The most Reverend D r. IOHN TILLOTSON late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Remaining DISCOURSES ON THE Attributes of God viz. His Goodness His Mercy His Patience His Long-suffering His Power His Spirituality His Immensity His Eternity His Incomprehensibleness God the first Cause and last End By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Being The SEVENTH VOLUME Published from the Originals By Ralph Barker D. D. Chaplain to his Grace LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard 1700. THE CONTENTS SERMON I II III IV. The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works Page 1 25 51 81. SERMON V. The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy p. 145. SERMON VI VII The Patience of God 2 Pet. III. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance p. 143 179. SERMON VIII IX The Long-suffering of God ECCLES VIII 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil p. 193 239. SERMON X. The Power of God PSAL. LXII 11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God p. 265. SERMON XI The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 2 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth p. 299. SERMON XII The Immensity of the Divine Nature PSAL. CXXXIX 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me p. 331 SERMON XIII The Eternity of God PSALM XC 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God p. 355 SERMON XIV The Incomprehensibleness of God JOB XI 7 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection p. 377 SERMON XV. God the first Cause and last End ROM XI 36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen p. 403 SERMON I. Vol. VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works THE Subject which I have now proposed to treat of is certainly one of the Greatest and Noblest Arguments in the World the Goodness of God the Highest and most Glorious Perfection of the best and most Excellent of Beings than which nothing deserves more to be considered by us nor ought in Reason to affect us more The Goodness of God is the cause and the continuance of our Beings the Foundation of our Hopes and the Fountain of our Happiness our greatest comfort and our fairest Example the chief Object of our love and praise and admiration the joy and rejoycing of our hearts and therefore the Meditation and Discourse of it must needs be pleasant and delightful to us the great difficulty will be to confine our selves upon so copious an Argument and to set bounds to that which is of so vast an extent the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Which words are an Argument which the divine Plalmist useth to stir up himself and others to the praise of God At the 3. v. he tells us that the Lord is great and greatly to be praised and he gives the reason of this v. 8. and 9. from those Properties and Perfections of the Divine Nature which declare his Goodness the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works where you have the Goodness of God declared together with the amplitude and extent of it in respect of the Objects of it the Lord is good to all In the handling of this Argument I shall do these four things First Consider what is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God Secondly Shew that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the Effects and the Extent of it Fourthly Answer some Objections which may seem to contradict and bring in question the Goodness of God First What is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God There is a dry Metaphysical Notion of Goodness which only signifies the Being and essential properties of a thing but this is a good word ill bestowed for in this sense every thing that hath Being even the Devil himself is good And there is a Moral Notion of Goodness and that is twofold 1. More general in opposition to all Moral evil and imperfection which we call sin and vice and so the Justice and Truth and Holiness of God are in this sense his Goodness But there is 2. Another Notion of Moral Goodness which is more particular and restrained and then it denotes a particular Virtue in opposition to a particular Vice and this is the proper and usual acceptation of the word Goodness and the best description I can give of it is this that it is a certain propension and disposition of mind whereby a person is enclined to desire and procure the happiness of others and it is best understood by its contrary which is an envious disposition a contracted and narrow Spirit which would confine happiness to it self and grudgeth that others should partake of it or share in it or a malicious and mischievous temper which delights in the harms of others and to procure trouble and mischief to them To communicate and lay out our selves for the good of others is Goodness and and so the Apostle explains doing good by communicating to others who are in misery or want Heb. 13.16 but to do good and to communicate forget not The Jews made a distinction between a righteous and a good man to which the Apostle alludes Rom. 5.7 scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man one would even dare to die The righteous man was he that did no wrong to others and the good man he who was not only not injurious to others but kind and beneficial to them So that Goodness is a readiness and disposition to communicate the good and happiness which we enjoy and to be willing others should partake of it This is the Notion of Goodness among men and 't is the same in God only with this difference that God is originally and transcendently good but the Creatures are the best of them but imperfectly good
distance by our reverence of the Divine Majesty we should best awe our hearts in a sense of the distance which is between his infinite Nature and Perfection and our finite apprehensions Worldly greatness will cause wonder the thoughts of Earthly Majesty will compose us to Reverence how much more should those excellencies which are beyond what we can imagine Isa 6. you have there God represented sitting upon his throne and the Seraphims about him which are described to us as having each six wings and with twain they cover their faces Creatures of the brightest understanding and the most exalted purity and Holiness cover their faces in the presence of God's glory they choose rather to venerate God than look upon him II. This calls for humility and modesty The consideration of God's unsearchable Perfections should make the haughtiness of man to stoop and bring down his proud looks and God alone should be exalted The thought of God's Excellency should abase us and make us vile in our own eyes it should make all those petty Excellencies that we pride our selves in to vanish and disappear Those treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are in God should hide pride from man It should hide those little parts and gifts which we are so apt to glory in as the Sun hides the Stars When we consider God we should be so far from admiring our selves that we should with an humble thankfulness wonder that God should regard such inconsiderable nothings as we are Psal 8.1 3 4. O Lord our God how excellent is thy name in all the earth who hast set thy glory above the heavens When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou visitest him He that considers the Glory of God and the greatness of his Works will think so meanly of himself that he will be astonisht that God should mind him or visit him This is a noble strain of humility in David by which he acknowledgeth that the greatest King of the Earth how considerable soever he may be in respect of men is yet but a pitiful thing to God When we speak to God we should do it with great humility Eccles 5.2 3. Let thy words be few for God is in heaven and thou upon earth We should say to God Job 37.19 Teach us what we shall say unto thee for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness And when we think or speak of him we should do it with great modesty we should not rashly pronounce or determine any thing concerning God Simonides being ask'd what God was desired one days time to consider then he desired two and then four The more we think of God the less peremptory shall we be in defining him He that considers that God is Incomprehensible will not pretend to know all the ways of infinite knowledge and the utmost of infinite Power and all the Reasons of God's Ways and Providences He that rightly values his own short understanding and the unlimited Perfections of God will not be apt to say this God cannot do this he cannot know such ways are not agreeable to his wisdom He that knows God and himself will be modest in these cases he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abstain from all peremptory pronouncing in these matters he considers that one man many times differs so much from another in knowledge and skill of working that he can do those things which another believes impossible but we have pitiful thoughts of God if we think the differerce between one man and another is any thing to the vast distance that is between the Divine Understanding and our ignorance the Divine Power and our weakness the Wisdom of God and the folly of men III. The Incomprehensibleness of God's Perfections calls for the highest degree of our affection How should we fear this great and glorious God! Psal 90.11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath Fear is the most infinite of all our passions and fills us with the most endless jealousie and suspicions God's wrath is greater than our fear according to thy fear so is thy wrath How should we love him when we are astonisht with admiration of God's goodness and say how great is thy goodness and how great is thy beauty Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us How great should our love be to him What manner of love should we return to him This calls for the highest degree of our Faith With what confidence should we rely upon him who is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think To conclude This requires the highest degree of our service How should our hearts be enlarged to run the ways of his commandments who hath laid up for us such things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man SERMON XV. Vol. VII God the first Cause and last End ROM XI 36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen HAving consider'd the more Eminent and Absolute Perfections of the Divine Nature as also that which results from the infinite Excellency and Perfection of God compar'd with the Imperfection of our Understandings I come in the last place to treat of such as are merely and purely Relative as that He is the first Cause and the last End of all things to which purpose I have chosen these words of the Apostle for the Subject of my present Discourse For of him and through him c The dependence of these Words upon the former is briefly this The Apostle had been speaking before in this Chapter several things that might tend to raise us to an Admiration of the Wisdom and Goodness and Mercy of God in the dispensation of his Grace for the Salvation of men both Jews and Gentiles and therefore would have us ascribe this work wholly to God the contrivance of it to his Wisdom and not to our own counsel v. 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord and who hath been his counsellour and the bestowing this grace to his free Goodness and Mercy and not to any desert of ours v. 35. Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again Yea and not only in the dispensation of Grace but of all good things not only in this work of Redemption but also of Creation God is the Fountain and Original and first Cause from whence every thing proceeds and the last End to which every thing is to be referr'd For of him c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from him the efficient Cause producing all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or through him as the efficient conserving Cause of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to him as the final Cause of all
goodness and mercy of God as the sum of his Perfections what one Evangelist hath be ye merciful as your Father which is in Heaven is merciful is rendred in another be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Goodness is so essential to a perfect Being that if we once strip God of this property we rob him of the Glory of all his other Perfections and therefore when Moses desired to see God's Glory he said he would make all his goodness to pass before him Exod. 33.19 This is the most amiable Perfection and as it were the Beauty of the Divine Nature Zach. 9.17 how great is thy goodness how great is thy beauty sine bonitate nulla majestas without goodness there can be no majesty Other excellencies may cause fear and amazement in us but nothing but Goodness can command sincere love and veneration 2. there are some footsteps of this Perfection in the Creatures and therefore it must be much more eminently in God There is in every Creature some representation of some divine Perfection or other but God doth not own any Creature to be after his image that is destitute of Goodness The Creatures that want Reason and Understanding are incapable of this Moral Goodness we are speaking of Man is the first in the rank of Creatures that is endowed with it and he is said to be made after the image of God and to have dominion given him over the Creatures below him to signifie to us that if man had not been made after God's image in respect of Goodness he had been unfit to rule over other Creatures because without Goodness dominion would be Tyranny and Oppression And the more any Creature partakers of this Perfection of Goodness the more it resembles God as the Blessed Angels who behold the face of God continually and are thereby transformed into his image from glory to glory their whole business and imployment is to do good and the Devil tho' he resemble God in other Perfections of Knowledge and Power yet because he is evil and envious and mischievous and so contrary to God in this Perfection he is the most opposite and and hateful to him of all Creatures whatsoever And if this Perfection be in some degree in the Creature it is much more in God if it be derived from him he is much more eminently