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The Judgments of God are fometimes very terrible, but they come but feldom: For a Year's Plague or Famine, we enjoy fome Ages of Health and Plenty. And the Ruins and Defolations of War are recompenced and forgot by a more lafting and flourishing Peace. But the Goodness of God moves in a conftant and uniform Round, vifits all Parts and Corners of the Earth, as the Sun does with its Light and Heat: That confidering how little Mankind deferves of God in this corrupt and degenerate State; how highly they provoke him every Day, and how conftantly and univerfally he does Good to them, inftead of complaining of the many Evils that are in the World, we have reafon to admire the Patience and Goodness of God to Sinners.

This I take to be a true Account of the Nature and Exercise of God's Goodness, as it refpects a State of Discipline; and fo it must be confidered in the Government of this World; and then all the Objections against the Goodnefs of Providence vanifh of themselves : Though this World be not fo happy, as perfect and abfolute Goodness can make it, yet God abounds in all the Expreffions of Goodness which a State of Trial and Discipline will allow, which is all that we can reasonably expect, and all that God can wifely do for us in this State.

2dly, Efpecially if we confider in the next place, what the true Notion of Good and Evil is in a State of Difcipline; for this is another occafion of moft Objections against the Goodnefs of Providence; That Men confider Human Nature abfolutely, and appeal to their Senfes for the Notions and Differences of Good and

Evil, without any regard to the prefent State of Human Nature; that is, by Good and Evil, they mean only Natural Good and Evil; fuch as Pleasure or Pain, a State of Eafe and Reft, or of Trouble, and Labour, and Difficulty, Riches or Poverty, Honour or Disgrace; and measure the Goodness of Providence by the Natural Good or Evil that is in the World; if Mankind and particular Men be happy and profperous, then God does Good, and they will acknowledge that Providence is Good; if they be Afflicted, this is very Evil, and therefore an Objection against the Goodness of Providence. But does not every Man know the difference between the good of the End, and the good of the Means? The End is Happiness, which is the good of Nature; and therefore whatever is the Happiness, or any part of the Happiness of Man, is the good of Nature; the good of the Means is that which is good to make Men happy; and the more effectual it is to promote our Happiness, the greater Good it is, tho' it may be a great Natural Evil; and whatever will hinder or deftroy our Happiness, is a great Evil, though it may be a great Natural Good. In all fuch Cafes, Things are Good or Evil with respect to their End, or to their Natural or Moral Confequences: When we are in Health, that is good Food which is pleasant and wholsome, and will preserve Health; but the fame Diet may be very hurtful, and fatal, when we are Sick. Indulgence or Severity to Children is either Good or Evil, in proportion to their Tempers and Inclinations, as it is apt either to corrupt their Manners, or to train them up to Piety and Vertue. And therefore when we speak of Discipline and Government,

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which is the true Notion of God's Providence in this World, we must not consider so much what is naturally Good and Evil, as what the State of those is, who are the Subjects of Difcipline, and what is good for them in fuch a State; for how many Natural Evils foever there are in the World, the Evils of Afflictions and Judgments, of Plague, and Famine, and Sword, if fuch Severities be good for Mankind, it is as great an Argument of the Goodness of Providence to inflict them, as it is for a Parent, or a Prince, to reclaim and reform his Children, or his Subjects, by great Severities: And an easy and profperous State, when the Wickedness of Mankind requires fevere Reftraints, is no more an Act of Kindness and Goodness, than the fond Indulgence of Parents is to difobedient Children.

So that this takes away the very Foundation of this Objection against the Goodness of Providence. The principal Objection is, That there are a great many Evils and Miferies in the World; we grant it; but then we say, That Good is very Good in it, and that these Natural Evils, tho' they are grievous, are not Evils to us, because they are, and are intended for our Good: We can neither prove, nor difprove the Goodness of Providence meerly by external Events, especially with refpect to particular Men: For Profperity is not always good for us, nor is Affliction always for our hurt; God may make fome Men profperous in his Anger, and chaftife others in great Love and Goodness; and this I take to be the meaning of the wife Man, Eccl. 9. I, 2. No man knoweth either love or batred by all that is before them. For all things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the

unclean;

unclean ; to him that facrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, fo is the finner; and be that fweareth, as he that feareth an Oath. Which does not fignify, that the Divine Providence makes no Difference between good and bad Men; for God does love good Men, and hate the wicked; and his Providence makes a great Difference between them, tho' this Difference is not always vifible in external Events: For when the fame Event happens to both, whether it be a Natural Good or Evil, it may be an Act of Favour to good Men, and of Judgment to the wicked. For External Profperity and Adversity, in a State of Difcipline, may either be good or evil; and may be good for one, when at the fame time it is evil to another; and therefore the Providence of God may make a Difference, when the External Event makes none. The Wife Man confeffes, This is an evil among all things that are done under the Sun

that

there is one event unto all. Bad Men, who look no farther than External Events, make a very bad Use of it; and conclude, that God makes no Difference, when they fee none made: And thus the heart of the fons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead, v. 3. But those who confider wifely, fee no Reason from External Events, from fuch a promifcuous Distribution of Good and Evil, either to deny a Providence, or the Goodness or Juftice of Providence ; fince Good and Evil, in this State, are not in the Things themselves, but in the End for which they are intended, and which they serve.

It is of great Confequence rightly to underftand this Matter, to give us a firm Perfuafion of the Goodness of God, even when he cor

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rects and punishes, and to cure our Difcontent at the Profperity of the Wicked; and therefore I fhall briefly reprefent to you the State of Mankind in this World, and what is good in fuch a State.

Man has finned, and Man muft die; but God has, in infinite Goodness to Mankind, fent his own Son into the World, to fave Sinners; who, by Death, hath deftroyed him who had the Power of Death, that is, the Devil, and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light by the Gospel. This removes the Scene of Happinefs from this World to the next, and makes this prefent Life only a State of Probation for Eternity. If we obey the Laws of our Saviour, and imitate his Example, he has promised to raife us again, when our Dead Bodies are puerified in the Grave, into Immortal Life; but has threatned all the Miseries of an Eternal Death against incorrigible Sinners: So that the greateft Good that God or Man can do for us in this World, is, by all the wife Methods of Difcipline and Government, to prepare us for the Happiness of the next; and to preferve us from thofe Eternal Miferies, which will be the Portion of Sinners. Tho' there are Thousands of foolish Sinners, who never confider this, yet all Mankind agree, that that is beft for us in this World, which will make us eternally Happy in the next; and that is a very great Evil, which will betray us to Eternal Miferies. There are a great many Infidels, who believe neither a Heaven, nor a Hell; but yet thefe very Infidels are not fo void of common Sense, as to deny, fuppofing there were a Heaven, and a Hell, that to be the best Condition for us in this World, whatever it be upon other Accounts,

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