and sending them; and that notwithstanding he knew beforehand what treatment he would meet with from a guilty, ungrateful, God-hating world; how they would murder his Son, resist his spirit, and kill his messengers: if we consider how patient, and forbearing, and long-suffering he has been towards obstinate sinners; how loath to give them over; swearing by himself that he delights not in their death, but rather that they turn and live; even while they have contemned and affronted him in the vilest manner; and if we consider his distinguishing favours towards his elect, and the marvellous things which he has wrought for his church and people; I say, if we consider these things, and, at the same time, look round the world and behold the innumerable common favours strewed abroad among guilty, hell-deserving rebels, we must be forced to own, that he is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works.

His goodness, indeed, is evidently as unbounded as his power. There is no act of kindness, which his omnipotency is able to do, but that there is goodness enough in his heart to prompt him to do it, if, all things considered, it is best to be done. His propensity to do good is fully equal to his ability. All the treasures and good things of this lower world are his, and he gives all to the children of men; and we should have enjoyed all, without the least sorrow intermixed, had not our sin and apostacy made it necessary for him to give some testimony of his displeasure; and yet, even the calamities of life are well adapted, in our present state, to do us good. All the treasures and glories of heaven are his, and he offers all to a guilty world, and actually gives all to such as are willing to accept of all, through the Mediator, in the way prescribed; and what can he give more? Can he give his only begotten Son to die for sinners? Behold, he has a heart to do it! Can he give his Holy Spirit to recover poor sinners to God? Behold, he has a heart to do it! is as ready to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask, as parents are to give bread to their children! And, finally, can be, in any sense, give himself to his creatures? Behold, he is willing to do so; to be their God, and father, and portion, and be all things to them, and do all things for them, if they will but accept of hun through

Jesus Christ! So that, as I said, his propensity to do good is fully equal to his ability: and there is no doubt but that he does show all those kindnesses to his intelligent creatures, which, all things considered, are best should be shown. And his understanding is infinite, whereby he is able to determine exactly what is best in the whole. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Psalm xxxvi. 5. 7.

And such is the goodness of his nature, and so much goodness has he in his heart, that he needs no motive to excite him to do good; i. e. nothing from without. Thus unmoved and unexcited by any thing from without himself, of his own mere goodness, he did, in the days of eternity, determine to do all that good, which ever will by him be done, to all eternity, when there was nothing existing but himself, and so nothing to move him but his own good pleasure: Yea, such is the goodness of his nature, that he not only needs no motive from without to excite him to do good, but even then, when there are all things to the contrary; even every thing in his creatures to render them ill-deserving, and to discourage and hinder his showing mercy, and to provoke him to wrath; even then, when discouragements are infinitely great, and provocations are innumerable; yea, when there is nothing in his creature but what is of the nature of a provocation; even, in such a case, he can show mercy; yea, the greatest of mercies. He can give his Son to die for such, and his holy spirit to sanctify them, and himself at last to be their God and father, and everlasting portion. Such is the incomparable goodness of his nature. Who is a God like unto thee ! &c. Mic. vii. 18, 19. But then he is at liberty in such cases, and may act according to his own discretion, and have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and have compassion on whom he will have compassion; and truly, it is infinitely fit he should. To act sovereignly, in such cases, is infinitely becoming; and, indeed, and it is fit he should dispense all his favours according to his sovereign pleasure. It is fit he should do what he will with his own.

He knows best how to exercise his own goodness, and it is perfectly fit that he should be at liberty, and act according to his own discretion; according to the counsel of his own will. And because it is infinitely fit, therefore he actually does so; Eph. i. 11. He passed by the angels that sinned, and pitied sinful men; he passed by the rest of the world, and chose the seed of Abraham; he suffers thousands of sinners to go on in their sins and perish, and in the mean time, seizes here and there one by his all-conquering grace, and effectually saves them; and all according to his sovereign pleasure, because it seems good in his sight so to do. And the reason why he acts sovereignly, is because in the nature of things, it is fit he should; therefore, his sovereignty is a holy and a glorious sovereignty. Hence, when Moses desired to see his glory, he discovered this unto him; Erod. xxxiii. 12. And because our Saviour saw how fit and becoming, it was for God to act as a sovereign, in bestowing his favours; therefore he saw a glory in his sovereignty, and so rejoiced in it; Matt. xi. 25, 26. And sovereign grace is glorious grace in the eyes of every one who views things aright, and has a right frame of heart. Considering that all God has is his own; that he knows infinitely the best what to do with what he has; that there can be no motive from without to excite him to act, it is infinitely fit he should be left to himself, to act according to his own discretion; and it is infinite imprudence for a worm of the dust to intermeddle or go about to direct the almighty and infinitely wise God; and it is infinite wickedness to dislike his conduct, and find fault with his dispensations.

