Sermon 77
Psalm 119:68. You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes.
The Psalmist in the first verse of this portion had expressed himself in a way of thankfulness to God for his goodness (verse 65), then interrupts his thanksgiving a little, and begs the continuance of the same goodness (verse 66), and after that returns again to show how this good came by means of affliction (verse 67), and therefore once more praises God for his goodness, and renews his suit. God is ever good to his people, but most sensibly they have proof of it in their afflictions: when to appearance he seems to deal hardly with them; yet all that while he does them good. Sanctification of afflictions is a greater mercy than deliverance out of them. We may learn our duty by the discipline of a smart rod: You deal well with your servant; for, before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I have kept your word. And then he falls into thanksgiving and prayer again, You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes. Here is 1. A compellation and confession of God's goodness both in his nature, and actions. 2. A petition for grace, Teach me your statutes.
First, the compellation used to God, You are good, and do good. Divers have been the glosses of interpreters upon these words. Aben Ezra, bonus est non petenti, & benefacit petenti, you are good to them that ask not, but surely do good to them that ask. Others, You are good in this world, do good in the world to come. Others better, God is good of himself; and does good to us. Goodness is communicative of itself; he is good, that notes his nature and inclination; and he does good, that notes his work; whereby he gives proof of his goodness. Unumquodque operatur secundùm suam formam: every thing acts according to its nature. So does God; as is his being, so is his operation; he is good, and does good; the work must needs be answerable to the workman. The point is:
Doctrine. It becomes all those that have to do with God, to have a deep sense of his goodness.
- 1. What is God's goodness. - 2. How it is manifested to us. - 3. Why those that come to God should have a deep sense of it.
1. What is God's goodness. There is a threefold goodness ascribed by divines to God. 1. His natural goodness, which is the natural perfection of his being. 2. His moral goodness, which is the moral perfection of his being. 3. His beneficial communicative goodness, called otherwise his benignity, which is of chief regard in this place: besides the perfection and excellency of his nature, there is his will and self-propension to diffuse his benefits; the perfection of his nature is his natural and moral goodness, the other his bounty. All must be spoken to distinctly.
1. God is naturally good. There is such an absolute perfection in his nature and being, that nothing is wanting to it, or defective in it; and nothing can be added to it to make it better. As Philo says, ⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩, the first being must needs be the first good; as soon as we conceive there is a God, we presently conceive that he is good; in this sense it is said (Mark 10:18), Why do you call me good? there is none good but one, and that is God. He is good of himself, good in himself, yea, goodness itself. There is none good above him, or besides him, or beyond him; it is all from him, and in him, if it be good. He is primitively and originally good, ⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩, good of himself, which nothing else is: for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God. He is essentially good, not only good, but goodness itself: the creature's good is a superadded quality, in him it is his essence. He is infinitely good, the creature's goodness is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean and sea, or gathering together of goodness. He cannot be better, he is Summum Bonum, the chiefest good; other things are good in subordination to him, and according to that use and proportion they bear to him. He is not good as the means, but as the end: things good as the means are only good in order, proportion, measure and respect; but God is absolutely good, beyond God there is nothing to be sought or aimed at, if we enjoy him we enjoy all good to make us completely happy, he is eternally and immutably good, for he cannot be less good than he is; as there can be no addition made to him, so no subtraction, or anything taken from him.
2. God is morally good, that is, the fountain and pattern of all that virtuous goodness which is in the creatures. So (Psalm 25:8), Good and upright is the Lord. And (Exodus 33:19), He said, I will make all my goodness go before you, and proclaim my name. As the creature has a natural goodness of beauty, power, dominion, wisdom; so it has a moral goodness of purity and holiness. Accordingly we must conceive in God his holiness, purity, veracity, justice, as his moral perfection and goodness, as his will is the supreme pattern and fountain of all these things in the creature.
3. God is communicatively and beneficially good. That implies his bounty and beneficence, or his will and self-propension to diffuse his benefits. It may be explained by these considerations.
1. That God has in him whatever is useful and comfortable to us. That is one notion we apprehend him by, that he is God all-sufficient (Genesis 17:1), or that he has all things at command, to do for us as our necessities shall require (Psalm 84:11), For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Genesis 15:1) Fear not, Abraham, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. The privative and positive part is expressed in both these places, whether we need life or comfort, or would be protected from all dangers bodily or spiritual, why should we seek good out of God? Riches, pleasures, honors, they might more happily be had if we could possess all things in God (Jeremiah 2:13), My people have committed two great evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. God is the fountain of all those things which are necessary to give us all good, and defend us from all evil. Possidet possidentem omnia (2 Corinthians 6:10), As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
2. That he has a strong inclination to let out his fullness, and is ready to do good upon all occasions. You are good and do good. Bonum est primum, & potissimum nomen Dei, says Damascene: The chiefest name by which we conceive of God is his goodness. By that we know him, for that we love him, and make our addresses to him: we admire him for his other titles and attributes, but this does first insinuate with us, and invite our respects to him. The first means by which the Devil sought to loosen man from God, was by weakening the conceit of his goodness, and the great ground of all our commerce with him is that God is a good God (Psalm 100:4-5). Enter you into his courts with praise, be thankful to him, and bless his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. He presently invites the world to come to him, because he is good. As God is all-sufficient in himself, so he is communicative of his riches to his creatures, and most of all to his own people: goodness is communicative, it diffuses itself, as the sun does light, or as the fountain pours out waters.
