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
Perfection of the Divine Nature and essentially belongs to it it is a principal branch of God's goodness which is the highest and most glorious Perfection of all other and therefore we always find it in Scripture in the company of God's milder and sweeter Attributes When God would give the most perfect description of himself and as he says to Moses make all his glory to pass before us he usually does it by those Attributes which declare his Goodness and Patience is always one of them Exod. 34.6 The Lord passed by before Moses and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth Psal 86.15 But thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth Psal 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy And the same you find Psal 145.8 Jonah 4.2 Joel 2.13 Sometimes indeed you find a severer Attribute added to these as that he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 But 't is always put in the last place to declare to us that God's goodness and mercy and patience are his first and primary Perfections and it is only when these fail and have no effect upon us but are abused by us to the encouragement of our selves in an impenitent course that his Justice takes place Nay even among Men it is esteemed a Perfection to be able to forbear and to restrain our anger Passion is impotency and folly but Patience is power and wisdom Prov. 14.29 He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly but he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to wrath is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that conquereth a city Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of Evil but overcome Evil with good To be impatient is to be overcome but to forbear anger and revenge is a victory Patience is an argument of great power and command of our selves and therefore God himself who is the most powerful Being is slow to anger and of infinite patience and nothing doth more declare the Power of God than his Patience that when he is provoked by such vile and despicable Creatures as we are he can withhold his hand from destroying us This is the argument which Moses useth Numb 14.17 18. that the Power of God doth so eminently appear in his patience And now I pray thee let the power of my Lord be great as he hath spoken saying the Lord is gracious and long-suffering And yet Power where it is not restrained by wisdom and goodness is a great temptation to anger because where there is Power there is something to back it and make it good And therefore the Psalmist doth recommend and set off the Patience of God from the consideration of his Power Psal 7.11 God is strong and patient God is provoked every day God is strong and therefore patient or he is infinitely patient notwithstanding his Almighty Power to revenge the daily provocations of his Creatures Among Men anger and weakness commonly go together but they are ill matched as is excellently observed by the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 10.18 Pride was not made for man nor furious anger for him that is born of a woman So that anger and impatience is every where unreasonable Where there is Power impatience is below it and a thing too mean for Omnipotency and where there wants Power anger is above it it is too much for a weak and impotent Creature to be angry Where there is Power anger is needless and of no use and where there is no Power it is vain and to no purpose So that Patience is every where a Perfection both in God and Man I proceed to the III. Thing I proposed which was to give some proof and demonstration of the great patience and long-suffering of God to Mankind And this will evidently appear if we consider these two things 1. How Men deal with God 2. How notwithstanding this God deals with them 1. How Men deal with God Every day we highly offend and provoke him we grieve and weary him with our Iniquities as the Expression is in the Prophet Isa 43.24 Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities Every sin that we commit is an affront to the Divine Majesty and a contempt of his Authority By denying submission to his Laws we question his Omnipresence and say Doth God see and is there knowledge in the most high Or if we acknowledge his Omnipresence and that he regards what we do the provocation is still the greater because then we affront him to his face we dare his Justice and challenge his Omnipotency and provoke the Lord to jealousie as if we were stronger than he Is not God patient when the whole world lies in wickedness and the earth is overspread with violence and is full of the habitations of cruelty when he who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and is so highly offended at the sins of Men hath yet the patience to look upon them that deal treacherously and to hold his peace when the wicked persecutes and devours the man that is more righteous than he when even that part of the World which professeth the Name of God and Christ do by their vile and obominable lives blaspheme that holy and glorious name whereby they are called Every moment God hath greater injuries done to him and more affronts put upon him than were ever offered to all the Sons of Men and surely provocations are tryals of patience especially when they are so numerous and so heinous for if offences rise according to the dignity of the person injured and the meanness of him that doth the injury then no offences are so great as those that are committed by Men against God no affronts like to those which are offered to the Divine Majesty by the continual provocations of his Creatures And is not this an argument of God's patience that the glorious Majesty of Heaven should bear such multiplied indignities from such vile Worms that he who is the Former of all things should endure his own Creatures to rebel against him and the work of his hands to strike at him that he who is our great Benefactor should put up such affronts from those who depend upon his bounty and are maintained at his charge that he in whose hands our breath is should suffer Men to breath out Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies against him Surely these prove the patience of God to purpose and are equally tryals and arguments of it 2. The Patience of God will further appear if we consider how notwithstanding all this God deals with us He is patient to the whole World in that he doth not turn us out of Being and turn the wicked together into hell with all the nations that forget God He is patient to the greatest part of
