s. xv.] »RA«v N LT. î7 net his part in establishing the re]ious constancy of other men. Oï ail proofs, demonstration is the powerfulest: when I hve just reon think my superiors would hve it thus, this mic te my seul; when I heur them sy they wod hve if thus, this is rhetoric te y seul; when I see their lws enjoin te be thus, this is loc te my ul; but when I see them ally, really, clearly, constantly de thus, this is a demonstrtion te my ul, d demonstration is thc werfest proof: the eloquence of inferiors is in words, the eloquence of superiors is tion. He ce te Christ; he ran te him; and when he was come, as St. Mark relates it, He ll «Ton his oenees te Christ. He net then pharisaicly upon his own legs, his o merits, thog]l ho had been diligent observer of the commandments before. Blessed are they, who bring the testimony of a former zeal te G's service, and yet make that no excuse for their present, or future slackne; the benefit of o former goedness is, that that enables us te be the better still: for, all example is we upon u¢ our om example most of ail; in this case we are mo immediately und by ourselves; stiH te be se good, as wc olv bave been belote: there was a rime when I was notng; but there shl never be any time, when I shMl be nothing; and therefore I ara most m respect the futée. The goed services tt a man bath done te God by pen, or sword, are win, and they exalt him if he wod go forward; but they are weights and depress him, and aggravate his condemnation, if his presumption upon the merit of thoee former services, retard him for the future. This man had done well, but he stood net un that; he kneeled te Christ, d he id te him, Good ster. He was no iorant man, and yet he acknowledged tt he had somewhat more te learn of Christ, th he knew yet. Blessed are they that inanimate ail their knowledge, consmate aH in Crist Jesus. The univemity is a pa&, fivers of knowledge ara there, a and sciences flow fmm thence. Council tables are Horti voncluM, (as if is said in the Canticles) Gardens that are wald in, and they are fox, tes sOti wells that are sead up; botmless depths of unsearchable counsels there. But those Aquw quietinum, which the pmphet saks oç The waters c78 PREACHED IN LENT. [SEBo test, they flow from this good mter, und flow into im ain; ail knowlcdgc tiret bcins hot, nd en hot u iddy, t veiinos circle, t an elaomte sd exuisito ignorance. He vod learn of him, and what Qdd boni faclam, What go thing shall I do[ Still he rcfers fo thc futée; fo do as well fo bave donc: and till fo ho doing Blessed are thcy that bring thcir knowledge into practice; and blced again, tiret crown thcir former practice with future perseverance. This wss his disposition that came young mau; (for so he is said to be, in the 2nd verse) and young mcn are not often so forvard in such wys. I remember che of the paucrics cclobrates and mgnifies one of tho cmpcrors for this, that he wod marry when he was youn he wod so soen confine and limit his pleasures, so soeu deternine his affoetions in one peton. Vhen Christ, Christ reccives him with an cxtraordinary welcome; well intimatcd in that, that that disciple whom Christ loved mt, came to him yogcst. ]le came though ho wcre young; and he came flmugh he wcrc Unus è TriciTib«s, (for so ho is (lualificd in St. Luke) a principal man, a great m; as we translate it, Oe of the r[ders : for so ho is a real and u peonal answer and inance to that scomf «luestion of thc pllarisees, N«nqt«id e Trînc[Tibts, Do ay er te ruh'rs, any grcat mon, believe in Christ? It is truc that the Holy Ghost doth say, Aou muki nobiles , Few noblemen come to heaven. Not out of Panigorola, the bishop of Asti's reason, Pa«cl qa pa«ci, There cannot come many noblemon to heaven, because there are hot many upon cash; for many rimes there are many. In calm and peaceable times, the large favo of indigent princes, in active and stirring times, the merit and the foune of foard ncn, do often enlarge the number. But such is often the corrupt inordinateness of eatness, that if only carries them so much beyond other men, but hot so much nearer to God; if only sets men at a farther, hot God af a nearer distance to them; but because they are corne to be called God's, they think they bave no farthcr to go to God, but thcmsclcs. But God is the God te motains, as w«ll as Luke x. 18. 1 Cor. i. 26.
