to make frightful Impreffions on us of a fevere and inexorable Deity. Could they fee fuch a World as this, they would thankfully own the Divine Goodness, and fecurely rejoice in it: But this World, wherein we live, gives us a very different Profpect; we see a great many miferable People, and feel a great many Miferies our felves, and many times expect and fear a great many more; and how unlike is this World, to what we should have imagined the World to have been, had we never seen it, but only heard of a World to have been made and governed by an Infinite and Perfect Goodness? Indeed, all the Objections against the Goodnefs of Providence, do ultimately refolve into this; That the World is not fo Happy as a Good God can make it, and therefore a Good Providence does not govern the World. And a plain Answer to this, will enable any Man to answer all the reft.

And the Answer to this is fhort and plain : That Infinite and Perfect Goodness will do all the Good which can be wifely done, but not all the Good which Men may expect from Infinite Goodness: For the External Exercise of Goodness, must not bear Proportion to the Infinite Fulness of the Divine Nature, but to the State, Condition, and Capacities of Creatures; and therefore we muft not measure the Goodness of Providence merely by External Events, which may fometimes be very calamitous; but by that Proportion fuch Events bear to the State and Deserts of Mankind, or of particular Men in this World. The best Man in the World, does not think himself bound to do all the Good he can to every one he meets; he will make a Difference between a Child and a

Ser

Servant, between a Friend and an Enemy, between a good and a bad Man ; and much more muft a good Prince and a good Magiftrate do fo; and much more muft God, who is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the World.

We shall better underftand this, if we view Man in his several States, and obferve how the Divine Goodness fuits it felf to those different States.

The Divine Goodness made the World, and made Man; and hence we may take our Eftimate what the Goodness of God is, and what it can, and will do, when Goodness freely exerts it felf, without any External Impediment to fet Bounds to it.

And if we believe the Hiftory of the Creation, the Divine Goodnefs difplayed it self in a moft beautiful and glorious Scene; the Newmade World, and the New-created Man, were as Perfect and Happy, as the Perfect Ideas of their Natures in the Divine Mind. This was the World which God made; fuch a Happy World, as it became Perfect Goodness to make: And hence we learn what the Goodness of God is, and what it would alway do; for when the Divine Goodness made the World, he made it what he would have it to be.

But Man did not continue what God had made him: He finned, and by Sin brought Death and Mifery into the World. And therefore, tho' we do not now fee fuch a Happy State of Things, we muft not hence conclude, that the World is not governed by Perfect Goodness; but that a Perfect State of Eafe and Happiness in this World, does neither become the Providence of God, nor is good for Sinners: And we have Reason to conclude this,

not

not only because God made Innocent Man happy, but because he has prepared a much greater Happiness for Good Men in the next World: Which fhews, that the Change is not in God, but in Men. He made Man happy at first, and he will make good Men perfectly happy hereafter. But tho he be always the fame, as good now as he was when he at firft made the World, and as he will be when he shall reward all good Men in the Refurrection of the Juft; yet the degenerate State of Mankind requires fuch a Mixture of Good and Evil, as we now fee, and feel, and complain of in this World.

For it is a very different Cafe, to fee Goodness acting alone, and pursuing its own gracious Inclinations, and to fee it limited and confined by Juftice, which must be the Cafe when Mankind are Sinners. For then Goodness cannot do what is abfolutely beft, but what is beft in fuch Cafes; and when Goodnefs and Juftice are reconcilable, as they are in a Probation-State, there Wifdom muft prescribe the Temperament.

Juftice requires the Punishment of Sinners, but Goodness is inclined to fpare; and Wifdom judges when, and in what manner, it is fit to punish,, or to fpare. An incurable Sinner is the Object of ftrict and rigorous Juftice: A corrigible Sinner is the Object both of Justice and Goodness; his Sin deferves Correction and Punishment; but that he is corrigible, makes him the Object of Patience and Difcipline. And this we muft fuppofe to be the Difference between the Cafe of Apoftate Angels, and of Fallen Man; and therefore Juftice immediately feized on thofe Apoftate Spirits; but God, in infinite Goodness, promifed a Saviour to Mankind.

This

This makes the prefent State of Mankind in this World, to be a State of Trial and Difcipline; to reclaim and reform Sinners, by the various Methods of Grace and Providence; and this changes both the very Notion and Exercise of God's Goodness and Juftice in this World; for we must expect no more of either, than what, a State of Trial and Difcipline will allow.

The not confidering this Diftinction between Abfolute Goodness and Juftice, and the Goodnefs and Justice of Difcipline, has been the Occafion of all thofe Objections, which have been made both against the Goodness and Juftice of Providence.

We must confefs, that the World is not fo happy, as Perfect, and Abfolute, and Unconfined Goodness could make it; nor are all Sinners fo miferable, as ftrict and abfolute Justice could make them; but this fignifies no more, than that Heaven and Hell are not in this. World; as no Man ever pretended they were: And yet Strict and Rigorous Juftice, and Perfect and Abfolute Goodness, whereever they are exercised, muft make Hell and Heaven. But this Life is a Middle State between both; and as Men behave themselves here, fo they fhall have their Portions either in Heaven or Hell: And therefore the Goodnefs and Juftice of God. in this World, is of a different Nature from. that Goodness or Juftice which is exercifed in Heaven or Hell, proportioned to the State of Difcipline and Trial in this Life,

Goodness indeed has the predominant Government, and Juftice is only the Minister of Goodness in this World, as it must be in a State of Difcipline, when Corrections as well as Favours are intended for good. To put Man

into

into a State of Probation and Trial, to recover that Immortality he had loft, was an Act of great Goodness: And whatever fevere Methods are used to reform Sinners, is as great an Expreffion of Goodness, as it is to force and to compel them to be happy; as it is to cut off a Hand, or a Leg, to preferve Life. And if we will but allow this World to be a State of Trial and Difcipline for another World, and wifely confider, not what pure, fimple, and abfolute Goodness, but what the Goodness of Difcipline requires, it will give us an eafy Answer to all the Objections against the Goodnefs of Providence.

1. As first; The Goodnefs of God, in a State of Difcipline, will not admit of a compleat and perfect Happiness in this World; for that is no State of Difcipline. Good Men themselves, were they as Happy in this World as they could wish, would not be very fond of another World, nor learn thofe mortifying and selfdenying Virtues, which are neceffary to prepare them for a Spiritual Life: And Bad Men would grow more in Love with this World, and fin on without Check and Controul. The Miferies and Afflictions of this Life, wean good Men from this World, and lay great Reftraints upon bad Men; which juftifies both the Wifdom and Goodness of God, in those many Miferies which Mankind fuffer.

2. But yet the Goodness of God, in a State of Discipline, requires, That this World should be fo tolerable a Place, as to make Life defirable; his own Glory is concerned in this: For no Man would believe, that the World was made, or is governed by a Good God, were there no vifible and fenfible Teftimonies of a