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
good earnest Doth Christ weep over impenitent Sinners because they will not know the things of their peace and canst thou think he will not pardon thee upon thy repentance Is he grieved that Men will undo themselves and will not be saved and canst thou think that he is unwilling to forgive We cannot honour and glorifie God more than by entertaining great thoughts of his Mercy As we are said to glorifie God by our repentance because thereby we acknowledge God's holiness and justice so we glorifie him by believing his mercy because we conceive a right opinion of his goodness and truth we set to our Seal that God is merciful and true Psal 147.11 't is said That God taketh pleasure in them that hope in his mercy As he delights in mercy so in our acknowledgments of it that Sinners should conceive great hopes of it and believe him to be what he is Provided thou dost submit to the terms of God's mercy thou hast no reason to despair of it and he that thinks that his sins are more or greater than the mercy of God can pardon must think that there may be more evil in the Creature than there is goodness in God Vse 5. By way of Caution against the presumptuous Sinner If there be any that trespass upon the goodness of God and presume to encourage themselves in sin upon the hopes of his mercy let such know that God is just as well as merciful A God all of mercy is an Idol such a God as Men set up in their own imaginations but not the true God whom the Scriptures describe To such persons the Scripture describes him after another manner Nah. 1.2 God is jealous the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and reserveth wrath for his enemies If any Man abuse the mercy of God to the strengthning of himself in his own wickedness and bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho' I walk in the imagination of my own heart and add drunkeness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this book shall lye upon him and he will blot out his name from under heaven Deut. 29.19 20. Though it be the nature of God to be merciful yet the exercise of his mercy is regulated by his Wisdom he will not be merciful to those that despise his mercy to those that abuse it to those that are resolved to go on in their sins to tempt his mercy and make bold to say Let us sin that grace may abound God designs his mercy for those that are prepared to receive it Is 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The mercy of God is an enemy to sin as well as his justice and 't is no where offer'd to countenance sin but to convert the sinner and is not intended to encourage our impenitency but our repentance God hath no where said that he will be merciful to those who upon the score of his mercy are bold with him and presume to offend him but the mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear him and keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them There is forgiveness with him that he may be feared but not that he may be despised and affronted This is to contradict the very end of God's mercy which is to lead us to repentance to engage us to leave our sins not to encourage us to continue in them Take heed then of abusing the mercy of God we cannot provoke the justice of God more than by presuming upon his mercy This is the time of God's mercy use this opportunity if thou neglectest it a day of justice and vengeance is coming Rom. 2.4 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance And treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Now is the manifestation of God's mercy but there is a time a coming when the righteous Judgment of God will be revealed against those who abuse his mercy not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance To think that the goodness of God was intended for any other end than to take us off from sin is a gross and affected ignorance that will ruin us and they who draw any conclusion from the mercy of God which may harden them in their sins they are such as the Prophet speaks of Is 27.11 A people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them and he that formed them will have no mercy on them Mercy it self will rejoyce in the ruin of those that abuse it and it will aggravate their Condemnation There is no person towards whom God will be more severely just than toward such The justice of God exasperated and set on by his injured and abused mercy like a Razor set in Oyl will have the keener edge and be the sharper for its smoothness Those that have made the mercy of God their Enemy must expect the worst his justice can do unto them SERMON VI. Vol 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 IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle puts the Christians to whom he writes in mind of the Predictions of the ancient Prophets and of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour concerning the general Judgment of the World which by many and perhaps by the Apostles themselves had been thought to be very near and that it would presently follow the destruction of Jerusalem but he tells them that before that there would arise a certain Sect or sort of Men that would deride the expectation of a future Judgment designing probably the Carpocratians a branch of that large Sect of the Gnosticks of whom St. Austin expressly says That they denied the Resurrection and consequently a future Judgment These St. Peter calls Scoffers v. 3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Declaration in general whether it be by way of Promise or Threatning What is become of that Declaration of Christ so frequently repeated in the Gospel concerning his coming to Judgment For since the Fathers fell asleep or saving that the Fathers are fallen asleep except only that Men die and one Generation succeeds another all things continue as they were from the creation of the world that is the World continues still as it was from the
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
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