Indeed, if there was nothing of greater worth and importance than the happiness of his creatures and subjects, and so nothing that he ought to have a greater regard to, and concern for, then it is not to be supposed that any of his creatures and subjects will be finally miserable. The infinitely good Governor of the world has a great regard to the happiness of his subjects: their welfare is very dear to him, and their misery, in itself, or for its own sake, very undesirable in his sight; yet he has so much greater regard to something else, that, in some instances, he actually does suffer sinners to go on in their sins and perish for ever: yea, he will inflict the

eternal torments of of hell upon them. The goodness of God is a holy, wise, and rational goodness, and not an unreasonable fondness; he will never do a wrong thing, to oblige any of his creatures: no, he had rather the whole world should be damned; yea, that even his own Son should die: nor will he ever communicate good to any one, when, all things considered, it is not best and wisest. When he first designed to create the world, and first laid out his whole scheme of government, as it was easy for him to have determined, that neither angels nor men should ever sin, and that misery should never be heard of in all his dominions, so he could easily have prevented both sin and misery. Why did he not? Surely, not for want of goodness in his nature; for that is infinite: not from any thing like cruelty; for there is no such thing in him: not for want of a suitable regard to the happiness of his creatures; for that he always has: But it was because, in his infinite wisdom, he did not think it best in the whole. It was not because he had not sufficient power to preserve angels and men all holy and happy; for it is certain he had it was not because preventing grace would have been inconsistent with their being free agents; for it would not : it was not because he did not thoroughly consider and weigh the thing with all its consequences; for it is certain he did: But, upon the whole, all things considered, he judged it best to permit the angels to sin and man to fall; and so let misery enter into his dominions. It did not come to pass accidentally and unawares, and contrary to what God had ever thought of or intended; because it is certain that he knew all things from the beginning; and it is certain that, in an affair of such a nature, and of such consequence, he could not stand by as an idle unconcerned spectator, that cares not which way things go. There is no doubt, therefore, but that, all things considered, he thought it best to permit things to come to pass just as they did: and, if he thought it best, it was best; for his understanding is infinite, his wisdom unerring, and so he can never be mistaken. But why was it best? What could he have in view preferable to the happiness of his creatures? And if their happiness was to him above all things most dear, how could he bear the thoughts of their ever, any of them, being misera

ble? Why, it is certain he thought it best; and therefore it is certain he had a view to something else besides merely the happiness of his creatures; to something of greater importance, and more worthy to bear a governing sway in his mind, by which it became him to be above all things influenced, in laying out and contriving how things should proceed and be disposed in the world he designed to create.

But what was that thing which was of greater worth and importance, and so more worthy to bear a governing sway in his mind, and to which he had the greatest regard, making all other things give way to this? what was his grand end in creating and governing the world? Why, look; what end he is at last like to obtain, when the whole scheme is finished, and the day of judgment past, and heaven and hell filled with all their proper inhabitants: And what will be the final result? What will he get by all? Why, in all, he will exert and display every one of his perfections to the life, and so, by all, will exhibit a most perfect and exact image of himself. And now, as he is infinitely glorious in being what he is, therefore that scheme of conduct which is perfectly suited to exhibit the most lively and exact image of him, must be infinitely glorious too; and, therefore, this is the greatest and best thing he can aim at in all his works; and this, therefore, ought to be his last end. Now, it is evident, that the fall of the angels and of man, together with all those things which have and will come to pass in consequence thereof, and occasioned thereby, from the beginning of the world to the day of judgment, and throughout eternity, will serve to give a much more lively and perfect representation of God, than could possibly have been exhibited, had there never been any sin or misery. The holiness and justice; the goodness, mercy, and grace of God, shine much more brightly: They have been displayed with an astonishing lustre and glory in the death of Christ, and will be displayed for ever in heaven and in hell, as they could not have been, had not sin and misery ever been permitted to enter into God's world. Indeed, if, in the nature of things, it had been wrong for God to have permitted any of his creatures to sin, and then to punish them for it; if God had been bound in duty, or in goodness, to keep them from sin, or to save them when they had sinned, then the