* Good will towards men.'
Divers copies have it otherwise, * On earth peace to men of good will.' Some have it, ' Good will towards men.' The sense is not much diffe-
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rent.* Peace on earth, * To men of God's good will, of God's good pleasure.' That God hath a pleasure to save, or ' good will towards men,' of God's good pleasure ; ' Peace on earth,' to men of God's good will and pleasure; or God's good pleasure towards men.
' Good will towards men.'
This is the spring and root of all. The angels begin with ' Glory to God,' and then they come to 'peace among men,' because without peace and reconciliation with God the heart of man cannot be enlarged to glorify God. The angels would have men glorify God as well as themselves. Therefore they desire peace on earth, that God may be glorified in heaven. Now there is no peace but issues from grace. Grace is God's free good will and pleasure. Therefore the angels say, ' Good will towards men.'
The holy apostles, they could not have better teachers for their salutations in their epistles than to learn of the angels ; as you have Saint Paul's pre- faces, the same with this evangelical celebration and gratulation here to men, ' Grace, mercy, and peace,' so here, ' Peace on earth, good will towards men.' Only the apostles they begin, 'grace and peace;' and here the angels, * peace and grace.' But the meaning of the angels and apostles is all one ; for the angels, when they wish ' peace on earth,' they go to the spring of it, ' good will towards men.' The apostles, they begin with grace, the spring, and then go to peace after.
' Good will towards men.'
The words need not further to be explicated. There is no great difficulty in them. The points considerable are these.
1. God now hath a gracious good will towards men.
2. This good will is the foundation of all good. ' 3. And this is founded upon Christ.
The first of these I will but touch, because it doth but make way to the other.
1. God shews noiv good pleasure toivards men.
The love that God bears towards man hath divers terms, from divers relations. As it is a propension in him to do good, so it is love. As it is his free, so it is his good, pleasure or grace. As it is to persons in misery, it is mercy. The fountain of all is love. But as the object is diversely considered, so the terms be divers. Good pleasure and grace imply freedom in the party loving, and mercy implies misery in the party loved.
Now this free good will and gi-ace, it is towards men, towards mankind. He saith not, towards angels. It is more towards men, than even to good angels, in some sort. For now man is taken to be the spouse of Christ. Good angels are not so. Neither is it good will to evil angels ; for their state is determined. There is no altering of their condition. Therefore God is called Philanthropos, not Philangelos ; and the Scripture calls this Philanthropia, the love that God hath shewed to men in Christ. f There- fore we should have thoughts of God as gracious, loving our nature more than the angelical nature in some respects.
And learn this for imitation, to love mankind. God loved mankind ; and surely there is none that is born of God, but he loves the nature of man, wheresoever he finds it. He will not stand altogether, whether it be good or bad, &c. But because we are now in the way, and our state is not determined, and because God loves the nature of man, therefore every
* Cf. note a. — G. f That is, (piXavS^UTria. — G.
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man that hath the Spirit of God loves mankind. He will labour to gain Turks, or Indians, &c., if he can, because he loves the very nature of man. But I pass from this point to the second.
2. This Budoy.ia, ' f/ood ivill of God' to restore lapsed man by the scvding of his Son, is the (jronnd of all goad to man, and hath no ground but itself. God's grace and love to the creature is altogether independent in regard of the creature. God fetcheth not reasons of his love from the creature, but from his own bowels. What can he foresee in * persons that were dead' ? nay, in persons that were in a contrary disposition to goodness? There is nothing but enmity in our nature to supernatural goodness. Can God foresee groimds of love in enmity ?
As Moses tells the people of Israel in divers places, Deut. vii. 8, ' that it was not for any foresight of good in them,' they were the stubbornest people under heaven, therefore God, to shew his free love, he chose a stubborn people, and singled them out to be the object of his mercy. So God ofttimes takes the unlikeliest men in the world, and passeth by many, otherwise of sweet natures. So we see, even the means themselves, they are of God's free mercy and love.
We have whatsoever we have by virtue of the covenant ; for what could we look for from God but in covenant, wherein he hath bound himself? Now, since the 'fall, this covenant is called the covenant of grace ; that now, ' if we believe in Christ, we shall not perish, but have life and salvation,' John iii. 15. In all the parts of it, it is of God's free grace and good pleasure. What is the foundation of the covenant ? Christ. Christ is of free grace. * God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,' verse 16. There is nothing freer than gift. Christ is a gift,' the greatest gift. He came freely from God; he 'gave him to death for us all*' Rom. viii. 32.