possest of it himself All that Goodness which is in the best natured of the Sons of Men or in the most glorious Angels of Heaven is but an imperfect and weak representation of the Divine Goodness The Third thing I proposed to consider was the Effects of the Divine Goodness together with the large extent of it in respect of the Objects of it the Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works thou art good and dost good says David Psal 119.68 The great evidence and demonstration of God's Goodness is from the Effects of it To the same purpose St. Paul speaks Acts 14.17 He hath not left himself without Witness in that he doth good and sends us Rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons I shall consider the Effects of the Divine Goodness under these Two Heads I. The universal extent of God's Goodness to all his Creatures II. I shall consider more particularly the Goodness of God to Men which we are more especially concern'd to take notice of I. The universal extent of his Goodness to the whole Creation the Lord is Good to all The whole Creation furnisheth us with clear evidences and demonstrations of the Divine Goodness which way soever we cast our Eyes we are encountered with undeniable Instances of the Goodness of God and every thing that we behold is a sensible demonstration of it the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work says the Psalmist Psal 19.1 And again Psal 33.5 The Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord. The whole Frame of this World and every Creature in it and all the several degrees of Being and Perfection which are in the Creatures and the Providence of God towards them all in the preservation of them and providing for the happiness of all of them in such degrees as they are capable of it are a plentiful demonstration of the Divine Goodness which I shall endeavour to illustrate in these Four Particulars 1. The universal Goodness of God appears in giving Being to so many Creatures 2. In making them all so very good considering the variety and order and end of them 3. In his continual preservation of them 4. In providing so abundantly for the welfare and happiness of all of them so far as they are capable and sensible of it 1. The extent of God's Goodness appears in giving Being to so many Creatures And this is a pure effect of Goodness to impart and communicate Being to any thing Had not God been good but of an envious and narrow and contracted nature he would have confined all Being to himself and been unwilling that any thing besides himself should have been but his Goodness prompted him to spread and diffuse himself and set his Power and Wisdom on work to give Being to all that variety of Creatures which we see and know to be in the World and probably to infinite more than we have the knowledge of Now it is not imaginable that God could have any other motive to do this but purely the Goodness of his Nature All the motives imaginable besides this must either be indigency and want or constraint and necessity but neither of these can have any place in God and therefore it was meer Goodness that moved him to give Being to other things and therefore all Creatures have reason with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelations to cast their crowns before the throne of God saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure that is of thy meer goodness they are and were created 1. Indigency and Want can have no place in God because he that hath all possible Perfection hath all plenty in himself from whence results All-sufficiency and compleat Happiness So that the Divine Nature need not look out of it self for Happiness being incapable of any addition to the Happiness and Perfection it is already possest of ipsa suis pollens opibus nihil indiga nostri We make things for our use Houses to shelter us and Cloaths to keep us warm and we propagate our Kind to perpetuate our selves in our posterity But all this supposeth imperfection and want and mortality to none of which the Divine Nature is liable and obnoxious Nay it was not want of glory which made God to make the World 'T is true indeed the glory of God's Goodness doth herein appear and Creatures endowed with understanding have reason to take notice of it with thankfulness praise and admiration but there is no happiness redounds to God
from it nor does he feed himself with any imaginary content and satisfaction such as vain-glorious persons have from the fluttering applause of their Creatures and Beneficiaries God is really above all blessing and praise It is great condescention and goodness in him to accept of our acknowledgments of his benefits of our imperfect praises and ignorant admiration of him and were he not as wonderfully good as he is great and glorious he would not suffer us to sully his great and glorious Name by taking it into our Mouths and were it not for our advantage and happiness to own and acknowledge his benefits for any real happiness and glory that comes to him by it he could well enough be without it and dispense with us for ever entertaining one thought of him and were it not for his goodness might despise the praises of his Creatures with infinitely more reason than wise Men do the applause of Fools There is indeed one Text of Scripture which seems to intimate that God made all Creatures for himself as if he had some need of them Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Now if by God's making all things for himself be meant that he aimed at and intended the manifestation of his Wisdom and Power and Goodness in the Creation of the World 't is most true that in this sense he made all things for himself but if we understand it so as if the Goodness of his Nature did not move him thereto but he had some design to serve Ends and Necessities of his own upon his Creatures this is far from him But it is very probable that neither of these are the meaning of this Text which may be rendered with much better sense and nearer to the Hebrew thus God hath ordained every thing to that which is fit for it and he wicked hath he ordained for the day of evil that is the Wisdom of God hath fitted one thing to another punishment to sin the evil day to the evil doers 2. Nor can Necessity and Constraint have any place in God When there was no Creature yet made nothing in Being but God himself there could be nothing to compel him to make any thing and to extort from him the effects of his bounty Neither are the Creatures necessary effects and emanations from the Being of God flowing from the Divine Essence as water doth from a Spring and as light streams from the Sun If so this indeed would have been an Argument of the fullness of the Divine Nature but not of the bounty and goodness of it and it would have been matter of Joy to us thaâ— we are but not a true ground oâ— thankfulness from us to God aâ— we rejoyce and are glad that thâ— Sunshines but we do not give it any thanks for shining because it shineâ— without any intention or design tâ— do us good it doth not know thaâ— we are the better for its light nor diâ— intend we should be and therefore we have no reason to acknowledge its goodness to us But God who is a Spirit endowed with Knowledge and Understanding does not act as natural and material Causes do which act necessarily and ignorantly whereas he acts knowingly and voluntarily with particular intention and design knowing that he does good and intending to do so freely and out of choice and when he hath no other constraint upon him but this that his goodness enclines his will to communicate himself and to do good So that the Divine Nature is under no Necessity but such as is consistent with the most perfect Liberty and freest Choice Not but that Goodness is essential to God and a necessary Perfection of his Nature and he cannot possibly be otherwise than good but when he communicates his goodness he knows what he does and wills and chuseth to do so And this kind of Necessity is so far from being any impeachment of the Divine Goodness that it is the great Perfection and praise of it The Stoick Philosophers mistaking this do blasphemously advance their wise and virtuous man above God himself for they reason thus A wiseman is good out of choice when he may be otherwise but God out of necessity of nature and when he cannot possibly be otherwise than good But if they had considered things aright they might have known that this is an imperfection in their wise man that he can be otherwise than good for a power to be evil is impotency and weakness The highest Character that ever was given of a man is that which Velleius Paterculus gives of Cato that he was vir bonus quia aliter esse non potuit a good man because he could not be otherwise this applyed to a mortal Man is a very extravagant and undue commendation but yet it signifies thus much that it is the highest Perfection not to be able to be otherwise than good and this is the Perfection of the Divine Nature that goodness is essential to it but the expressions and communications of his goodness are spontaneous and free designed and directed by infinite Knowledge and Wisdom This is the first the second particular is that God hath made all Creatures very good considering the variety and order and end of them But this I shall reserve to another opportunity SERMON II. Vol VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works IN the handling of this Argument I proposed to do these four things First To consider what is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God Secondly To shew that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly To consider the Effects of the Divine Goodness together with the large extent of it in respect of its objects And Fourthly To answer some Objections which may seem to contradict and bring in question the Goodness of God I have considered the two first and in speaking to the third I proposed the considering these two things I. The universal extent of God's Goodness to all his Creatures II. More especially the Goodness of God to man which we are more especially concerned to take notice of and be affected with The First of these appears in these four particulars 1. In his giving Being to so many Creatures 2. In making them all so very good considering the number and variety the rank and order the end and design of all of them 3. In his continual preservation of them 4. In his providing so abundantly for the welfare and happiness of all of them so far as they are capable and sensible of it The First of these I spoke largely to I proceed to shew in the 2. Place that the universal Goodness of God appears in making all these Creatures so very good considering the number and variety the rank and order the end and design of all of them His Goodness excited and set a work his Power to make
sometimes rewarded in this World and domineering and outragious Wickedness is very often remarkably checkt and chastised All which Instances of God's Providence as they are greatly for the advantage and comfort of Mankind so are they an effectual declaration of that Goodness which governs all things and of God's kind care of the affairs and concernments of Men so that if we look no farther than this World we may say with David Verily there is a reward for the Righteous verily there is a God that judgeth the earth I know this Argument hath been perverted to a quite contrary purpose that if goodness govern'd the World and administred the Affairs of it good and evil would not be so carelesly and promiscously dispensed good Men would not be so great sufferers nor wicked Men so prosperous as many times they are But this also if rightly considered is an Effect of God's goodness and infinite Patience to Mankind That he causeth his Sun to rise and his Rain to fall upon the just and unjust That upon the Provocations of Men he does not give over his care of them and throw all things into confusion and ruin this plainly shews that he designs this Life for the tryal of Men's Virtue and Obedience in order to the greater reward of it and therefore he suffers Men to walk in their own ways without any great check and controle and reserves the main bulk of Rewards and Punishments for another World So that all this is so far from being any Objection against the goodness of God that on the contrary it is an Argument of God's immense Goodness and infinite Patience that the World subsists and continues and that he permits Men to take their course for the fuller tryal of them and the clearer and most effectual declaration of his Justice in the Rewards and Punishments of another life Fourthly and Lastly The Goodness of God to Mankind most gloriously appears in the provision he hath made for our Eternal Happiness What the happiness of Man should have been had he continued in Innocency is not particularly revealed to us but this is certain that by willful transgression we have forfeited all that happiness which our Natures are capable of In this lapsed and ruinous condition of Mankind the Goodness and Mercy of God was pleased to employ his Wisdom for our Recovery and to restore us not only to a new but a greater capacity of Glory and Happiness And in order to this the Son of God assumes our Nature for the recovery and redemption of Man and the pardon of Sin is purchased for us by his Blood Eternal Life and the Way to it are clearly discover'd to us God is pleased to enter into a New and better Covenant with us and to afford us inward grace and assistance to enable us to perform the Conditions of it and graciously to accept of our Faith and Repentance of our sincere Resolutions and Endeavours of Holiness and Obedience for Perfect and Compleat Righteousness for his sake who fullfilled all righteousness This is the great and amazing goodness of God to Mankind that when we were in open Rebellion against him he should entertain thoughts of Peace and Reconciliation and when he past by the fall'n Angels he should set his Affection and Love upon the sinful and miserable Sons of Men. And herein is the love of God to men perfected that as he hath made all Creatures both above us and below us subservient and instrumental to our subsistence and preservation so for the ransom of our Souls from eternal Ruin and Misery he hath not spared his own