Part 23
A convenient inquiry may be here, How God's goodness is contemned or abused ?
(1.) By a forgetfulness of his benefits. We enjoy the mercies, and forget the donor ; we take what he gives, and pay not the tribute he deserves ; the Israelites ' forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in
Egypt,' Ps. cvi. 21. We send God's mercies, where we would have God
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;end our sins, into the land of forgetfulness ; and write his benefits, where himself will write the names of the wicked, in the dust, which every wind
iefaceth. The remembrance soon wears out of our minds, and we are so
far from remembering what we had before, that we scarce think of that hand pat gives, the very instant wherein his benefits drop upon us. Adam basely forgot his benefactor, presently after he had been made capable to remember him, and reflect upon him ; the first remark we hear of him, is pf his forgetfulness, not a syllable of his thankfulness. We forget those
souls he hath lodged in us, to acknowledge his favours to our bodies ; we Hornet that image wherewith he beautified us ; and that Christ he exposed jas a criminal to death for our rescue, which is such an act of goodness as
cannot be expressed by the eloquence of the tongue, or conceived by the acuteness of the mind. Those things which are so common, that they can- |cot be invisible to our eyes, are unregarded by our minds ; our sense prompts lour understanding, and our understanding is deaf to the plain dictates of our ! sense. We forget his goodness in the sun, while it warms us, and his j showers while they enrich us ; in the corn while it nourisheth us, and the
wine while it refresheth us : Hosea ii. 8, ' She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil.' She that might have read my hand in every bit of bread, and every drop of drink, did not consider this. It is an injustice I to forget the benefits we receive from man ; it is a crime of a higher nature ) to forget those dispensed to us by the hand of God, who gives us those | things that all the world cannot furnish us with, without him. The inhabii tants of Troas will condemn us, who worshipped mice, in a grateful remem
brance of the victory they had made easy for them, by gnawing their enemies' bow-strings. They were mindful of the courtesy of animals, though unin tended by those creatures ; and we are regardless of the fore-meditated
bounty of God. It is in God's judgment a brutishness beyond that of a stupid ox, or a duller ass : Isa. i. 3, ' The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider.' The ox knows his owner that pastures him, and the ass his master that feeds him ; but man is not so good as to be like to them, but so bad as to be inferior to them ; he forgets him that sustains him, and spurns at him,
instead of valuing him for the benefits conferred by him. How horrible is it, that God should lose more by his bounty, than he would do by his parsimony ! If we had blessings more sparingly, we should remember him more gratefully. If he had sent us a bit of bread in a distress by a miracle, as he did to Elijah by the ravens, it would have stuck longer in our memories, but the sense of daily favours soonest wears out of our minds, which are as great miracles as any in their own nature, and the products of the same power ; but the wonder they should beget in us, is obscured by their frequency.
(2.) The goodness of God is contemned by an impatient murmuring.
Our repinings proceed from an inconsideration of God's free liberality, and an ungrateful temper of spirit. Most men are guilty of this. It is implied
in the commendation of Job under his pressures : chap. i. 22, ' In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly,' as if it were a character peculiar to him, whereby he verified the elogy God had given of him before, verse 8,
that there was ' none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man.' What is implied by the expression, but that scarce a man is to be found without unjust complaints of God, and charging him under their crosses with cruelty, when in the greatest they have much more reason to bless him for his bounty in the remainder ? Good men have not been innocent. Baruch complains of God for adding grief to his sorrow, not furnishing him
868 CHAKNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
with those great things he expected, whereas he had matter of thankfulness
in God's gift of his life as a prey, Jer. xlv. 3, 4. But his master chargeth God in a higher strain : Jer. xx. 7, ' 0 Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived ; I am in derision daily.' When he met with reproach instead of success in the execution of his function, he quarrels with God, as if he had a mind to cheat him into a mischief, when he had more reason to bless him for the honour of being employed in his service. Because we have not what we expect, we slight his goodness in what we enjoy. If he cross as in one thing, he might have made us successless in more ; if he take away some things, he might as well have taken away all. The unmerited remain der, though never so little, deserves our acknowledgments more than the deserved loss can justify our repining. And for that which is snatched from us, there is more cause to be thankful, that we have enjoyed it so long, than
to murmur that we possess it no longer. Adam's sin implies a repining ; he imagined God had been short in his goodness, in not giving him a know ledge he foolishly conceived himself capable of, and would venture a forfeiture of what already had been bountifully bestowed upon him. Man thought God had envied him, and ever since, man studies to be even with God, and envies him the free disposal of his own doles. All murmuring, either in our
own cause or others', charges God with a want of goodness, because there is a want of that, which he foolishly thinks would make himself or others happy. The language of this sin is, that man thinks himself better than God, and if it were in his power, would express a more plentiful goodness
than his Maker. As man is apt to think himself ' more pure than God,' Job iv. 17, so of a kinder nature also than an infinite goodness. The Israelites are a wonderful example of this contempt of divine goodness ; they had been spectators of the greatest miracles, and partakers of the choicest deliverance ; he had solicited their redemption from captivity, and when words would not do, he came to blows for them ; musters up his judgments against their enemies, and at last, as the Lord of hosts, and God
of battles, totally defeats their pursuers, and drowns them and their proud hopes of victory in the Red Sea. Little account was made of all this by
the redeemed ones. ' They lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation,'
and launch into greater unworthiness, instead of being thankful for the break ing their yoke J they are angry with him, that he had done so much for them ; they repented that ever they had complied with him for their own deliverance, and had a regret that they had been brought out of Egypt ; they were angry that they were free men, and that their chains had been knocked off ; they were more desirous to return to the oppression of their Egyptian tyrants, than have God for their governor and caterer, and be fed
with his manna. ' It was well with us in Egypt, why came we forth out of Egypt?' which is called a ' despising the Lord,' Num. xi. 18, 20. . They were so far from rejoicing in the expectation of the future benefits promised them, that they murmured that they had not enjoyed less ; they were so
sottish, as to be desirous to put themselves into the irons whence God had delivered them ; they would seek a remedy in that Egypt, which had been the prison of their nation, and under the successors of that Pharaoh, who had been the invader of their liberties ; they would snatch Moses from the place where the Lord, by an extraordinary providence, hath established him, Num. xvi. 3, 9, 10, 11 ; they would stone those that minded them of the goodness of God to them, and thereupon of their crime and their duty ; they rose against their benefactors, and murmured against God, that had strengthened the hands of their deliverers ; they despised the manna he had sent them, and despied the pleasant land he intended them, Ps. cvi. 24 :
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all which was a high contempt of God and his unparalleled goodnes and care of them. All murmuring is an accusation of divine goodness.