... x,v.] ».AC,.,,. 279 of tke valleys"; great and small are equal, and equally nothing in his sight: for, whon ail the world is in puillo, b God'sflst 5, (as tho prophot speaks) who ean say then, this is the ant, this is the elephant. Our conversation should be in heaven; and if we look upon the men of this world, as from heaven, as if wo looked upon this world itseff, from theneo, the hills would be no hills, but all ono fiat and equal plain; so are ail men, one kind of dust. Records of nobility are only from the book of lifo, and your preferment is your interest in a place at tho right-hand of God. But yet, when those men whom God bath raised in this world, tako him in their arms, and raise him too, though God eannot be oxalted above himself, yet ho is content fo eall this a raising, and to hank them for it. Therefore when this man, a man of this tank came to him, Jesus beheld Mm', says the Gospel, and he loved Mm, and £e said, One thing tlzou lacbe; God knows, he lncked many things; but because he had that one, zeal to hlm, Christ doth hot reproach to him his other defeets: God pardons great men many errors, for that one good affection, general zeal to his glory, and his cause. His disposition then, (though it have seemcd suicious, and questionable to some) was so good, as that it bath afforded us these good considerations. If it were hOt so good as thcse circumstances promise, yet it affords us another as good considcr tion, that how bad soever it were, Christ Jesus refused him not, whea he came to him. Whea he inquired of Christ after salva tion, Christ doth not say, There is no salvation for thee, thou viper, thou h}Tocrite, thou Pharisee, I have locked an iron door of predestination between salvation and thee; when he inquircd of him, what he should do to be sure of heaveu, Christ doth hot say, There is no such art, no such wy, no such assuranco hcre; but you must look into the eternl decree of election first, and see whether th.t stand for you or no: but Christ teaches him the true method of this art: for, wheu he says to him, llrhy calles thou m good? There ¢$ one.qood btt God, he only directs him in the svay to that end, which he did indeed, or preteoded to seek. And this direction of his, this inethod is oto" tlnrd ])art; in whieh, having already seen in the first, (the eontext) the situa- I Kings xx. 2t. Isaiah x.. 12. « Iark x. 1.
tion and prospect of the bouse, that is, the coherence and occasion of the,vords, and in the second, (the lretext) the access and entrance to the bouse, that is, the pretence and lmrpose of that occasioned the words, you may now be æleased to look farther into the bouse itself, and to see how that is built; that by what method Christ builds up, and edifies this new disciple of his; which is the principal scope and intention of the text, and that, to 'hich all the test did somewhat necessarily prepare the way. Out Saviour Christ thus undertaking the farther rectifying of this thus disposed disciple, by a fait method leads him to the truc end; good ends, and by gooà ways, consummate goodness, low Christ's answer to this man is diversely read: we read it, (as you bave heard) Why callest thou meyood. Thevulgute edition in the Roman church, reuds it thus, Quid me interro#a de bono.a dost thou qwst&n e cowerniny 9oodness? Vhich is true. Tht which answers tlm original; and it tan adroit no question, but that ours doth so. But yet, Origen, to ho sure, in his eighth tractato upon this Gospel, reads it both ways: and St. Augustine, in his sixty-third chapter of the second book De eonseuu Evanffelistar«m, thinks it may very well be believed, thut Christ suy both: that when this man called him yood toaster, Christ said then, There was one 9ood but God; and thut vhen this man askeà him, Wkat #ood rhin 9 he should do, then Christ suid, dost thou ask w, me wkom thou thinkest to be bu a nere man, what is #oodness? There is tone yooà but Goal; if thou look to understand goodness from man, thou must look out such a man as is God too. So thut this was Christ's method, by these holy insinuations, by theso approaches, and degrees, to bring this man to a knowledge, that he was very Goal, and so the Messiah thut xvas expected. Nihil est falsitas, ùi cure esse lputatur, uod w' est : all error consists in this, that wo tuke things to be less or more, other than they are. Christ was pleased to redeem this man from this error, and bring him to know tru]y what he was, thut he was God. Christ thereïore doth hot rebuke this man, by any denying that he himself was good; for Christ doth assume that addition to himself, I ara thv yood qheflherd. Neither doth Augustine szR. xv.] PRz,cH» m LZSr..'281 Goal forbid, that those good parts