Son but hath given him up to death for us him whom he hath commanded all the Angels of God to worship and to whom he hath made subject all Creatures in Heaven and Earth Him who made the World and who upholds all things by the word of his power who is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person And after such a stupendious Instance as this what may we not reasonably hope for and promise our selves from the Divine Goodness So the Apostle hath taught us to reason Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things SERMON III. Vol. VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works IN handling this Argument I proceeded in this Method First To consider what is the proper Notion of Goodness Secondly To shew that this Perfection of Goodness belongs to God Thirdly I considered the Effects of the Divine Goodness under these Heads I. The universal Extent of it in the number variety order end and design of the things created by him and his preservation and providing for the welfare and happiness of them II. I considered more particularly the Goodness of God to Mankind of which I gave these four Instances 1. That he hath given us such noble Beings and placed us in so high a rank and order of his Creatures 2. In that he hath made and ordained so many things chiefly for us 3. In that he exerciseth so peculiar a Providence over us above the rest that tho he is said to be good to all he is only said to love the Sons of Men. 4. In that he hath provided for us eternal Life and Happiness There only now remains the Fourth and last particular to be spoken to which was to answer some Objections which may seem to contradict and bring in question the Goodness of God and they are many and have some of them especially great difficulty in them and therefore it will require great consideration and care to give a clear and satisfactory answer to them which undoubtedly they are capable of the Goodness of God being one of the most certain and unquestionable Truths in the World I shall mention those which are most considerable and obvious and do almost of themselves spring up in every Man's Mind and they are these Four the first of them more general the other three more particular First If God be so exceeding good whence comes it to pass that there is so much Evil in the World of several kinds Evil of Imperfection Evil of Affliction or Suffering and which is the greatest of all others and indeed the cause of them Evil of Sin Secondly The Doctrine of absolute Reprobation by which is meant the decreeing of the greatest part of Mankind to eternal Misery and Torment without any consideration or respect to their Sin or Fault this seems notoriously to contradict not only the Notion of infinite Goodness but any competent measure and degree of Goodness Thirdly The eternal Misery and Punishment of Men for temporal Faults seems hard to be reconciled with that excess of Goodness which we suppose to be in God Fourthly The Instances of God's great severity to Mankind upon occasion in those great Calamities which by the
upon necessity and in case of just provocation And to be otherwise not to punish insolent Impiety and incorrigible Wickedness in a severe and remarkable manner would not be goodness but a fond indulgence not patience but stupidity not mercy to Mankind but cruelty because it would be an encouragement to them to do more mischief and to bring greater misery upon themselves So that if we suppose God to be holy and just as well as good there is nothing in any of these Instances but what is very consistent with all that goodness which we can suppose to be in a holy and wise and just Governour who is a declared Enemy to Sin and is resolved to give all fitting discountenance to the breach and violation of his Laws It is necessary in kindness and compassion to the rest of Mankind that some should be made remarkable Instances of God's severity that the punishment of a few may be a warning to all that they may hear and fear and by avoiding the like sins may prevent the like severity upon themselves And now I have as briefly as I could explained and vindicated the goodness of God the consideration whereof is fruitful of many excellent and useful Inferences in relation both to our Comfort and our Duty But these I shall refer to another opportunity SERMON IV. Vol. VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works I Have made several Discourses upon this Argument of the goodness of God shewing what it is on what accounts we ascribe it to God what are the Effects and large extent of it to the whole Creation and more particularly to Mankind and in the last place considered the several Objections which seem to lie against it I proceed now to the Application of this excellent Argument the considederation whereof is so fruitful of useful Inferences in relation both to our Comfort and Duty And I. This shews us the prodigious folly and unreasonableness of Atheism Most of the Atheism that is in the World doth not so much consist in a firm perswasion that there is no God as in vain wishes and desires that there were none Bad Men think it would be a happiness to them and that they should be in a much better condition if there were no God than if there be one Nemo deum non esse credit nisi cui deum non esse expedit no Man is apt to disbelieve a God but he whose Interest it is that there should be none And if we could see into the Hearts of wicked Men we should find this lying at the bottom that if there be a God he is just and will punish sin that he is infinite in power and not to be resisted and therefore kills them with his terror so often as they think of him hence they apprehend it their interest that there should be no God and wish there were none and thence are apt to cherish in their Minds a vain hope that there is none and at last endeavour to impose upon themselves by vain reasonings and to suppress the belief of a God and to stifle their natural apprehensions and fears of him So that it is not primus in orbe deos fecit timor fear that first made Gods but the fear which bad Men have of the Divine Power and Justice that first tempted them to the disbelief of him But were not these Men as foolish as they are wicked they would wish with all their Hearts there were a God and be glad to believe so And the Psalmist gives them their true Character who can entertain any such thoughts or wishes Psal 14.1 The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God for they are Fools who do not understand nor consult their true Interest And if this be true which I have said concerning the goodness of God if this be his Nature to desire and procure the happiness of his Creatures whoever understands the true Nature of God and his own true Interest cannot but wish there were a God and be glad of any Argument to prove it and rejoyce to find it true as Children are glad of a kind and tender Father and as Subjects rejoyce in a wise and good Prince The goodness of God gives us so lovely a Character of him makes him so good a Father so gracious a Governour of Men that if there were no such Being in the World it were infinitely desirable to Mankind that there should be he is such an one qualem omnes cuperent si deesset as if he were wanting all Men ought to wish for The Being of God is so comfortable so convenient so necessary to the felicity of Mankind that as Tully admirably says Dij immortales ad usum hominum fabricati penè videantur if God were not a necessary Being of himself he might almost seem to be made on purpose for the use and benefit of Men so that Atheism is not only an Instance of the most horrible Impiety but of the greatest Stupidity and for Men to glory in their disbelief of a God is like the rejoycing and triumph of a furious and besotted multitude in the Murder of a wise and good Prince the greatest calamity and confusion that could possibly have befaln them If the Evidence of God's being were not so clear as it is yet the consideration of his goodness ought to check all inclination to Atheism and Infidelity for if he be as good as he is represented to us both by natural Light and divine Revelation and he is so as sure as he is if he tender our Welfare and desire our Happiness as much as we our selves can do and use all wise ways and proper means to bring it about then it is plainly every man's Interest even thine O sinner to whom after all thy Provocations he is willing to be reconciled that there should be such a Being as God is and when ever thou comest to thy self thou wilt be sensible of thy want of him and thy soul will thirst for God even the living God and pant after him as the hart pants after the water brooks in the day of thy Affliction and Calamity when distress and anguish cometh upon thee thou wilt flie to God for Refuge and shelter thy self under his Protection and wouldest not for all the World but there were such a Being in it to help and deliver thee Deos nemo sanus timet says Seneca furor est metuere salutaria no man in his wits is afraid there is a God it is a madness to fear that which is so much for our benefit and advantage Humane Nature is conscious to it self of its own weakness and insufficiency and of its necessary dependance upon something without it self for its Happiness and therefore in great Extremity and Distress the Atheist himself hath naturally recourse to him and he who denyed and rejected him in his Prosperity clings to him in
another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love We cannot in any thing resemble God more than in goodness and kindness and mercy and in a readiness to forgive those who have been injurious to us and to be reconciled to them Let us then often contemplate this Perfection of God and represent it to our Minds that by the frequent contemplation of it we may be transformed into the Image of the Divine Goodness Is God so good to his Creatures with how much greater reason should we be so to our fellow Creatures Is God good to us let us imitate his universal goodness by endeavouring the good of Mankind and as much as in us lies of the whole Creation of God What God is to us and what we would have him still be to us that let us be to others We are infinitely beholding to this Perfection of God for all that we are and for all that we enjoy and for all that we expect and therefore we have all the reason in the World to admire and imitate it Let this pattern of the Divine Goodness be continually before us that we may be still fashioning our selves in the temper of our Minds and in the actions of our Lives to a likeness and conformity to it Lastly The consideration of the Divine goodness should excite our praise and thankfulness This is a great Duty to the performance whereof we should summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls as the holy Psalmist does Psal 103. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits And we should invite all others to the same Work as the same devout Psalmist frequently does Psal 106. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And Psal 107. O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of Men And we had need to be often call'd upon to this Duty to which we have a peculiar backwardness Necessity drives us to Prayer and sends us to God for the supply of our wants but Praise and Thanksgiving is a Duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity and nothing sooner wears off than the sense of Kindness and Benefits We are very apt to forget the blessings of God not so much from a bad Memory as from a bad Nature to forget the greatest blessings the continuance whereof should continually put us in mind of them the blessings of our Beings So God complains of his People Deut. 32. Of the God that formed thee thou hast been unmindful the dignity and excellency of our Beings above all the Creatures of this visible World Job 35.10 11. None saith Where is God my Maker who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven the daily comforts and blessings of our Lives which we can continually receive without almost ever looking up to the Hand that gives them So God complains by the Prophet Hosea 2.8 9. She knew not that I gave her corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her gold and silver And is it not shameful to see how at the most plentiful Tables the giving of God Thanks is almost grown out of fashion as if Men were ashamed to own from whence these Blessings came When thanks is all God expects from us can we not afford to give him that Do ye thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise It is just with God to take away his Blessings from us if we deny him this easie tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving It is a sign Men are unfit for Heaven when they are backward to that which is the proper Work and Imployment of the blessed Spirits above Therefore as ever we hope to come thither let us begin this Work here and inure our selves to that which will be the great business of all Eternity Let us with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelation fall down before him that sits on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast our crowns before the throne that is cast our selves and ascribe all glory to God Saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast made all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created To him therefore the infinite and inexhaustible fountain of goodness the father of mercies and the God of all consolation who gave us such excellent Beings having made made us little lower than the Angels and crowned us with glory and honour who hath been pleased to stamp upon us the image of his own goodness and thereby made us partakers of a divine nature communicating to us not only of the effects of his goodness but in some measure and degree of the perfection it self to him who gives us all things richly to enjoy which pertain to life and godliness and hath made such abundant provision not only for our comfort and convenience in this present life but for our unspeakable happiness to all eternity to him who designed this happiness to us from all eternity and whose mercy and goodness to us endures for ever who when by willful transgressions and disobedience we had plunged our selves into a state of sin and misery and had forfeited that happiness which we were designed to was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it by sending his only Son to take our nature with the miseries and infirmities of it to live among us and to die for us in a word to him who is infinitely good to us not only contrary to our deserts but beyond our hopes who renews his mercy upon us every morning and is patient tho' we provoke him every day who preserves and provides for us and spares us continually who is always willing always watchful and never weary to do us good to him be all glory and honour adoration and praise love and obedience now and for ever SERMON V. Vol. VII The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long suffering and of great Mercy I Have considered God's Goodness in general There are two eminent Branches of it his Patience and Mercy The Patience of God is his goodness to them that are guilty in deferring or moderating their deserved punishment the Mercy of God is his goodness to them that are or may be miserable 'T is the last of these two I design to discourse of at this time in doing which I shall inquire First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God Secondly Shew you that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the degree of it that God is of great Mercy First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God I told you it is his goodness to them that are in