(8.) By unbelief and impenitency. What is the reason we come not to him when he calls us, but some secret imagination that he is of an ill nature, means not as he speaks, but intends to mock us, instead of welcoming us ? When we neglect his call, spurn at his bowels, slight the riches of his grace, as it is a disparagement to his wisdom to despise his counsel, so it is to his goodness, to slight his offers, as though you could make better provision for yourselves than he is able or willing to do. It disgraceth that which is
designed to the praise of the glory of his grace, and renders God cruel to his own Son, as being an unnecessary shedder of his blood. As the devil, by his temptation of Adam, envied God the glory of creating goodness, so unbelief envies God the glory of his redeeming grace. It is a bidding defi ance to him, and challenging him to muster up the legions of his judgments, rather than have sent his Son to suffer for us, or his Spirit to solicit us. Since the sending his Son was the greatest act of goodness that God could express, the refusal of him must be the highest reproach of that liberality God designed to commend to the world in so rare a gift ; the ingratitude in this refusal must be as high in the rank of sins, as the person slighted is in the rank of beings, or rank of gifts. Christ is a gift, Rom. v. 16, the royalest gift, an unparalleled gift, springing from unconceivable treasures of goodness, John iii. 16. What is our turning our backs upon this gift but a low opinion of it ? As though the richest jewel of heaven were not so valuable as a swinish pleasure on earth, and deserved to be treated at no other rate than if mere offals had been presented to us. The plain language of it is, that there were no gracious intentions for our welfare in this pre sent ; and that he is not as good in the mission of his Son as he would induce us to imagine. Impenitence is also an abuse of this goodness, either by presumption, as if God would entertain rebels that bid defiance against him, with the same respect that he doth his prostrate and weeping suppliants ; that he will have the same regard to the swine as to the children, and lodge them in the same habitation ; or it speaks a suspicion of God as a deceitful master, one of a pretended, not a real, goodness ; that makes promises to mock men, and invitations to delude them ; that he is an implacable tyrant, rather than a good Father ; a rigid, not a kind being, delightful* only to mark our faults, and overlook our services.
(4.) The goodness of God is contemned by a distrust of his providence. As all trust in him supposeth him good, so all distrust of him supposeth him evil ; either without goodness to support his power, or without power to display his goodness. Job seems to have a spice of this in his complaint,
chap. xxx. 20, ' I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear^ine ; I stand up, and thou regardest me not.' It is a fume of the serpent's venom, first breathed into man, to suspect him of cruelty, severity, regardlessness, even under the daily evidences of his good disposition ; and it is ordinary not to believe him when he speaks, nor credit him when hs acts ; to question the goodness of his precepts, and misinterpret the kindness of his providence, as if they were designed for the supports of a tyranny, and the deceit of the miserable. Thus the Israelites thought their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and the placing them in security in the wilderness, was intended only to pound them up for a slaughter, Num. xiv. 8. Thus they defiled the lustre of divine goodness, which they had so highly experimented, and placed not that cor fidence in him which was due to so frequent a benefactor, and thereby
'crucified' the rich kindness of God, as Genebrard translates the word
* That is, ' delighting,' or 'full of delight.'— ED. VOL. II. A a
870 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
4 limited,' Ps. Ixxviii. 41. It is also a jealousy of divine goodness, when we seek to deliver ourselves from our straits by unlawful ways, as though God had not kindness enough to deliver us without committing evil. What ! did
God make a world, and all creatures in it, to think of them no more, not to concern himself in their affairs ? If he be good, ho is diffusive, and delights to communicate himself; and what subjects should there be for it but those that seek him and implore his assistance ? It is an indignity to divine bounty to have such mean thoughts of it, that it should be of a nature con trary to that of his works, which, the better they are, the more diffusive they
are. Doth a man distrust that the sun will not shine any more, or the earth not bring forth its fruit ? Doth he distrust the goodness of an approved medi cine for the expelling his distemper ? If we distrust those things, should •we not render ourselves ridiculous and sottish? And if we distrust the Creator of those things, do we not make ourselves contemners of his good ness ? If his caring for us be a principal argument to move us to cast our
care upon him, — as it is 1 Peter v. 7, ' Casting your care upon him, for he cares for you,' — then, if we cast not our care upon him, it is a denial of his gracious care of us ; as if he regarded not what becomes of us.
(IL) We do contemn or abuse his goodness by omissions of duty. These sometimes spring from injurious conceits of God, which end in desperate resolutions. It was the crime of a good prophet in his passion, 2 Kings vi.
83, ' This evil is of the Lord, Why should I wait on the Lord any longer ?' God designs nothing but mischief to us, and we will seek him no longer. And the complaint of those in Malachi, chap. iii. 14, is of the same nature,
' Ye have said, it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances ?' We have all this while served a hard master, not a benefactor, and have not been answered with advantages proportionable to our services ; we have met with a hand too niggardly to dispense that reward which is due to the largeness of our offerings. When men will not lift up their eyes to heaven, and solicit nothing but the contrivance of their own brain, and the industry of their own heads, they disown divine goodness, and
approve themselves as their own gods, and the spring of their own pros perity. Those that run not to God in their necessity, to crave his support, deny either the arm of his power, or the disposition of his will, to sustain and deliver them ; they must have very mean sentiments, or none at all, of this perfection, or think him either too empty to fill them, or too churlish to relieve them ; that he is of a narrow and contracted temper, and that they may sooner expect to be made better and happier by anything else than by him. And, as we contemn his goodness by a total omission of those duties which respect our own advantage and supply, as prayer, so we contemn him as the chiefest good, by an omission of the due manner of any act of worship, which is designed purely for the acknowledgment of him. As every omission of the material part of a duty is a denial of his sovereignty as commanding it, so every omission of the manner of it, not performing it with a due esteem
and valuation of him, a surrender of all the powers of our souls to him, is a denial of him as the most amiable object. But certainly to omit those addresses to God, which his precept enjoins and his excellency deserves, speaks this language, that they can be well enough, and do well enough, without God, and stand in no need of his goodness to maintain them. The neglect or refusal in a malefactor to supplicate for his pardon, is a wrong to,
and contempt of, the prince's goodness ; either implying that he hath not a goodness in his nature worthy of an address, or that he scorns to be obliged to him for any exercise of it.