whieh are in men, should be eelebrated with eondign praise. We see that God, as soon as ho saw that anything was good, he said so, he uttered if, he deelared it, fir of the light, and then of other ereatures: God would bo no author, no example of smothering the due praiso of good actions. For, surely that man bath no zeal to goodness in himself, that afl'ords no praise to goodness in other men. But Christ's purpose was also, that this praiso, this reeoguition, this tetimony of his goodnem, might bo earried higher, and referred fo tho only true author of if, to God. 8o the priests and tho elders eome fo ffudith 8, and they say to ber, Thou art tho exaltation of fferusalem, thou ar tho great glory of Israel, thou art tho rejoieing of our nation, thou hast done all these things by thy hand; and all this was true of ffudith, and due to Sudith; and sueh reeognitions, and sueh aeelamatioim God requires of sueh people, as havo received such benefits by such instruments: for as thero is treason, and petty treason, so thero is sacrilege, and petty sacrilege; anal petty sacrilego is to rob princes and great persons of their just praise. But then, as we must confer this upon them, so must they, and we, and all transfer aH upon God: for so Judith proceeds there, with her priests and elders, Begin unto my God, with timbrols, sing unto the Lord with cymbals, e.xalt him, and call upon his naine. So likewiso Elizabeth magnifies the blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed art thou amongst wome : and this was true of ber, and due to her; and she takes it to herself, when she says there, trom hencefortl ail 9enerations shall call me blessed; buç first, sho had earried it higher, fo tho highest, 3Iy soul doth maynfy the Lord, and my spirit dotl rejoice in God rny,_ç'aviour. In word, Christ forbids not this man to eall him good, but he directs him to know in what eapaeity that attributo of goodness belonged to him, as ho was God: that when this man believed before that Christ was good, and learnt from him now, that none was good but God, he might by a farther eoneoetion, a farther rumlnation, a farther meditation of this, eome in due rime to know that Christ was God; and this was his method. Now this leads us into two rieh and fragrant fields; this sets us upon tho two hemispheres of tho world; the western hemi- * Judith xv. 8. Luke L 42.
sphere, tho land of gold, and treasure, and tho eastern hemisphere, the land of spiees and perfumes for this puts us upon both these eonsiderations, first, that nothing is essentially good, but God, (and thero is tho land of gold, eentrieal gold, viseeral gold, gremial gold, gold in the matrice and womb of God, that is, essential goodness in God himseff) and then upon this consideration too, that this essential goodness of God is 80 diffusivo, 80 spreading, as that thero is nothing in the world, that doth hot paricipate of that goodness; and there is tho land of spiees and perfumes, tho dilatation of God's goodness. So that now both theso propositions are truc, first, that there is nothing in this world good, and then this also, that there is nothing iii: as, muongst the fathers, it is in n good senue, as tr(dy said, De«s est en8, JDelt8 0 e8t 8ub8tantla, God is no essence, God is no substance, (for fear of imprisoning God in a predieament) as it is said by others of the fathers, thnt there is no other essence, no other substance but God. First then, there is nothing good but God: neithor tan I eoneeive anything in God, tht eoncerns mo 80 mueh as his goodness; for, by that I know him, an,l for that I love him. I know him by that, for, as Damascene says, Primarium Dei nomen, bonltas; God's firs n,me, that is, the first way by which God notified himself to man, was goodness; for out of his goodness he ruade him. His naine of OEehovah '0 admire with a reverenee; but we eanhot express that name: not only hOt in the signification of if, but hOt eonfidently, hot assuredly in tho sound thereof; we are nog sure that we should eall it OEehovah; not suro that any man did eall it OEehovah a hnndred years ago. But, Ineffabili dnlcedine teneor cttm andio, bonus JDominus to; I ara, hot transported with astonishment, as at his name of Jellovah, but replenished with ail sweetness, established with all soundness, when I hear of my God in that naine, my good God. By that I knov him, and for that I love him: for the objeet of my understanding is truth; but the objeet of my love, my at'eetion, my desire, is goodness. If my understanding be defeetive, in many cases, faith will supply it; if I helievo it, I ara as well satisfied, as if I knew it; but nothing mpplies, nor fills, nor satisfies the desiro of man, on this o Augustine.
