in this world, and are above the conveniences of earth and air, it will
follow, that man, being the noblest creature on the earth, was the more
immediate end of the visible creation. All inferior things are made
to be subservient to those that have a more excellent prerogative of
nature; and, therefore, all things for man, who exceeds all the rest
in dignity: as man was made for the honor of God, so the world was made
for the support and delight of man, {b250} in order to his performing
the service due from him to God. The empire God settled man in as his
lieutenant over the works of his hands, when he gave him possession of
paradise, is a clear manifestation of it: God put all things under his
feet, and gave him a deputed dominion over the rest of the creatures
under himself, as the absolute sovereign (Ps. viii. 6‒8); “Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all
things under his feet, all sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of
the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea; yea, and
whatsoever passeth over the paths of the sea.” What less is witnessed
to by the calamity all creatures were subjected to by the corruption
of man’s nature? Then was the earth cursed, and a black cloud flung
upon the beauty of the creation, and the strength and vigor of it
languisheth to this day under the curse of God (Gen. ii. 17, 18), and
groans under that vanity the sin of man subjected it to (Rom. viii. 20,
22). The treasons of man against God brought misery upon that which was
framed for the use of man: as when the majesty of a prince is violated
by the treason and rebellion of his subjects, all that which belongs to
them, and was, before the free gift of the prince to them, is forfeit;
their habitations, palaces, cattle, all that belongs to them bear the
marks of his sovereign fury: had not the delicacies of the earth been
made for the use of man, they had not fallen under the indignation
of God upon the sin of man. God crowned the earth with his goodness
to gratify man; gave man a right to serve himself of the delightful
creatures he had provided (Gen. i. 28‒30); yea, and after man had
forfeited all by sin, and God had washed again the creature in a
deluge, he renews the creation, and delivers it again into the hand of
man, binding all creatures to pay a respect to him, and recognise him
as their Lord, either spontaneously, or by force; and commissions them
all to fill the heart of man with “food and gladness” (Gen. ix. 2, 3):
and he loves all creatures as they conduce to the good of, and are
serviceable to, his prime creature, which he set up for his own glory:
and therefore, when he loves a person, he loves what belongs to him:
he takes care of Jacob and his cattle: of penitent Nineveh and their
cattle (Jonah iv. 11): as when he sends judgments upon men he destroys
their goods.
(2.) God richly furnished the world for man. He did not only erect a
stately palace for his habitation, but provided all kind of furniture
as a mark of his goodness, for the entertainment of his creature, man:
he arched over his habitation with a bespangled heaven, and floored
it with a solid earth, and spread a curious wrought tapestry upon the
ground where he was to tread, and seemed to sweep all the rubbish of
the chaos to the two uninhabitable poles. When at the first creation of
the matter the waters covered the earth, and rendered it uninhabitable
for man, God drained them into the proper channels he had founded for
them, and set a bound that they might not pass over, that they turn not
again to “cover the earth” (Gen. i. 9). They fled and hasted away to
their proper stations (Ps. civ. 7‒9), as if they were ambitious to deny
their own nature, and content themselves with an imprisonment for the
convenient habitation of Him who was to be appointed Lord of the world.
He hath set up standing {b251} lights in the heaven, to direct our
motion, and to regulate the seasons: the sun was created, that man
might see to “go forth to his labor” (Ps. civ. 22, 23): both sun and
moon, though set in the heaven, were formed to “give light” on the
earth (Gen. i. 15, 17). The air is his aviary, the sea and rivers
his fish‑ponds, the valleys his granary, the mountains his magazine;
the first afford man creatures for nourishment, the other metals for
perfection: the animals were created for the support of the life of
man; the herbs of the ground were provided for the maintenance of their
lives; and gentle dews, and moistening showers, and, in some places,
slimy floods appointed to render the earth fruitful, and capable to
offer man and beast what was fit for their nourishment. He hath peopled
every element with a variety of creatures both for necessity and
delight; all furnished with useful qualities for the service of man.
