed to the plants of the ground. He hath stretched out his liberality more to animals and beasts by giving them sense. All these hath his goodness linked in man, being, life, sense, with a richer dole than any of those creatures have received in a rational intellectual life, whereby he approacheth to the nature of angels. This
some of the Jews understood. Gen. ii. 7, God ' breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,' Q^H breath of lives in the Hebrew ; not one sort of life, but that variety of lives which he had imparted
to other creatures. All the perfections scattered in other creatures do unitedly meet in man ; so that Philo might well call him every creature, the model of the whole creation ; his soul is heaven, and his body is earth.*
So that the immensity of his goodness to man, is as great as all that good ness you behold in sensitive and intelligible things.
(3.) All this was free goodness. God eternally possessed his own felicity in himself, and had no need of the existence of anything without himself for his satisfaction. Man before his being could have no good qualities, to invite God to make him so excellent a fabric ; for being nothing, he was as unable to allure and merit, as to bring himself into being ; nay, he created a mul titude of men, who he foresaw would behave themselves in as ungrateful a
* Eugubin. lib. v. cap. ix.
3H) CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
manner as if they had not been his creatures, hut had bestowed that rich variety upon themselves without the hand of a superior benefactor.
How great is this goodness, that hath made us models of the whole crea tion, tied together heaven and earth in our nature, when he might have ranked us among the lower creatures of the earth, made us mere bodies as the stones, or mere animals as the brutes, and denied us those capacious
souls, whereby we might both know him and enjoy him ! What could man have been more, unless he had been the original, which was impossible ? He could not be greater than to be an image of the Deity, an epitome of the whole creation. Well may we cry out with the psalmist, Ps. viii. 1, 4, '0 Lord ourj Lord, how excellent is thy name,' the name of thy goodness ' in all the earth !' how more particularly in man : ' What is man, that thou art mindful of him ?' What is a little clod of earth and dust, that thou shouldst ennoble him with so rich a nature, and engrave upon him such characters of thy immense being ?
(4.) The goodness of God appears in the conveniences he provided for, and gave to man. As God gave him a being morally perfect in regard of righteousness, so he gave him a being naturally perfect in regard of delight ful conveniences, which was the fruit of excellent goodness ; since there was no quality in man to invite God to provide him^ so rich a world, nor to bestow upon him so comely a being.
[1.] The world was made for man. Since angels have not need of any thing in this world, and are above the conveniences of earth and air, it will follow, that man being the noblest creature on the earth, was the more im mediate end of the visible creation. All inferior things are made to be subservient to those that have a more excellent prerogative of nature, and therefore all things for man, who exceeds all the rest in dignity. As man was made for the honour of God, so the world was made for the support and delight of man, in order to his performing the service due from him to God. The empire God settled man in as his lieutenant over the works of his hands, when he gave him possession of paradise, is a clear manifestation of it. God put all things under his feet, and gave him a deputed dominion over the rest of the creatures, under himself as the absolute sovereign : Ps. viii. 6-8, ' Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet : all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field ; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, yea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.' What less is wit nessed to by the calamity all creatures were subjected to by the corrup
tion of man's nature ? Then was the earth cursed, and a black cloud flung upon the beauty of the creation, and the strength and vigour of it languisheth to this day under the curse of God, Gen. iii. 17, 18, and ' groans under that vanity' the sin of man subjected it to, Horn. viii. 20, 22. The treasons of man against God brought misery upon that which was framed for the use of man ; as when the majesty of a prince is violated by the treason and rebellion of his subjects, all that which belongs to them, and was before the free gift of the prince to them, is forfeited ; their habitation, palaces, cattle, all that belongs to them, bear the marks of his sovereign fury. Had not the delicacies of the earth been made for the use of man, they had not fallen under the indignation of God upon the sin of man.
