1. Originally. He is avTa'ya6o<;, good of liimself, and fiom no other, which no creature can be. A creature is only good by pai'ticipation and communication from God. The good he hath is from the Father of lights : James i. 17, ' Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.' If God had his goodness from any other, then he were not the first cause and the fountain of all things ; then there would be something superior to God, and so he could not be God.
2. He is essentially good. Not only good, but goodness itself. Goodness in us is an accessory quality, or a superadded gift, but in God it is not a quality, but his essence. The goodness of God and the goodness of a creature differs, as a thing whose substance is gold differs from that which is gilded and overlaid with gold. A vessel of pure gold, the matter itself gives lustre to it ; but in a gilded vessel, the outward lustre is one thing, and the substance is another. The essence and being of an angel is one thing, and its holiness another ; the holi- ness may be separated from the essence, for the essence and being of the angels was continued when their perfection and goodness was lost ; so man's substance is one thing, his holiness another, but in God his goodness is his being. Our first parents continued their being when
VeR. 18.] SERMONS UPON MAEK X. 17-27. 429
they lost their integrity ; but God cannot be God if he be not good, for goodness is his very essence.
3. God is infinitely good. A creature's goodness is limited, but since the perfection of God is from himself, and not from another, there is nothing to limit it or to give it any measure, and therefore it must be infinite. The goodness of the creature, since it comes from God, is limited according to the measure wherein God will dispense it, to some more, to others less, according as his wisdom thinks fit. God is an ocean without banks or bottom ; the goodness of a creature is but a drop from the ocean, or as a nutshell filled with the water of the sea. God loves himself as much as he can be loved. God is so infinitely good as he cannot be better : 1 Sam. ii. 7, ' There is none holy as the Lord.'
4. God is immutably good ; it cannot be diminished or augmented, for in infiniteness there are no degrees ; it can never be more than it is, or less than it is ; for God actually hath all possible perfection ; there can be no addition made to it. And since he hath it by his essence, and from himself, there can be no subtraction from it, for then God would lose his being ; but the goodness of a crea- ture may still be increased to further degrees, or be diminished. No angel is so good but he may be better, and may be diminished and lessened into nothing. Our state is full of changes ; as the sea hath its ebbings and Sowings, so hath grace a gradual increase or decrease. At first man was j^eccahilis, he might sin ; afterward 'peccator, a sinner ; then he is purified by grace. God is pure, but we are purified, and we may lose all again, if we consider the nature of the thing, but not because of the promise of the covenant. We were once defiled, but God's goodness ever is and ever was in the same fulness.
Use 1. To humble us in our converses with God. He is good, but we are evil ; he is heaven, but v/e are hell ; he is perfect, but we are poor defective creatures. Therefore in all our approaches to him we should come the more humbly to him, and go the more holy from him ; for it is sad when we come to the good God, and are never the better. If we go to the fire, we expect to be warm. Oh ! when you come to the fountain of goodness, we should come away better.
Use 2. To make us thankful. Where we reap any good, comfort, or benefit by man or any of the creatures, we are to bless God, and to be thankful to him especially, from whom all that good cometh. Though we ought not- to be unthankful to the instruments of good, yet we ought especially to bless God, for the goodness of the creatures cometh from him : 1 Sam. xxv. 32, ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me.' So Gen. ix. 25, 26, ' Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant'
Use 3. If we would have good wrought in us, let us look up to God. As rivers are supplied from the sea, the gathering together of all good- ness is in God ; Exod. xxxi. 13, ' I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.' All we have is a derivation from his fulness, and as a candle lighted at a torch doth not diminish the light of the torch, so God doth not lose by giving.