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The natural evidence of the good nefs of God.

E are told in the Scrip

WE

tures that the work of

God is perfect; the reafon is, it perfectly exhibits the character of its author; we have indeed but imperfect views of his work, and therefore clouds and darkness are round about him; but fo far as it is comprehended, it exhibits him as the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every good and every perfect gift. By the work of God is meant the whole compafs of events, which have taken place, or which ever will take place, as well those which come to pass thro' the intervention of means and fecond caufes, as those which are produced by his immediate power.The agency of creatures is concerned in the production of innumerable events, and thofe of the greateft importance, in which they are actuated by diftinct and oppofite principles and views; but thefe events are nevertheless the work of God, as much as any other events whatever. They may flow from a finful taste in creatures, and be the proper evidence of fuch a

VOL. II. No. 11.

tafle; while they refult from and fully demonftrate the holiness of God. Jofeph's brethren, in fell

ing him to the Ishmaelites, meant it unto evil; but God meant it unto good: They meant to deftroy him: God meant to fave him and them and the whole nation, from whom was to proceed the Saviour of the world.

The great objection which has ever been made against the government of God by men of corrupt minds is, that it admits the moral, and fuffers it greatly to preexistence of evil, both natural and vail in the world: thus they condemn fin with the breath which

the love of fin infpires. They afk, could not God have prevented it? And, if infinitely good, would he not have done it? Here men embrace different fyftems. Some deny

the exiftence of fin without dethat God could have prevented fraying the free agency of creatures; and as this would be to render them incapable of moral government, a much greater evil than the existence of fin itself; it be left to the freedom of their own was as important that they fhould will, without any previous bias or Ccc

inclination to any given exercise, as that they should have a moral nature given them. Thus, in providing a falvo for the Divine character, they render both angels and men wholly independent on God for all their moral conduct, their fupport in existence being fuppofed; and therefore they who have continued in a state of holiness and happiness, or have returned to God after their defection from him, will have whereof to glory; and indeed must ascribe their perfeverance or return, to themfelves and not to God. At the fame time, instead of establishing, they wholly destroy, the free agency of creatures; unless they can act freely, when they have nothing to move or prompt them to act at all. Others, perceiving the abfurdity of fuch a fyftem, and not fatisfied how evil can have place under the government of a Being of infinite power and goodness; whofe hand and council must be concerned in its existence, and especially to fuch an extent as is visible in the world, and to continue, as the facred Scriptures inform us, for ever, are led firft to pervert thofe Scriptures and then to deny their divine authority; and being ftill preffed with the difficulty from events of perpetual occurrence, which they feel and fee, they are further led to doubt, and at laft to difbelieve the being of a God. Between thefe two extremes, equally remote from the truth, and fatal to the fouls of men, fuch as are brought to fubmit to the dominion of God, cordially receive and embrace the truth, that the agency of God only wife and ever bleffed, is vifible in all events, and that all events, rightly understood, in their nature and relations, confidered as the fruit of his agency or difpofal, are a direct

expreffion of his perfection and glory.

That pofitive evidence of the goodness of God arifes from the general frame of nature and the stated courfe of events, refulting from the laws of nature, is a truth which forces itself upon every confiderate mind.

This may appear from the fol lowing confiderations. ift, Every man has a witness in his own breaft of the goodness of God, which if duly attended to and regarded, would afford entire fatisfaction; and that is natural confcience, or that moral fenfe by which he difcerns the difference between right and wrong in moral conduct. It is this alone which diftinguishes him from a mere a gent, and conftitutes him a moral agent. It is a much nobler faculty than that by which he perceives the difference between truth and falfhood in natural things. It is that which renders him capable of moral government; of praise or blame; of rewards or punishments. It is above reafon. As the percep tion of fimple truth and falfhood is the foundation of all reafoning in natural things: fo the perception of right and wrong in moral conduct is the foundation of all rea foning in moral things. It appertains to the intellect and not to the tafte of the heart. That princi ple or action may be feen to be right which we hate: and that principle or action may be feen to be wrong which we love. If the principle or action be brought fully into view of confcience it will decide infallibly if it be not, it may decide wrong; but the fault is in the will and not in the confcience. If it be liftened to with respect, its perception will be acute; if not, it will by degrees become infenfible,

favor of virtue and against vice; therefore God is good. Again,

If God were a malevolent being, who gave existence to creatures to make them miferable, it is unreasonable to fuppofe he would give a faculty to any of them, to difcern his own moral deformity, and fo to lay them under infinite obligations for ever to hate himself, as the most detestable of all beings. His having therefore in fact given to angels and men a faculty to difcern good and evil in moral characters, affords full evidence of his own moral rectitude.

