this kind ; every ex]>erience and new proof should put ns 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 : Eph. iii. 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 passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness 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 behoving saints. We should often meditate upon and set our minds awork 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 ii. 3, ' If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' So Ps. xxxiv. 8, ' Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.' Do not be content with hearsay, but get a taste ; that is, an inward and experimental know- ledge 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 a sensihus. 2. Why Ave need to labour 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 breedeth 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 wdien he proclaimeth his name, he telleth Moses he would make his goodness pass before him. God is wonderfully good in his nature, and he delighteth in the com- munications of his goodness : nothing pleaseth him better than his word ; the business of it is to represent him good. Mercy pleaseth him: Micah vii. 18, 'Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heri- tage ? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.' ' Mercy rejoiceth over judgment ;' Ps. cxviii. 1, 'Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good ; because his mercy endureth for ever.' His works speak him good ; there is no part of the world that we can set our eyes upon but it ofifereth matter of praise to God for his bounty to his creatures, especially to man : Ps. xxxiii. 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 doth good.'
[2.] That we may justify God against the prejudices of the un- believing world, and invite them from our own experience to make trial of God. So Ps. xxxiv. 8, ' Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' A report of a report ■signifieth little ; what we have found ourselves we can confidently re-
VeK. 68.] SERMONS UPOX FriAL^l CXIX. 241
•commend to others. When we have felt his dealing with ourselves, we can entreat them to see what waiting upon God will come to ; let <in}' man make the experiment, keep close to God in obedience and re- liance, 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. J 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 usurpeth 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,' holdeth 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 xxv. 5, 6, 'Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not ; yea 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 iv. 18, ' Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants, and his angels he chai-geth with folly ' — mutability in the angelical nature. When Isaiah had seen God, and heard the angels cry out, ' Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of hosts,' Isa. vi. 5, ' Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of un- clean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; and mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.' The con- sideration of his goodness obscureth all the glory and praise of the creature ; as when the sun is up the lustre 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 deseyvetli that name, as lesser light in the view of a greater is darkness. When Job had seen God, he could not look upon himself with any patience : Job xlii. 5,6/1 have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee : wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' That is a true sight of God that abaseth and lesseneth all things besides God, not only in opinion, but in affection and estima- tion. Alas ! the best of us are scarce dark shadows of his goodness.