in especially if these hopes be given them by a grave Man of whose Piety and Judgment they have a venerable opinion When Men have the Sentence of death in themselves as all wicked livers must have they are naturally apt to be overjoy'd at the unexpected news of a Pardon To speak my mind freely in this matter I have no great opinion of that extraordinary comfort and confidence which some have upon a sudden repentance for great and flagrant crimes because I cannot discern any sufficient ground for it I think great humility and dejection of mind and a doubtful apprehension of their condition next almost to despair of it would much better become them because their case is really so very doubtful in it self There is great reason for the repentance of such persons and it becomes them well but I see very little reason for their great comfort and confidence nor does it become their circumstances and condition Let them excercise as deep a repentance as is possible and bring forth all the fruits meet for it that are possible in so short a time let them humble themselves before God and pray incessantly to him day and night for mercy make all the reparation they can for the injuries they have done by confession and acknowledgment and by making satisfaction to the parties injured if it be in their power by giving Alms to the Poor by warning others and endeavouring to reclaim them to a better mind and course of life and for the rest humbly commit themselves to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ let them imitate as near as they can the behaviour of the penitent Thief the only Example the Scripture hath left us of a late repentance that proved effectual who gave the greatest testimony that could be of a penitent sorrow for his sins and of his Faith in the Saviour of the World by a generous and couragious owning of him in the midst of his disgrace and suffering when even his own Disciples had denyed and forsaken him but we do not find in him any signs of extraordinary comfort much less of confidence but he humbly commended himself to the mercy and goodness of his Saviour saying Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom SERMON IX Vol. VII The Long-suffering of God ECCLES VIII 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil I Have considered how apt Men are to abuse the long-suffering of God to the hardening and encouraging of themselves in sin and whence this comes to pass where I considered the several false conclusions which Sinners draw from the delay of Punishment as if there were no God or Providence or difference of good and evil or else as is more commonly pretended that Sin is not so great an Evil and that God is not so highly offended at it or that God is not so severe as he is represented that the punishment of sin is not so certain or however it is at a distance and may be prevented by a future repentance all which I have spoken fully to and endeavoured to shew the fallacy and unreasonableness of them I shall now proceed to the Third and last thing I propounded which was to answer an Objection to which this Discourse may seem liable and that is this If the long-suffering of God be the occasion of Men's hardness and impenitency then why is God so patient to Sinners when they are so prone to abuse his Goodness and Patience And how is it goodness in God to forbear Sinners so long when this forbearance of his is so apt to minister to them an occasion of their further mischief and greater ruine It should seem according to this that it would be much greater Mercy to the greatest part of Sinners not to be patient toward them at all but instantly upon the first occasion and provocation to cut them off and so to put a stop to their wickedness and to hinder them from making themselves more miserable by increasing their guilt and treasuring up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath This is the Objection and because it seems to be of some weight I shall endeavour to return a satisfactory answer to it in these following particulars And I. I ask the Sinner if he will stand to this Art thou serious and wouldest thou in good earnest have God to deal thus with thee to take the very first advantage to destroy thee or turn thee into Hell and to make thee miserable beyond all hopes of recovery Consider of it again Dost thou think it desirable that God should deal thus with thee and let fly his Judgments upon thee so soon as ever thou hast sinned If not why do Men trifle and make an Objection against the long-suffering of God which they would be very loth should be made good upon them II. It is likewise to be considered that the long-suffering of God toward Sinners is not a total forbearance it is usually so mixt with Afflictions and Judgments of one kind or other upon our selves or others as to be a sufficient warning to us if we would consider and lay it to heart to sin no more lest a worse thing come upon us lest that Judgment which we saw inflicted upon others come home to us And is not this great goodness to warn us when he might destroy us to leave room for a retreat when he might put our case past remedy All this time of God's Patience he threatens Sinners to awaken them out of their security he punisheth them gently that we may have no ground to hope for impunity he makes Examples of some in a more severe and remarkable manner that others may hear and fear and be afraid to commit the like sins lest the like punishment overtake them he whips some Offenders before our Eyes to shew us what sin deserves and what we also may justly expect if we do the same things and will nothing be a warning to us but our own sufferings Nay God doth usually send some Judgment or other upon every Sinner in this life he lets him feel the Rod that he may know that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against him He exerciseth Men with many afflictions and crosses and disappointments which their own consciences tell them are the just recompences of their deeds and by these lighter strokes he gives us a merciful warning to avoid his heavier blows when Mercy alone will not work upon us and win us but being fed to the full we grow wanton and foolish he administers Physick to us by affliction and by adversity endeavours to bring us to consideration and a sober mind and many have been cured this way and the Judgments of God have done them that good which his Mercies and Blessings could not for God would save us any way by his Mercy or by his Judgment by Sickness or by Health
are above the understanding of any of his Creatures it is only his own infinite understanding that can frame a perfect Idea of his own Perfection God knows himself his own understanding commprehends his own Perfections But he is Incomprehensible to his Creatures Indeed there is nothing more obvious than God for he is not far from every one of us in him we live and move and have our Being there need no great search to find out that there is a God An eternal power and Deity are clearly seen in the things which are made as the Apostle tells us but the manner of the Being and Proproperties and Perfections of this God these cannot be comprehended by a finite understanding I shall prove the Doctrine and then apply it First For the proof of it I will attempt it these three ways I. By way of instance or induction of particulars II. By way of conviction III. By giving the clear reason of it I. By way of instance And I shall give you instances both on the part of the Object and of the Subject or the persons who are capable of knowing God in any degree 1. On the part of the Object The Nature of God the Excellency and Perfection of God the Works and Ways of God are above our thoughts and apprehensions The Nature of God it is vast and infinite Job 36.26 God is great and we know him not Job 37. 23. Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out Psal 145.3 His greatness is unsearchable The Excellencies and Perfections of God his Immensity 2 Chron. 2.6 The heaven of heavens cannot contain him The Eternity of his duration from everlasting to everlasting he is God We cannot imagine any limits of his presence nor bounds of his duration The infiniteness of his knowledge Psal 147.5 his understanding is infinite When we think of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God our best way is to fall into admiration Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Where the Scripture speaks of those Perfections of God which the Creatures do in some measure and degree partake of as his Goodness and Power and Wisdom and Holiness and Immortality it attributes them in such a peculiar and Divine manner to God as doth exclude and shut out the Creature from any claim or share or title to them Matt. 19.16 17. Why Call'st thou me good there 's none good but one that is God 1 Tim. 6.15 16. Who is the blessed and only potentate who only hath immortality 1 Tim. 1.17 The only wise God Rev. 15.4 For thou only art holy In so inconceivable a manner doth God possess these Perfections which he Communicates and we can only understand them as he Communicates them and not as he possesses them so that when we consider any of these Divine Perfections we must not frame Notions of them contrary to what they are in the Creature nor must we limit them by what they are in the Creature but say the Goodness and the Wisdom of God are all this which is in the Creature and much more which I am not able to comprehend the transcendent degree and the singularity of these Divine Perfections which are communicable is beyond what we are able to conceive The Works of God they are likewise unsearchable the Works of Creation and of Redemption Job 5.9 Which doth great things and unsearchable marvelous things past finding out And then he instanceth in the Works of God Job 26.14 Lo these are part of his ways But how little a portion is heard of him and the thunder of his voice who can understand So that he tells us expresly we cannot find out the Works of God we do but know part of them The question which he puts Job 37.16 Dost thou know the wondrous works of him that is perfect in knowledge can only be answered by the words of the Psalmist Psal 104.24 O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all The work of Redemption In this there shines forth such Wisdom Mercy and Love as our understandings cannot reach this work is called the Wisdom of God in a mystery hidden Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.7 The Mercy and Grace and Love of it is called the riches of Gods mercy the exceeding riches of his grace Eph. 2.4 7. Now Riches is when you cannot tell the utmost of them pauperis est numerare Eph. 3.18 19. That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge When we have the largest apprehensions of this love so that we think we comprehend it and know it it passeth knowledge yea the Effects of God's Power and Love which he manifests in believers are unspeakable for he is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think according to the power which worketh in us Eph. 3.20 The Peace which guards their souls passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Those Joys which fill their hearts are not to be expressed 1 Pet. 1.8 We read of Joy unspeakable and full of glory The Happiness which they hope for is inconceivable 't is that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of man which God hath laid up for us The Ways of God's Providence they are not to be traced Psal 77.19 Thy way is in the sea and thy paths in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known Eccles 3.11 No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end We are but of yesterday and know nothing When we look upon Gods Providence we take a part from the whole and consider it by it self without relation to the whole series of his Dispensation we cannot see the whole of God's Providence at one view and never see from the beginning of the Works of God to the end therefore our knowledge of them must needs be very imperfect and full of mistakes and false judgments of things we cannot by our petty and short-sighted designs judge of the Works of God and the Designs of Providence for our ways are not as his ways nor our thoughts as his thoughts but as the heavens are high above the earth so are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts Isa 55.8 9. The ways of God's Mercy Psal 103. As the heavens are high above the earth so great is God's mercy Psal 139.17 18. How precious are thy thoughts unto me how great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number than the sand And the ways of God's Judgments the severity and greatness of his Judgment is not known Psal 90. Who knoweth the power of thy anger And who may stand before thee when thou art angry And the Reasons of his Judgments are unsearchable Psal 36.6 Thy Judgments are a great deep Rom. 11.35 How
