The Lord is not flack concerning his Pro mife, as fome men count flackness i but is long fuffering, not willing that Whither shall I go from thy fpirit? or whither fhall I flee from thy prefence? If I afcend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, be- hold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the fea, even there Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and The Incomprehenfibleness of God. for ever. Amen. P. 493 The Lord is Good to all, and his tender T HE Subject which I have now propofed to treat of, is certainly one of the Greatest and Nobleft Arguments in the World, the Goodness of God, the Highest and most Glorious Perfection, of the beft and moft Excellent of Beings, than which nothing deferves more to be confidered by us, nor ought in Reason to affect us more. The Goodness of God is the caufe, and the continuance of our Beings, the Foundation of our Hopes, and the Fountain of our Happinefs; our greateft comfort, and our fair B Vol. VII. fairest Example,the chief Object of our Vol. VII. love and praife and admiration, the joy and rejoycing of our hearts; and therefore the Meditation and Difcourfe of it must needs be pleasant and delightful to us; the great difficulty will be,to confine our felves upon fo copious an Argument, and to fet bounds to that which is of fo vaft an extent, the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Which words are an Argument, which the divine Plalmift ufeth, to ftir up himfelf and others to the praise of God: At the 3. v. he tells us, that the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he gives the reafon of this, v. 8. and 9. from thofe Properties and Perfections of the Divine Nature, which declare his Goodness, the Lord is gra cious, and full of compaffion, flow to anger, and of great mercy; the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works; where you have the Goodnefs of God declared,together with the amplitude and extent of it, in refpect of the Objects of it; the Lord is good to all. In the handling of this Argument, I fhall do these four things. |