(6.) The goodness of God is contemned or abused in relying upon our
MAKK X. 18.] GOD'S GOODNESS. 371
services to procure God's good will to us. As, when we stand in need either of some particular mercy, or special assistance ; when pressures are heavy, and we have little hopes of ease in an ordinary way ; when the devotions in course have not prevailed for what we want, we engage ourselves by ex traordinary vows and promises to God, hereby to open that goodness which
seems to be locked up from us.* Sometimes, indeed, vows may proceed from a sole desire to engage ourselves to God, from a sense of the levity and inconstancy of our spirits ; binding ourselves to God by something more sacred and inviolable than a common resolution. But many times the vow ing the building of a temple, endowing an hospital, giving so much in alms, if God will free them from a fit of sickness, and spin out a thread of their lives a little longer, as hath been frequent among the Romanists, arises from an opinion of laziness, and a selfishness in the divine goodness ; that it must be squeezed out by some solemn promises of return to him before it will exercise itself to take their parts. Popular vows are often the effects of an ignorance of the free and bubbling nature of this perfection of the generousness and royalty of divine goodness, as if God were of a mean and mechanic temper, not to part with anything unless he were in some measure paid for it, and of so bad a nature as not to give passage to any kindness to his creature without a bribe. It implies also, that he is of an ignorant, as well as contracted, goodness ; that he hath so little understanding, and so much weakness of judgment, as to be taken with such trifles and ceremonial courtships and little promises ; and meditated only low designs, in imparting his bounty. It is just as if a malefactor should speak to a prince, Sir, if you will but bestow a pardon upon me, and prevent the death I have merited for this crime, I will give you this rattle. All vows made with such a tem per of spirit to God, are as injurious and abusive to his goodness as any man will judge such an offer to be to a majestic and gracious prince ; as if it were a trading, not a free and royal goodness.
(7.) The goodness of God is abused, when we give up our souls and affections to those benefits we have from God ; when we make those
things God's rivals, which were sent to woo us for him, and offer those affec tions to the presents themselves which they were sent to solicit for the master. This is done when either we place our trust in them, or glue our choicest affections to them. This charge God brings against Jerusalem, the trusting in her own beauty, glory, and strength, though it was a come liness put upon her by God, Ezek. xvi. 14, 15. When a little sunshine of prosperity breaks out upon us, we are apt to grasp it with so much eager ness and closeness, as if we had no other foundation to settle ourselves upon, no other being that might challenge from us our sole dependence. And the love of ourselves, and of creatures, above God, is very natural to
us, 2 Tim. iii. 2, 4, ' lovers of themselves,' and ' lovers of pleasure more
than of God.' Self-love is the root, and the love of pleasures the top branch, that mounts its head highest against heaven. It is for the love of the world that the dangers of the sea are passed over, that men descend into the bowels of the earth, pass nights without sleep, undertake suits without in termission, wade through many inconveniences, venture their souls, and contemn God : in those things men glory, and foolishly grow proud by them, and think themselves safe and happy in them.f Now, to love our selves above God, is to own ourselves better than God, and that we tran scend him in an amiable goodness. Or if we love ourselves equal with God, it at least manifests that we think God no better than ourselves, and think ourselves our own chief good, and deny anything above us to outstrip us in
* Amyrald, Moral, torn. iv. p. 291. f Cressol, Antholog. part ii. p. 29.
372 CHABNOCK'S WOEKS. [MARK X. 18.
goodness, whereby to deserve to be the centre of our affections and actions. And to love any other creature above him, is to conclude some defect in God, that he hath not so much goodness in his own nature as that creature hath to complete our felicity, that God is a slighter thing than that creature. It is to account God, what all things in the world are, an imaginary happi
ness, a goodness of clay ; and them what God is, a supreme goodness. It is to value the goodness of a drop above that of the spring, and the goodness of the spark above that of the sun ; as if the bounty of God were of a less alloy than the advantages we immediately receive from the hands of a silly worm. By how much the better we think a creature to be, and place our affections chiefly upon it, by so much the more deficient and indigent we
conclude God ; for God wants so much in our conception, as the other thing hath goodness above him in our thoughts. Thus is God lessened below the creature, as if he had a mixture of evil in him, and were capable
of an imperfect goodness. He that esteems the sun that shines upon him, the clothes that warm him, the food that nourisheth him, or any other benefit, above the donor, regards them as more comely and useful than God himself, and behaves himself as if he were more obliged to them than to
God, who bestowed those advantageous qualities upon them.
(8.) The divine goodness is contemned in sinning more freely upon the
account of that goodness, and employing God's benefits in a drudgery for our lusts. This is a treachery to his goodness, to make his benefits serve for an end quite contrary to that for which he sent them ; as if God had
been plentiful in his blessings, to hire them to be more fierce in their re bellions, and fed them to no other purpose but that they might more
strongly kick against him. This is the fruit which corrupt nature produceth. Thus the Egyptians, who had so fertile a country, proved unthankful to the Creator, by adoring the meanest creatures, and putting -the sceptre of the monarch of the world into the hands of the sottishest and cruellest beasts. And the Romans multiply their idols as God multiplied their victories.
This is also the complaint of God concerning Israel, Hos. ii. 8, ' She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal.' They ungratefully employed the blessings of God in the worship of an idol, against the will of the donor.