God crowned the earth with his goodness to gratify man, gave man a right to serve himself of the delightful creatures he had provided, Gen.
i. 28—30 ; yea, and after man had forfeited all by sin, and God had washed again the creature in a deluge, he renews the creation, and delivers it again into the hand of man, binding all creatures to pay^a respect to him, and
MARK X.- 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 811
recognise him as their lord, either spontaneously or by force, Gen. ix. 2, 3,
and commissions them all to fill the heart of man with ' food and gladness.' And he loves all creatures as they conduce to the good of, and are service
able to, his prime creature which he set up for his own glory ; and there fore when he loves a person he loves what belongs to him. He takes care of Jacob and his cattle; of penitent Nineveh and their cattle, Jonah iv. 11 ; as when he sends judgments upon men he destroys their goods.
[2.] God richly furnished the world for man. He did not only erect a stately palace for his habitation, but provided all kind of furniture as a mark of his goodness for the entertainment of his creature man. He arched over his habitation with a bespangled heaven, and floored it with a solid earth, and spread a curious wrought tapestry upon the ground where he was to tread, and seemed to sweep all the rubbish of the chaos to the two uninhabitable poles. When at the first creation of the matter the waters covered the earth, and rendered it uninhabitable for man, God drained them into the proper channels he had founded for them, and set a bound that they might not pass over, they they turn not again to cover the earth, Gen. i. 9. They fled and hasted away to their proper stations, Ps. civ. 7—9, as if they were ambitious to deny their own nature, and content themselves with an imprisonment, for the convenient habitation of him who was to be appointed lord of the world. He hath set up standing lights in the heaven to direct our motion, and to regulate the seasons ; the sun was created that man might see to ' go forth to his labour,' Ps. civ. 22, 23 ; both sun and moon, though set in the heaven, were formed to 'give light' on the earth, Gen. i. 15, 17. The air is his aviary, the sea and rivers his fish-ponds, the valleys his granary, the mountains his magazine. The first afford man creatures for nourishment, the other metals for perfection ; the animals were created for the support of the life of man, the herbs of the ground were provided for the maintenance of their lives, and gentle dews and moistening showers, and in some places slimy floods, appointed to render the earth fruitful, and capable to offer to man and beast what was fit for their nourish ment. He hath peopled every element with a variety of creatures both for necessity and delight ; all furnished with useful qualities for the service of man. There is not the most despicable thing in the whole creation, but it is endued with a nature to contribute something for our welfare, either as food to nourish us when we are healthful, or as medicine to cure us when we are distempered, or as a garment to clothe us when we are naked, and arm us against the cold of the seasons, or as a refreshment when we are weary, or as a delight when we are sad ; all serve for necessity or ornament, either to spread our table, beautify our dwellings, furnish our closets, or store our wardrobes : Ps. civ. 24, ' The whole earth is full of his riches.'
Nothing but by the rich goodness of God is exquisitely accommodated in the numerous breed of things, immediately or mediately, for the use of man ; all in the issue conspire together to render the world a delightful residence for man. And therefore all the living creatures were brought by God to attend upon man after his creation, to receive a mark of his dominion over them by the imposition of their names, Gen. ii. 19, 20. He did not only give variety of sense to man, but provided variety of delightful objects in the world for every sense : the beauties of light and colours for our eye, the harmony of sounds for our ear, the fragrancy of odours for our nostrils, and a delicious sweetness for our palates ; some have qualities to pleasure all, everything a quality to pleasure one or other. He doth not only present those things to our view, as rich men do in ostentation their goods ; he makes us the enjoyers as well as the spectators, and gives us the use as
812 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
well as the sight, and therefore he hath not only given us the sight, but the
knowledge of them. He hath set up a sun in the heavens to expose their outward beauty and conveniences to our sight, and the candle of the Lord is in us to expose their inward qualities and conveniences to our knowledge, that we might serve ourselves of and rejoice in all his furniture wherewith he hath garnished the world, and have wherewithal to employ the inquisitiveness of our reason, as well as gratify the pleasure of our sense. And particularly, God provided for man a delightful mansion-house, a place of more special beauty and curiosity, the garden of Eden, a delightful paradise, a model of the beauties and pleasures of another world, wherein he had placed whatsoever might contribute to the felicity of a rational and animal life, the life of a creature composed of mire and dust, of sense and reason, Gen. ii. 9. Besides the other delicacies consigned in that place to the use of man, there was a tree of life provided to maintain his being, and nothing denied in the whole compass of that territory but one tree, that of the know ledge of good and evil, which was no mark of an ill will in his Creator to
him, but a reserve of God's absolute sovereignty, and a trial of man's voluntary obedience. What blur was it to the goodness of God, to reserve
one tree for his own propriety, when he had given to man in all the rest such numerous marks of his rich bounty and goodness ? What Israel after
man's fall enjoyed sensibly, Nehemiah calls ' great goodness,' Neh. ix. 25. How inexpressible, then, was that goodness manifested to innocent man, when BO small a part of it indulged to the Israelites, after the curse upon the ground, is called, as truly it merits, such great goodness ! How can we pass through any part of this great city, and cast our eyes upon the well furnished shops, stored with all kinds of commodities, without reflections upon this goodness of God, starting up before our eyes in such varieties, and plainly telling us, that he hath accommodated all things for our use, suited things both to supply our need, content a reasonable curiosity, and delight us in our aims at, and passage to, our supreme end !