SER, XIV.J PREACHED IN LENT. side of God; every man hath something te love, and desire, till he determine it in God; because God only bath mmlmdbilem bonltatem, as they render Dionysius the Areopagite, an inexhaus ible goodqess; a sea that no land can suck in, can swallow up, a fore that no tire can waste, a tire that no vatcr can queneh. He is se goed, goedness se, as that he is Causa bonorlm, et qtt in nos, et quw in nobis n, The cause of all good either receivcd by us, or conceived in us; of ail, eithcr prcpared externally for us, or produced internally in us. In a word, he is Bonum cxtera bonacolorans, et amabiHa redden", If is his goodness, tha lds and enamels ail the od peinons, or good actions in this vorld. There is none good bu God; and Q,ale bonum ille, ays tha ratiner, What kind ofgooess God is, flfis dofl stffficienfly declare, Quod mtHi ab ce re«denti bene sit, That no man that ever wen frein him, went by good way, or came te end; there is none good bu Goal; there is centrical, visceral, gremial gold, goodness in the roof, in the tree of goodness, God. New, Arbor bona, bonos ff,ctus, says Christ; If the tree be yood, the fruit is ood too. The tree is God; What are the fruits of this tee Wha are the offspring of Goal St. Ambrose tells us, Angeli et homlnes, et irtutes eoutm; Angds and men, and the good parts, and good actions of angds and men, are the fmi of this tree, they grow frein God. Angels, as they feH, Adam, he fell, the sins of angels and men, are no the fruits of this troc, they grow no radically, net primarily frein God. Vihil se abet Deus semi-Tlemtm, says Damascene: God is no hMf-god, no franuentary God; he is an entire God, and net ruade of remnants; no good only se, as that he hath no room for iii in himoelf, but good se too, as tha he hath no room for any iii will owar any man; no man's danmation, no man's sin, grows radically from Ofis tree. When God had ruade all, mys Tert(dlian, he blessed ail; Maledicere non norat, quia e mloEacere, says he: God could no more mean ill, than de iii; Goal can no more make me sin, than sin himselE If is the fool tha says, There is no God, says David; and i is the other fool, ys St. Basil, Ola says, God produces any iii; Par FretH scelus, quia negat Deum bonum; It is as impiously donc, te dcny God te be t Autstine. 1 Idem.