So in Hos. x. 1, ' According to the multitude of his fruit, he hath in creased the altars : according to the goodness of his land, they have made
goodly images.' They followed their own inventions with the strength of my outward blessings. As their wealth increased, they increased the orna ments of their images, so that what were before of wood and stone they advanced to gold and silver. And the like complaint you may see, Ezek. xvi. 17. Thus,
[1.1 The benefits of God are abused to pride, when men, standing upon a higher ground of outward prosperity, vaunt it loftily above their neigh bours, — the common fault of those that enjoy a worldly sunshine, — which the
apostle observes in his direction to Timothy, 1 Tim. v. 17, ' Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded.' It is an ill use of divine blessings, to be filled by them with pride and wind. Also,
[2.J When men abuse plenty to ease ; because they have abundance, spend their time in idleness ; and make no other use of divine benefits, than to trifle away their time, and be utterly useless to the world.
[8.] When they also abuse peace and other blessings to security ; as they which would not believe the threatenings of judgment and the storm coming from a far country, because the Lord was in Sion, and her king in
her, — Jer. viii. 19, ' Is not the Lord in Sion, is not her king in her ? '-
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thinking they might continue their progress in their sin, because they had the temple, the seat of the divine glory, Sion, and the promise of an ever lasting kingdom to David ; abusing the promise of God to presumption and security, and turning the grace of God into wantonness.
[4.J Again, when they abuse the bounty of God to sensuality and luxury, misemploying the provisions God gives them in resolving to live like beasts, when by a good improvement of them they might attain the life of angels. Thus is the light of the sun abused to conduct them, and the fruits of the
I earth abused to enable them, to their prodigious debauchery ; ' as we do,'
saith one, ' with the Thames, which brings us in provision, and we soil it with our rubbish.' * The more God sows his gifts, the more we sow our cockle and darnel. Thus we make our outward happiness the most unhappy part of our lives, and by the strength of divine blessings exceed all laws of reason and religion too.
How unworthy a carriage is this, to use the expressions of divine good ness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him ! When we stab his honour by those instruments he puts into our hands to glorify him ; as if a favourite should turn that sword into the bowels of his prince, where
with he knighted him, and a servant enriched by a lord should hire by that wealth murderers to take away his life. How brutish is it, the more God courts us with his blessings, the more to spurn at him with our feet ; like the mule, that lifts up its heel against the dam as soon as ever it hath sucked her ! We never beat God out of our hearts, but by his own gifts ; he receives no blows from men, but by those instruments he gave them to promote their happiness. While man is an enjoyer, he makes God a loser by his own blessings, inflames his rebellion by those benefits which should kindle his love, and runs from him by the strength of those favours which should endear the donor to him. ' Do you thus requite the Lord, 0 foolish people and unwise ?' is the expostulation, Deut. xxxii. 6. Divine goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it, in giving them titles below their crime, and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own interest
than enemies to his glory. ' Foolish and unwise ' in neglecting their own happiness, a charge below the crime, which deserved to be ' abominable, ungrateful people to a prodigy.' All this carriage towards God is as if a man should knock the chirurgeon on the head as soon as he hath set and bound up his dislocated members. So God compares the ungrateful be haviour of the Israelites against him: Hosea vii. 15, ' Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me : ' a metaphor taken from a chirurgeon that applies corroborating plasters to a broken limb.
(9.) We contemn the goodness of God in ascribing our benefits to other causes than divine goodness. Thus Israel ascribed her felicity, plenty, and success to her idols, as rewards which her lovers had given her, Hosea ii. 5, 12. And this charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazzar : Dan. v. 23, ' Thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, and brass, and iron ; and the God in whose hand is thy breath, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not
glorified.' The God who hath given success to the arms of thy ancestors, and coiiveved by their hands so large a dominion to thee, thou hast not honoured in the same rank with the sordidest of thy idols. It is the same case when we own him not as the author of any success in our affairs, but by an overweening conceit of our own sagacity, applaud and admire our selves, and overlook the hand that conducted us, and brought our endeavours to a good issue. We eclipse the glory of divine goodness by setting the
* Young, of Affliction, p. 34.
874 CHARNOCK'S WORKS. [MARK X. 18.
crown that is due to it upon the head of our own industry : a sacrilege
worse than Belshazzar's drinking of wine, with his lords and concubines, in the sasred vessels pilfered from the temple, as in that place of Daniel. Thia
was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian conqueror, for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart : Isa. x. 12-14, ' By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom ; for I am prudent : and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures,
and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.' Not a word of divine goodness and assistance in all this, but applauding his own courage and conduct. This is a robbing of God to set up ourselves, and making divine goodness a footstool to ascend into his throne. And as it is unjust, so it is ridiculous, to ascribe to ourselves or instruments the chief honour of any work; as ridiculous as if a soldier after a victory should erect an altar to the honour of his sword, or an artificer offer sacrifices to the tools whereby
he completed some excellent and useful invention : a practice that every rational man would disdain where he should see it. It is a discarding any thoughts of the goodness of God, when we imagine that we chiefly owe any thing in this world to our own industry or wit, to friends or means, as though divine goodness did not open its hand to interest itself in our affairs, support our ability, direct our counsels, and mingle itself with anything we do. God is the principal author of any advantage that accrues to us, of any wise resolution we fix upon, or any proper way we take to compass it ; no man can be wise in opposition to God, act wisely or well without him ; his goodness inspires men with generous and magnificent counsels, and furnisheth
them with fit and proportionable means ; when he withdraws his hand, men's heads grow foolish, and their hands feeble ; folly and weakness drops upon them, as darkness upon the world upon the removal of the sun. It is an abuse of divine goodness not to own it, but erect an idol in its place. Ezra was of another mind, when he ascribed to the good hand of God the provididing ministers for the temple, and not to his own care and diligence, Ezra viii. 18; and Nehemiah, the success he had with the king in the behalf
of his nation, and not solely to his favour with the prince, or the arts he used to please him, Neh. ii. 8.
2. The second information is this : if God be so good, it is a certain argument that man is fallen from his original state. It is the complaint of man sometimes, that other creatures have more of earthly happiness than men have, live freer from cares and trouble, and are not racked with that
solicitousness and anxiety as man is, have not such distempers to em bitter their lives. It is a good ground for man to look into himself, and consider whether he hath not, some ways or other, disobliged God more than other creatures can possibly do. We often find that the creatures men have need of in this state do not answer the expectation of man. ' Cursed be the ground for thy sake,' Gen. iii. 17. A fruitful land is made barren, thorns and thistles triumph upon the face of the earth instead of good fruit. Is it like that goodness which is as infinite as his power, and knows no more limits than his almightiness, should imprint so many scars upon the world, if he had not been heinously provoked by some miscarriage of his creature ? Infinite goodness could never move infinite justice to inflict punishment upon creatures, if they had not highly merited it. We cannot think that any creature was blemished with a principle of disturbance as it came first out of the hand of God. All things were certainly settled in a due order and dependence upon one another ; nothing could be ungrateful,
and umieefui to man by the original law of their creation ; if there had, it had not been goodness, but evil and baseness, that had created the world.