[8.] The goodness of God appears in the laws he hath given to man, the covenant he made with him. It had not been agreeable to the goodness of God to let a creature, governable by law, be without a law to regulate him ; his goodness then, which had broke forth in the creation, had suffered an eclipse and obscurity in his government. As infinite goodness was the motive to create, so infinite goodness was the motive of his government. And this appears,
First, In the fitting the law to the nature of man. It was rather below than above his strength ; he had an integrity in his nature to answer the
righteousness of the precept : Eccles. vii. 29, ' God created man upright ;' his nature was suited to the law, and the law to his nature ; it was not above his understanding to know it, nor his will to embrace it, nor his passions to be regulated by it. The law and his nature were like two exact straight lines, touching one another in every part when joined together. God exacted no more by his law than what was written by nature in his heart. He had a knowledge, by creation, to observe the law of his creation, and he fell not for want of a righteousness in his nature. He was enabled for more than was commanded him, but wilfully indisposed to less than he
was able to perform. The precepts were easy; not only becoming the authority of a sovereign to exact, but the goodness of a father to demand, and the ingenuity of a creature and a son to pay : 1 John v. 8, ' His com mands are not grievous ; ' the observance of them had filled the spirit of man with an extraordinary contentment. It had been no less a pleasure, and a delightful satisfaction, to have kept the law in a created state, than it
MARK X: 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 313
is to keep it in some measure in a renewed state. The renewed nature finds a suitableness in the law to kindle a delight, Ps. i. 2. It could not then have anywise shook the nature of an upright creature, nor have been a burden too heavy for his shoulders to bear. Though he had not a grace given him above nature, yet he had not a law given him that surmounted his nature. It did not exceed his created strength, and was suited to the dignity and nobility of a rational nature. It was a just law, Bom. vii. 12, and therefore not above the nature of the subject that was bound to obey it ; and had it been impossible to be observed, it had been unrighteous to be enacted. It had not been a matter of divine praise ; and that seven times a day, as it is Ps. cxix. 164, ' Seven times a day do I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments.' The law was so righteous that Adam had every whit as much reason to bless God in his innocence, for the righteous ness of it, as David had, with the relics of enmity against it. His goodness shines so much in his law as merits our praise of him, as he is a sovereign lawgiver, as well as a gracious benefactor in the imparting to us a being.