2d, The laws which regulate the motions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies-thofe which produce the regular alternation of fummer and winter, feed time and harvest and day and night-thofe which govern the winds and tides

as if feared with a hot iron. It has been very emphatically and very properly termed God's vicegerent in the foul. It is the law of God written on the heart, by which infants and heathens will be judged at the bar of God. All who have not the written law are, by this, a law to themselves and they show it to be thus written on their hearts by their accufing or acquitting one another. To perceive an action or principle to be right, is the fame as in their judgment to approve, though not the fame as to love: and to perceive an action or principle to be wrong, is the fame as in their judgment to difapprove, though not the fame as to hate. The actions or principles which it approves, when bro't fully into view, are always fuch as promote the general good of fociety: and the actions or principles-thofe which produce hail and which it difapproves, when brought fnow and the former and latter fully into view, are always fuch rain in their seasons-those which as injure fociety. clothe the earth in fpring and fumGod has ordained that a courfemer with verdure, and caufe it to of virtue shall be attended with de- bring forth grafs for the cattle and light; and that a course of vice herb for the fervice of man-thofe hall be attended with remorfe. which crown autumn with precious This delight and remorfe are felf- fruits for the fupport of man and approbation and self-condemnation, beaft-and, to mention no more, accompanied with a prefentiment thofe which operate in the multiof future good and evil, as a retri- plication, defence and fupport of bution. A courfe of virtue then, the various creatures, after their though arduous and felf-denying, kinds, make one kind fubfervient infures that peace of mind, which to another and all fubfervient to alone is true enjoyment: and a man, proclaim the goodnefs of courfe of vice, though eafy and God, in a language which is unfelf-gratifying, produces a ftate of derftood by all men, even the most unreft, like the troubled fea con- favage and barbarous. Be it fo, tinually cafting up mire and dirt. that they are all, under certain The fpirit of a man, while found, circumftances, the occafion of can fuftain his infirmity; but a evil, yet the evil produced bears wounded fpirit who can bear? no proportion to the good their There is no peace faith my God general nature and tendency is obto the wicked; and univerfal ex-viously good, and this will deterperience confirms the truth of the declaration. In this law then, we have the teflimony of God in

mine the defign and character of him who eftablished them. It is

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gave us rain from heaven and "fruitful feafons, filling our hearts

"of the world are clearly feen, "being understood by the things "that are made, even his eternal 66 power and Godhead; fo that

not pretended that men, in their fallen and depraved ftate, and under the dominion of a selfish, par-"with food and gladness." The tial temper, will fee the goodnefs witnefs for God, among thofe na of God in his works; nor will tions, was not revelation, but rain they any more fee it in his word. from heaven and fruitful feafons; Their not feeing the evidence of thefe bare witness for God that be his goodness, however, is no proof is good, fufficient to leave them and that there is none. If they hate all others without excufe. Again, the light and refuse to come to the St. Paul fays, "The invifible light, their refufal proves nothing" things of him from the creation but their own perverfeness; the evidence of the being of light may be irrefiftible, to all who open their eyes. Accordingly we find that the best men in every age, whofe hearts have been right with God, have made the works of God, as well as his word, a theme of rapturous praife; but if the evil which prevails in the world annihilates the evidence of God's goodnefs from his works, fo that his goodness cannot be feen in them, they must have been no better than mere rhapfodifts and enthufiafts in making the works of God a theme of praife. But,

3d, The truth I have endeavored to prove is manifeft from the facred Scriptures.

