II.

SER M. or private diftempers; as an inftrument of rouzing us out of our finful lethargies; as that which may caufe us better to understand ourselves, and more to remember God; as a ground of fearing God, and an inducement to believe his providence. For those and many fuch purposes, to bring upon men things diftafteful to fenfe may be very requifite; nor doth the doing it anywife prejudice the truth of divine goodnefs, but rather confirms it, commends it, and advances its juft efteem. It would be a fond indulgence, not a wife kindness; a cruel, rather than a Wifd. i. 12. loving pity, to deal otherwife. In fine, we are to Carm. Py confider, that all the mischiefs we undergo, God doth Hier. Da- not fo much bring them on us, as we do pull them

thag. Cyril.

mafc.

on ourselves h. They are avaigerα nμтα, affected, or felf-chofen mifchiefs; they are xana Brasμaтα пρ0αsgioews, bad fprouts of our free choice, (as a Father calls them;) they are (as another Father faith) ixxoiwv naxwv dxxσa Exycvx, the unwilling offsprings of wilfulevils; they are the certain refults of our own will, or the natural fruits of our actions; actions, which (however God defire, advise, command, perfuade, entreat, excite) we do will, we are refolved to perform. We in a manner, as Salvian faith, do force God to do whatever he doth in this kind; violently plucking down vengeance on our own heads; compelling the kind and merciful Lord, against his nature and will, to afflict us; not fo much as giving him leave to fpare us. God vehemently disclaims fi nec juranti himself to be the original caufe; to defign, (accordmus. Hier. ing to abfolute or primary intention,) to defire, to deEzek. xviii light in our grief, or our ruin. As I live, faith the 30. xxxiii. Lord, (and furely when God fwears, we may believe

Miferos nos

Deo credi

11.

that he is very serious,) I have no pleafure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and

h Πάντα κονεῖ καὶ πραγματεύεται ὁ Θεὸς, ὥςε ἡμᾶς ἀπαλλάξαι κολά nai riμwpias. Chryf. tom. 8. p. 100.

σεως,

i Nos vim Deo facimus iniquitatibus noftris; nos nolentem ulcifci cogimus. Deus enim pius et mifericors eft, et qui neminem velit perire, vel lædere, &c. Salv. lib. 5. et 8.

II.

Lam.iii. 33.

Σίν. 1.

live. I call heaven to record this day against you, that IS ERM. have fet life and death before you, therefore choofe life. He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of Deut. xxx. men. He would have all men to be faved, and to come 19. to the knowledge of the truth. He would not have any wifd. i. 13. perish, but that all fhould come to repentance. He made not death, nor hath he pleafure in the deftruction of the living. God then, if we may believe him, is not the firft author of our calamities. Who then? He tells us him felf: 0 lfrael, thou haft destroyed thyself: thou haft Hof. xiii. 9. fallen by thine own iniquity. Your fins have withholden Jer. v. 25. good things from you. Our iniquities like the wind have Ifa. Ixiv. 6. taken us away. How often would I have gathered you, Matt. xxiii. but ye would not! The defigns and the endeavours of 37. God do tend to our welfare and falvation; it is our will and our actions which only procure our ruin : It is we, that (as the wife man faith) feek death in the Sap. i. 5. error of our life; and pull upon our own felves deftruction. So that, to conclude this part of our discourse, even those paffages of providence, which at first glimpse appear moft oppofite or disadvantageous to the goodnefs of God, (or to our opinion and belief concerning it,) do, being well fifted, no wife prejudice it, but rather ferve to corroborate and magnify it.

I fhall only farther briefly touch (or rather but mention) the ufes and effects, to the producing which, the confideration of God's goodness, in fo manifold ways declared, fhould be applied.

I. It should beget in us hearty love and reverence toward God, in regard to this attribute fo excellent and amiable in itself, fo beneficial and advantageous What can we esteem, what can we love, if so admirable goodness doth not affect us? How prodigiously cold and hard is that heart, which cannot be

to us.

St. Chryfoftom in divers places doth infift upon the goodness of God in making and threatening hell itself.

Τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔλατίον, ἡ τῆς γεέννης απειλὴ δείκνυσιν αὐτῇ τὴν ἀγαJótetz, &c. 'Avdę. Č.

warmed

9ER M. warmed and foftened into affection by fo melting a confideration?

IT.

2. It should produce, as grateful fenfe in our hearts, fo real endeavours of thankful obedience in Col, i, 10. our lives. It fhould make us walk worthy of God, to all well-pleafing, bringing forth fruit in every good work; taking heed of doing as did Hezekiah, of 2 Chron. whom it is faid; that he rendered not according to the xxxii. 25. benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore was wrath upon him; that we may not have that Deut.xxxii. expoftulation juftly applied unto us: Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife?

