nion, but in affection and estimation. dark shadows of his goodness.

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Alas! the best of us are scarce

4. God's goodness is the life of our faith and trust: so long as the goodness of God endureth for ever, we have no cause to be discouraged. If we want direction, in the text it is said, “Thou art good, and doest good teach me thy statutes." If we want support and deliverance, "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him" (Nah. i. 7). In every strait, the people of God find him to be a good God. When we feel the burthen of sin, and fear God's wrath: " Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee" (Psalm lxxxvi. 5). David, when his old sins troubled him, the sins of his youth: "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord" (Psalm xxv. 7). When his enemies consulted his ruin: "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually” (Psalm lii. 1). They cannot take away the goodness of God from you, whatever they plot or purpose against you. Thus may faith triumph in all distresses upon the sense of the goodness of God. In the agonies of death, the goodness of God will be your support. Non sic vixi ut pudeat me inter vos vivere; nec mori timeo, quia bonum habeo Dominum. We have a good Master, who will not see his servants unrewarded: the goodness of God, and his readiness to be gracious to every one that cometh to him, is the fountain of the saints' hope, strength, and consolation.

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5. The goodness of God is the great motive and invitation to repentance: "Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Rom. ii. 4.) How so? God is good, but not to those that continue in their sins: 'Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation: Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses” (Psalm lxviii. 19—21). If goodness be despised, it will be turned into fury. How great soever the riches of the Lord's bounty and grace offered in Christ are, yet an impenitent sinner will not escape unpunished. God is good; oh! come, try, and see how good he will be to you, if you will turn and submit to him. There is hope offered, and goodness hath waited to save you; so that now you may seek his favour with hope to speed. While he sits upon the throne of grace, and alloweth the plea of the new covenant, do not stand off against mercies. God hath laid out the riches of his gracious goodness upon a design to save lost sinners; and will you turn back upon him, and despise all his goodness provided for you in Christ? In point of gratitude, the least kindness done men melteth them as coals of fire. The borrower is a servant to the lender. God hath not only lent us, but given us, all that we have; therefore it should break our hearts with sorrow and remorse, that we should offend a God so good, so bountiful, so merciful. The odiousness of sin doth most appear in the unkindness of it; that infinite goodness hath been abused, and infinite goodness despised, and that you are willing to lose your part in infinite goodness, rather than not satisfy some base lust, or look after some trifling vanity. Saul wept at the thougths of

David's kindness (1 Sam. xxiv. 16). Every man will condemn the wrongs done to one that hath done us no evil, but much good; and will you sin against God, who is so good in himself, so good to all his creatures, and so good to you, and waiteth to be better and more gracious; and return evil for all his good, and requite his love with nothing but unkindness and provocation? Oh! be ashamed of all these things! What heart is that, that can offend, and so willingly offend, so good a God? "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God (there is argument and endearment enough in that), that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. xii. 1), that ye consecrate, dedicate yourselves to his glory, address yourselves cheerfully to his service. Let the soul be warmed into an earnest resolution to please him for the future, lest you make goodness your enemy, and justice take up the quarrel of abused grace.