3. He is the fountain of all that good we have or are. We have nothing but what we have from God (James 1:17). Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights. And (Jeremiah 2:13) he is called the fountain of living waters. As rivers are supplied by the sea, so the gathering together of all goodness is in God. All candles are lighted at his torch, there is nothing in the creature but what is derived from him, Who has given to him first, and it shall be recompensed to him again? (Romans 11:35). As the sun owes nothing to the beam, but the beam owes all to the sun, and the sea owes nothing to the river, but the river owes all to the sea.
4. There will a time come when he will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). When God will immediately and in a fuller latitude communicate himself to his creatures, and there will need nothing besides himself to make us happy. Here we enjoy God, but not fully, nor immediately. We enjoy him in his creatures, but it is at the second or third hand, the creature interposes between him and us (Hosea 2:21-22). And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel. In ordinances it is but a little strength and comfort that we get, such as is consistent with pain and sorrow, it is not full because it is not immediate. A pipe cannot convey the whole fountain, nor the ordinances the full of God in Christ, only a little supply either as we need, or are able to receive: but then God will be all in all, he will do his work by himself. The narrowness of the means shall not constrain him, nor the weakness of the vessel hinder him to express the full of his goodness in full perfection.
2. How is his goodness manifested to us?
1. In our creation, in that he did raise us up out of nothing to be what we are, and form us after his own image. God made us not that he might be happy, but liberal, that there might be creatures to whom to communicate himself: our beings and faculties and powers were the fruits of his mere goodness. When God made the world, then was it verified, He is good, and does good (Genesis 1). For as the goodness of his nature inclined him to make it, so his work was good: after every day's work there comes in his approbation, behold it was good: and when he had made man, and set him in a well furnished world, and compared all his works together, then they were very good, verse 31. That he still fashions us in the womb, and raises us into that comely shape in which we afterwards appear, it is all the effect of his goodness.
2. In our redemption, therein he commends his love and goodness in providing such a remedy for lost sinners. There is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Titus 3:4). But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared. In creation he showed himself 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in redemption 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. God is brought nearer to us as subsisting in our nature (1 Timothy 3:16). Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh. And so God had greater advantages to communicate himself to us in a more glorious way by the Redeemer, that we might forever live in the admiration of his love.
3. In daily providence, so the goodness of God is twofold.
1. Common and general to all creatures, especially to mankind (Psalm 145:9). The Lord is good to all, his tender mercy is over all his works. Upon all things and all persons he bestows many common blessings, as natural life, being, health, wealth, beauty, strength, and supplies necessary for them. There is none of God's creatures but taste of his bounty, and have sufficient proof that a good God made them, and preserves them: the young ravens (Psalm 147:9). He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. So the wicked (Matthew 5:45). He makes his sun to shine on the evil, and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Acts 14:17) Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. These common mercies argue a good God that gives them, though not always a good people that receives them. This goodness of God shows itself daily and bountifully.
2. Special: God is good to all, but not to all alike. So he is good to his people, whom he blesses with spiritual and saving benefits. So (Lamentations 3:25): The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. So (Psalm 86:5): For you, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon you. For this kind of goodness, a qualification is necessary in the receiver. Satan will tell you God is a good God, but he leaves out this: to those that love and fear him, and wait upon him. This peculiar goodness yields spiritual and saving blessings, such as pardoning of sins (Isaiah 55:7): Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Instruction in the ways of God in the text: you are good, and do good; teach me your statutes. And in short, all the means and helps that are necessary to everlasting glory (2 Thessalonians 1:11): Therefore also we pray always for you that God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. Once more, to the objects of his peculiar love common blessings are given in love, and with an aim at our good (Psalm 84:11): No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. So that the ordinary favors which others enjoy, they are sanctified to them. They are from love, and in bonum, for good. God is ready to help them onward to their everlasting hopes, and that estate which they expect in the world to come, where in the arms of God they shall be blessed for evermore.
3. Why ought those that come to God to have a deep sense of this?
First, what is this deep sense?
1. It must be the fruit of faith, believing God's being and bounty, or else it will have no force and authority upon us (Hebrews 11:6): He that comes to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. If we have but cold notions, or dead opinions of the goodness of God, they will have little power on us. It is faith that sets all things to work; there must be a sound belief of these things, if we would practically improve them.