and by derivation from God who is the fountain and original of goodness which is the meaning of our Saviour Luke 18.19 when he says there is none good save one that is God But tho' the degrees of Goodness in God and the Creatures be infinitely unequal and that Goodness which is in us be so small and inconsiderable that compared with the Goodness of God it does not deserve that name yet the essential Notion of Goodness in both must be the same else when the Scripture speaks of the Goodness of God we could not know the meaning of it and if we do not at all understand what it is for God to be good it is all one to us for ought we know whether he be good or not for he may be so and we never the better for it if we do not know what Goodness in God is and consequently when he is so and when not Besides that the Goodness of God is very frequently in Scripture propounded to our imitation but it is impossible for us to imitate that which we do not understand what it is from whence it is certain that the goodness which we are to endeavour after is the same that is in God because in this we are commanded to imitate the Perfection of God that is to be good and merciful as he is according to the rate and condition of Creatures and so far as we whose Natures are imperfect are capable of resembling the Divine Goodness Thus much for the Notion of goodness in God it is a propension and disposition in the Divine Nature to communicate being and happiness to his Creatures Secondly I shall endeavour to shew in the next place that this Perfection of Goodness belongs to God and that from these three heads I. From the Acknowledgments of Natural Light II. From the Testimony of Scripture and Divine Revelation And III. From the Perfection of the Divine Nature I. From the Acknowledgments of Natural Light The generality of the Heathen agree in it and there is hardly any Perfection of God more universally acknowledged by them I always except the Sect of the Epicureans who attribute nothing but Eternity and Happiness to the Divine Nature and yet if they would have considered it Happiness without Goodness is impossible I do not find that they do expresly deny this Perfection to God or that they ascribe to him the contrary but they clearly take away all the Evidence and Arguments of the Divine Goodness for they supposed God to be an immortal and happy Being that enjoyed himself and had no regard to any thing without himself that neither gave Being to other things nor concerned himself in the happiness or misery of any of them so that their Notion of a Deity was in truth the proper Notion of an idle Being that is called God and neither does good nor evil But setting aside this atheistical Sect the rest of the Heathen did unanimously affirm and believe the Goodness of God and this was the great foundation of their Religion and all their Prayers to God and Praises of him did necessarily suppose a perswasion of the Divine Goodness Whosoever prays to God must have a perswasion or good hopes of his readiness to do him good and to praise God is to acknowledge that he hath received good from him Seneca hath an excellent passage to this purpose He says he that denies the Goodness of God does not surely consider the infinite number of Prayers that with hands lifted up to Heaven are put up to God both in private and publick which certainly would not be nor is it credible that all Mankind should conspire in this madness of putting up their Supplications to deaf and impotent Deities if they did not believe that the Gods were so good as to confer benefits upon those who prayed to them But we need not to infer their belief of God's Goodness from the acts of their devotion nothing being more common among them than expresly to attribute this Perfection of Goodness to him and among the Divine Titles this always had the preeminence both among the Greeks and Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus optimus maximus was their constant stile and in our Language the name of God seems to have been given him from his Goodness I might produce innumerable passages out of the Heathen Authers to this purpose but I shall only mention that remarkable one out of Seneca primus deorum cultus est deos credere deinde reddere illis majestatem suam reddere bonitatem sine quâ nulla majestas The first act of Worship is to believe the Being of God and the next to ascribe Majesty or greatness to him and to ascribe Goodness without which there can be no Greatness II. From the testimony of Scripture and Divine Revelation I shall mention but a few of those many Texts of Scripture which declare to us the Goodness of God Exod. 34.6 where God makes his Name known to Moses the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful long suffering abundant in goodness and truth Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive Psal 119.68 Thou art good and dost good And that which is so often repeated in the Book of Psalms O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Our blessed Saviour attributes this Perfection to God in so peculiar and transcendent a manner as if it were incommunicable Luke 18.19 There is none good save one that is God The meaning is that no Creature is capable of it in that excellent and transcendent degree in which the Divine Nature is possest of it To the same purpose are those innumerable Testimonies of Scripture which declare God to be gracious and merciful and long suffering for these are but several Branches of his Goodness his Grace is the freeness of his Goodness to those who have not deserved it his Mercy is his Goodness to those who are in misery his Patience is his Goodness to those who are guilty in deferring the Punishment due to them III. The Goodness of God may likewise be argued from the Perfection of the Divine Nature these two ways 1. Goodness is the chief of all Perfections and therefore it belongs to God 2. There are some Footsteps of it in the Creatures and therefore it is much more eminently in God 1. Goodness is the highest Perfection and therefore it must needs belong to God who is the most perfect of Beings Knowledge and Power are great Perfections but separated from Goodness they would be great Imperfections nothing but craft and violence An Angel may have Knowledge and Power in a great degree but yet for all that be a Devil Goodness is so great and necessary a Perfection that without it there can be no other it gives Perfection to all other excellencies take away this and the greatest excellencies in any other kind would be but the greatest imperfections And therefore our Saviour speaks of the
misery or liable to it that is that are in danger of it or have deserved it 'T is mercy to prevent the misery that we are liable to and which may befal us tho' it be not actually upon us 'T is mercy to defer the misery that we deserve or mitigate it and this is properly patience and forbearance 'T is mercy to relieve those that are in misery to support or comfort them 'T is mercy to remit the misery we deserve and by pardon and forgiveness to remove and take away the obligation to punishment Thus the mercy of God is usually in Scripture set forth to us by the affection of pity and compassion which is an affection that causeth a sensible commotion and disturbance in us upon the apprehension of some great Evil that lies upon another or hangs over him Hence it is that God is said in Scripture to be grieved and afflicted for the miseries of Men his bowels are said to sound and his heart to turn within him But tho' God is pleased in this manner to set forth his mercy and tenderness towards us yet we must take heed how we cloath the Divine Nature with the Infirmities of human Passions We must not measure the Perfection of God by the Expressions of his condescention and because he stoops to our weakness level him to our Infirmities When God is said to pity us we must take away the imperfection of this Passion the commotion and disturbance of it and not imagine any such thing in God but we are to conceive that the mercy and compassion of God without producing the disquiet do produce the Effects of the most sensible pity Secondly That this Perfection belongs to God All the Arguments that I used to prove the goodness of God from the acknowledgment of natural Light and from Scripture and Reason serve to prove that he is merciful because the mercy of God is an eminent Branch of his goodness I will only produce some of those many Texts of Scripture which attribute this Perfection to God Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful Deut. 4.31 The Lord thy God is a merciful God 2 Chron. 30.9 The Lord your God is gracious and merciful Neh. 9.17 Ready to pardon gracious and merciful Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy Psal 62.12 Vnto thee O Lord belongeth mercy Psal 103.8 Merciful and gracious Psal 130.7 With the Lord there is mercy And so Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 Luke 6.36 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful The Scripture speaks of this as most natural to him 2 Cor. 1.3 he is called the Father of mercies But when he punisheth he doth as it were relinquish his Nature and do a strange work The Lord will wait that he may be gracious Isa 30.18 God passeth by opportunities of punishing but his mercy takes opportunity to display it self he waits to be gracious To afflict or punish is a Work that God is unwilling to that he takes no pleasure in Lam. 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men But mercy is a Work that he delights in Mic. 7.18 He delighteth in mercy When God shews mercy he does it with pleasure and delight he is said to rejoyce over his people to do them good Those Attributes that declare God's goodness as when he is said to be gracious or merciful and long-suffering they shew what God is in himself and delights to be those which declare his wrath and severity shew what he is upon provocation and the occasion of sin not what he chuseth to be but what we do as it were compel and necessitate him to be Thirdly For the degree of it that God is a God of great mercy The Scripture doth delight to advance the mercy of God and does use great variety of Expression to magnifie it It speaks of the greatness of his mercy Numb 14.19 According to the greatness of his mercy 2 Sam. 24.14 Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great 'T is call'd an abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1.3 According to his abundant mercy Psal 103.8 he is said to be plenteous in mercy and rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 Psal 5.7 he speaks of the multitude of God's mercies and of the variety of them Neh. 9.18 In thy manifold mercies thou forsookest them not So many are they that we are said to be surrounded and campassed about on every side with them Psal 103.4 Who crowneth us with loving kindness and tender mercies And yet further to set forth the greatness of them the Scripture useth all dimensions Heighth Psal 57.10 Thy mercy is great unto the Heavens Nay higher yet Psal 108.4 Thy mercy is great above the heavens For the latitude and extent of it 't is as large as the Earth and extends to all the Creatures in it Psal 109.64 The earth is full of thy mercy Psal 145.8 His tender mercies are over all his works For the length or duration and continuance of it Exod. 34.7 Laying up mercy in store for thousands of generations one after another Nay it is of a longer continuance Psal 118. 't is several times repeated That his mercy endureth for ever And to shew the intense degree of this affection of mercy or pity the Scripture useth several emphatical Expressions to set it forth to us The Scripture speaks of the tender mercies of God Psal 25.6 Remember O Lord thy tender mercies Yea of the multitude of these Psal 51.1 According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Jam. 5.11 The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy They are called God's Bowels which are the tenderest parts and apt to yern and stir in us when any affections of love and pity are excited Is 63.15 Where is the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Luke 1.78 Through the tender mercy of our God So it is in our Translation but if we render it from the Original 't is through the bowels of the mercies of our God How doth God condescend in those pathetical Expressions which he useth concerning his People Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together Nay to express his tender sense of our miseries and sufferings he is represented as being afflicted with us and bearing a part in our sufferings Isa 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted The compassions of God are compared to the tenderest affections among Men to that of a Father towards his Children Psal 103.13 As a father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Nay to the compassions of a Mother towards her Infant Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea she may 't is possible tho' most unlikely but tho' a Mother may turn unnatural yet God cannot be unmerciful In short