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they are without excufe: Be"caufe, that when they knew "God, they glorified him not as "God, neither were thankful." Sufficient evidence then of the Godhead is exhibited to men by the works of creation, to render them without excufe, in not glori fying God as God, and in not being thankful: and furely this implies evidence of his goodness. Thefe paffages do not affert that God is good, but they affert, that he is proved to be fo, by the works of creation and providence. Whatever difficulty therefore there may be, in making out the proof from this fource, by logical reafoning, we have the teftimony of God, that the evidence is conclufive; and this will fatisfy all who receive the Scriptures as a revelation from God.

The Pfalmift fays, "The heavens declare the glory of God and "the firmament fhoweth his han"dy work. Day unto day utter"eth fpeech, and night unto night "fhoweth knowledge. There is "no fpeech or language where "their voice is not heard." But the glory of God is his goodnefs; the natural perfection of God is indeed of infinite worth, but it is fo only as a mean to an end, and that end is the communication and diffufion of infinite goodnefs. Paul and Barnabas, fpeaking of the heathen nations, fay "That God fuffered them, in time paft, to "walk in their own ways. Never-if it does, it must deftroy the evi "theless he left not himself without dence which is shown to be conclufive. Satisfactory proof cannot

witness, in that he did good, and

But if the works of God referred to afford fufficient evidence of the goodnefs of God, to render men inexcufable for their ingrati tude to him, then it is certain that the exiftence of fin and mifery in the world, in all their extent, af fords no proof to the contrary : or indeed any evidence at all, which can have any weight; for

exift on the oppofite fides of a
queftion; of course where one fide
is proved, the other has no proof
at all.
We may be certain then,
that if God is proved to be good
from the works which have been
confidered, there can be no evi-
dence at all of the contrary, from
the exiftence of fin or mifery, or
from any other quarter.

But it may be useful juft to mention fome of the reafons of this.

divine law is infcribed on the heart of every man; the untutored favage difcerns as perfectly between right and wrong as thofe who enjoy revelation: All men are con fcious of having violated this law; they do that themselves which they condemn in others and fo are selfcondemned; they know, or might know, that the judgment of God is according to truth against fuch as work iniquity; and have no reafon to expect to efcape his judgment themfelves. 2d. Because the fyftem of divine operation is not yet fully unfolded to the view of creatures; it is yet in a state of progreffion, and it cannot reasonably be pronounced imperfect or defec

in this weighty affair, to judge' nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darknefs."

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1. Sin proves nothing against the goodness of God. This affection of heart is in itself wrong and hateful. It is oppofed to the general good but the evil of it lies wholly in its nature; it is the affection of the finner; we need only look upon it to difcera its native, before it is entire. We ought, ture and to pronounce it wrong and hateful; we can argue nothing from its nature, to the nature of its caufe. If God can, in his treatment of the finner, either in his condemnation and punishment, or in his pardon and falvation, difplay his own glory and promote the general good, which must be admitted to be poffible, then his regard to the general good, or his hulinefs itfelf will enfure its existence. order then to prove that the exiftence of fin makes any thing againit the goodness of God, it must be demonftrated, that God himfelf cannot over-rule it for the difplay of his glory, or the happincfs of his creatures.

But to advance one flep further, It is believed, that the existence of fin and fuffering in the world is fo far from proving any thing against the goodnefs of God, that it incrcafes the evidence in its fupift. Of fuffering.

In port.

If it be admitted that men are finners and guilty before God, and that they have the means, in all con. ditions, of knowing this; it will follow of courfe, that their fufferings, whether viewed as penal or correative, difplay the divine goudnefs. He that fpareth the "rod hateth his fon, but he that loveth

2. Natural evil or pain and mifery, which prevail in the world, prove nothing against the goodne fshim, chafteneth him betimes." of God. 1. Becaufe all men as finners or violators of God's law deferve all the pain and mifery which they fuffer in this life, and much more. Whether every one is fenfible of this or not is immaterial; it is fufficient, that full proof of this may be produced to every Candid and inquiring mind.

The

Common fute always decides in favor of the father who fuitably corrects his ftubborn child; and pronounces it to be an unequivocal act of goodness; it equally pronounces in his favor, who difaherits, and cats cut of his family and protection, the child who proves Stalinute and Greclaimable.

The

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