2. It must be the fruit of constant observation of the effects of his goodness vouchsafed to us, so that we may give our thanks and praise for all that good we do enjoy. Careless spirits are not sensible of the hand of providence, never take notice of good or evil; therefore the Psalmist says (Psalm 107:8): Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! He repeats the same at verse 15, and verses 21 and 31, and concludes all at verse 41: Whoever is wise, and will observe those things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. We are more backward to the observation of the goodness of God, than we are to any duty; therefore does the Psalmist stir up all sorts of persons to note the invisible hand of providence that reaches out supplies to them: whether they have business by sea, or by land; whether in sickness, or in health; in all the varieties of the present life, he is still stirring them up to mind their mercies; and invites them by God's late favors to the praise and acknowledgment of his goodness; his communicating his goodness so freely to undeserving and ill-deserving persons, and following them with more and more mercies. There is none of us but have reasons enough, and obligations enough lying upon us to make observations in this kind; every experience and new proof should put us upon this acknowledgment. Certainly they are the wisest sort of men who do observe God's providence.
3. It is the fruit of deep and ponderous meditation. Glances never warm the heart; it is our serious and deliberate thoughts which affect us; therefore the children of God should be thinking of his goodness displayed in all his works, especially in redemption by Christ (Ephesians 3:18-19): To comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of God which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. To be ravished with love, affected with love, always thinking of love, speaking of love, expressing their sense of love — that is a work befitting saints. We should often meditate upon, and set our minds to work upon this goodness by frequent and serious thoughts of it, for the strengthening of our faith, and quickening of our love to God.
4. It is the fruit of inward and spiritual taste (1 Peter 2:3): If so be, that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So (Psalm 34:8): O taste and see that the Lord is good. Do not be content with hearsay, but get a taste — that is, an inward and experimental knowledge of the goodness of God in Christ; that we may know it, not only by guess and imagination, but by sense and feeling; the one half of it cannot be told you. Optima demonstratio est à sensibus.
Secondly, why we need to labor so much after a deep sense of this.
1. To check our natural legalism, and the dark and distrustful prejudices of our own hearts: there is a secret guiltiness in us that breeds misgiving thoughts of God. We have many suspicious thoughts of him, being guilty creatures, because we only represent him to ourselves as a consuming fire, or as clothed with justice and vengeance, watching an opportunity of doing us harm, and shut out all thoughts of goodness and mercy; yet when he proclaims his name, he tells Moses he would make his goodness pass before him. God is wonderfully good in his nature, and he delights in the communications of his goodness; nothing pleases him better than his Word, the business of it is to represent him good. Mercy pleases him (Micah 7:18): Who is a God like to you, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy. Mercy rejoices over judgment (Psalm 118:1): O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: because his mercy endures for ever. His works speak him good; there is no part of the world that we can set our eyes upon, but it offers matter of praise to God for his bounty to his creatures, especially to man (Psalm 33:5): The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; the whole earth is full of his goodness, and will you draw an ill picture of him in your minds, as if he were harsh and severe, and his service were intolerable? No, the Lord is good, and does good.
2. That we may justify God against the prejudices of the unbelieving world, and invite them from our own experience to make trial of God. So (Psalm 34:8): O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him. A report of a report signifies little; what we have found ourselves, we can confidently recommend to others. When we have felt his dealing with ourselves, we can entreat them to see what waiting upon God will come to; let any man make the experiment, keep close to God in obedience and reliance, and he shall find him to be a gracious Master; others that have dark thoughts of God, like the spies, they bring an ill report upon his ways.
3. To humble the creature: we have not a right sight of God, unless all created perfections vanish before him. The creatures are but some shadows, pictures, resemblances, or equivocal shapes of God. Whatever name they have of good, wise, strong, beautiful, true, or such like, it is but a borrowed speech from God, whose image they have: and if the creature usurps its being as originally belonging to themselves, it is as if the picture should call itself a true and living man. I am, and there is none beside me, holds true of God's being, and all his perfections natural or moral. The creatures may be good, or better, or best, compared among themselves; but we are frail and nothing if compared with God. There is none good but one, and that is God. That goodness which we have in participation from him, will appear no goodness in comparison of him; the heavens themselves are not clean in his sight (Job 25:5-6): Behold even to the Moon, and it shines not; indeed the stars are not pure in his sight: how much less man that is a worm: and the Son of Man which is a worm? And elsewhere (Job 4:18): Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and his angels he charges with folly; mutability in the angelic nature. When Isaiah had seen God, and heard the angels cry out, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts (Isaiah 6:5): Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. The consideration of his goodness obscures all the glory and praise of the creature; as when the Sun is up, the luster of the stars is no more seen. When we compare ourselves with one another, one may be called bad, another good; but with God no man is good. He is good, but we are evil; he is heaven, but we are hell; he is all perfection, we are all weakness. In respect of his goodness, nothing in us deserves that name; as lesser light in the view of a greater is a darkness. When Job had seen God, he could not look upon himself with any patience (Job 42:5-6): I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you: therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. That is a true sight of God, that abases and lessens all things besides God; not only in opinion, but in affection and estimation. Alas the best of us are scarce dark shadows of his goodness.
