take away our sins." Now shall we continue in sin when we know the Son of God was manifested to take away sin? God can but take it very ill at our hands, when He hath laid out the riches of His wisdom in this design, for us to go about to defeat Him in it; this is at once to be unthankful to God, and injurious to ourselves: it is such a madness, as if a condemned man should despise a pardon; as if a prisoner should be fond of his fetters, and refuse deliverance; as if a man desperately sick should fight with his physician, and put away health from him. If we do not comply with the wisdom of God, which hath contrived our recovery, "we forsake our own mercy, and neglect a great salvation; we love death, and hate our own souls" (Prov. viii. 34-36).

(2.) Consider, we cannot expect the wisdom of God should do more for our recovery than hath been already done; the wisdom of God will not try any further means. (Matt. xxi. 37) “Last of all He sent His Son." If we despise this way, if we "tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, whereby we are sanctified, an unholy thing, there would remain. no more sacrifice for sin" (Heb. x. 26, 29). What can expiate the guilt of sin, if the blood of Christ do not? What shall take us off from sin, what shall sanctify us, if the blood of the covenant be ineffectual ? We resist our last remedy, and make void the best means the wisdom of God could devise for our recovery, if, after the revelation of the Gospel, we continue in

our sins.

(3.) If we frustrate this design of God's wisdom for our recovery, our ruin will be the more dreadful and certain. Impenitency under the gospel will increase our misery. If Christ had not come, we had had no sin, in comparison of what we now have; but now our sin remains, and there is no cloak for our sin, πρόφασιν οὐκ ἔχουσιν. We shall not be able at the day of judgment to preface anything, by way of excuse or apology, for our impenitency. What shall we be able to say to the justice of God, when that shall condemn us, who rejected His wisdom, which would have saved us? We would all be

saved, but we would be saved without repentance: now the wisdom of God hath not found out any other way to save us from hell, but by saving us from our sins. And thou that wilt not submit to this method of Divine wisdom, take thy course, and let us see how thou wilt escape the damnation of hell. I will conclude all with those dreadful words which the wisdom of God pronounceth against those that despise her, and refuse to hearken to her voice, (Prov. i. 21-26) "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh." They who will not comply with the counsel of God for their happiness, they shall inherit the condition which they have chosen to themselves; "they shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices."

THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.-PSAL. cxlv. 9.

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 show 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 show,

in the

(2.) Second 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 this world, and all the creatures in it; and, that they might be made in the best manner that could be, His wisdom directed His power; He hath made all things in number, weight, and measure; so that they are admirably fitted and proportioned to one another; and that there is an excellent contrivance in all sorts of beings, and a wonderful beauty and harmony in the whole frame of things, is, I think, sufficiently visible to every discerning and unprejudiced mind. The lowest form of creatures-I mean those which are destitute of sense-do all of them contribute, some way or other, to the use, and conveniency, and comfort, of the creatures above them, which being endowed with sense, are capable of enjoying the benefit and delight of them, which being so palpable in the greatest part of them, may reasonably be presumed, though it be not so discernible, concerning all the rest; so that when we survey the whole creation of God, and the several parts, we may well cry out with David, (Psal. civ. 24) “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all."

It is true, indeed, there are degrees of perfection in the creatures, and God is not equally good to all of them. Those creatures which are of more noble and excellent natures, and to which He hath communicated more degrees of perfection, they partake more of His goodness, and are more glorious instances of it; but every creature partakes of the Divine goodness in a certain degree, and according to the nature and capacity of it. God, if He pleased, could have made nothing but immortal spirits; and He could have made as many of these as there are individual creatures of all sorts in the world: but it seemed good to the wise Architect to make several ranks and orders of beings, and to display His power, and goodness, and wisdom, in

all imaginable variety of creatures, all of which should be good in their kind, though far short of the perfection of angels and immortal spirits.

He that will build a house for all the uses and purposes of which a house is capable, cannot make it all foundation, and great beams and pillars; must not so contrive it as to make it all rooms of state and entertainment; but there must of necessity be in it meaner materials, rooms and offices for several uses and purposes, which, however inferior to the rest in dignity and degree, do yet contribute to the beauty and advantage of the whole so, in this great frame of the world it was fit there should be variety and different degrees of perfection in the several parts of it; and this is so far from being an impeachment of the wisdom or goodness of Him that made it, that it is an evidence of both for the meanest of all God's creatures is good, considering the nature and rank of it, and the end to which it was designed; and we cannot imagine how it could have been ordered and framed better, though we can easily tell how it might have been worse, and that if this or that had been wanting, or had been otherwise, it had not been so good; and those who have been most conversant in the contemplation of nature and of the works of God have been most ready to make this acknowledgment.

But then, if we consider the creatures of God with relation to one another, and with regard to the whole frame of things, they will all appear to be very good; and notwithstanding this or that kind of creatures be much less perfect than another, and there be a very great distance between the perfection of a worm and of an angel; yet considering every thing in the rank and order which it hath in the creation, it is as good as could be, considering its nature and use, and the place allotted to it among the creatures.

And this difference in the works of God, between the goodness of the several parts of the creation, and the excellent and perfect goodness of the whole, the Scripture is very careful to express to us in the history of the creation, where you find God