8 VREXCHVV N Lm'. [SR. X,V. entirely good, as te deny him te be God. For we sec the llanichees, and the lIarcionites, and such other heretics in the primitive church, would rather adroit, and coustitute two Gods, a good God, and a bad God, than be drawn te think, that he that was the good God indeed, could produce any i11 of himself, or mean any ill te any man, that had donc none. And therefore even frein Plate himself, seine Christians might learn more mileratlon in expressing themselves in this point; Plate says, Crea:it quia bonu., Therefore did God create us, that he might be good te us; and then he adds, Bono nznquara inidia, Certainly that God, that ruade us out of his goodness, does net new envy us that goodness which he bath communicated te us; certainly he does net wish us worse, that se he might more justly damn us, and thereîore compel us, 13y any positis'e decree, te sin, te justify his desire of damning us: much less did this good God hate us, or mean ill te us, belote he ruade us, and ruade us only thereîore, that he might bave glory in out destruction. There is nothing good but God, there is nothing but goodness in God. How al3usively then de men call the things of this world, goods. They may as wel] cal] them (se they de in their hearts) Gods, as goods; for tére fs nme ood but God. But how much more abusively de they force the word, that cal] them Bona 9-uia beant, Goods because they make us good, blessed, happy[ In which sense, Seneca uses the word shrewdly, 2".o/en ma/ara bêata axor, A good wife, a blessed wife, says he, that is, a wife that brings a great estate, is an insolent mischief. If we de but cast our eye upon that title in the law, bonorura, and de bonis, of goods, we shal] easily sec, what poor things they ma]ce shift te cal] goods. And if we consider (if it deserve a consideration) how great a difference their lawyers make (Baldus makes that, and others with him) between bowrura lossessio, and bonorurn, that one should amount te a right and propfiety in the goods, and the other but te a sequestration of such goods, we may easily sec, that they can scarce tel] what te cal], or where te place such goods. Health, and strength, and stature, and comeliness, must be called goods, though but of the body; the body itself is in the substance itself, but dust; these are but the acci- su. xv.] P^cH» N LENT. 285 dents of tht dust, and yet they must be goods. Lnd, and money, d honour mt be cHed goo thouh but of foune; foune herser, is but such su idol, as thst St. Austine ws h ever to hve nmed ber in his works, ud therefore çen it in his retrttions; her]f is but an idol, snd s n0tny, these, but the cidents of tht nothing, and yet they mt be oo. Are they such o, as make him necessri]y good tht th them Or such, no man can be goed, that is without them How many men make themse]çes miserb]e, boeause they wnt the goo And how many men hve been ruade misemble by others, because they had them Except thou sec the fe of God upon all thy money, 3s weH as the fe of the king, the hud of God to all thy çateuts, as well as the hand of &e king, G a, as well the kins at, fo all thy creations, all these ach hot to the title of goo, for tere 9 bu Nothing in this world; hot if thou coult have it fi; carry it higher, to the h]ghest, to heaven; heaven itself wem not good, thout G. For, in the schl, very many and ve eat m, have thought and taught, tt e human nature of Christ, though unid hosttically to the Divine nature, was hOt merely by tt union, impecoEble, but might bave sinne if bides that union, God had hot infuse and superinduced er gres, of which other graces, the btifical sion, the present sight of thv foee and eence of God, was one: bause, (say they) Christ had fmm his conception, in his humn nature, that betificl vision of G, which we shl have in the ate of glory, therefore he could hot sin. This betifical vision, say they, which Crist had here, and which, (s they suppose, nd noE improbably, in the problematioel way of the school) God, of his blute power, ght hve witel and yet the hosticul union bave remaed perfeoE; (for, sy they, the two natures, human and Divine, might bave been so united, and yet the han hot hve so seen the Divine) this beatifical vision, this sight of God, ws the cause, or se, or consummation of Chri's perfection, and impeccabflity in his human nture. Much more is this beafifical vision, this sight of G in heaven, the cause or oensummation of all thejoys nd glory which we shll rcceive in at plie: for howsocver thcy dispute, whcthcr