4. God's goodness is the life of our faith and trust; so long as the goodness of God endures for ever, we have no cause to be discouraged. If we want direction, in the text it is said, You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes. If we want support and deliverance (Nahum 1:7): The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows them that trust in him. In every strait the people of God find him to be a good God. When we feel the burden of sin, and fear God's wrath (Psalm 86:5): The Lord is good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon him. David when his old sins troubled him, the sins of his youth (Psalm 25:7): Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to your mercy remember me, for your goodness' sake, O Lord. When his enemies consulted his ruin (Psalm 52:1): Why do you boast yourself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. 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 comes to him, is the fountain of the saints' hope, strength, and consolation.
5. The goodness of God is the great motive and invitation to repentance; (Romans 2:4) Do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? How so? God is good, but not to those that continue in their sins. (Psalm 68:19-21) Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God of our salvation: Selah. He that is our God, is the God of salvation, and to 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 goes on still in his trespasses. If goodness be despised, it will be turned into fury. However great 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 has waited to save you; so that now you may seek his favor with hope to speed. While he sits upon the Throne of Grace, and allows the plea of the New Covenant, do not stand off against mercies. God has 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 melts them as coals of fire. The borrower is servant to the lender. God has 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 does most appear in the unkindness of it; that infinite goodness has 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 thoughts of David's kindness, (1 Samuel 24:16). Every man will condemn the wrongs done to one that has 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 waits 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? (Romans 12:1) I beseech you by the mercies of God, (there is argument and endearment enough in that) that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, that you 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 finite and 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 greatest 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 deserves 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 (Jeremiah 2:13). The creatures are but dry pits and broken cisterns. 2. He is Summum Bonum, the greatest 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 suffices 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 has not the less because another enjoys it with him: here is a sharing without division, and a partaking without the prejudice of co-partners. We constrain 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 possesses all that is good in God, who has God for his portion. As the same speech may be heard of all, and yet no man hears the less because others hear it with him; or as no man has the less light because the sun shines 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 consort 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 (Psalm 73:26). God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 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 comes to be taken from them; but a man that has chosen God, then enters into the full possession of him: that which others shun, he longs for, waiting for that time when the creature shall cease, and God shall be all in all. O 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 does is acts of grace and goodness; even the sharpest of his administrations are absolutely the best for us (Psalm 73:1). Truly God is good to Israel; all his work is good; as in the six days, so in constant providence it is either good, or it will turn to good (Romans 8:28). All things shall work together for good to them that love God. God may change our condition, yet he does not change his affection to us; he is all good, and does that which we shall find good at length.
8. It is the ground of prayer; if we lack any good thing, he has it; and is ready to communicate it. The goodness of God, as it does stir up desire in us, so hope: as it stirs a desire to communicate of his fullness, so a hope that surely the good God will hear us. He is not sparing of what he can do for us (James 1:5). If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. Our wants send us to the promises, and the promises to God.
Use 1. Is to press us to imitate our Heavenly Father; you should be good, and do good, as he is good, and does 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 does good; therefore still be doing good to all, especially to the household of faith. Galatians 6:10: As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to them who are of the household of faith. With Matthew 5:44-45: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven, for he makes his sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and sends rain on the just, and on the unjust. Luke 6:35: But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind to the ungrateful, and to the evil. 2 Peter 1:7: Add to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. 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. Luke 6:45: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things; and it is said of Barnabas, Acts 11:24: He was a good man; and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith. A good man is always seeking to make others good, as fire turns all things about it into fire. The title signifies one not only of a mild disposition, but of a holy, heavenly heart, that makes it his business to honor God. So Joseph of Arimathea is said to be a good man, and a just; this is to be like God.
Use 2. Is direction to you in the business of the Lord's Supper; God is good, and does 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: Psalm 31:19: O how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear you: which you have wrought for them that trust in you? And Psalm 36:7: How excellent is your lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. This should be delightful work to you, and not gone about with dead and careless hearts. We cannot express ourselves many times, strong passions do not easily get a vent; little things may be magnified 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 given to us (Romans 5:5). We come to the feast of the soul, that our hungry consciences may taste of the fatness of God's house (Psalm 65:4). That our thirsty souls may drink of the rivers of his pleasure (Psalm 16:11). 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 4:19), 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 greatest 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, has not room to lay forth the glory of his grace, but there is full scope to do it.