wisdom or goodness of God to make a Creature of such a frame as to be capable of having its obedience tryed in order to the reward of it which could not be unless such a Creature were made mutable and by the good or bad use of its liberty capable of obeying or disobeying the Laws of his Creator for where there is no possibility of sinning there can be no tryal of our Virtue and Obedience and nothing but Virtue and Obedience are capable of reward The goodness of God towards us is sufficiently vindicated in that he made us capable of happiness and gave us sufficient direction and power for the attaining of that end and it does in no wise contradict his goodness that he does not by his Omnipotency interpose to prevent our sin for this had been to alter the nature of things and not to let Man be the Creature he made him capable of reward or punishment according to the good or bad use of his own free choice It is sufficient that God made Man good at first tho mutable and that he had a power to have continued so tho he wilfully determined himself to evil this acquits the goodness of God that he made Man upright but he found out to himself many inventions 2. If there had not been such an order and rank of Creatures as had been in their nature mutable there had been no place for the manifestation of God's goodness in a way of mercy and patience so that tho God be not the Author of the sins of Men yet in case of their willful transgression and disobedience the goodness of God hath a fair opportunity of discovering it self in his patience and long-suffering to Sinners and in his merciful care and provision for their recovery out of that miserable state And this may suffice for answer to the first Objection if God be so good whence then comes evil The Second Objection against the Goodness of God is from the Doctrine of absolute reprobation by which I mean the decreeing the greatest part of Mankind to eternal misery and torment without any consideration or respect to their sin and fault This seems not only notoriously to contradict the Notion of infinite Goodness but to be utterly inconsistent with the least measure and degree of Goodness Indeed if by reprobation were only meant that God in his own infinite Knowledge foresees the sins and wickedness of Men and hath from all eternity determined in himself what in his Word he hath so plainly declared that he will punish impenitent Sinners with everlasting destruction or if by reprobation be meant that God hath not elected all Mankind that is absolutely decreed to bring them infallibly to Salvation neither of these Notions of reprobation is any ways inconsistent with the goodness of God for he may foresee the wickedness of Men and determine to punish it without any impeachment of his goodness He may be very good to all and yet not equally and in the same degree if God please to bring any infallibly to Salvation this is transcendent goodness but if he put all others into a capacity of it and use all necessary and fitting means to make them happy and after all this any fall short of happiness through their own wilful fault and obstinacy these Men are evil and cruel to themselves but God hath been very good and merciful to them But if by reprobation be meant either that God hath decreed without respect to the sins of Men their absolute ruin and misery or that he hath decreed that they shall inevitably sin and perish it cannot be denied but that such a reprobation as this doth clearly overthrow all possible Notion of goodness I have told you that the true and only Notion of goodness in God is this that it is a propension and disposition of the Divine Nature to communicate Being and Happiness to his Creatures But surely nothing can be more plainly contrary to a disposition to make them happy than an absolute decree and a peremptory resolution to make them miserable God is infinitely better than the best of Men and yet none can possibly think that Man a good Man who should absolutely resolve to disinherit and destroy his Children without the foresight and consideration of any fault to be committed by them We may talk of the Goodness of God But it is not an easie matter to devise to say any thing worse than this of the Devil But it is said reprobation is an act of soveraignty in God and therefore not to be measured by the common rules of goodness But it is contrary to goodness and plainly inconsistent with it and we must not attribute such a soveraignty to God as contradicts his goodness for if the soveraignty of God may break in at pleasure upon his other Attributes then it signifies nothing to say that God is good and wise and just if his soveraignty may at any time act contrary to these Perfections Now if the Doctrine of absolute reprobation and the goodness of God cannot possibly stand together the Question is Which of them ought to give way to the other What St. Paul determines in another case concerning the truth and fidelity of God will equally hold concerning his goodness Let God be good and every Man a lyar The Doctrine of absolute reprobation is no part of the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures that ever I could find and there 's the Rule of our Faith If some great Divines have held this Doctrine not in opposition to the goodness of God but hoping they might be reconciled together let them do it if they can but if they cannot rather let the Schools of the greatest Divines be call'd in question than the goodness of God which next to his Being is the greatest and clearest truth in the world Thirdly It is farther objected that the eternal punishment of Men for temporal Faults seems hard to be reconciled with that excess of Goodness which we suppose to be in God This Objection I have fully answer'd in a Discourse upon S. Matth. 25.46 and therefore shall proceed to the Fourth and last Objection against the goodness of God from sundry Instances of God's severity to Mankind in those great Calamities which by the Providence of God have in several Ages either befaln Mankind in general or particular Nations And here I shall confine my self to Scripture Instances as being most known and most certain and remarkable or at least equally remarkable with any that are to be met with in any other History such are the early and universal degeneracy of all Mankind by the sin and transgression of our first Parents the destruction of the World by a general deluge the sudden and terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them by Fire and Brimstone from Heaven the cruel extirpation of the Canaanites by the express command of God and lastly the great Calamities which befel the Jewish Nation especially the final ruin
