from him, unqualified to receive Benefit by his Coming.

Fourthly and Lafly, The Confideration of the exact Righteoufnels, with which CHRIST will judge the World in the Last Day, ought to be Matter of Support to good Men under their Misfortunes; and to keep them from envying or repining at the Profperity of the Wicked. For as God is pleased to try Men here; to fend them Difficulties and Hardships to struggle with, fo if they fight a good Fight, if they endure unto the End, and are found Faithful; he will then let a brighter Crown upon their Heads, and will infinitely outballance their light Afflictions that are but for a Moment, with an exceeding, with an eternal Weight of Glory.

On the contrary, thofe wicked Perfons who fhall have lived Irreligioufly here; who fhall have neglected the feveral Duties incumbent upon them, though by their outward Condition, they may now feem to be the Favourites of Heaven, and the Darlings of Providence, fhall in that terrible Day find to their eternal Confufion, unless a true and timely Repentance prevent it, that they had all their good Portion in this Life; and that their Pupifhment will then be augmented in Pro

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portion to the Mercies they ungratefully abufed. For in that terrible Day, God's Anger fhall /moke against all thofe, whom he now fuffereth to violate his Laws with Impunity. In that terrible Day, thofe who now defpife Reproof, and think themselves too big for it, fhall be feverely fentenc'd; and fuch mighty Men shall be then mightily tormented. Woe! then will be to those wretched Creatures, who are now deaf to all the Exhortations that are given them to Repentance, and holy Living: How willing will they then be when 'tis impoffible for them to make their Peace with God, who now ftop their Ears against the Advices and Perswasions of his Ambaladors, and Ministers of Reconciliation?

Oh! that we would duly reflect upon these Things betimes, and fincerely go vern our Lives now by the Rules which our Holy Religion hath laid down; and then we fhall have no Occasion to be dejected at any Calamity that may befal us or to fret and be envious against the Workers of Iniquity: Since at the Laft: Day, the Lord, the righteous Judge fhall receive all his faithful Sufferers, and all true Chriftians, into the everlafting Man fions of infinite Blifs; but fhall caft all.

wicked People, High and Low, Rich and Poor, one with another, into the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone; where they fhall weep, and wail, and deplore their Mifery to all Eternity. From which dreadful Place, God of his infinite Mercy deliver us all, for JESUS CHRIST his Sake. Amen.

SERMON vi.

Pfalm cxix. 68.

Thou art Good, and doft Good.

MONG all the glorious Perfecti

A ons of the Divine Being, there is

none fhines out with a more eminent Luftre than his Goodness. Nay, This feemeth to be God's Darling and belov’d Attribute, which he takes a peculiar Delight in, and loves to be known by For when Mofes defired to fee an extraordinary Manifestation of the Deity, God told him, that he would make all his Goodness pafs before him: And according ly we read that be defcended in a Cloud,

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and

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and paffing by before him; proclaimed,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful, and
gracious, long Suffering, and abundant in
Goodnefs: Keeping Mercy for thousands,
forgiving Iniquity, Tranfgreffion, and Sin;
and who will by no means clear the Guilty.
And what greater Satisfaction could Mofes
or we receive, than to hear God making
fuch a gracious Declaration as this? Than
to behold him thus glorying in the Riches,
in the Abundance of his Goodness: This
is indeed that Excellency, which caufeth
the Notion of him to be agreeable and
delightful; which doth (if I may fofpeak) exp
adorn and beautifye his Nature. His other
Attributs, fuch as Simplicity, Unity, Im-
mutability, Immenfity, Eternity, Know-
ledge, Juftice, Power, and the like, render
him awful and majeftic; but his Good-
nels, renders him amiable. The makes
most
him the Object of our profoundet Re-
verence; but The makes him the Object
of our moft exalted Love.

And fince the Goodness of God is fo glorious and lovely an Attribute, we cannot furely mifpend our Time and Thoughts, if we employ them for a while in the Confideration of it.

To begin then, the Goodness of God is two-fold: Abfolute and Relative. The former

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former I take to confift in the infinite and unbounded Perfections of his Nature: The latter in the communicating and imparting of his Blifs. Both thefe fcem to be contained in my Text; Thou art Good, and doft Good: and Both will therefore claim a Place in my following Dif courfe. And

First of all, GOD's abfolute Goodness; whereby we understand, the infinite and unbounded Perfections of his Nature. That God is infinite and unbounded in the Perfections of his Nature, must be granted by every body that owns his Exitence. is fcarce poffible for us to caft our Eyes upon the Univerfe, without confelling this great Truth, for all the Parts of it do moft loudly proclaim it.. We may fee a valt deal of Beauty, Perfection, and Goodness in all God's Creatures; he himfelf faw every Thing that he had made, and bebold it was very good: And forafmuch as he was the Maker of all Things; forafuuch as he gave them their Eeing; therefore all the Goodness and Perfection, which is in them, must be given by him too, and afcribed to him as the fole Caufe: They being as unable to make themselves que tense good or perfect, as to make themselves to e. Now is a very noted Maxim, that

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the