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When we see, therefore, the course of nature overturned, the order divine goodness had placed disturbed, and the creatures pronounced good and useful to man employed as instruments of vengeance against him, we must con clude some horrible blot upon human nature, and very odious to a God of infinite goodness, and that this blot was dashed upon man by himself, and his own fault ; for it is repugnant to the infinite goodness of God to put into the creature a sinning nature, to hurry him into sin, and then punish him for that which he had impressed upon him. The goodness of God inclines him to love goodness wherever he finds it, and not to punish any that have not deserved it by their own crimes. The curse we therefore see the creatures groan under, the disorders in nature, the frustrating the expectations of man in the fruits of the earth and plentiful harvests, the trouble he is continually exposed to in the world, which tethers down his spirit from more generous employments, shews that man is not what he was when divine goodness first erected him, but hath admitted into his nature something more uncomely in the eye of God, and so heinous that it puts his goodness sometimes to a stand, and makes him lay aside the bless ings his hand was filled with, to take up the arms of vengeance where with to fight against the world. Divine goodness would have secured his creatures from any such invasions, and never used those things against
man, which he designed in the first frame for man's service, were there not some detestable disorder risen in the nature of man, which makes God withhold his liberality, and change the dispensations of his numerous benefits into legions of judgments. The consideration of the divine good ness, which is a notion that man naturally concludes to be inseparable
from the Deity, would, to an unbiassed reason, verify the' history of those punishments settled upon man in the third chapter of Genesis, and make the whole seem more probable to reason at the first relation. This instruc tion naturally flows from the doctrine of divine goodness. If God be so good, it is a certain argument that man is fallen from his original state.
8. The third information is this, if God be infinitely good, there can be no just complaint against God if men be punished for abusing his goodness. Man had nothing, nay, it was impossible he could have anything, from in finite goodness to disoblige him, but to engage him. God never did, nay, never could, draw his sword against man till man had slighted him, and affronted him by the strength of his own bounty. It is by this God doth justify his severest proceedings against men, and very seldom charges them
with any else as the matter of their provocations : Hosea ii. 3, ' Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in
the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax.' And in Ezekiel xvi., after he had drawn out a bill of complaint against them, and inserted only an abuse of his benefits as a justification of what he intended to do, he concludes, verse 27, ' Behold, therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thy ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee.' When men suffer, they suffer justly ; they were not constrained by any violence, or forced by any necessity, nor provoked by any ill usage, to turn head against God, but broke the bands of the strongest obligations and most tender allurements. What man, what devil, can justly blame God for punishing them, after they had been so intolerably bold as to fly in the face of that goodness that had obliged them, by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior creatures, and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first habitation ? Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigour than devils, since after his un reasonable revolt, a more express goodness than that which created him
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hath solicited him to repentance, courted him by melting promises and expostulations, added undeniable arguments of bounty, and drawn out the
choicest treasures of heaven in the gift of his Son, to prevail over men's perversity. And yet man, after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an angel, will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a devil ; and more strongly link himself to the society of the damned spirits, wherein by his first rebellion he had incorporated himself. Who can blame
God for vindicating his own goodness from such desperate contempts, and the extreme ingratitude of man ? If God be good, it is our happiness to adhere to him ; if we depart from him, we depart from goodness ; and if
evil happen to us, we cannot blame God, but ourselves, for our departure.* Why are men happy ? Because they cleave to God. Why are men miser able ? Because they recede from God. It is then our own fault that we are miserable ; God cannot be charged with any injustice if we be miser able, since his goodness gave means to prevent it, and afterwards added means to recover us from it, but all despised by us. The doctrine of divine goodness justifies every stone laid in the foundation of hell, and every spark in that burning furnace, since it is for the abuse of infinite goodness that it was kindled.
4. The fourth information : here is a certain argument, both for God's fit ness to govern the world, and his actual government of it.
(1.) This renders him fit for the government of the world, and gives him a full title to it. This perfection doth the psalmist celebrate throughout the
107th Psalm, where he declares God's works of providence, ver. 8, 15, 21, 32. Power without goodness would deface, instead of preserving. Ruin is the fruit of rigour without kindness ; but God, because of his infinite and im mutable goodness, cannot do anything unworthy of himself, and uncomely in itself, or destructive to any moral goodness in the creature. It is impossible he should do anything that is base, or act anything but for the best, because he is essentially and naturally, and therefore necessarily, good. As a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, so a good God cannot produce evil acts ; no more than a pure beam of the sun can engender so much as a mite of darkness, or infinite heat produce any particle of cold. As God is so much light that he can be no darkness, so he is so much good that he can have no evil ; and because there is no evil in him, nothing simply evil can be pro duced by him. Since he is good by nature, all evil is against his nature, and God can do nothing against his nature. It would be a part of impo tence in him to will that which is evil ; and therefore the misery man feels, as well as the sin whereby he deserves that misery, are said to be from him
self: Hosea xiii. 9, '0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.' And though God sends judgments upon the world, we have shewn these to be intended for the support and vindication of his goodness. And Hezekiah judged no otherwise, when, after the threatening of the devastation of his house, the plundering his treasures, and captivity of his posterity, he replies, ' Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken,' Isa. xxxix. 8. God cannot act anything that is base and cruel, because his goodness is as infinite as his power, and his power acts nothing but what his wisdom directs, and his goodness moves him to. Wisdom is the head in government, omniscience the eye. power the arm, and goodness the heart and spirit in them, that animates all,
(2.) As goodness renders him fit to govern the world, so God doth actually govern the world. Can we understand his perfection aright, and yet imagine that he is of so morose a disposition as to neglect the care of his creatures ? that his excellency, which was displayed in framing the world, should with-
* Petav. Theolog. Dogmat. vol. i. p. 407.