Secondly, In fitting it for the happiness of man, for the satisfaction of
his soul, which finds a ' reward in ' the very act of ' keeping it.' ' Great peace ' in the ' loving it,' Ps. cxix. 165, for the preservation of human society, wherein consists the eternal felicity of man. It had been inconsis tent with divine goodness to enjoin man anything that should be oppressive and uncomfortable. Bitterness cannot come from that which is altogether sweet ; goodness would not have obliged the creature to anything but what is not only free from damaging him, but wholly conducing to his welfare, and perfective of his nature. Infinite wisdom could not order anything but what was agreeable to infinite goodness. As his laws are the most rational, as being the contrivance of infinite wisdom, so they are the best, as being the contrivance of infinite goodness. His laws are not only the acts of his sovereign authority, but the effluxes of his loving-kindness, and the con ductors of man to an enjoyment of a greater bounty. He minds as well the promotion of his creatures' felicity, as the asserting his own authority ; as good princes makes laws for their subjects' benefit, as well as their own honour. What was said of a more difficult and burdensome law, long after
man's fall, may much more be said of the easy law of nature in the state of man's innocence, that it was for our good, Deut. x. 12, 13. He never pleaded with the Israelites for the observation of his commands upon the account of his authority, so much as upon the score of their benefit by them, Deut. iv. 40.
And when his precepts were broken, he seems sometimes to be more
grieved for men's impairing their own felicity by it, than for their violating his authority : Isa. xlviii. 18, ' 0 that thou hadst hearkened to my com mandments ! then had thy peace been as a river.' Goodness cannot, pre
scribe a thing prejudicial ; whatsoever it enjoins is beneficial to the spiritual and eternal happiness of the rational creature ; this was both the design of the law given and the end of the law. Christ in his answer to the young
man's question refers him to the moral law, which was the law of nature in Adam, as that whereby eternal life was to be gained, which evidenceth that, when the law was first given as the covenant of works, it was for the happi ness of man ; and the end of giving it was, that man might have eternal life by it ; there would else be no strength or truth in that answer of Christ to that ruler. And therefore Stephen calls the law given by Moses, which was the same with the law of nature in Adam, Acts vii. 38, ' the living oracles.' He enjoined men's services to them, not simply for his own glory, but his glory in men's welfare. As if there were any being better than him-
814 CHABNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
self, his goodness and righteousness would guide him to love that hotter than himself, because it is good and righteous to love that best which is most amiable ; so if there were any that could do us more good, and shower down more happiness upon us than himself, he would be content we should obey that as sovereign, and steer our course according to his laws : 1 Kings
xviii. 21, 'If God be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow him.' If the observance of the precepts of Baal be more beneficial to you, if you can advance your nature by his service, and gain a more mighty crown of happi ness than by mine, follow him with all my heart. I never intended to enjoin you anything to impair, but increase your happiness. The chief design of God, in his law, is the happiness of the subject ; and obedience is intended by him, as a means for the attaining of happiness, as well as preserving his own sovereignty. This is the reason why he wished that Israel had walked
in his ways : ' That their time might have endured for ever,' Ps. Ixxxi. 13-16. And by the same reason this was his intendment in his law given to man, and his covenant made with man at the creation, that he might be fed with the finest part of his bounty, and be satisfied with honey out of the eternal Rock of ages, to paraphrase his expression there. The goodness of God appears, further,
Thirdly, In engaging man to obedience by promises and threatenings. A threatening is only mentioned, Gen. ii. 17, but a promise is implied. If eternal death were fixed for transgression, eternal life was thereby designed for obedience. And that it was so, the answer of Christ to the ruler evidenceth that the first intendment of the precept was the eternal life of the subject, ordered to obey it.
