from evil,) of that state we can, at prefent, SERM. form but a very imperfect idea; the notices III. we have of it being only such as are intended for our advantage during our probation. But we may be affured that the most exact meafures of rectitude, wisdom, and goodness will be obferved in it. For if we have fufficient evidence that these perfections are the true characters of the active supreme mind which governs all, it would be unreasonable not to allow that they shall prevail every where and in every state; and confequently, that the last refult of all the divine difpenfations, comprehending the permiffion of evil, will be the greatest abfolute good.

The fum of what has been offered upon the fubject is, That God is not the author of moral evil, nor did he fore-ordain it in his everlasting counfels, as any part of his works: On the contrary, he always difapproves it as an irregular production, whereof the creatures themselves are the fole caufes, and directly oppofite to the effential rectitude of his nature. But as he permits it in time, so far as not to prevent it by such extraordinary interpofitions of his omnipotence as would violate the freeagency of his rational creatures, (which freeagency is an effential part of their conftitu

SERM.tion, necessary to their answering the ends of III. their being; neceffary to their practising vir

tue, their attaining moral perfection and rational happiness ;) fo he forefaw it from eternity, and he chofe to execute that scheme of creation and providence, as in the whole absolutely the beft, upon which he knew that moral evil was unavoidable. We ourselves plainly discern that the permiffion of fin actually is, in many instances, the occafion of good; that it may be so in many more instances and ways; but we cannot comprehend them, because we cannot fee the infinitely various relations of things in the universe. Indeed this must neceffarily be the cafe with imperfect understandings, that things must appear to them differently from what they really are. We may therefore conclude that the objection, as formidable as it may feem at firft, does not affect the doctrine it is urged againft, which is otherwise fo well established; but that all the most shocking appearances of evil in the world, the oppreffion of innocence, the fuccefs of tyranny, the covetoufness, pride, wrath, and superstition of men spreading defolation thro' the earth,-that, I fay, thefe, and other appearances like them, may terminate in good. It has often been fo, and the confideration

of

of the perfect goodness and wisdom of God, SER M. whose 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.

IV.

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 scripture conftantly teaches, (and indeed the very being of religion depends upon it,) I have endeavoured to prove by the manifold and most vifible fruits of the divine beneficence which are fcattered over all the earth, among the numberless 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

The

dicate this doctrine against the objections SERM. taken from the appearances of evil, both natu- IV. ral and moral, which are in the earth. design of the present difcourfe is to explain this glorious attribute of the divine nature, and to shew 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 fay that God is good, or attribute that perfection to the Deity, let us, first, confider the notion of goodnefs in general. And here we proceed upon a fure and clear foundation; for scarcely is there any thing of which we have a more distinct 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 difpofition to communicate happiness. This is the plain meaning of the word when we apply it to man, or any other VOL. II. intel

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