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from evil,) of that state we can, at present, 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 assured that the most exact meafures of rectitude, wisdom, and goodness will be observed in it. For if we have sufficient 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 consequently, that the last result of all the divine dispensations, comprehending the permiffion of evil, will be the greatest absolute good.

The sum of what has been offered upon the subject is, That God is not the author of moral evil, nor did he fore-ordain it in his everlasting counsels, as any part of his works: On the contrary, he always disapproves it as an irregular production, whereof the creatures themselves are the fole causes, and directly opposite to the essential rectitude of his nature. But as he permits it in time, so far as not to prevent it by such extraordinary interpositions of his omnipotence as would violate the freeagency of his rational creatures, (which freeagency is an effential part of their constitu

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

tue, their attaining moral perfection and rational happiness ;) so he foresaw it from eternity, and he chose to execute that scheme of creation and providence, as in the whole absolutely the best, upon which he knew that moral evil was unavoidable. We ourselves plainly discern that the permission 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 muft 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 seem at first, does not affect the doctrine it is urged againft, which is otherwise so well established; but that all the most shocking appearances of evil in the world, the oppreffion of innocence, the success of tyranny, the covetousness, pride, wrath, and superstition of men spreading desolation thro the earth, that, I say, these, and other appearances like them, may terminate in good. It has often been so, and the confideration

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of the perfect goodness and wisdom of God, SERM. whose power is irresistible, satisfies us that it III. will be so universally. And for the miseries of incorrigible finners in the other world, they shall be no greater, than what public order, and the universal good of the rational creation, requires them to be.

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SERMON IV.

The Goodness of God explained and improved.

SERM.

Mark x. 18.

There is none good but one, that is God.

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HE most important doctrine which our Saviour afferts in the text, that God is good, which the scripture constantly 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 scattered 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 suitable to its nature and capacity; particularly, by the frame and constitution of the human nature, made for various happiness, and the administration of providence towards mankind. And I have endeavoured to vindicate this doctrine against the objectionsSERM. taken from the appearances of evil, both natu- IV. ral and moral, which are in the earth. The design of the present discourse 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 distinctly what is meant when we say that God is good, or attribute that perfection to the Deity, let us, first, consider 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 distinct idea, no sensible being or quality is more easily perceiv'd: The mind of man as readily distinguishes between goodness and the contrary disposition in a free agent, as we know the difference between black and white by our eyes, or between other opposite qualities by any of our senses. Goodness then, in the strict and proper sense in which we are now confidering it, (not as comprehending universal rectitude, which it is sometimes used to denote, and which constitutes the intire character of a good moral agent,) signifies 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

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