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draw and wrap up itself in his own bosom, without looking out and darting itself out in the disposal of them ? Can that which moved him first to erect a world, suffer him to be unmindful of his own work ? Would he design first to display it in creation, and afterwards obscure the honour of it? That cannot be entitled an infinite, permanent goodness, which should be so indifferent as to let the creatures tumble together as they please, without any order, after he had moulded them in his hand. If goodness be diffusive and communicative of itself, can it consist with the nature of it to extend
itself to the giving the creatures being, and then withdraw and contract itself, not caring what becomes of them ? It is the nature of goodness, after it hath communicated itself, to enlarge its channels. That fountain that springs up in a little hollow part of the earth, doth in a short progress increase its streams, and widen the passages through which it runs. It would be a blemish to divine goodness if he did desert what he made, and leave things to wild confusions, which would be if a good hand did not manage them and a good mind preside over them. This is the lesson in tended to us by all his judgments, ' That the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men,' Dan. iv. 17. If he doth not actually govern the world, he must have devolved it somewhere, either to men or angels ; not to men, who naturally want a goodness and wisdom to govern themselves, much more to govern others exactly. And besides the misin terpretations of actions, they are liable to the want of patience to bear with the provocations of the world ; since some of the best at one time in the world, and in the greatest example of meekness and sweetness, would have kindled a fire in heaven to have consumed the Samaritans, for no other affront than a nonentertainment of their Master and themselves, Luke ix. 54. Nor hath he committed the disposal of things to angels, either good or bad ; though he useth them as instruments in his government, yet they are not the principal pilots to steer the world. Bad angels certainly are not ; they would make continual ravages, meditate ruin, never defeat their own counsels, which they manage by the wicked as their instruments in the world, nor fill their spirits with disquiet and restlessness when they are engaged in some ruinous design, as often is experienced. Nor hath he committed it to the good angels, who, for aught we know, are not more numerous than the evil ones are; but besides, we can scarcely think their finite nature capable of so much goodness as to bear the innumerable debaucheries, villanies, blasphemies vented in one year, one week, one day, one hour, throughout the world. Their zeal for their Creator might well be supposed to move them to testify their affection to him, in a constant and speedy righting of his injured honour upon the heads of the offenders. The evil angels have too much cruelty, and would have no care of justice, but take pleasure in the blood of the most innocent as well as the most criminal. And the good angels have too little tenderness to suffer so many crimes. Since the world, therefore, continues without those floods of judgments which it daily merits, since, notwithstanding all the provocations, the order of it is preserved, it is a testimony that an infinite goodness holds the helm in his hands, and spreads its warm wings over it.
5. The fifth information is this : Hence we may infer the ground of all religion, it is the perfection of goodness. As the goodness of God is the lustre of all his attributes, so it is the foundation and link of all true reli gious worship. The natural religion of the heathens was introduced by the consideration of divine goodness, in the being he had bestowed upon them, and the provisions that were made for them. Divine bounty was the motive to erect altars, and present sacrifices, though they mistook the object of
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their worship, and offered the dues of the Creator to the instruments whereby he conveyed his benefits to them. And you find that the religion instituted by him among the Jews, was enforced upon them by the consideration of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, the preservation of them in the wilderness, and the infeoffing them in a land flowing with milk and honey. Every act of bounty and success the heathens received, moved them to appoint new feasts, and repeat their adorations of those deities they thought the authors and promoters of their victories and warfare. The devil did not mistake the common sentiment of the world in divine service, when he
alleged to God, Job i. 9, that ' Job did not fear him for nought,' i. e. wor ship him for nothing. All acts of devotion take their rise from God's libe rality, either from what they have, or from what they hope. Praise speaks the possession, and prayer the expectation of some benefit from his hand. Though some of the heathens made fear to be the prime cause of the acknow
ledgment and worship of a deity, yet surely something else besides and beyond this established so great a thing as religion in the world ; an inge nuous religion could never have been born into the world without a notion of goodness, and would have gasped its last as soon as this notion should have expired in the minds of men. What encouragement can fear of power give, without sense of goodness ? Just as much as thunder hath, to invite a man to the place where it is like to fall and crush him. The nature of fear is to drive from, and the nature of goodness to allure to, the object. The divine thunders, prodigies, and other armies of his justice in the world, which are the marks of his power, could conclude in nothing but a slavish wor ship. Fear alone would have made men blaspheme the Deity ; instead of serving him, they would have fretted against him ; they might have offered him a trembling worship, but they could never have in their minds thought him worthy of an adoration ; they would rather have secretly complained of him, and cursed him in their heart, than inwardly have admired him. The
issue would have been the same which Job's wife advised him to, when God withdrew his protection from his goods and body, ' Curse God and die,' Job ii. 9. It is certainly the common sentiment of men, that he that acts cruelly and tyrannically is not worthy of an integrity to be retained towards him in the hearts of his subjects ; but Job fortifies himself against this temptation from his bosom friend, by the consideration of the good he had received
from God, which did more deserve a worship from him than the present evil had reason to discourage it. Alas ! what is only feared, is hated, not adored. Would any seek to an irreconcilable enemy ? Would any person affec tionately list himself in the service of a man void of all good disposition ? Would any distressed person put up a petition to that prince who never gave any experiment of the sweetness of his nature, but always satiated him self with the blood of the meanest criminals ? All affection to service is rooted up, when hopes of receiving good are extinguished. There could not be a spark of that in the world, which is properly called religion, without a notion of goodness. The existence of God is the first pillar, and the good ness of God in rewarding, the next, upon which coming to him (which includes all acts of devotion) is established : Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cornea unto God, must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him.' If either of those pillars be not thought to stand firm, all religion falls to the ground. It is this as the most agreeable motive, that
the apostle James uses to encourage men's approach to God, because ' he gives liberally, and upbraideth not,' James i. 6. A man of a kind heart and bountiful hand, shall have his gate thronged with suppliants, who sometimes
would be willing to lay down their lives. ' For a good man one would even
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, dare to die ;' when one of a niggardly or tyrannical temper shall be destitute
of all free and affectionate applications. What eyes would be lifted up to heaven, what hands stretched out, if there were not a knowledge of goodness there to enliven their hopes of speeding in their petitions ? Therefore Christ orders our prayers to be directed to God as a Father, which is a title of ten derness, as well as a Father in heaven, a mark of his greatness ; the one to support our confidence, as well as the other to preserve our distance. God could not be ingenuously adored and acknowledged, if he were not liberal as well as powerful. The goodness of God is the foundation of all ingenuous religion, devotion, and worship.