There is not the most despicable thing in the whole creation but it is
endued with a nature to contribute something for our welfare: either
as food to nourish us when we are healthful; or as medicine to cure us
when we are distempered; or as a garment to clothe us when we are naked,
and arm us against the cold of the season; or as a refreshment when we
are weary; or as a delight when we are sad: all serve for necessity or
ornament, either to spread our table, beautify our dwellings, furnish
our closets, or store our wardrobes (Ps. civ. 24): “The whole earth
is full of his riches.” Nothing but by the rich goodness of God is
exquisitely accommodated, in the numerous brood of things, immediately
or mediately for the use of man; all, in the issue, conspire together
to render the world a delightful residence for man; and, therefore,
all the living creatures were brought by God to attend upon man after
his creation, to receive a mark of his dominion over them, by the
“imposition of their names” (Gen. ii. 19, 20). He did not only give
variety of senses to man, but provided variety of delightful objects
in the world for every sense; the beauties of light and colors for
our eye, the harmony of sounds for our ear, the fragrancy of odors
for our nostrils, and a delicious sweetness for our palates: some have
qualities to pleasure; all, everything, a quality to pleasure, one or
other: he doth not only present those things to our view, as rich men
do in ostentation their goods, he makes us the enjoyers as well as the
spectators, and gives us the use as well as the sight; and, therefore,
he hath not only given us the sight, but the knowledge of them: he
hath set up a sun in the heavens, to expose their outward beauty
and conveniences to our sight; and the candle of the Lord is in us,
to expose their inward qualities and conveniences to our knowledge,
that we might serve ourselves of, and rejoice in, all this furniture
wherewith he hath garnished the world, and have wherewithal to employ
the inquisitiveness of our reason, as well as gratify the pleasures
of our sense; and, particularly, God provided for innocent man a
delightful mansion‑house, a place of more special beauty and curiosity,
the garden of Eden, a delightful paradise, a model of the beauties
and pleasures of another world, wherein he had placed whatsoever might
contribute to the felicity of a rational and animal life, the life of
a creature composed of mire and dust, of sense and reason (Gen. ii. 9).
Besides the other delicacies {b252} consigned, in that place, to the
use of man, there was a tree of life provided to maintain his being,
and nothing denied, in the whole compass of that territory, but one
tree, that of the knowledge of good and evil, which was no mark of
an ill‑will in his Creator to him, but a reserve of God’s absolute
sovereignty, and a trial of man’s voluntary obedience. What blur was it
to the goodness of God, to reserve one tree for his own propriety, when
he had given to man, in all the rest, such numerous marks of his rich
bounty and goodness? What Israel, after man’s fall, enjoyed sensibly,
Nehemiah calls “great goodness” (Neh. ix. 25). How inexpressible, then,
was that goodness manifested to innocent man, when so small a part
of it, indulged to the Israelites after the curse upon the ground,
is called, as truly it merits, such great goodness! How can we pass
through any part of this great city, and cast our eyes upon the
well‑furnished shops, stored with all kinds of commodities, without
reflections upon this goodness of God starting up before our eyes in
such varieties, and plainly telling us that he hath accommodated all
things for our use, suited things, both to supply our need, content a
reasonable curiosity, and delight us in our aims at, and passage to,
our supreme end!
(3.) The goodness of God appears in the laws he hath given to man,
the covenant he hath made with him. It had not been agreeable to the
goodness of God to let a creature, governable by a law, be without a
law to regulate him; his goodness then which had broke forth in the
creation, had suffered an eclipse and obscurity in his government. As
infinite goodness was the motive to create, so infinite goodness was
the motive of his government. And this appears,
[1.] In the fitting the law to the nature of man. It was rather below
than above his strength; he had an integrity in his nature to answer
the righteousness of the precept. God created “man upright” (Eccles.