the desert of our sins 'T is mercy that comforts and supports us under any of those Evils that lye upon us and that rescues and delivers us from them Which way so ever we look we are encompassed with the mercies of God they compass us about on every side we are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies 'T is mercy that feeds us and cloaths us and that preserves us But above all we should thankfully acknowledge and admire the pardoning mercy of God Ps 103.1 2 3. where David does as it were muster up the mercies of God and make a Catalogue of them he sets the pardoning mercy in the front Bless ye the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities If we look into our selves and consider our own temper and disposition how void of pity and bowels we are how cruel and hard hearted and insolent and revengeful if we look abroad into the World and see how full the earth is of the habitations of cruelty we shall admire the mercy of God more and think our selves more beholden to it How many things must concur to make our hearts tender and melt our spirits and stir our bowels to make us pitiful and compassionate We seldom pity any unless they be actually in misery nor all such neither unless the misery they lye under be very great nor then neither unless the person that suffers be nearly related and we be someways concerned in his sufferings yea many times not then neither upon a generous account but as we are someways obliged by interest and self-love and a dear regard to our selves when we have suffered the like our selves and have learnt to pity others by our own Sufferings or when in danger and probability to be in the like condition our selves so many motives and obligations are necessary to awaken and stir up this affection in us But God is merciful and pitiful to us out of the mere goodness of his Nature for few of these motives and considerations can have any place in him This affection of pity and tenderness is stirred up in God by the mere presence of the Object without any other inducement The mercy of God many times doth not stay till we be actually miserable but looks forward a great way and pities us at a great distance and prevents our misery God doth not only pity us in great Calamities but considers those lesser Evils that are upon us God is merciful to us when we have deserved all the Evils that are upon us and far greater when we are less than the least of all his mercies when we deserved all the misery that is upon us and have with violent hands pulled it upon our own heads and have been the authors and procurers of it to our selves Tho' God in respect of his Nature be at an infinite distance from us yet his mercy is near to us and he cannot possibly have any self-interest in it The Divine Nature is not liable to want or injury or suffering he is secure of his own happiness and fullness and can neither wish the inlargement nor fear the impairment of his Estate he can never stand in need of pity or relief from us or any other and yet he pities us Now if we consider the vast difference of this affection in God and us how tender his mercies are and how sensible his bowels and yet we who have so many arguments to move us to pity how hard our hearts are and how unapt to relent as if we were born of the rock and were the off-spring of the nether milstone sure when we duly consider this we cannot but admire the mercy of God How cruel are we to Creatures below us with how little remorse can we kill a Flea or tread upon a Worm partly because we are secure that they cannot hurt us nor revenge themselves upon us and partly because they are so despicable in our Eyes and so far below us that they do not fall under the consideration of our Pity Look upward proud Man and take notice of him who is above thee thou didst not make the Creatures below thee as God did there 's but a finite distance between thee and the meanest Creatures but there 's an infinite distance between thee and God Man is a Name of Dignity when we compare our selves with other Creatures but compared to God we are Worms and not Men yea we are nothing yea less than nothing and vanity How great then is the Mercy of God which regards us who are so far below him which takes into Consideration such inconsiderable nothings as we are we may say with David Ps 8.4 Lord What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him And with Job 7.17 What is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine Heart upon him And then how hard do we find it to forgive those who have injured us if any one have offended or provoked us how hard are we to be reconciled How mindful of an Injury How do anger and revenge boyl within us How do we upbraid Men with their faults What vile and low Submission do we require of them before we will receive them into Favour and grant them Peace And if we forgive once we think that is much but if an offence and provocation be renewed often we are inexorable Even the Disciples of our Saviour after he had so emphatically taught them Forgiveness in the Petition in the Lord's Prayer yet they had very narrow Spirits as to this Matth. 18.21 Peter comes to him and asks him How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times He thought that was much And yet we have great obligations to Pardoning and Forgiving others because we are obnoxious to God and one another we shall many times stand in need of Pardon from God and Men and it may be our own case and when it is we are too apt to be very indulgent to our selves and conceive good hopes of the Mercy of others we would have our ignorance and inadvertencies and mistakes and all occasions and temptations and provocations considered and when we have done amiss upon Submission and Acknowledgment of our Fault we would be received into Favour but God who is not at all liable to us how ready is he to Forgive If we confess our Sins to him he is merciful to Forgive he Pardons freely and such are the condescentions of his Mercy tho' he be the party offended yet he offers Pardon to us and beseeches us to be reconcil'd if we do but come towards him he runs to meet us as in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15.20 What reason have we then thankfully to acknowledge and admire the Mercy of God to us Vse 2. The great mercy of God to us should
stir up in us shame and sorrow for Sin The Judgments of God may break us but the consideration of God's Mercy should rather melt and dissolve us into Tears Luke 7.47 The Woman that washed Christ's Feet with her Tears and wiped them with her Hair the account that our Saviour gives of the great Affection that she expressed to him was she Loved much because much was forgiven her and she grieved much because much was forgiven her Especially we should sorrow for those Sins which have been committed by us after God's Mercies received Mercies after Sins should touch our Hearts and make us relent It should grieve us that we should offend and provoke a God so Gracious and Merciful so slow to anger and so ready to forgive But Sin against Mercies and after we have received them is attended with one of the greatest Aggravations of Sin And as Mercy raises the guilt of our Sins so it should raise our sorrow for them No Consideration is more apt to work upon human Nature than that of kindness and the greater Mercy has been shewed to us the greater our sins and the greater cause of sorrow for them contraries do illustrate and set off one another in the great Goodness and Mercy of God to us we see the great Evil of our Sins against him Every Sin has the Nature of Rebellion and Disobedience but sins against Mercy have Ingratitude in them When ever we break the Laws of God we rebel against our Soveraign but as we sin against the Mercies of God we injure our Benefactor This makes our sin to be horrid and astonishing Isa 1.2 Hear O heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me All the Mercies of God are aggravations of our sins 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And Nathan said to David thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel and delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Isreal and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God reckons up all his Mercies and from them aggravates David's sin 1 Kings 11.9 He takes notice of all the unkind returns that we make to his Mercy and 't is the worst temper in the World not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by Mercy no greater evidence of a wicked Heart than that the Mercies of God have no effect upon it Esay 26.10 Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Vse 3. Let us imitate the merciful Nature of God This branch of God's goodness is very proper for our imitation The general Exhortation of our Saviour Matt. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect is more particularly expressed by St. Luke Luke 6.30 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful Men affect to make Images and impossible Representations of God but as Seneca saith Crede Deòs cùm propitii essent fictiles fuisse We may draw this Image and likeness of God we may be gracious and merciful as he is Christ who was the express image of his Father his whole life and undertaking was a continued work of mercy he went about doing good to the Souls of Men by Preaching the Gospel to them and to the Bodies of Men in healing all manner of Diseases There is nothing that he recommends more to us in his Gospel than this Spirit and Temper Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy How many Parables doth he use to set forth the mercy of God to us with a design to draw us to the imitation of it The Parable of the Prodigal of the good Samaritan of the Servant to whom he forgave 10000 Talents We should imitate God in this in being tender and compassionate to those that are in misery This is a piece of natural indispensable Religion to which positive and instituted Religion must give way Amos 6.6 I desired mercy and not sacrifice which is twice cited and used by our Saviour Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O Man what it is that the Lord thy God requires of thee to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is always one part of the description of a good Man that he is apt to pity the miseries and necessities of others Psal 37.26 He is ever merciful and lendeth He is far from cruelty not only to Men but even to the brute Creatures Prov. 12.10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast There is nothing more contrary to the nature of God than a cruel and savage disposition not to be affected with the miseries and sufferings of others how unlike is this to the father of mercies and the God of consolation When we can see Cruelty exercised and our Bowels not be stirred within us nor our hearts be pricked how unlike is this to God who is very pitiful and of tender mercies But to rejoyce at the miseries of others this is inhumane and barbarous Hear how God threatens Edom for rejoycing at the miseries of his Brother Jacob Obadiah 10 11 12 13 14. But to delight to make others miserable and to aggravate their sufferings this is devilish this is the temper of Hell and the very spirit of the Destroyer It becomes Man above all other Creatures to be merciful who hath had such ample and happy experience of God's mercy to him and doth still continually stand in need of mercy from God God hath been very merciful to us Had it not been for the tender Mercies of God to us we had all of us long since been miserable Now as we have receiv'd mercy from God we should shew it to others The Apostle useth this as an Argument why we should relieve those that are in misery and want because we have had such experience of the mercy and love of God to us 1 John 3.16 17. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us But whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need c. how dwelleth the love of God in him That Man hath no sense of the mercy of God abiding upon his Heart that is not merciful to his Brother And 't is an Argument why we should forgive one another Eph. 4.32 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Chap. 5.1 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children Col. 3.12 13. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against
any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And we continually stand in need of mercy both from God and Man We are lyable one to another and in the change of human Affairs we may be all subject to one another by turns and stand in need of one anothers pity and compassion and we must expect that with what measure we mete to others with the same it shall be measured to us again To restrain the Cruelties and check the Insolencies of Men God has so order'd in his Providence that very often in this World Mens Cruelties return upon their own heads and their violent dealings upon their own pates Bajazet meets with a Tamerlane But if Men were not thus liable to one another we all stand in need of mercy from God If we be merciful to others in suffering and forgiving them that have injured us God will be so to us he will pardon our sins to us Prov. 16.5 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged 2. Sam. 22.26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Prov. 14.21 He that hath mercy on the poor happy is he Prov. 21.21 He that followeth after mercy findeth life Matth. 6.14 If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you But on the other hand if we be malicious and revengeful and implacable to those that have offended us and inexorable to those who desire to be received to favour and cruel to those who lye at our mercy hard hearted to them that are in necessity what can we expect but that the mercy of God will leave us that he will forget to be gracious and shut up in anger his tender mercy Mat. 6.15 If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses That is a dreadful passage S. James 2.13 He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy How angry is the Lord with the Servant who was so inexorable to his fellow Servant after he had forgiven him so great a debt as you find in the Parable Mat. 18.24 He owed him ten thousand Talents and upon his submission and intreaty to have patience with him he was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him all but no sooner had this favour been done to him by his Lord but going forth he meets his fellow Servant who owed him a small inconsiderable debt an hundred Pence he lays Hands on him and takes him by the Throat and roundly demands payment of him he falls down at his Feet and useth the same form of supplication that he had used to his Lord but he rejects his request and puts him in Prison Now what saith the Lord to him v. 32 33 34. O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all the debt because thou desiredst me Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee And the Lord was wroth and deliver'd him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Now what application doth our Saviour make of this v. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses God's readiness to forgive us should be a powerful motive and argument to us to forgive others The greatest Injuries that we can suffer from Men if we compare them to the sins that we commit against God they bear no proportion to them neither in weight nor number they are but as an hundred pence to ten thousand talents If we would be like God we should forgive the greatest Injuries he pardoneth our sins tho' they be exceeding great many Injuries tho' offences be renewed and provocations multiplied for so God doth to us He pardoneth iniquity transgression and sin Ex. 34.7 Is 55.7 He will have mercy he will abundantly pardon We would not have God only to forgive us seven times but seventy seven times as often as we offend him so should we forgive our Brother And we should not be backward to this Work God is ready to forgive us Neh. 9.17 And we should do it heartily not only in word when we retain malice in our hearts and while we say we forgive carry on a secret design in our hearts of revenging our selves when we have opportunity but we should from our hearts forgive every one for so God doth to us who when he forgives us casts our iniquities behind his back and throws them into the bottom of the sea and blots out our transgression so as to remember our iniquity no more If we do not do thus every time we put up the Petition to God Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us we do not pray for mercy but for judgment we invoke his wrath and do not put up a Prayer but a dreadful Imprecation against our selves we pronounce the Sentence of our own Condemnation and importune God not to forgive us Vse 4. If the mercy of God be so great this may comfort us against Despair Sinners are apt to be dejected when they consider their unworthiness the nature and number of their Sins and the many heavy aggravations of them they are apt to say with Cain That their sin is greater than can be forgiven But do not look only upon thy sins but upon the mercies of God Thou canst not be too sensible of the evil of sin and of the desert of it but whilst we aggravate our sins we must not lessen the mercies of God When we consider the multitude of our sins we must consider also the multitude of God's tender mercies we have been great sinners and God is of great mercy we have multiplied our provocations and he multiplies to pardon Do but thou put thy self in a capacity of mercy by repenting of thy sins and forsaking of them and thou hast no reason to doubt but the mercy of God will receive thee If we confess our sins he is merciful and faithful to forgive them If we had offended Man as we have done God we might despair of pardon but it is God and not Man that we have to deal with and his ways are not as our ways nor his thoughts as our thoughts but as the heavens are high above the earth so are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts We cannot be more injurious to God than by hard thoughts of him as if fury were in him and when we have provoked him he were not to be appeased and reconciled to us We disparage the Goodness and Truth of God when we distrust those gracious declarations which he has made of his mercy and goodness if we do not think that he doth heartily pity and compassionate sinners and really dedesire their happiness Doth not he condescend so low as to represent himself afflicted for the miseries of Men and to rejoyce in the conversion of a Sinner and shall not we believe that he is in
by Plenty or by Want by what we desire or by what we dread so desirous is he of our repentance and happiness that he leaves no method unattempted that may probably do us good he strikes upon every Passion in the Heart of Man he works upon our Love by his Goodness upon our Hopes by his Promises and upon our Fears first by his Threatnings and if they be not effectual then by his Judgments he tries every Affection and takes hold of it if by any means he may draw us to himself and will nothing warn us but what will ruine us and render our case desperate and past hope And if any Sinner be free from outward Afflictions and Sufferings yet sin never fails to carry its own Punishment along with it there is a secret Sting and Worm a divine Nemesis and Revenge that is bred in the Bowels of every Sin and makes it a heavy Punishment to it self the Conscience of a Sinner doth frequently torment him and his Guilt haunts and dogs him where-ever he goes for when ever a Man commits a known and willful sin he drinks down Poison which tho' it may work slowly yet it will give him many a Gripe and if no means be used to expel it will destroy him at last So that the long-suffering of God is wisely ordered and there is such a mixture of Judgment in it as is sufficient to awaken Sinners and much more apt to deter them from sin than to encourage them to go on and continue in it III. Nothing is farther from the intention of God than to harden Men by his long-suffering This the Scripture most expresly declares 2 Pet. 3.9 He is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He hath a very gracious and merciful design in his Patience towards Sinners and is therefore good that he may make us so and that we may cease to do evil The event of God's long-suffering may by our own fault and abuse of it prove our ruin but the design and intention of it is our repentance He winks at the sins of men saith the Son of Syrach that they may repent He passeth them by and does not take speedy Vengeance upon Sinners for them that they may have time to repent of them and to make their peace with him while they are yet in the way Nay his long-suffering doth not only give space for Repentance but is a great argument and encouragement to it That he is so loth to surprize Sinners that he gives them the liberty of second thoughts time to reflect upon themselves to consider what they have done and to retract it by repentance is a sufficient intimation that he hath no mind to ruin us that he desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live And should not this goodness of his make us sorry that we have offended him Doth it not naturally lead and invite us to repentance What other interpretation can we make of his Patience what other use in reason should we make of it but to repent and return that we may be saved IV. There is nothing in the long-suffering of God that is in truth any ground of encouragement to Men in any evil course the proper and natural tendency of God's goodness is to lead men to repentance and by repentance to bring them to happiness Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and patience and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance This St. Peter with relation to these very words of St. Paul interprets leading to salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation as our beloved brother Paul also hath written unto you Now where did St. Paul write so unless in this Text Not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance 'T is not only great ignorance and a very gross mistake to think that it is the design and intention of God's Patience and long-suffering to encourage Men in sin but likewise to think that in the nature of the thing goodness can have any tendency to make Men evil not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance V. That through the long-suffering of God Sinners are hardned in their evil ways is wholly to be ascribed to their abuse of God's goodness 't is neither the End and Intention nor the proper and natural Effect of the thing but the accidental Event of it through our own fault And is this any real Objection against the long-suffering of God May not God be patient tho' Sinners be impenitent May not he be good tho' we be so foolish as to make an ill use of his goodness Because Men are apt to abuse the Mercies and Favours of God is it therefore a fault in him to bestow them upon us Is it not enough for us to abuse them but will we challenge God also of unkindness in giving them May not God use wise and fitting means for our recovery because we are so foolish as not to make a wise use of them And must he be charged with our ruin because he seeks by all means to prevent it Is it not enough to be injurious to our selves but will we be unthankful to God also When God hath laid out the riches of his goodness and patience upon Sinners will they challenge him as accessory to their ruin As if a foolish Heir that hath prodigally wasted the fair Estate that was left him should be so far from blaming himself as to charge his Father with undoing him Are these the best returns which the infinite Mercy and Patience of God hath deserved from us Do we thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise God's Patience would save Sinners but they ruin themselves by their abuse of it let the blame then lie where it is due and let God have the glory of his Goodness tho' Men refuse the benefit and advantage of it VI. And Lastly But because this Objection pincheth hardest in one point viz. That God certainly fore-sees that a great many will abuse his long-suffering to the increasing of their Guilt and the aggravating of their Condemnation and how is his long-suffering any Mercy and Goodness to those who he certainly fore-knows will in the event be so much the more miserable for having had so much Patience extended to them Therefore for a full answer I desire these six things may be considered 1. That God designs this life for the tryal of our Obedience that according as we behave our selves he might reward or punish us in another World 2. That there could be no tryal of our Obedience nor any capacity of Rewards and Punishments but upon the supposition of freedom and liberty that is that we do not do what we do upon force and necessity but upon free choice 3. That God by virtue of the infinite Perfection of his Knowledge does
upon themselves so that well might the Psalmist ask that Question Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge But their folly and unreasonableness is not so great but their perverseness and disingenuity is greater To sin because God is long-suffering is to be evil because he is good and to provoke him because he spares us it is to strive with God and to contend with his goodness as if we were resolved to try the utmost length of his Patience and because God is loth to punish therefore to urge and importune him to that which is so contrary to his Inclination II. This may serve to convince Men of the great evil and danger of thus abusing the long-suffering of God It is a provocation of the highest nature because it is to trample upon his dearest Attributes those which he most delights and glories in his Goodness and Mercy for the long-suffering of God is his Goodness to the guilty and his Mercy to those who deserve to be miserable Nothing makes our ruin more certain more speedy and more intollerable than the abuse of God's Goodness and Patience After God had born long with that rebellious People the Children of Israel and notwithstanding all their murmurings all their infidelity and impenitency had spared them ten times at last he sets his Seal to their ruin Heb. 3.8 9. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness When your Fathers proved me and saw my works forty years This was a high provocation indeed to harden their hearts under the Patience and long-suffering of God after forty Years tryal and experience of it v. 10. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They are a people that do err in their hearts for they have not known my ways And what was the issue of all this Upon this God takes up a fixt resolution to bear no longer with them but to cut them off from the Blessings he had promised to bestow upon them He sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not or as the word may be rendred to them that were disobedient that is to them who went on in their rebellion against him after he had suffered their manners forty years And as the abuse of God's Patience renders our destruction more certain so more speedy and more intollerable We think that because God suffers long he will suffer always and because punishment is delayed therefore it will never come but it will come the sooner for this So our Lord tells us Luke 12. When the servant said His Lord delayed his coming the Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looks not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and shall cut him in sunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites None so like to be surprised by the Judgment of God as those who trespass so boldly upon his Patience III. To perswade us to make a right use of the Patience and long-suffering of God and to comply with the merciful end and design of God therein 1. It is the design of God's long-suffering to give us a space of repentance Were it not that God had this design and reasonable expectation from us he would not reprieve a sinner for one moment but would execute Judgment upon him so soon as ever he had offended This our Saviour declares to us by the Parable of the Fig-tree Luke 13.6 Were it not that God expects from us the fruit of repentance he would cut us down and not suffer us to cumber the ground after he had waited three years seeking fruit and finding none he spares it one year more to see if it would bear fruit 2. The long-suffering of God is a great encouragement to repentance We see by his Patience that he is not ready to take advantage against us that he spares us when we offend is a very good sign that he will forgive us if we repent Thus natural Light would reason and so the King of Nineveh a Heathen reasons Who can tell if God will turn and repent But we are fully assured of this by the gracious declarations of the Gospel and the way of pardon and forgiveness which is therein establisht through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ who was made a propitiation for the sins of the whole world Therefore the long-suffering of God should be a powerful argument to us to break off our sins by repentance For this is the End of God's Patience He is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance He hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked should turn from his way and live God every where expresseth a vehement desire and earnest expectation of our repentance and conversion Jer. 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved And Chap. 13.27 Woe unto thee Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be He who is so patient as to the punishment of our sins is almost impatient of our repentance for them Wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be And can we stand out against his earnest desire of our happiness whom we have so often and so long provoked to make us miserable Let us then return into our selves and think seriously what our case and condition is how we have lived and how long the Patience of God hath suffered our manners and waited for our repentance and how inevitable and intollerable the misery of those must be who live and dye in the contempt and abuse of it let us heartily repent of our wicked lives and say What have we done How careless have we been of our own happiness and what pains have we taken to undo our selves Let us speedily set about this Work because we do not know how long the Patience of God may last and the opportunities of our Salvation be continued to us This day of God's Grace and Patience will have an end therefore as the Prophet exhorts Isa 55.6 Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Now God graciously invites Sinners to come to him and is ready to receive them nay if they do but move towards him he is ready to go forth and meet them half way but the time will come when he will bid them depart from him when they shall cry Lord Lord open unto us and the door of mercy shall be shut against them All the while thou delayest this necessary work thou venturest thy immortal Soul and puttest thy eternal Salvation upon a desperate hazard and should God snatch thee suddenly away in an impenitent state what would become of thee Thou art yet in the way and God is yet reconcileable but Death is not far off and perhaps