that kind of blcsscdncss consist in sceing God, formllter, or sol-iter, tht is, hether I hall things in G in a #ass, in wch tho species of all things are, or whether I shM1 see aH rhino, by God, as by the benefit of a light, whieh hall disoever all things to me, yet they aH agreo, (though they diflr de modo, of the manner, how) tiret howver it ho, thc substance of tho blcssncss is in this, that I God: Bleed are the pure in beaU, says Christ, #r they hall ee God; if they should hot uee God, they were hot bleaz. And thercfore they vho place children that dio unbaptised, in a rm, whcre though they feel no torment, y¢t they shall never ee God, durst never aH that m a part of heavon, but of hcll rathor though there ho no torment, yet, if they oe hot God, it is hell. There is nothing good in this lire, nothing in the next, thout God, that is, thout sight and fruition of the face, and presence of God; whieh is that, which St. Autine intends, when ho says, 5çeutio Dei est attitus beatitatis, eonsecutio beatitas; our looking war God, is the way to blessednem, but ielf is only the sight of God hseff. That themfore thou mayest begin thy hoaven here, put thyself in tho sight of God, put God in thy sight, in evew paicular action. We cannot corne to the body of the sun, but wo tan u thc light of the sun many ways: we cannot corne to God himoelf here, but yet here we can ¢e him by many manifestations: many, as that St. Augustine, in his twentieth chapr, De moribus ecclesiw Catkolicw, hath coHected aright places of Scriptur where every one of out senses is called a seeing; thore is a 9ustate et vider, and audite, and palpate; tastit9, and hearitg, andfeelit9, and all, to this pue, are called seeitg; in ail senses, in out faculties, we may oee God if we will: God at midnight; he oees , then, when we had rather he looked If we see him so, it is a blessed intemew. How would he tiret were corne abroad af mid-night, to do a misChief, sneak away, if he saw the watch XVhat a damp must it necessarily cast un any sinner, in the nearest approach to his sin, if he tan see God See him belote thou sinnest; then he loeks lovingly: after the sin, remember how fain Adam would have hid himself fmm God: ho tt goes one utcp out of God' sight, is loath to corne
SR. X|Vo I PBEACHED 1N LENT. 087 into it again: if you wi]l sit at tho right hand of God hereafter, you mt walk with God here; Abraham, so Enh,c«lked wit God ', ad God too Mm. God knows, God takes not every man tiret dies: Goal )'s to the rich seeure man, Fool, this t£ey sall fitc auy tAy soul; but ho does not tell him who. That then you be »o strangors to Goal thev, seo him now; and remember, that his last judent is expreed in that wo»d, Nescio os, I know yo.u ot; hot to be knom by God, is damnation; and God knows no man thore, with whom ho w ot acquainted hore. There is none good but Goal; the fi'uition of that God, is in seeing him; thc way to seo him there, is to look towar him hero. And so we have gone as far as flo firoe of out two propositions carried us, that in this world thero is nothing goed. The other that remains, i that thero is nothing iii; that this goodne of God is so spread over all, (all actions, M1 persons) as tiret therc is nothing ill. Seneca, whom Tenulau calls still,%nemm aostram, Our Seneca, that is, that Cristim Scncca, as though he had road that of St. Paul, (betweon whom md him, it hath been thought, thero psed epistles) çMd kabes, qtod non acc«isti What ast tot, tkat to-u ast wt recelred'om God? and meant to say n,ore than that, says, Quht non dedit? SVhat is tirer% that WCl'e gOOd for thce, that God bath uot given thee And he, whom they call so often Platonem ltebrworum, the Jews Pla, that la Philo ud«us, says wel], Aïhil boui sterile crt, atit Deus; God bath ruade nothing, in whieh he bath hot inTrinted, and kom which he bath hot produeed some good: he follows so far, (and justly) as fo say, that God do good, whcre that good does no good: he takes his examples ri'oto God's raining in the sea; that rain does no good in the sea: and ri'oto God's producing {esh sprin iii the desert land, where hot only no beasts corne to drink, but where the very alt tide overflows the fresh si)ring. He might have added an example om Paradise, that God wou]d plant ucll a garden, for so few hours; that God would provide man such a dwelling, wheu he knew he would hot dwell a day in it. And he might llave added an example from the light too; that God would crcato light, and say it was good, then when could be good for nothing, for