vii. 29); his nature was suited to the law, and the law to his nature;
it was not above his understanding to know it, nor his will to embrace
it, nor his passions to be regulated by it. The law and his nature were
like to exact straight lines, touching one another in every part when
joined together. God exacted no more by his law than what was written
by nature in his heart: he had a knowledge by creation to observe the
law of his creation, and he fell not for want of a righteousness in his
nature: he was enabled for more than was commanded him, but wilfully
indisposed to less than he was able to perform. The precepts were
easy, not only becoming the authority of a sovereign to exact, but
the goodness of a father to demand, and the ingenuity of a creature
and a son to pay. “His commands are not grievous” (1 John v. 3); the
observance of them had filled the spirit of man with an extraordinary
contentment. It had been no less a pleasure and a delightful
satisfaction to have kept the law in a created state, than it is to
keep it in some measure in a renewed state. The renewed nature finds a
suitableness in the law to kindle a “delight” (Ps. i. 2): it could not
then have anywise shook the nature of an upright creature, nor have
been a burden too heavy for his shoulders to bear. Though he had not
a grace {b253} given him above nature, yet he had not a law given him
that surmounted his nature: it did not exceed his created strength,
and was suited to the dignity and nobility of a rational nature. It was
a “just law” (Rom. vii. 12), and, therefore, not above the nature of
the subject that was bound to obey it. And had it been impossible to
be observed, it had been unrighteous to be enacted: it had not been a
matter of Divine praise, and that seven times a day; as it is, “Seven
times a day do I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments” (Ps.
cxix. 164). The law was so righteous, that Adam had every whit as much
reason to bless God in his innocence for the righteousness of it, as
David had with the relics of enmity against it: his goodness shines
so much in his law, as merits our praise of him, as he is a sovereign
Lawgiver, as well as a gracious Benefactor, in the imparting to us a
being.
[2.] In fitting it for the happiness of man. For the satisfaction
of his soul, which finds a reward in the very act of keeping it, (Ps.
cxix. 165), “Great peace in the loving it;” for the preservation of
human society, wherein consists the external felicity of man. It had
been inconsistent with the Divine goodness to enjoin man anything that
should be oppressive and uncomfortable. Bitterness cannot come from
that which is altogether sweet: goodness would not have obliged the
creature to anything, but what is not only free from damaging him, but
wholly conducing to his welfare, and perfective of his nature. Infinite
wisdom could not order anything but what was agreeable to infinite
goodness. As his laws are the most rational, as being the contrivance
of infinite wisdom; so they are the best, as being the fruit of
infinite goodness. His laws are not only the acts of his sovereign
authority, but the effluxes of his loving‑kindness, and the conductors
of man to an enjoyment of a greater bounty: he minds as well the
promotion of his creatures’ felicity, as the asserting his own
authority; as good princes make laws for their subjects’ benefit
as well as their own honor. What was said of a more difficult and
burdensome law long after man’s fall, may much more be said of the easy
law of nature in the state of man’s innocence, that it was “for our
good” (Deut. x. 12, 13). He never pleaded with the Israelites for the
observation of his commands upon the account of his authority, so much
as upon the score of their benefit by them (Deut. iv. 40; xii. 28). And
when his precepts were broken, he seems sometimes to be more grieved
for men’s impairing their own felicity by it, than for their violating
his authority: “O, that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, then
had thy peace been as a river!” (Isa. xlviii. 18). Goodness cannot
prescribe a thing prejudicial: whatsoever it enjoins, is beneficial to
the spiritual and eternal happiness of the rational creature: this was
both the design of the law given, and the end of the law. Christ, in
his answer to the young man’s question, refers him to the moral law,
which was the law of nature in Adam, as that whereby eternal life was
to be gained: which evidenceth, that when the law was first given as
the covenant of works, it was for the happiness of man; and the end of
giving it was, that man might have eternal life by it: there would else
be no strength or truth in that answer of Christ {b254} to that Ruler.
And, therefore, Stephen calls the law given by Moses, which was the
same with the law of nature in Adam, “the living oracles” (Acts vii.