and have been preserved by him and cannot subsist one moment without the continued influence of the Power and Goodness which first called us out of nothing He is the Author of all the good and the Fountain of all those Blessing which for the present we enjoy and for the future hope for When he made us at first he designed us for Happiness and when we by our sin and wilful mascarriage fell short of the Happiness which he design'd us for he sent his Son into the World for our recovery and gave his life for the Ransom of our Souls He hath not only admitted us into a new Covenant wherein he hath promised pardon and eternal life to us but he hath also purchased these Blessings for us by the most endearing price the blood of his own Son and hath saved us in such a manner as may justly astonish us Upon these Considerations we should awaken our selves to the praise of God and with the holy Psalmist call up our Spirits and summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to assist us in this Work Psal 103.1 2 3 4. c. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies 't is he that satisfies our Souls with good things and crowneth us with tender mercies and loving hindness that hath promised Eternal Life and Happiness to us and must confer and bestow this upon us Therefore our Souls and all that is within us should bless his holy name 2. If God be the first Cause that is orders all things that befall us and by his Providence disposeth of all our concernments this should teach us with patience and quietness to submit to all Events to all evils and afflictions that come upon us as being disposed by his wise Providence and coming from him We are apt to attribute all things to the next and immediate Agent and to look no higher than Second Causes not considering that all the motions of Natural Causes are directly subordinate to the first Cause and all the actions of free Creatures are under the Government of God's wise Providence so that nothing happens to us besides the design and intention of God And methinks this is one particular Excellency of the style of the Scripture above all other Books that the constant Phrase of the Sacred Dialect is to attribute all Events excepting sins only to God so that every one that reads it cannot but take notice that it is wrote with a more attentive consideration of God than any other Book as appears by those frequent and express acknowledgments of God as the Cause of all Events so that what in other Writers would be said to be done by this or that Person is ascribed to God Therefore it is so often said that the Lord did this and that stirr'd up such an Enemy brought such a Judgment And we shall find that holy men in Scripture make excellent use of this consideration to argue themselves into patience and contentedness in every condition So Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good So Job he did not so consider the Sabeans and Chaldeans who had carried away his Oxen and his Camels and slain his Servants nor the Wind which had thrown down his House and kill'd his Sons and his Daughters but he looks up to God the great Governour and Disposer of all these Events The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. So David Psal 39.9 I was dumb and spake not a word because thou Lord didst it So our Blessed Saviour when he was ready to suffer he did not consider the malice of the Jews which was the cause of his death but looks to a higher hand the cup which my father gives me to drink shall not I drink it He that looks upon all things as coming from second Causes and does not eye the first Cause the good and wise Governour will be apt to take offence at every cross and unwelcome accident Men are apt to be angry when one flings Water upon them as they pass in the Streets but no man is offended if he is wet by Rain from Heaven When we look upon Evils as coming only from men we are apt to be impatient and know not how to bear them but we should look upon all things as under the Government and disposal of the first Cause and the Circumstances of every condition as allotted to us by the wise Providence of God this Consideration that it is the hand of God and that he hath done it would still all the murmurings of our Spirits As when a Seditious Multitude is in an uproar the presence of a grave and venerable person will hush the noise and quell the tumult so if we would but represent God as present to all actions and governing and disposing all Events this would still and appease our Spirits when they are ready to riot and mutiny against any of his Dispensations Vse the Second If God be the last End of all let us make him our last End and refer all our Actions to his glory This is that which is due to him as he is the first Cause and therefore he does most reasonably require it of us And herein likewise the Scripture doth excel all other Books that is doth more frequently and expresly mind us of this End and calls upon us to propose it to our selves as our ultimate aim and design We should love him as our chief End Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Thus to love God is that which in the language of the Schools is loving God as our Chief End So likewise the Apostle requires that we should refer all the Actions of our lives to this End 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God that we should glorifie him in our souls and in our bodies which are his He is the Author of all the powers that we have and therefore we should use them for him we do all by him and therefore we should do all to him And that we may the better understand our selves as to this duty I shall endeavour to give satisfaction to a Question or two which may arise about it First Whether an actual intention of God's Glory be necessary to make every Action that we do good and acceptable to God Answ 1. It is necessary that the glory of God either Formally or Virtually should be the ultimate end and scope of our lives and all our Actions otherwise they will be defective in that which in moral Actions is most considerable and that is the End If a man should keep all
and dispersion of them at the destruction of Jerusalem These and the like instances of God's severity seem to call in question his goodness Against these severe and dreadful Instances of God's severity it might be a sufficient vindication of his goodness to say in general that they were all upon great and high Provocations most of them after long patience and forbearance and with a great mixture of mercy and a declared readiness in in God to have prevented or removed them upon repentance all which are great Instances of the goodness of God But yet for the clearer manifestation of the Divine Goodness I shall consider them particularly and as briefly as I can 1. As for the transgression of our first Parents and the dismal consequences of it to all their Posterity This is a great depth and tho the Scripture mentions it yet it speaks but little of it and in matters of mere Revelation we must not attempt to be wise above what is written Thus much is plain that it was an act of high and wilful Disobedience to a very plain and easie Command and that in the punishment of it God mitigated the extremity of the Sentence which was present death by granting our first Parents the Reprieve of almost a thousand Years and as to the consequences of it to their Posterity God did not upon this provocation abandon his care of Mankind and tho he removed them out of that happy state and place in which Man was created yet he gave them a tolerable condition and accommodations upon Earth and which is certainly the most glorious Instance of Divine Goodness that ever was he was pleased to make the fall and misery of Man the happy occasion of sending his Son in our Nature for the recovery and advancement of it to a much happier and better condition than that from which we fell So the Apostle tells us at large Rom. 5. That the Grace of God by Jesus Christ hath redounded much more to our benefit and advantage than the sin and disobedience of our first Parents did to our prejudice 2. For the general Deluge tho it look very severe yet if we consider it well we may plainly discern much of goodness in it It was upon great provocation by the universal corruption and depravation of Mankind The earth was filled with violence and all flesh had corrupted its ways the wickedness of Man was great upon the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually which is not a description of original sin but of the actual and improved wickedness of Mankind and yet when the wickedness of Men was come to this height God gave them fair warning before he brought this Calamity upon them when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah for the space of an hundred and twenty Years at last when nothing would reclaim them and almost the whole race of Mankind were become so very bad that it is said it repented the Lord that he had made Man upon the earth and it grieved him at his heart when things were thus extremely bad and like to continue so God in pity to Mankind and to put a stop to their growing wickedness and guilt swept them away all at once from the face of the Earth except one Family which he had preserved from this Contagion to be a new Seminary of Mankind and as the Heathen Poet expresseth it Mundi melioris origo the source and original of a better Race 3. For that terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven it was not brought upon them till the cry of their sin was great and gone up to Heaven till by their unnatural Lusts they had provoked supernatural Vengeance And it is very remarkable to what low terms God was pleased to condescend to Abraham for the sparing of them if in those five Cities there had been found but ten righteous persons he would not have destroyed them for those ten 's sake So that we may say with the Apostle Behold the goodness and severity of God! Here was wonderful goodness mixt with this great severity 4. For the extirpation of the Canaanites by the express command of God which hath such an appearance of severity it is to be consider'd that this Vengeance was not executed upon them till they were grown ripe for it God spared them for above four hundred Years for so long their growing Impiety is taken notice of Gen. 18.28 where it is said That the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full God did not proceed to cut them off till their case was desperate past all hopes of recovery till the land was defiled with abominations and surcharged with wickedness to that degree as to spue out its Inhabitants as is expresly said Levit. 18.28 When they were arrived to this pitch it was no mercy to them to spare them any longer to heap up more guilt and misery to themselves Fifthly and Lastly As for the great Calamities which God brought upon the Jews especially in their final ruin and dispersion at the destruction of Jerusalem not to insist upon the known History of their multiplied Rebellions and Provocations of their despiteful usage of God's Prophets whom he sent to warn them of his Judgments and to call them to Repentance of their obstinate refusal to receive Correction and to be brought to amendment by any means that God could use for all which Provocations he at last delivered them into their Enemies hands to carry them away Captive not to insist upon this I shall only consider their final destruction by the Romans which tho' it be dreadfully severe beyond any Example of History yet the Provocation was proportionable for this Vengeance did not come upon them till they had as it were extorted it by the most obstinate impenitency and unbelief in rejecting the Counsel of God against themselves and resisting such means as would have brought Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah to repentance till they had despised the Doctrine of Life and Salvation delivered to them by the Son of God and confirmed from Heaven by the clearest and greatest Miracles and by wicked hands had crucified and slain the Son of God and the Saviour of the World Nay even after this greatest of sins that ever was committed God waited for their Repentance forty Years to see if in that time they would be brought to a sense of their sins and to know the things which belonged to their peace And no wonder if after such provocations and so much patience and so obstinate an impenitency the goodness of God at last gave way to his justice and wrath came upon them to the utmost So that all these Instances rightly considered are rather commendations of the Divine Goodness than just and reasonable objections against it and notwithstanding the severity of them it is evident that God is good from the primary inclinations of his nature and severe only