INFINITE GOODNESS OF DIVINE COUNSELS. 59
2, They are acts of infinite goodness, wliereon tlie divine nature cannot but be infinitely delighted in them. As wisdom is the directive principle of all divine operations, so goodness is the communicative principle that is effectual in them. He is good, and he doth good — yea, he doth good because he is good, and for no other reason — not by the necessity of nature, but by the intervention of a free act of his will. His goodness is absolutely infinite, essentially perfect in itself; which it could not be if it belonged unto it, naturally and necessarily, to act and communicate itself unto any thing without God himself. The divine nature is eternally satisfied in and with its OAvn goodness ; but it is that principle which is the immediate fountain of all the communications of good unto others, by a free act of the will of God. So when Moses desired to see his glory, he tells him that " he will cause all his goodness to pass before him, and would be gracious unto whom he would be gracious:" Exod. xxxiii. 19. All divine operations — in the gracious communication of God himself — are from his goodness, by the intervention of a free act of his will. And the greatest exercise and emanation of divine goodness, was in these holy counsels of God for the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ. For whereas in all other effects of his goodness he gives of his own, herein he gave himself, in taking our nature upon him. And thence, as he expresseth the design of man in his fall, as upbraiding him with folly and ingratitude, " Behold, the man is l)ecome as one of us," Gen. iii. 22, we may, with all humble thankfulness, express the means of our recovery, " Behold, God is become like one of us," as the apostle declares it at large, Phil, ii. 6-8. It is the nature of sincere goodness — even in its lowest degree — above all other habits or principles of nature, to give a delight and complacency unto the mind in the exercise of itself, and communication of its effects. A good man doth both delight in doing good, and hath an abundant reward for the doing it, in the doing of it. And what shall we conceive concerning eternal, absolute, infinite, perfect, immixed goodness, acting itself in the liighest instance (in an effect cognate and hke unto it) that it can extend unto ! So was it in the counsels of God, concerning the incarnation of his Son and the salvation of the church thereby. No heart can conceive, no tongue can express, the least portion of that ineffable delight of the holy, blessed God, in these counsels, wherein he acted and expressed unto the utmost his own essential goodness. Shall a liberal man devise liberal things, because they are suited unto his inclination ? shall a good man find a secret refreshment and satisfaction in the exercise of that low, weak, imperfect, mixed goodness, that his nature is inlaid withal? — and
GO THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
shall not He whose goodness is essential unto Lira— whose being it is, and in whom it is the immediate principle of communicating himself unto others — be infinitely delighted in the highest exercise of it which divine wisdom did direct ?
The effect of these eternal counsels of God in future glory is reserved for them that do believe ; and therein will there be the nearest manifestation of the glory of God himself unto them, when he " shall be glorified in his saints," and eternally " admired in all that believe." But the blessed delight and satisfaction of God, was, and is, in those counsels themselves, as they were acts of his infinite wisdom and goodness. Herein was the Lord Christ his " delight continually before the foundation of the world," — in that in him were all these counsels laid, and through him were they all to be accomplished. The constitution of his person was the only way whereby divine wisdom and goodness would act and com- municate of themselves unto mankind — in which actings are the eternal delight and complacency of the Divine Being.
3. Love and grace have the same influence into the counsels of God, as wisdom and goodness have. And, in the Scripture notion of these things, they superadd unto goodness this consideration— that their object is sinners, and those that are unworthy. God doth universally communicate of his goodness unto all his crea- tures, though there be an especial exercise of it towards them that believe. But as unto his love and grace, as they are peculiar unto his elect — the church chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world — so they respect them primarily in a lost, undone con- dition by sin. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us : " Kom. v. 8. " God is love," saith the apostle. His nature is essentially so. And the best conception of the natural internal actings of the holy persons, is love ; and all the acts of it are full of delight. This is, as it were, the womb of all the eternal counsels of God, which renders his complacency in them ineffable. Hence doth he so wonderfully express his delight and complacency in the actings of his love towards the church : " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he Avill joy over thee with singing:" Zeph. iii. 17. The reason why, in the salvation of the church, he rejoiceth with joy and joyeth with singing— the highest expression of divine com- placency—is because he resteth in his love, and so is pleased in the exercise of its effects.