Letter without admitting any trope or figure in the words which they do not pretend or else shew a clear reason why this should be understood so more than a thousand others which they have not done and I think never can do But if it be further argued If we grant in one case that those things which seem to be contradictions to us may be possible why not in all cases Unless we had some certain way of distinguishing between seeming contradictions and real ones And if we grant all contradictions possible then there is no reason to exempt these from the extent of the Divine Power but we may safely say that the Divine Power can make a thing to be and not to be at the same time To this I answer 1. I do not grant that any thing that seems to me to be a contradiction ought to be granted by me to be possible unless I have higher assurance and greater reason to believe it to be possible than I have to believe it to be a contradiction for Example Suppose it were clearly revealed in Scripture that two Bodies may be in the same place at the same time which is not nor any thing like it then having a revelation for this and no revelation that it is not a contradiction I have higher assurance and greater reason to believe it is possible than that it is a contradiction and consequently I have reason to believe it is no contradiction and that from thence it would not follow that the same thing may be and not be at the same time but tho' in case of Divine Revelation I may believe that to be no contradiction which seems to me to be a contradiction yet I am not without great necessity and clear evidence to offer violence to reason and affront the faculty of Understading which God hath endowed me withal by entertaining any thing which seems to me to be a contradiction which the Papists do in the business of Transubstantiation without any evidence of Revelation and consequently without necessity 2. But if this were revealed in Scripture that the same thing may be and not be at the same time I could have no reason to believe that because I could have no assurance if that were true that the Scriptures were a Divine Revelation or that it were to be believed if it were for if it were true that the same thing may be and not be then a Divine Revelation may be no Divine Revelation and when I am bound to believe a thing I may be bound at the same time not to believe it and so all things would fall into uncertainty and the foundation of all assurance and of all duty and obedience both of Faith and Practice would be taken away The II. Objection is from the power of Creation which is generally acknowledged to be a making of something out of nothing now say the Objectors this seems as palpable a Contradiction as any thing else Ans To us indeed who converse with material things and never saw any thing made but out of pre-existent matter it is very hard to conceive how any thing should be created that is produced out of nothing but every thing that is strange is not a contradiction It is strange to us and hard to conceive that there should be such a thing as a Spirit who never saw nor can see any thing but matter and yet we grant there are Spirits It is hard to us to conceive how any thing should be made but out of matter and yet Spirit if it were made of any thing pre-existent cannot be made of matter but if we will attend to those common dictates of Reason which every Man whether he will or no must assent to we may easily understand Creation to be possible and free from contradiction For the clearing of this I will proceed by these steps 1. The true Notion of Creation is the bringing of something into Being which before had no Being at all for the Phrase of making something out of nothing or out of no pre-existent matter does mislead our Understandings into odd Conceits as if nothing could be the material cause of something or as if nothing could be what is material 2. Every one must grant that something is for we see that things are however they came to be 3. Every one must grant that something is of it self whether matter or that Being which we call God 4. Every one must grant that that which was of it self was always for nothing can begin to be of it self 5. It is much more easie to conceive how a thing that once was not might sometime be brought into Being by another than how a thing should be always of it self for that which once was not is supposed to have something before it by which it might be made though not out of which it was made but that which was always neither had nor could have any thing by which or out of which it could be made And why cannot a thing come into a Being when there was nothing before it out of which it was made as well as a thing be always when there could not be any thing before it out of which it should be Secondly I exempt those things from the Extent of Omnipotence which imply Imperfection which are contrary to the Nature and Perfection of God both natural and moral imperfections for these also destroy Power because they are not arguments of Power but of Impotence Natural Imperfections as to dye to be sick to be in want to eat to sleep to forget c. Moral Imperfections those which contradict the holiness of God as sin and vice or to compel any to sin which contradict his Goodness as to be cruel which contradict his Truth as to lie to deceive to break his promise to deny himself Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 2.13 Jam. 1.13 He is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contrary to the constancy and immutability of his Nature as to change his decree to repent Contrary to Justice and Equity as for ever to spare and to pardon obstinate sinners eternally to punish innocent and good Men for these are Moral Imperfections and contradict the Holiness and Truth and Goodness and Justice and Immutability of the Divine Nature and that distinction between God's absolute and ordinate Power that is that God hath an absolute Power of doing some things which yet upon supposition of his decree or promise or goodness or justice he cannot do is vain and frivolous unless Men mean by it only this that some things which argue an imperfection do not imply a contradiction which is most true but both these are absolutely and equally impossible to God I proceed to the Second Thing I proposed That this Perfection belongs to God and this I shall shew I. From the dictates of Natural Light II. From the Scripture or Divine Revelation I. From the dictates of Natural Light This was one of the most usual Titles which the