2. It informeth us that the children of light should be full of good- ness, or else they do not improve their advantages. We have a good word to direct us, after we had lost the knowledge of God, and of the world to come, and the way thither ; tliat all this should be revealed to us by Christ clearly and plainly. And not only so, but we have a good Spirit to imprint this knowledge upon our hearts, and to give us a heavenly mind and life. Now what remaineth but that we should be good also? for what should a bad people do with a good religion? This good word, that assureth us of God's readiness to do mankind the greatest good ; this good Spirit, whose great office it is to regenerate and make us good. But alas ! many are more forward to talk of the word than live by it, and not so careful to walk in the Spirit as to boast of it.
3. That all the goodness that is in us is the fruit of the Spirit ; he infuseth the graces, he exciteth the acts ; therefore the glory of all that we have and do must be transferred to God. God hath a greater share in all the good that we do than we ourselves. We may say of our best actions, as Augustin of liis illegitimate child, ' I had nothing in him but my sin ;' nothing is ours but the defect, the good is God's. Again, on Ps. cxxxvii. he saith, 02nis tuum vide in me, Domine ! non meum, &c. — Eegard, 0 Lord, in me, not my works, but thine own : if thou regardest my works, thou damnest me ; if thine own, thou crovvnest me : since whatsoever good I have, I have it from thee, it is therefore rather thine than mine. Thus humbly and thankfully should we be affected. God 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, and therefore to him be all tlie glory.
Use 2. To exhort us to increase in all goodness. (1.) Moral good- ness, which is holiness. Now holiness is the glory of God, and there- fore must needs be our excellency : Exod. xv. 11, 'Who is like unto thee, 0 Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? ' So tliat to be holy is to put on the royal robe of the king of all the earth. Surely the more a man partakes of the nature and image of God, the more excellent he is. (2.) Beneficial goodness, or kindness and mercy; this is the first and chiefest name of God. So God told Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee,' when he proclaimed his name : Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, ' And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, meiciful and gracious, long- suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
268 SERMONS UPON ETHI^SIANS V. [SeR X.
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin ; ' Ps. xxxiii. 5, ' Tlie whole earth is full of thy goodness ; ' Ps. cxlv. 9, ' The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.' This doth first insinuate with us, and command our respect to him. The first temptation that ever was, was to weaken the conceit of his goodness. Now this is that which we are to imitate, to be good to all, and to do as much good as possibly we can.
SERMON X.
For the fruit of the Spirit is hi aU goodness, and righteousness, and truth.— Evn. v. 9.
DocT. 2. That one choice fruit of the Spirit wrought in the children of light is righteousness.
To explain this point, I will show you — (1.) What is righteousness ; (2.) That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit ; (3.) That it is a choice fruit because of the benefits which accrue to us thereby.
I. What is righteousness ? Sometimes it is taken as largely as holiness, for that grace which doth incline us to perform our duty to God and man ; for there is a righteousness even in godliness, or giving God his due honour and worship: Mat. xxii. 21, 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are CcGsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' More strictly it is taken for that grace which doth dispose and incline us to give every one his due, and is a branch of that love and charity which is the sum of the whole second table : Rom. xiii. 7, 8, ' Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Owe no man anything but to love one another ; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.' There is a debt of justice that we owe to ordinary men, and of subjection to those whom God hath set over us, which must be discharged. One debt you must still owe to all men, and that is charity, and it must be so paid as that it be always owing. Now here the word 'righteousness' must be taken in a con- venient latitude, mixed of both senses, — an inclination to do that which we know to be holy and just. Now this righteousness in christians is a fruit of the Spirit, and so a mark of their union with Christ ; and therefore it must be advanced to a higher degree of perfection than that justice in heathens which is the fruit only of a natural conscience in us. It must look like a thing that cometh from a nature renewed and healed, or a divine supernatural principle, which doth not only alter the kind, but advance the degree of it. To evidence which —