First, God might have acted, in settling his law, only as a sovereign. Though he might have dealt with man upon the score of his absolute dominion over him as his creature, and signified his pleasure upon the right of his sovereignty, threatening only a penalty if man transgressed, without the promising a bountiful acknowledgment of his obedience by a reward as a benefactor, yet he would treat with man in gentle methods, and rule him in a tract of sweetness as well as sovereignty ; he would preserve the rights of his dominion in the authority of his commands, and honour the con descensions of his goodness in the allurements of a promise. He that might have solely demanded a compliance with his will, would kindly article with him, to oblige him to observe him, out of love to himself as well as duty to his Creator ; that he might have both the interest of avoiding the threatened evil to affright him, and the interest of attaining the promised good to allure him to obedience. How doth he value the title of benefactor above that of a Lord, when he so kindly solicits, as well as commands, and engageth to reward that obedience which he might have absolutely claimed as his due, by enforcing fears of the severest penalty ! His sovereignty
seems to stoop below itself for the elevation of his goodness ; and he is pleased to have his kindness more taken notice of than his authority. Nothing imported more condescension than his bringing forth his law in the nature of a covenant, whereby he seems to humble himself, and veil his superiority, to treat with man as his equal, that the very manner of his treatment might oblige him, in the richest promises he made to draw him, and the startling threatenings he pronounced to link him to his obedience. And therefore it is observable, that when, after the transgression of Adam,
God comes to deal with him, he doth not do it in that thundering rigour which might have been expected from an enraged sovereign, but in a gentle examination: Gen. iii. 11, ' Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldst not eat ? ' To the woman he said no more than
MARK X. 18. J GOD'S GOODNESS. 815
' What is this that thou hast done ? ' ver. 13. And in the Scripture \ve find, when he cites the Israelites before him for their sin, he expostulates with them, not so much upon the absolute right he had to challenge their obedience, as upon the equity and reasonableness of his law, which they had transgressed, that by the same argument of sweetness wherewith he would attract them to their duty, he might shame them after their offence. Isa. i. 2, Ezek. xviii. 25.
Secondly, By the threatenings he manifests his goodness, as well as by his promises. He promises, that he might be a rewarder; and threatens, that he might not be a punisher : the one is to elevate our hope, and the other to excite our fear — the two passions whereby the nature of man is managed in the world. He imprints upon man sentiments of a misery by sin in his thundering commination, that he might engage him the more to embrace and be guided by the motives of sweetness in his gracious promises. The design of them was to preserve man in his due bounds, that God might not have occasion to blow upon him the flames of his justice ; to suppress those irregular passions, which the nature of man (though created without any disorder) was capable of entertaining upon the appearance of suitable objects ; and to keep the waves from swelling upon any turning wind, that so man, being modest in the use of the goodness God had allowed him, might still be capable of fresh streams of divine bounty, without ever falling under his righteous wrath for any transgression. What a prospect of goodness is in
this proceeding, to disclose man's happiness to be as durable as his inno cence ; and set before a rational creature the extremest misery due to his crime, to affright him from neglecting his Creator, and making unworthy returns to his goodness ! What could be done more by goodness to suit that passion of fear which was implanted in the nature of man, than to assure him he should not degenerate from the righteousness of his nature, and violate the authority of his Creator, without falling from his own happi ness, and sinking into the most deplorable calamity ?
Thirdly, The reward he promised, manifests yet further his goodness to man. It was his goodness to intend a reward to man. No necessity could oblige God to reward man, had he continued obedient in his created state. For in all rewards which are truly merited, besides some kind of equality to be considered between the person doing service and the person reward ing, and also between the act performed and the reward bestowed, there must also be considered the condition of the person doing the service, that he is not obliged to do it as a duty, but is at his own choice whether to offer it or no. But man being wholly dependent on God in his being and preservation, having nothing of his own but what he had received from the hands of divine bounty, 1 Cor. iv. 7, his service was due by the strongest obligation to God. But there was no natural engagement on God to return a reward to him ; for man could return nothing of his own, but that only which he had received from his Creator. It must be pure good ness that gives a gracious reward for a due debt, to receive his own from man and return more than he had received. A divine reward doth far surmount the value of a rational service.
It was therefore a mighty goodness to stipulate with man, that upon his obedience he should enjoy an immortality in that nature. The article on
man's part was obedience, which was necessarily just, and founded in the nature of man.* He had been unjust, ungrateful, and violated all laws of righteousness, had he committed any act unworthy of one that had been so great
a subject of divine liberality ; but the article on God's part of giving a per-
* Amyrald, Dissert., p. 637, 638t
816 CHARNOCK'S WOEKS. [MARK X. 18.
petual blessedness to innocent man, was not founded upon rules of strict justice and righteousness, for that would have argued God to be a debtor to man ; but that God cannot be to the work of his hands, that had received the materials of his being and acting from him, as the vessel doth from the potter. But this was founded only on the goodness of the divine nature, whereby he cannot but be kind to an innocent and holy creature. The nature of God inclined him to it by the rules of goodness, but the service of man could not claim it by the rules of justice without a stipulation ; so that the cove nant whereby God obliged himself to continue the happiness of man upon the continuance of his obedience, in the original of it, springs from pure goodness, though the performance of it upon fulfilling the condition required in the creature, was founded upon the rules of righteousness and truth, after divine goodness had brought it forth.