6. The goodness of God is the great argument to move us to love God. If he be good, he is worthy to be loved, and that with a superlative love; for God is both the object and the measure of love: a less good should be loved less, and a greater good more. All that is not God is but a limited good, and must be loved accordingly. God only is infinite and eternal; and therefore he is to be loved of all and above all with our chiefest and most worthy love, by preferring his glory above all things that are dear to us, and being content for his sake to part with all that we have in the world. But, if any lower thing prevail with us, we prefer it before God, and so contemn his goodness in comparison of it. If the object of love be good, none so properly deserveth our love as God. For, (1.) He is originally good, the fountain of all good; therefore, if we leave God for the deceitful vanities of this present life, we leave the fountain of living waters for a broken cistern (Jer. ii. 13). The creatures are but dry pits and broken cisterns. (2.) He is summum bonum, the chiefest good. Other things, what good they have, they have it from him; therefore it is infinitely better and greater in him than in them; all the good that is in the creature is but a spark of what is in God. If we find any good there, it is not to detain our affections, but to lead us to the greater good; not to hold us from him, but to lead us to him; as the streams lead to the fountain, and the steps of a ladder are not to stand still upon, but that we may ascend higher. There is goodness in the creature, but mixed with imperfection; the good is to draw to him, the imperfection to drive us off from the creature. (3.) He is infinitely good. Other things may busy us, and vex us; but they cannot satisfy us: this alone sufficeth for health, wealth, peace, protection, grace, glory. Necessities that are not satisfied in God, are but fancies; and the desires that are hurried out after them apart from God, are not to be satisfied, but mortified. If we have not enough in God, it is not the default of our portion, but the distemper of our hearts. In choosing God for our portion, one hath not the less because another enjoyeth it with him: here is a sharing without division, and a partaking without the prejudice of copartners. We straiten others in worldly things so much as we are enlarged ourselves: finite things cannot be divided, but they must be lessened; they are not large enough to be parted: but every one possesseth all that is good in God, who hath God for his portion. As the same speech may be heard of all, and yet no man heareth the less because others hear it with him; or as no man hath the less light because the sun shineth on more than himself: the Lord is all in all; the more we possess him, the better; as,

in a choir of voices, every one is not only solaced with his own voice, but with the harmony of those that sing in concert with him. Many a fair stream is drawn dry by being dispersed into several channels; but that which is infinite, will suffice all. (4.) He is eternally good: "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm lxxiii. 26). The good things of this life are perishing, and of a short continuance: we leave other good things, when we come to take full possession of God. At death wicked men perceive their error, when the good they have chosen cometh to be taken from them; but a man that hath chosen God, then entereth into the full possession of him: that which others shun, he longeth for, waiting for that time when the creature shall cease, and God shall be all in all. Oh! let all these things persuade us to love God, and so to love him that our hearts may be drawn off from other things. Let us love him because of the goodness and amiableness of his nature, because of his bounty in our creation, redemption, and daily providence, and because he will be our God for ever.

7. God's goodness is our consolation and support in all afflictions. God is a gracious father, and all that he doth is acts of grace and goodness; even the sharpest of his administrations are absolutely the best for us: "Truly God is good to Israel" (Psalm lxxiii. 1); all his work is good: as in the six days, so in constant providence, it is either good, or it will turn to good: "All things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. viii. 28). God may change our condition, yet he doth not change his affection to us: he is all good, and doth that which we shall find good at length.

8. It is the ground of prayer: if we lack any good thing, he hath it, and is ready to communicate it. The goodness of God, as it doth stir up desire in us, so hope; as it stirreth a desire to communicate of his fulness, so a hope that surely the good God will hear us. He is not sparing of what he can do for us: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James i. 5). Our wants send us to the promises, and the promises to God.

USE I.-Is to press us to imitate our heavenly Father: you should be good, and do good, as he is good, and doth good; for every disposition in God should leave an answerable character and impression upon their souls that profess themselves to be made partakers of a Divine nature; therefore it should be our great care and study to be as good, and do as much good, as possibly we can. He is one like God, that is good and doth good; therefore still be doing good to all, especially to the household of faith: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith" (Gal. vi. 10); with Matt. v. 44, 45, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." "But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke vi. 35); “Add to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity" (2 Peter i. 7). Not doing good to our own party, or those of our friendship, but to all. So, generally, all good

is to be done, as well as that of bounty and beneficence: "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good" (Luke vi. 45); and it is said of Barnabas, "He was a good man; and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith" (Acts xi. 24). A good man is always seeking to make others good, as fire turneth all things about it into fire. The title signifies one not only of a mild disposition, but of a holy, heavenly heart, that maketh it his business to honour God. So Joseph of Arimathea is said to be " a good man, and a just:" this is to be like God. USE II. Is direction to you in the business of the Lord's supper: God is good, and doeth good.

