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 becom ing; and, indeed, it is fit he should dispense all his favors 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....Exod. xxxiii. 12. And because our Savior saw how fit and becoming it was for God to act as a sovereign, in bestowing his favors, therefore he saw a glory in his sovereignty, and so rejoiced in it.... Mat. 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 impudence 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 would 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 forever: yea, he will inflict the eternal torments 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 infi nite-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. 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 be

cause 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 miserable?-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 evi-. dent 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 forever 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 case had been otherwise But since, in the nature of things, it was fit he should be at liberty, and act according to his own discretion; and since the end he had in view was so noble and godlike, his conduct in this affair was infinitely right, fit and becoming, and so infinitely glorious. Certainly God thought it was so, or he would not have done as he did; and therefore, if we view things as God did, and have a temper and frame of heart like unto his, we shall think so too: And, as I said before, it is horrid pride and impudence for us to pretend to know better than the infinite. ly wise God, and infinite wickedness for us to pretend to find fault with his conduct....Rom. ix. 19-23.* Thus, if he had

OBJ....But surely it could not be consistent with the divine goodness, from all eternity, to decree the everlasting misery of his creatures.

G

ANS.

aimed merely at the happiness of his creatures, he could easily have so ordered that Pharaoh should willingly have let Israel go, and he could have led Israel in less than forty days to the promised land, and put them into an immediate possession: but there was something else which he had a greater regard to; and therefore Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and all his wonders are wrought in the land of Egypt. The tribes of Israel march to the borders of the Red-Sea....the sea parts....Israel goes through, but the Egyptians are drowned. And now Israel is tempted and tried, and they sin and rebel, and so are doomed to wander forty years in the wilderness, and to have their carcases fall there. And why was all this? Why, because his design was to display all his perfections, and fill the whole earth with his glory...Exod. ix. 16-Numb. xiv. 21. And now, because it is the most noble thing that God can have in view, to act forth all his perfections to the life, and so exhibit the most exact representation of himself in his works; therefore, it is infinitely fit he should make this his last end, and all other things subservient; and his conduct in so doing is infinitely beautiful and glorious. Thus we see how the goodness of God is displayed in his government of the world, and see that it is an unbounded, rich, free goodness; and that all the exercises of it are sovereign, and under the direction of his infinite wisdom: so that God is infinitely glorious on the account of this perfection of his nature....Exod. xxxiii. 19. & xxxiv. 5, 6, 7.-Rom. ix-Eph. i. 1-12.

(7) His unchangeable truth and faithfulness are also discov ered in his government of the world; and that in the fulfilment of his promises, and the execution of his threatenings. Did he'

ANS....God has in fact permitted sin to enter into the world-does in fact permit many to die in their sins-will in fact punish them forever ; and all consistent with the infinite goodness of his nature, as every one must acknowledge. And since it is consistent with his goodness to do as be does, it was consistent with his goodness, to determine with himself beforehand to do so...What God, from eternity, decreed to do, that God, in time, will do: therefore, if all God's conduct be holy, just and good, so also are all his decrees; unless we can suppose it to be wrong for the infi, nitely wise God, from all eternity, to determine upon a conduct in all respects right than which nothing can be more absurd.