Use 4. Let us love God, and love him above all things, for he only
430 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. II.
is good. Goodness is that which is amiable and desirable ; so when God is said to be good, we say he is of such an essence as is most amiable and desirable. Therefore let us love God above all things with our chiefest love, for he is most worthy of our love,. and by pre- ferring his glory above all things that are dear to us, being content for his sake to part with all which we have in the world, and also to long and wait for that time when we shall fully enjoy him. If the object of love be good, there is none good but one, which is God ; he is good of himself, good in himself, yea, goodness itself; there is no good above, or besides, or beyond him ; it is all from him, if it be good.
1. He is primitively and originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is, and therefore he is called 'the fountain of living waters,' Jer. ii. 13. The creatures are but dry pits and broken cisterns. Other things, what goodness they have is of him, therefore it is infin- itely better and greater in him than in them.
2. He is the chiefest good. Other things are good in subordina- tion to him. All the goodness that is in the creature is but a spark of that good which is in God. If we find any good there, it is not to detain our affections, but to lead us to a greater good ; not to hold us from him, but to lead us to him, as the streams lead us to the fountain, and the steps of a ladder are not to stand still upon, but to lead us higher. If the prince should woo us by messengers, and we should leave him and cleave to the messengers, this were extreme folly, and a great abuse and wrong to the prince. By the goodness of the creatures, God's end is to draw us to himself as the chiefest good. Here is good- ness in the creature, but it is mixed with imperfection ; the goodness is to draw us to God, the imperfection to drive us from the creatures.
3. He is infinitely good. In choosing God for our portion, one hath not the less because another enjoyeth it with him ; here is a sharing without division, and a partaking without the prejudice of copartners. We straiten others in worldly things so much as we are enlarged ourselves ; finite things cannot be divided but they must be lessened, they are not large enough to be parted. But this good is infinite, and sufficeth the whole world ; every one possesseth this portion entire, as the same speech may be heard of all, and yet no man heareth the less because another hears it with him, or as no man hath the less light because the sun shineth to more than himself The Lord is all in all ; the more possess him the better : as in a choir of voices, every one is not only solaced with his own voice, but by the harmony of those that sing in consort with him. Many a fair stream is drawn dry, or runneth low by being dispersed into several channels, but that which is infinite cannot be lessened.
4. He is eternally good, immutably good, and so the most durable portion : Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' God is the strength of my heart, and my por- tion for ever.' The good things of this life are perishing, and of a short continuance. We leave other good things when we begin to take possession of God. At death wicked men perceive their error, when the good which they have chosen cometh to be taken from them ; but a man that hath chosen God for his God entereth into the full possession of him. Well, then, other good things may busy and vex us,but they cannot satisfy us ; this alone sufficeth all ; it giveth health,
VfiU. 18.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 431
find peace, and honour, and glory. Necessities that are not satisfied by him are fancies, and the desires of them are not to be satisfied, but mortified. If we have not enough in God, it is not the default of our portion, but the defect of our capacity.
Secondly, Good is good as it implieth his bounty and beneficence. So he told Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, 'I will make all my goodness to pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy ; ' so Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, ' The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and trans- gression, and sin.' Bojium est 'primum et potissimum nomen Dei — Damascene. Goodness is the first and chiefest name of God. We cannot conceive of him by anything that concerneth us so much as by his goodness ; by that we know him, and for that we love him. We admire him with reverence for his other titles, but this doth first insinuate with us, and command our respect to him. The first temp- tation that ever was in the world was this, to weaken the conceit of his goodness to the creature ; the devil would fain have persuaded Adam and Eve that God was not so good to them as they thought, but that he envied their happiness. The heathens had a conceit that the God- head was envious, harsh, and sour in his restraints. Still the children of God find it a great temptation ; nothing withdraws their heart from God so much as this, when the esteem of God's goodness is lessened ; therefore the psalmist cries out, ' Truly God is good to Israel,' Ps. Ixxiii. 1.