1. Here you come to remember his goodness to you in Christ. Now, the goodness of God should never be thought on, or commemorated, but your hearts should be raised in the wonder and admiration of it: "Oh! how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee" (Psalm xxxi. 10). How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings" (Psalm xxxvi. 7). This should be delightful work to you, and not gone about with dead and careless hearts. We cannot express ourselves many times, strong pas sions do not easily get a vent: little things may be greatened by us; but great things indeed strike us dumb: however, our hearts should be deeply affected and possessed with this; we should be full of such admiring thoughts.

2. We come for a more intimate and renewed taste. By taste I mean spiritual sense, to have "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. v. 5). We come to the feast of the soul, that our hungry consciences may taste of the fatness of God's house (Psalm lxv. 4); that our thirsty souls may drink of the rivers of his pleasure (Psalm xvi. 11). To have some pledge of the joys of Heaven; if not to ravishment and sensible reviving, yet such as may put us out of relish with carnal vanities; some gracious experiences that may make us long for more, and go away lauding God.

3. To stir up our love to God, as the most lovely and suitable object to our souls; in him is nothing but good. God is goodness itself: he is one that has deserved your love, and will satisfy and reward your love. All the good we have in an ordinance, it is from him, and to lead up our souls to him. Our business now is to love God, who loved us first (1 John iv. 19); to love him, by devoting ourselves to him; and to consecrate our all to his service.

4. To desire more communion with him, and to long after the blessed fruition of him, when God shall be all in all; not only be chief, but all; when we shall perfectly enjoy the infinite God, when the chiefest good will give us the greatest blessings, and an infinite, eternal God will give us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The word, sacraments, and prayer, convey but little to you in comparison of that, when God is object, and means, and all things. The soul is then all for Christ, and Christ all for the soul. Your whole employment is to love him, live upon him. Here we give away some of our love, some of our thoughts and affections, on other things; Christ is crowded, hath not room to lay forth the glory of his grace; but there is full scope to do it.

SERMON LXXVIII.

VERSE 68.-Teach me thy statutes.

Secondly, We come to David's petition, "Teach me thy statutes ;" which I shall be brief in, because it doth often occur in the verses of this Psalm. David's petition is to understand the word, that he might keep it: teaching bringeth us under the power of what is taught, and increaseth sanctification both in heart and life, as well as illumination or information. DOCTRINE.-One chief thing which they that believe, and have a sufficient apprehension of God's goodness, should seek of him in this world is, understanding, and keeping the way of salvation.

This request is enforced out of the former title and compellation.

1. Because the saving knowledge of his will is one principal effect of his bounty and beneficence. As he showeth love to man above other creatures, in that he gave him such a life as was light (John i. 4); that is, had reason and understanding joined with it; so to his people above other men, that he hath given them a saving knowledge of the way of salvation since sin: "Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way" (Psalm xxv. 8). It is a great discovery of God's goodness that he will teach sinners, a favour not vouchsafed to the fallen angels; it is more than if he gave us the wealth of the whole world; that will not conduce to such a high use and purpose as this. More of his good will and special love is seen in this, to teach us the way how to enjoy him. Eternal life is begun by this saving knowledge: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3).

ness.

2. This is one principal way whereby we show our sense of God's goodThat is a true apprehension of God's goodness which giveth us confidence and hope of the saving fruits of it, when the oftener we think of it, the more of sanctification we seek to draw from this fountain of goodness. That is an idle speculation that doth not beget trust; an empty praise, a mere compliment, that doth not produce a real confidence in God, that he will give us spiritual blessings when we heartily desire them. True knowledge of God's name breedeth trust: "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee" (Psalm ix. 10); and more particularly for this kind of benefit. It is a general encouragement: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matt. vii. 11;) but it is limited to the Spirit, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke xi. 13.) Without this faith, there is no commerce with God.

3. It is an argument of the good temper of our souls, not to serve our carnal turns, but promote the welfare of our souls, when we would enjoy and improve the goodness of God to get this benefit.

(1.) They are affected according to the value of the thing. Of all the fruits of God's goodness which a holy man would crave for himself, and challenge for his portion, this he thinketh fittest to be sought, sanctifying grace to understand and keep the law. If this be not the only, yet it is the chiefest benefit which they desire in the world. For other things, let God deal with them as he will; but they value this among the greatest