Character of Christian Charity The Advantage of acquiring Knowledge...Alison. 168 The Vision of Carazan......................Hawkesworth. 283 - The handsome and the deformed Leg...Franklin. 288 The Wonders of the Microscope..........................Addison. 291 The History of Abouzaid, the Son of Morad. The Trial of Melancholy..................................Kirke White. 301 Rosine......... ELEGANT EXTRACTS. PART I. Religious, Moral, and Preceptive. ON THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. OUR great Lord and Master has taught us, that "there is none good but one, that is God:" by which expression we may understand, that there is none so perfectly disinterested, so diffusively and so astonishingly good, as God is. For, in another place, he instructs us both how to comprehend, and rely on, this unchangeable and never-failing attribute of the divine nature; resembling it to, or representing it by, a human quality or virtue, namely, the affection and tender regard of parents to their children. "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!" From whence it is obvious to remark, that as the humane and generous man has a peculiar tenderness for his more immediate descendants, and, proportionally to his power and influ ence, is willing and active to succour and relieve the indigent, to divide care, lessen misery, and diffuse happiness through the world; inconceivably more affectionate is the eternal Parent unto, and regardful of, all his intelligent creatures; truly disposed, according to their rank of existence, to promote their welfare; and beyond comprehension inclined to conduct them, through the greatest variety of circumstances, to the noblest perfection, and the highest degree of felicity. In his righteous and benevolent nature there cannot possibly be the most distant tendency to caprice, severity, or selfishness; for the multitude of sharers, he knows, can never subtract from his inexhaustible fulness. He created to communicate. In every evil which he prevents, he is pleased; and in all the good that he bestows, he glories. His goodness dictated the bestowing of existence, in all its forms and with all its properties. His goodness displays itself in sustaining and disposing of all things. His goodness connects unnumbered worlds together, in one spacious, vast, and unbounded universe, and embraces every system. "His tender mercies are over all his works." Without goodness, what apprehensions could we entertain of all the other attributes of the Divine Being? Without the utmost extent of benevolence and mercy, they would hardly be perfections or excellences. And what would a universal administration produce, in the hands of an evil, or a partial, or malevolent direction, but scenes of horror and devastation? Not affliction and punishment for the sake of discipline and correction, to prevent the offence or reform the sinner; but heavy judgments and dreadful vengeance, to destroy him; or implacable wrath and fiery indignation, to prolong his misery, and extend the duration of his torture through the revolving periods of an endless eternity. Without the most enlarged notions of an infinite and everlasting goodness in the divine nature, an impenetrable gloom must hang over every mind, and darkness overspread the whole face of being. Neither could any other conceivable sentiment disperse our suspicions, or banish one of our guilty or superstitious fears: for suppose he confined his goodness to a few, without any reasonable cause or just ground, and we could be so whimsically partial to ourselves as to conceit that we were of this select number; yet there could be no security of happiness, not even to this little flock. He that chose them by chance, might as accidentally abandon them; and, as the former was without reason or goodness, the latter might be without righteousness or mercy. Therefore it is infinitely desirable to think, and we are confident of the truth of our idea, that " the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." For if he be self-existent, omnipotent, and possessed of perfect liberty; if it be impossible for him ever to err, or mistake, in what is good and fitting; and if he enjoys an infinite ability to effect, with a thought only, what shall always be for the greatest advantage, he must be originally and essentially, immutably, and for ever good. Holy Scripture, as if beauty and goodness were synonymous terms or inseparable qualities, thus |