of the perfect goodness and wisdom of God, SER M. whofe power is irrefiftible, fatisfies us that it III. will be fo univerfally. And for the miseries of incorrigible finners in the other world, they shall be no greater, than what public order, and the univerfal good of the rational creation, requires them to be. SER SERMON IV. The Goodness of GOD explained and improved. SER M. Mark x. 18. There is none good but one, that is God. T HE most important doctrine which our Saviour afferts in the text, that God is good, which the fcripture conftantly teaches, (and indeed the very being of religion depends upon it,) I have endeavoured to prove by the manifold and most visible fruits of the divine beneficence which are fcattered over all the earth, among the numberlefs multitude of living things which are in it, and for which the liberal author of nature has plentifully provided, giving every one what is most convenient for it, an enjoyment fuitable to its nature and capacity; particularly, by the frame and conftitution of the human nature, made for various happiness, and the administration of providence towards mankind. And I have endeavoured to vin dicate this doctrine against the objections SE RM. taken from the appearances of evil, both natu- IV. ral and moral, which are in the earth. The defign of the prefent difcourfe is to explain this glorious attribute of the divine nature, and to fhew what is the application, and the practical improvement we ought to make of it. Now, in order to understand the more diftinctly what is meant when we say that God is good, or attribute that perfection to the Deity, let us, firft, confider the notion of goodness in general. And here we proceed upon a fure and clear foundation; for scarcely is there any thing of which we have a more diftinct idea, no fenfible being or quality is more eafily perceiv'd: The mind of man as readily distinguishes between goodness and the contrary difpofition in a free agent, as we know the difference between black and white by our eyes, or between other oppofite qualities by any of our fenfes. Goodness then, in the strict and proper sense in which we are now confidering it, (not as comprehending univerfal rectitude, which it is fometimes used to denote, and which conftitutes the intire character of a good moral agent,) fignifies benevolence, or a disposition to communicate happiness. This is the plain meaning of the word when we apply it to man, or any other VOL. II. intel K SERM.intelligent being. A good man is one who IV. from an inward inclination exerts his power in doing good; not who is the paffive inftrument or occafion of it, (which even an inanimate thing, incapable of any kind of intention may be,) or who acting for his own private intereft, and from merely selfish motives, may be accidentally useful to the public or to fome of his fellow-creatures; but he is a good man who acts voluntarily and of choice for the benefit of others, and his inclination and his active powers terminate upon that as proper end. their In the same sense, though in an infinitely more perfect manner, and higher degree, God is good; that is, He is a being of kind affection, who from an inward principle of goodwill exerts his omnipotence in diffufing happiness far and wide, in all fitting proportion, according to the different capacities of the creatures which are the proper objects of goodnefs, and according to the direction of his most perfect wisdom. It is a very wrong notion which fome have of the moral perfections of God, particularly his goodness, that they are high excellencies of his nature, not only fuperior in degree, and free from all infirmity, but wholly different in kind, from moral qualities in the creatures; having indeed an an analogy to them, because of their produc- SER M. ing fome fimilar effects, but no otherwife at- IV. tributed to the Deity than as human paffions are, in a figurative and improper fenfe; and in their real nature fo tranfcendent, that our understandings cannot form a diftinct conception of them, fo that the words whereby they are expreffed, have no fuch determinate idea annexed to them as when they are used for the moral difpofitions of inferior agents. This has an unhappy tendency to destroy true practical religion; for it effentially confifts in an imitation of the divine moral perfections, and a fuitable affectionate regard to them, together with the genuine fruits of it in fincere obedience to the laws of God; all which must be defeated, if our apprehenfions concerning the moral attributes are uncertain. If when we fay that God is holy, righteous, true, and good, we mean only that he is something we don't know what, incomprehenfibly high and excellent; which produces, it is true, fome effects like thofe which the properties in men fignified by these words would produce, but of the inward principle itself in the fupreme mind we have no clear idea, How can this be the object of our adoration, of our reverence, love, and esteem? We know distinctly what the goodness of other agents is; K 2 that |