6. The sixth instruction : The goodness of God renders God amiable. His goodness renders him beautiful, and his beauty renders him lovely, both are linked together : Zech. ix. 17, ' How great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty.' This is the most powerful attractive, and masters the affections of the soul ; it is goodness only, supposed or real, that is thought worthy to demerit* our affections to anything. If there be not a reality of this, or at least an opinion and estimation of it in an object, it would want a force and vigour to allure our will. This perfection of God is the load stone to draw us, and the centre for our spirits to rest in.
(1.) This renders God amiable to himself. His goodness is his Godhead, Rom. i. 20. By his Godhead is meant his goodness : if he loves his God head for itself, he loves his goodness for itself. He would not be good if he did not love himself; and if there were anything more excellent, and had a greater goodness than himself, he would not be good if he did not love that greater goodness above himself ; for not only a hatred of goodness is evil, but an indifferent or cold affection to goodness hath a tincture of evil in it. If God were not good, and yet should love himself in the highest manner, he would be the greatest evil, and do the greatest evil in that act ; for he would set his love upon that which is not the proper object of such an affec tion, but the object of aversion. His own infinite excellency and goodness of his nature renders him lovely and delightful to himself; without this, he could not love himself in a commendable and worthy way, and becoming the purity of a deity. And he cannot but love himself for this : for as crea tures, by not loving him as the supreme good, deny him to be the chiefest good, so God would deny himself and his own goodness, if he did not love himself, and that for his goodness ; but the apostle tells us, 2 Tim. ii. 13,
that God ' cannot deny himself.' Self-love upon this account is the only pre rogative of God, because there is not anything better than himself, that can lay any just claim to his affections. He only ought to love himself, and it would be an injustice in him to himself if he did not. He only can love himself for this : an infinite goodness ought to be infinitely loved, but he only being infinite, can only love himself according to the due merit of his own goodness. He cannot be so amiable to any man, to any angel, to the highest seraphim, as he is to himself, because he is only capable, in regard of his infinite wisdom, to know the infiniteness of his own goodness. And no creature can love him as he ought to be loved, unless it had the same infinite capacity of understanding to know him, and of affection to embrace him. This first renders God amiable to himself.
(2.) It ought therefore to render him amiable to us. What renders him lovely to his own eye, ought to render him so to ours ; and since by the shortness of our understandings we cannot love him as he merits, yet we should be induced, by the measures of his bounty, to love him as we can. If this do not present him lovely to us, we own him rather a devil than a
* Qu. 'merit'?— ED.
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God. If his goodness moved him to frame creatures, his goodness moved him also to frame creatures for himself and his own glory. It is a mighty wrong to him not to look with a delightful eye upon the marks of it, and return an affection to God in some measure suitable to his liberality to us. We are descended as low as brutes, if we understand him not to be the perfect good ; and we are descended as low as devils, if our affections are not attracted by it.
[1.] If God were not infinitely good, he could not be the object of supreme love. If he were finitely good, there might be other things as good as God, and then God in justice could not challenge our choicest affections to him, above anything else. It would be a defect of goodness in him to demand it, because he would despoil that which were equally good with him of its due and right to our affections, which it might claim from us upon the account of its gqpdness. God would be unjust to challenge more than was due to him, for he would claim that chiefly to himself, which another had a lawful share in. Nothing can be supremely loved, that hath not a triumphant excellency above all other things. Where there is an equality of goodness, neither can justly challenge a supremacy, but only an equality of affection,
[2.] This attribute of goodness renders him more lovely than any other attribute. He never requires our adoration of him so much as the strongest or wisest, but as the best of beings. He uses this chiefly to constrain and
allure us. Why would he be feared or worshipped, but because ' there is forgiveness with him'? Ps. cxxx. 4. It is for his goodness' sake that he is sued to by his people in distress : Ps. xxv. 7, ' For thy goodness' sake, 0 Lord.' Men may be admired because of their knowledge, but they are affected because of their goodness. The will, in all the variety of objects it pursues, centres in this one thing of good as the term of its appetite. All things are beloved by men because they have been bettered by them, or because they expect to be the better for them. Severity can never conquer enmity and kindle love.
Were there nothing but wrath in the Deity, it would make him be feared, but render him odious, and that to an innocent nature. As the spouse speaks of Christ, Cant. v. 10, 11, so we may of God. Though she com mends him for his head, the excellency of his wisdom ; his eyes, the extent of his omniscience ; his hands, the greatness of his power ; and his legs, the
swiftness of his motions and ways to and for his people ; yet the ' sweetness of his mouth,' in his gracious words and promises, closes all, and is followed with nothing but an exclamation that ' he is altogether lovely,' verse 16. His mouth, in pronouncing pardon of sin, and justification of the person, presents him most lovely. His power to do good is admirable, but his will to do good is amiable. This puts a gloss upon all his other attributes. Though he had knowledge to understand the depth of our necessities, and power to prevent them or rescue us from them, yet his knowledge would be fruitless and his power useless, if he were of a rigid nature, and not touched with any sentiments of kindness.
(3.) This goodness, therefore, lays a strong obligation upon us. It is true he is lovely in regard of his absolute goodness, or the goodness of his nature, but we should hardly be persuaded to return him an affection without his relative goodness, his benefits to his creatures. We are obliged by both to love him.
