[1.] The wisdom of God, which doth all things according to weight, measure, and number, cannot permit the disjunction of these two things, so closely united together as sin and punishment, grace and. happiness, but there will be an appearance of deformity and irregularity. For if there be such a thing as good and evil, as honum and malum morale, as reason will tell us there is ; and again, if there be such a thing as pleasure and pain, as joy and sorrow, or that which we call honum and malum naiurale, as sense will tell us there is ; then it is very agreeable to the wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted ; that moral evil, which is sin, should be punished with natural evil, which is pain and misery ; that the inordi- nate love of pleasure, which is the root of sin, should he checked by a forethought of pain ; and that moral good, which is virtue and grace, should end in joy and pleasure. For God is naturally inclined, as the creator of mankind, to make his creatures good and happy, if nothing hinder him from it. Well, then, we see how incongruous itis to the wisdom of God, who permits no dissonancy or disproportion in any of his administrations, to admit a separation of these natural relatives. If there were no other testimony of this, yet the dispositions of our own hearts would know it ; for they are some obscure shadows of the properties which are in God. We have compassion on a miserable man, whom we esteem not deserving his misery ; we are also moved with indignation and displeasure against one that is fortunate^ and successful, but unworthy the happiness that he enjoys. Which is an
3G0 THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON. [DeUT. XXX. 15.
apparent testimony and proof that we are sensible of an excellent harmony and natural order between these two things, virtue and felicity, sin and misery ; and to see them so suited doth exceedingly please us.
[2.] The justice of God, as he is judge of the world, and so must and will do right,Moth require ut bonis bene sit, et maJis male — that it should be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil. God is naturally inclined to provide for the happiness of man, as he is his creator ; and if there were no sin to stop the course of God's bounty, there would be nothing but happiness in the world. But since the entrance of sin into the world, men are of different sorts ; some recover out of their estate of sin, and live holy ; others wallow in their filthiness still. Now it is agreeable to God's general justice, as he is the judge of the world, to execute vengeance on the one and reward the other ; that happiness should accompany virtue by a natural and inseparable dependence, and misery incessantly attend vice, Rom. ii. 6-8. It is true, the bond which joineth happiness and virtue together is not so strong, and so every way naturally evident, as that which joineth vice and punishment. If a person in sovereignty and honour does not will that moral evils be punished, it is in some sort to consent to them ; but the condition of the creature is such that he ought to be holy and virtuous, though God had not j)Ositively com- manded him ; and God having so commanded, we are bound to obey his command, though he had not proposed the hope of a reward, inasmuch as we owe all to God, both because of the infinite eminence of his majesty, as because we hold our beings and all from him. And therefore there is a distinction : Rom. vi. 23, ' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' The one is wages, the other a gift. The promise which God maketh of remuneration, and the actual retribution which he per- formeth of the same, ought to be imputed only to his goodness and gratuitous liberality. Men cannot pretend any other right before liim, from whom we hold all things, yea, our veiy being. Now, that which proceedeth of goodness seemeth not to be of so strait an obli- gation, but that he is at liberty to do, or not to do, especially when the transaction is between two jiersons, the dignity and authority of one of wliich is infinitely above the condition of the other, as the majesty of God is above his creature. Therefore as to such a reward God is free, and therefore might have enjoined holiness without the promise of such a recompense. But the general relation that is between punishment and sin, holiness and happiness, as to the consequence of one upon another, is agreeal>le to the general justice of God, which is a perfection necessary to him, as he is the supreme governor and ruler of the world.
[3.] The holiness and purity of God, which inclineth him to hate evil and love that which is good. God, excelling in holiness him- self, loveth the virtue and holiness of his creature, Prov. xi. 20 ; for how can he be imagined but to love his own image ? And as goodness and holiness are loved by him, so he ' hateth the workers of iniquity,' Ps. V. 5, and abiiorreth those that despise that which is most glorious in himself, his holiness. And then, if God luveth the good