6.

4.

3. It fhould engage us the more to fear God; Hof. iii. 5. complying with the Prophet's admonition; Fear the Lord and his goodness. Confidering that intimation Pfal. cxxx. of the Pfalmift; There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayeft be feared; obferving that advice of Samuel, 1 Sam. xii. Only fear the Lord, and ferve him; for confider what great things he hath done for you. For that indeed nothing is more terrible, than goodness flighted, and patience abused.

24.

4. It fhould humble, afhame, and grieve us, for having croffed and offended fuch exceeding goodness and mercy. It should cause us greatly to deteft our fins, which lie under fo heinous an aggravation, to be deeply displeased with ourselves, who have so unworthily committed them.

5. It fhould therefore render us wary and vigilant against the commiffion of any fin; that is, of incurring the guilt of fo enormous ingratitude and bafenefs; making us cautious of doing like thofe, of Neh.ix. 25, whom it is confeffed in Nehemiah; They did eat, and were filled, and delighted themfelves in thy great

26.

nefs; nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and caft thy laws behind their back.

6. It fhould alfo breed and nourish in us faith and hope in God. For what reafon can we have to dif truft of fo great goodness; that he will refufe to help us in our need; that he will fail in accomplishment

of

of his promise; that he will withhold what is conve- s E R M. nient for us? It fhould preferve us from despair. II. What temptation can we have to despair of mercy, Vid. Chryf. if we heartily repent of our mifdoings, and fincerely ad Theod. endeavour to please him?

7. It should upon the fame account excite us a free and conftant exercife of all devotions.

2. tom. 6. p. 63. optito me et fufe. For Matt. vii.

why fhould we be shy or fearful of entering into fo friendly and favourable a prefence? why should we be backward from having (upon any occafion or need) a recourse to him, who is fo willing, fo defirous, fo ready to do us good? what fhould hinder us from delighting in oblations of bleffing and praife unto him?

11.

8. It ought to render us fubmiffive, patient, and contented under God's hand, of correction, or trial, as knowing that it cannot be without very juft caufe, that fuch goodness feemeth displeased with us; that we are the chief caufes of our fuffering, or our want; so that we can have no good caufe to repine, or complain: for, Wherefore doth the living man complain? Lam. iii. fince a man (fuffers) for the punishment of his fins; fince 39. it is our fins that withhold good things from us; fince Jer. v. 25. alfo we confidering this attribute may be affured, that all God's difpenfations do aim and tend to our good.

9. It should also, in gratitude toward God, and imitation of him, engage us to be good, kind, and bountiful, peaceable, and apt to forgive; meek and gentle, pitiful, and affectionate toward our brethren. To be good and merciful, as our heavenly Father is mer– Luke vi. ciful and benign even toward the wicked and ungrate-John iii. ful; to be kind unto one another, full of bowels, for- 16. giving one another, as God for Chrift's fake hath forgiven us.

Coloff. iii.

13.

Eph. iv. 32.

10. Laftly, we ought to have an especial care of perverting this excellent truth by mistakes and vain prefumptions; that we do not turn the grace of God Jude 4. into wantonness, or occafion of licentious practice. Be

cause

II.

SER M. caufe God is very good and merciful, we must not conceive him to be fond, or flack, or careless; that he is apt to indulge us in fin, or to connive at our presumptuous tranfgreffion of his laws No; TEται τῷ ἀγαθῷ, ἡ ἀγαθὸν, ἡ μισοπονηρία, (the hatred of wickedness is confequent upon goodness even as fuch, as Clemens Alexandrinus faith,) God, even as he is good, cannot but deteft that which is oppofite and prejudicial to goodness; he cannot but maintain the honour and intereft thereof; he cannot, he will not endure us to dishonour him, to wrong our neighbour, to fpoil ourselves. As he is a fure friend to us as his creatures, fo he is an implacable enemy to us as imPfal. xi. 5. penitent rebels and apoftates from our duty. The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his foul hateth. As he is infinitely benign, fo he is also perfectly holy, Hab. i. 13. and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither fhall evil Pfal. v. 4. dwell with him. The foolish fhall not ftand in his fight; Pfal. xxxiv. he hateth all workers of iniquity. His face is against them that do evil. Finally, as God is gracious to all fuch as are capable of his love, and qualified for his mercy; fo he is an impartial and upright Judge, who will deal with men according to their deferts, according to the tenour of his laws and ordinances; according to his immutable decree and word: fo that as we have great reafon to truft and hope in him, fo we have no true ground to prefume upon him, vainly to trifle, or infolently to dally with him.

16.

But I leave this point to be farther improved by your meditations.

SERMON