[1.] By his absolute goodness, or the goodness of his nature. Suppose a creature had drawn its original from something else, wherein God had no
influx, and had never received the least mite of a benefit from him, but from some other hand, yet the infinite excellency and goodness of his nature would merit the love of that creature, and it would act sordidly and disin-
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genuously, if it did not discover a mighty respect for God. For, what ingenuity could there be in a rational creature, that were possessed with no esteem for any nature filled with unbounded goodness and excellency, though he had never been obliged to him for any favour ? That man is accounted
odious and justly despicable by man, that reproaches and disesteems, nay, that doth not value a person of a high virtue in himself, and an universal goodness and charity to others, though himself never stood in need of his charity, and never had any benefit conveyed from his hands, nor ever saw his face, or had any commerce with him ; a value of such a person is but a just due to the natural claim of virtue. And indeed, the first object of love
is God in the excellency of his own nature, as the first object of love in marriage is the person ; the portion is a thing consequent upon it. To love God only for his benefits, is to love ourselves first, and him secondarily ; to love God for his own goodness and excellency, is a true love of God, a love of him for himself. That flaming fire in his own breast, though we have not a spark of it, hath a right to kindle one in ours to him.
[2.] By his relative goodness, or that of his benefits. Though the ex cellency of his own nature, wherein there is a combination of goodness, must needs ravish an apprehensive mind, yet a reflection upon his imparted kind ness, both in the beings we have from him, and the support we have by him, must enhance this estimation. When the excellency of his nature and the expressions of his bounty are in conjunction, the excellency of his own nature renders him estimable in a way of justice, and the greatness of his benefits renders him valuable in a way of gratitude. The first ravisheth, and the other allures and melts ; he hath enough in his nature to attract, and sufficient in his bounty to engage our affections. The excellency of his nature is strong enough in itself to blow up our affections to him, were there not a malignity in our hearts, that represents him under the notion of an enemy ; therefore, in regard of our corrupt state, the consideration of divine largesses comes in for a share in the elevation of our affections. For indeed, it is a very hard thing for a man to love another, though never so well qualified, and of an eminent virtue, while he believes him to be his enemy, and one that will severely handle him, though he hath before received many good turns from him. The virtue, valour, and courtesy of a prince, will hardly make him affected by those against whom he is in arms, and that are daily pilfered by his soldiers, unless they have hopes of a reparation from him, and future security from injuries. Christ, in the repetition of the command to ' love God with all our mind, with all our heart, and with all
our soul,1 i. e. with such an ardency, above all things which glitter in our eye, or can be created by him, considers him as our God, Mat. xxii. 37. And the psalmist considers him as one that had kindly employed his power for him in the eruption of his love : Ps. xviii. 1, ' I will love thee, 0 Lord, my
strength !' And so in Ps. cxvi. 1, ' I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.' An esteem of the benefactor is in separable from gratitude for the received benefits ; and should not, then, the unparalleled kindness of God advance him in our thoughts, much more than slighter courtesies do a created benefactor in ours ! It is an obligation on
every man's nature, to answer bounty with gratitude, and goodness with love. Hence you never knew any man, nor can the records of eternity produce any man or devil, that ever hated any person, or anything as good in itself; it is a thing absolutely repugnant to the nature of any rational creature. The devils hate not God because he is good, but because he is not so good to them as they would have him, because he will not unlock their chains, turn them into liberty, and restore them to happiness, i. e. because he will not
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desert the rights of abused goodness. But how should we send up flames of love to that God, since we are under his direct beams, and enjoy such plentiful influences ! If the sun is comely in itself, yet it is more amiable to us by the light we see, and the warmth we feel.
First, The greatness of his benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him. The impress he made upon our souls when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing, the comeliness he hath put upon us by his own breath, the care he took of our recovery when we had lost ourselves, the expense he was at for our regaining our defaced beauty, the gift he made of his Son, the affectionate calls we have heard to overmaster our corrupt appetites, move us to repentance, and make us disaffect oar beloved misery ; the loud sound of his words in our ears, and the more inward knockings of his Spirit in our heart, the offering us the gift of himself, and the everlasting happiness he courts us to, besides those common favours we enjoy in the world, which are all the streams of his rich bounty, — the voice of all is loud enough to solicit our love, and the merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love : ' There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky,' Deut. xxxiii. 26. Secondly, The unmeritedness of them doth enhance this. It is but reason to love him who hath loved us first, 1 John iv. 19. Hath he placed his delight upon any, when they were nothing, and after they were sinful ; and shall he set his delight upon such vile persons, and shall not we set our love upon so excellent an object as himself ? How base are we, if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him, who hath been so free in his favour to
us, who have merited the quite contrary at his hands ! If ' his tender mercies are all over his works,' Ps. cxlv. 9, he ought, for it, to be esteemed by all his works that are capable of a rational estimation.
Thirdly, Goodness in creatures makes them estimable ; much more should the goodness of God render him lovely to us. If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that creature, if a drop be so delicious to us, shall not the immense sun of goodness, the ever-flowing fountain of all, be much more delightful ? The original excellency always outstrips what is derived from it. If so mean and contracted an object as a little creature deserves estima tion for a little mite communicated to it, so great and extended a goodness as is in the Creator much more merits it at our hands. He is good after the infinite methods of a deity. A weak resemblance is lovely, much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible original of that beauty. We love crea tures for what we think to be good in them, though it may be hurtful. And shall we not love God, who is a real and unblemished goodness, and from whose hand are poured out all those blessings, that are conveyed to us by second causes ? The object that delights us, the capacity we have to delight in it, are both from him ; our love therefore to him should transcend the
affection we bear to any instruments he moves for our welfare. ' Among the gods there is none like thee, 0 Lord ; neither are there any works like
unto thy works,' Ps. Ixxxvi. 8. Among the pleasantest creatures there is none like the Creator, nor any goodness like unto his goodness. Shall we love the food that nourisheth us, and the medicine that cures us, and the silver whereby we furnish ourselves with useful commodities ? Shall we love a horse or dog, for the benefits we have by them ? And shall not the spring of all those draw our souls after it, and make us aspire to the honour of loving and embracing him who hath stored every creature with that which may pleasure us ? But instead of endeavouring to parallel our affection with his kindness, we endeavour to make our disingenuity as extensive and tower ing as his divine goodness.
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Fourthly, This is the true end of the manifestation of his goodness, that he might appear amiable, and have a return of affection. Did God display his goodness only to be thought of, or to be loved ? It is the want of such a return that he hath usually aggravated from the benefits he hath bestowed upon men. Every thought of him should be attended with a motion suitlable to the excellency of his nature and works. Can we think those nobler i spirits, the angels, look upon themselves, or those frames of things in the