Vol. VII. How is that? in being good, and kind, oland merciful, as God is. But I fay ün to you (fays our Lord) Love your ene> mies, bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which defpightfully use you, and perfecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his Sun to rife on the evil, and on the good, and fendeth rain on the juft, and on the unjust. And then it follows, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is heaven is perfect. The fame Pattern St. Paul propofeth to us, Eph. 4. 32. and Ch. 5. 1. Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted; forgiving one another, even as God for Chrift's fake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore folbowers of God as dear Children, and walk in love. We cannot in any thing refemble God more, than in goodness, and kindness, and mercy, and in a readiness to forgive thofe who have been injurious to us, and to be reconciled to them. . Let us then often contemplate this Perfection of God, and reprefent it to our Minds, that by the frequent contemplation of it, we may be transformed into the Image of the Divine Goodness. Is God fo good to his Creatures? with how much greater reafon should Vol. VII. we be fo to our fellow Creatures. Is God good to us? let us imitate his univerfal goodness, by endeavouring the good of Mankind; and, as much as in us lies, of the whole Creation of God. What God is to us, and what we would have him ftill be to us, that let us be to others. We are infinitely beholding to this Perfection of God for all that we are, and for all that we enjoy, and for all that we expect; and therefore we have all the reafon in the World to admire and imitate it. Let this pat tern of the Divine Goodness be continually before us, that we may be ftill fashioning our felves in the temper of our Minds, and in the actions of our Lives, to a likeness and conformity to it. Laftly, The confideration of the Divine goodness, fhould excite our praise and thankfulness. This is a great Duty,to the performance whereof we fhould fummon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls, as the holy Pfalmift does, Pfal. 103. Blefs the Lord, O my foul, and all that is within H 2 ~me, bless his holy Name. Bless the Vol VII. Lord, O my foul, and forget not all his benefits. And we fhould invite all others to the fame Work, as the fame devout Pfalmift frequently does, Pfal. 106. O give thanks unto the Lord! for he is good, for his mercy endureth for eAnd Pfal. 107. O that men would therefore praife the Lord for his goodnefs, and for his wonderful works to the children of Men! ver. And we had need to be often call'd upon to this Duty, to which we have a peculiar backwardness. Neceffity drives us to Prayer, and fends us to God for the supply of our wants; but Praife and Thanksgiving is a Duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity; and nothing fooner wears off, than the fenfe of Kindness and Benefits. We are very apt to forget the bleffings of God, not so much from a bad Memory, as from a bad Nature; to forget the greatest bleffings, the continuance whereof fhould continually put us in mind of them; the bleffings of our Beings; So God complains of his People, Deut. 32. Of the God that formed thee, thou hast been unmindful; the dignity and excellency Vol. VII. lency of our Beings above all the Crea-M It is a fign Men are unfit for Heaven, when they are backward to that which is the proper Work and Imployment of the bleffed Spirits above. H 3 There Therefore as ever we hope to come Vol. VII. thither, let us begin this Work here, and inure our felves to that which will be the great business of all Eternity. Let us with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelation, fall down before him that fits on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast our crowns before the throne (that is, caft. our felves) and afcribe all glory to God; Saying, thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power for thou haft made all things, and for thy pleafure they are, and were created. To him therefore, the infinite and in. exhaustible fountain of goodneß, the fa ther of mercies, and the God of all confolation, who gave us fuch excellent Beings, having made made us little lower than the Angels, and crowned us with glory and honour; who hath been pleased to stamp upon us the image of his own goodness, and thereby made us partakers of a divine nature, communicating to us, not only of the effects of his goodneß, but in Jome meafure and degree of the perfection it self; to him who gives us all things richly to enjoy, which pertain to life and godliness, and hath made fuch abundant provifion, not only for our comfort and convenience |