God did create man for a reward and happiness. Now God's implanting in the nature of man a desire after happiness, and some higher happiness than he had in creation invested him in, doth evidence that God did not create man only for his own service, but for his attaining a greater happiness. All rational creatures are possessed with a principle of seeking after good, the highest good, and God did not plant in man this principle in vain. It had not been goodness to put this principle in man, if he had designed never
to bestow a happiness on man for his obedience. This had been repugnant to the goodness and wisdom of God ; and the Scripture doth very emphati cally express the felicity of man to be the design of God in first forming him and moulding a creature, as well as working him a new creature : 2 Cor.
v. 1, 5, ' He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing, is God.' He framed this earthly tabernacle for a residence in an eternal habitation, and a better habitation than an earthly paradise. What we expect in the resurrection, that very same thing God did in creation intend us [for ; but since the cor ruption of our natures, we must undergo a dissolution of our bodies, and may have just reason of a despondency, since sin hath seemed to change the
course of God's bounty, and brought us under a curse. He hath given us the earnest of his Spirit, as an assurance that he will perform that very self
same thing, the conferring that happiness upon renewed creatures, for which he first formed man in creation, when he compacted his earthly tabernacle
of the dust of the ground, and reared it up before him.
Fourthly, It was a mighty goodness that God should give man an eternal reward. That an eternity of reward was promised, is implied in the death that was threatened upon transgression. Whatsoever you conceive the threatened death to be, either for nature or duration, upon transgression ; of the same nature and duration you must suppose the life to be, which is implied upon his constancy in his integrity. As sin would render him an
eternal object of God's hatred, so his obedience would render him an eternally amiable object to his Creator, as the standing angels are preserved and con firmed in an entire felicity and glory. Though the threatening be only expressed by God, Gen. ii. 17, yet the other is implied, and might easily be concluded from it by Adam ; and one reason why God only expressed the threatening, and not the promise, was, because man might collect some hopes
and expectations of a perpetual happiness from that image of God which he beheld in himself, and for the large provision he had made for him in the world, and the commission given him to increase and multiply, and to rule as a lord over his other works ; whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being exposed to such an extraordinary calamity as an eternal death, without some signification of it from God. It is easily concludable, that eternal life was supposed to be promised, to be conferred upon
MARK X. 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 817
him if he stood, as well as eternal death to be inflicted on him if he rebelled.* Now this eternal life was not due to his nature, but it was a pure beam
and gift of divine goodness ; for there was no proportion between man's ser vice in his innocent estate, and a reward so great both for nature and dura tion. It was a higher reward than can be imagined either due to the nature
of man, or upon any natural right claimable by his obedience. All that could be expected by him was but a natural happiness, not a supernatural. As there was no necessity upon the account of natural righteousness, so there was no necessity upon the account of the goodness of God to elevate the nature of man to a supernatural happiness, merely because he created him ; for though it be necessary for God, when he would create, in regard of his wisdom, to create for some end, yet it was not necessary that end should be a supernatural end and happiness, since a natural blessedness had been suffi cient for man. And though God, in creating angels and men intellectual and rational creatures, did make them necessary for himself and his own glory, yet it was not necessary for him to order either angels or men to euch a felicity as consists in a clear vision, and so high a fruition of him self; for all other things are made by him for himself, and yet not for the vision of himself. God might have created man only for a natural happi ness, according to the perfection of his natural faculties, and dealt bounti fully with him, if he had never intended him a supernatural blessedness and
an eternal recompence ; but what a largeness of goodness is here, to design man in his creation for so rich a blessedness as an eternal life, with the frui tion of himself ! He hath not only given to man all things which are neces sary, but designed for man that which the poor creature could not imagine. He garnished the earth for him, and garnished him for an eternal felicity, had he not, by slighting the goodness of God, stripped himself of the present, and forfeited his future blessedness.