38). He enjoined men’s services to them not simply for his own glory,
but his glory in men’s welfare: as if there were any being better than
himself, his goodness and righteousness would guide him to love that
better than himself; because it is good and righteous to love that
best which is most amiable: so, if there were any that could do us
more good, and shower down more happiness upon us than himself, he
would be content we should obey that as sovereign, and steer our course
according to his laws: “If God be God, follow him; but if Baal, then
follow him” (1 Kings xviii. 21). If the observance of the precepts of
Baal be more beneficial to you; if you can advance your nature by his
service, and gain a more mighty crown of happiness than by mine, follow
him with all my heart: I never intended to enjoin you anything to
impair, but increase your happiness. The chief design of God in his law
is the happiness of the subject; and obedience is intended by him as
a means for the attaining of happiness, as well as preserving his own
sovereignty: this is the reason why he wished that Israel had walked in
his ways, “that their time might have endured forever” (Ps. lxxxi. 13,
15, 16). And by the same reason, this was his intendment in his law
given to man, and his covenant made with man at the creation, that he
might be fed with the finest part of his bounty, and be satisfied with
honey out of the eternal Rock of Ages. To paraphrase his expression
there:――The goodness of God appears further,
[3.] In engaging man to obedience by promises and threatenings. A
threatening is only mentioned (Gen. ii. 17), but a promise is implied:
if eternal death were fixed for transgression, eternal life was thereby
designed for obedience: and that it was so, the answer of Christ to
the Ruler evidenceth, that the first intendment of the precept was the
eternal life of the subject, ordered to obey it.
1st. God might have acted, in settling his law, only as a sovereign.
Though he might have dealt with man upon the score of his absolute
dominion over him as his creature, and signified his pleasure upon
the right of his sovereignty, threatening only a penalty if man
transgressed, without the promising a bountiful acknowledgment of
his obedience by a reward as a benefactor: yet he would treat with
man in gentle methods, and rule him in a track of sweetness as well
as sovereignty: he would preserve the rights of his dominion in the
authority of his commands, and honor the condescensions of his goodness
in the allurements of a promise. He that might have solely demanded a
compliance with his will, would kindly article with him, to oblige him
to observe him out of love to himself as well as duty to his Creator;
that he might have both the interest of avoiding the threatened evil
to affright him, and the interest of attaining the promised good to
allure him to obedience. How doth he value the title of Benefactor
above that of a Lord, when he so kindly solicits, as well as commands;
and engageth to reward that obedience which he might have absolutely
claimed as his due, by enforcing fears of the severest penalty! {b255}
His sovereignty seems to stoop below itself for the elevation of his
goodness; and he is pleased to have his kindness more taken notice
of than his authority. Nothing imported more condescension than his
bringing forth his law in the nature of a covenant, whereby he seems
to humble himself, and veil his superiority to treat with man as his
equal, that the very manner of his treatment might oblige him in the
richest promises he made to draw him, and the startling threatenings
he pronounced to link him to his obedience: and, therefore, is it
observable, that when after the transgression of Adam God comes to deal
with him, he doth not do it in that thundering rigor, which might have
been expected from an enraged sovereign, but in a gentle examination
(Gen. iii. 11, 13): “Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldst not eat?” To the woman, he said no more than,
“What is this that thou hast done?” And in the Scripture we find, when
he cites the Israelites before him for their sin, he expostulates with
them not so much upon the absolute right he had to challenge their
obedience, as upon the equity and reasonableness of his law which they
had transgressed; that by the same argument of sweetness, wherewith
he would attract them to their duty, he might shame them after their
offence (Isa. i. 2; Ezek. xviii. 25).
2d. By the threatenings he manifests his goodness as well as by his
promises. He promises that he might be a rewarder, and threatens that
he might not be a punisher; the one is to elevate our hope, and the
other to excite our fear, the two passions whereby the nature of man
is managed in the world. He imprints upon man sentiments of a misery by
sin, in his thundering commination, that he might engage him the more
to embrace and be guided by the motives of sweetness in his gracious
promises. The design of them was to preserve man in his due bounds,
that God might not have occasion to blow upon him the flames of his
justice; to suppress those irregular passions, which the nature of man
(though created without any disorder) was capable of entertaining upon
the appearance of suitable objects; and to keep the waves from swelling
upon any turning wind, that so man, being modest in the use of the
goodness God had allowed him, might still be capable of fresh streams
of Divine bounty, without ever falling under his righteous wrath for
any transgression. What a prospect of goodness is in this proceeding,
to disclose man’s happiness to be as durable as his innocence; and set
before a rational creature the extremest misery due to his crime, to
affright him from neglecting his Creator, and making unworthy returns
to his goodness! What could be done more by goodness to suit that
passion of fear which was implanted in the nature of man, than to
assure him he should not degenerate from the righteousness of his
nature, and violate the authority of his Creator, without falling from
his own happiness, and sinking into the most deplorable calamity!