there was nothing made to see it, nor to be seen by it: so forward, so early was God, in diffuing his goodness. Of every particular thing, God said '$ was yood, and of ail together, that it was very yood; there was, there is nothing il]. For, when it is ordinarily inquired in the school, whether anything be essentiaily good, it is safely answered there, that if by essentially we mean independently, so good as that it can subsist of itself, vithout dependence upon, or relatian to any other thing, so there is nothing essentiaily good: but if by essentiaily good, we mean that whose essence, and being is good, so everything is essentiaily good. And therefore when the Manichees pressed St. Augustine with that, Ude malum? If there be hot an iii God, as well as a good, ude malum, from whom, or from whence proeeeds ail that ill that is in the world. St. Augustine says, Unde malum? Quid alum? From whence cornes evil. Vhy, what is there, that you can call evil. I know no such thing so that, if there be such a God, that God bath no creature. For, as poisons conduce to physic, and discord to music, so those two kinds of evil, into which we contrat ail others, are of good use, that is, malum loenw, the evil of punishment, affliction, adversity, and malum culpw, even sin itself, from vhich the punishment flows. Be pleased to stop a little, upon each of these. First, malm pwnw, affliction, poverty, sickness, imprisonment, banishment, and such, are not evil. The blood of Christ Jesus only is my cordial that restores me, repairs me; but affliction is my physic; that purges, that cleanses me. Hostiliter se wloponit nedicu, says Tertullian, The l)hysician cornes in like an enemy, with a knife to lance, with tire to cauterize, but opponit se morbo, he is but an enemy to the disease, he means the patient no harm; no more does God to me, in all his medicinal corrections. But how if these afflictions bang long upon me. If they do so, that is, _/Egrotmtit«m aniarum diwta ; God enters into another course of physic, and finds it better for me to spend my disease by diet; and long sicknesses are such diets: God wiil recover my soul by a consumption of the body, and establish everlasting health, by long sickness. Howsoever, let God's corrections go as
SEP** XIV.] PRI&C|IED IN LENT. 289 nigh as they can go in this world, Et»i wvum videtur, quod dicere volo, snys Origen, dim tan; Though it be strnnge that I will sy, I will say it, Etlam bonita» Dei e»t, 9«i dicitur.f«ror ç««s; That which we call the anger of God, the ath of God, the fury of God, is the goodne of G. Corrg me o 0 Lord, in thy atk, sys David; but, rather tn leave me uneorreeted, corrt me any way. We eaH God, just, and we eall him mercifM, aeoeMing to out present tte of God, and use of God, Cure unicam habeat atlovem Deus, tempe bonitatem , XVhen as God bath but one affection in himself, tht is, gooess, uor but one purpe un us, that is, m do us gd. So then, this whieh we eall nlum pwnw, aietion, adversity, is hot evil; that whieh easions this, mlum culpw, sin itseff, is hot el; hot evil so, as tiret it shoMd make us ineapable of this &ffusive goedness of God. You know, I presume, in what sense we y in the hoel, mlum ffMl, ndpe«atum nikil, that evil is nothing, sin is nothing; that is, it hath no reality, it is no ereated substance, if is but a privation, a shadow is, as sickness is; so it is nothing. It is wittily argucd by Boëthiu God can do all thin; God cannot sin; therefore sin is nothing. But it is strongly argued by St. Austine, if there be anything naturally el, it must necessarily ho eontrary to that which is naturally good; and that is God. Now, contraria wqualia, ys he; what- ver things are contrary to one another, a equal to e other; , if we make anything naturally evil, we shall slide in the Maniehees' error, to make an evil God. So far doth the 1 follow this, as that there, one arehbishop of Cnterbury, out of another, that i% Bradwardine out of Anselm, pronounces it Itwreticum esse dicere, malum es aliquid, To sy that anhing is natally evil, is an hery. But if I eannoE find a foundation for my cooEooE, in thh subtlety of the sehoel, that sin is nothing, (no such thing as was created or induced by God, much less forced upon me by him, in y coaetive decree) yet I tan raise a secmd step for my consoloe tion in this, that be sin what it will in the nature thereof, yet my sin sha conduce and cooperate to my good. So Joseph says to his brethren, u toyt eril aya/nst nw, but God eat it t«nto Ca41. Alex. VOL. 1. U