2. The second thing is the manifestation of this goodness in redemption. The whole gospel is nothing but one entire mirror of divine goodness.
The whole of redemption is wrapt up in that one expression of the angel's song, Luke ii. 14, ' Good will towards man.' The angels sang but one song before, which is upon record, but the matter of it seems to be the wisdom of God chiefly in creation : Job xxxviii. 7, compare ver. 5, 6, 8, 9. The angels are there meant by the morning stars. The visible stars of heaven were not distinctly formed when the foundations of the earth were laid ; and the title of the sons of God verifies it, since none but creatures of under standing are dignified in Scripture with that title. There they celebrate his wisdom in creation ; here his goodness in redemption, which is the entire matter of the song.
(1.) Goodness was the spring of redemption. All and every part of it owes only to this perfection the appearance of it in the world. This only excited wisdom to bring forth from so great an evil as the apostasy of man, so great a good as the recovery of him. When man fell from his created goodness, God would evidence that he could not fall from his infinite good ness, that the greatest evil could not surmount the ability of his wisdom to contrive, nor the riches of his bounty to present us a remedy for it. Divine goodness would not stand by a spectator, without being reliever of that misery man had plunged himself into ; but by astonishing methods it would recover him to happiness, who had wrested himself out: of his hands, to fling himself into the most deplorable calamity ; and it was the greater, since it surmounted those natural inclinations, and those strong provocations which he had to shower down the power of his wrath. What could be the
* Suarez, De Gratia, vol. i. p. 126, 127.
818 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
source of such a procedure but this excellency of the divine nature, since no violence could force him, nor was there any merit to persuade to such a restoration ? This, under the name of his love, is rendered the sole cause
of the redeeming death of the Son. It was to ' commend his love' with the highest gloss, and in so singular a manner, that had not its parallel in nature, nor in all his other works, and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other attribute, Rom. v. 8. It must be only a miraculous goodness that induced him to expose the life of his Son to those difficulties in the world, and death upon the cross, for the freedom of sordid rebels. His great end was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his nature, as might be attractive to his creature, remove its shakings and tremblings, and encourage its approaches to him. It is in this he would not only manifest his love, but assume the name of love. By this name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son : 1 John iv. 8, 9, ' God is love. In this is manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him.' He would take the name he never expressed him self in before. He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his promise ; so he would be known of old ; he is goodness in regard of the grandeur of his affection in the mission of his Son ; and therefore he would be known by the name of love now in the days of the gospel.
(2.) It was a pure goodness. He was under no obligation to pity our misery and repair our ruins ; he might have stood to the terms of the first covenant, and exacted our eternal death, since we had committed an infinite transgression. He was under no tie to put off the robes of a judge for the bowels of a father, and erect a mercy-seat above his tribunal of justice.* The reparation of man hath no necessary connection with his creation. It follows not that because goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty power, that it must lift us out of wilful misery by a mighty grace. Certainly that God, who had no need of creating us, had far less need of redeeming us ; for since he created one world, he could have as easily destroyed it and reared another. It had not been unbecoming the divine goodness, or wisdom to have let man perpetually wallow in that sink wherein he had plunged himself, since he was criminal by his own will, and therefore miserable by his own fault ; nothing could necessitate this reparation. If divine good ness could not be obliged by the angelical dignity to repair that nature, he is further from any obligation by the meanness of man to repair human nature. There was less necessity to restore man than to restore the fallen angels. What could man do to oblige God to a reparation of him ? Since he could not render him a recompence for his goodness manifested in his crea tion, he must be much more impotent to render him a debtor for the redemption of him from misery. Could it be a salary for anything we had done ? Alas ! we are so far from meriting it, that by our daily demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further effusions of it. We could not have complained of him if he had left us in the misery we had courted, since he was bound by no law to bestow upon us the recovery we wanted. When the apostle speaks of the gospel of redemption, he giveth it the title of the