Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

and therefore will not communicate mean and shallow Benefits, but according to the grandeur of it, Sovereign and Divine, such as the gift of a happy Immortality. Since he had no obligation upon him, to make any promise, but the sweetness of his own Nature, the same is as strong upon him, to make all the words of his Grace good; They cannot be invalid in any one tittle of them, as long as his Nature remains the same; And his goodness cannot be diminished, without the impairing of his Godhead, since it is inseparable from it. Divine Goodness will not let any Man serve God for nought; He hath promised our weak Obedience, more than any Man in his right Wits can say it Merits:^* A Cup of cold Water shall not lose its Reward. He will manifest our good actions, as he gave so high a testimony to Job, in the face of the Devil his Accuser: It will not only be the happiness of the Soul, but of the Body, the whole Man, since Soul and Body were in conjunction in the acts of Righteousness; it consists not with the goodness of God to reward the one, and to let the other lie in the ruins of its first nothing: To bestow joy upon the one, for its being principal, and leave the other without any Sentiments of joy, that was instrumental in those good Works, both commanded, and approved by God: He that had the goodness to pity our Original Dust, will not want a goodness to advance it: And if we put off our Bodies, 'tis but afterwards to put them on repaired, and fresher. From this Goodness, the Upright may expect all the Happiness their Nature is capable of.

and therefore will not communicate mean and shallow Benefits, but according to the grandeur of it, Soveraign and Divine, such as the gift of a happy Immortality. Since he had no obligation upon him, to make any promise, but the sweetness of his own Nature, the same is as strong upon him, to make all the words of his Grace good; They cannot be invalid in any one tittle of them, as long as his Nature remains the same; And his goodness cannot be diminisht, without the impairing of his Godhead, since it is inseparable from it. Divine Goodness will not let any Man serve God for nought; He hath promised our weak Obedience, more than any Man in his right Wits can say it Merits:^* A Cup of cold Water shall not lose its Reward. He will manifest our good actions, as he gave so high a testimony to Job, in the face of the Devil his Accuser: It will not only be the happiness of the Soul, but of the Body, the whole Man, since Soul and Body were in conjunction in the acts of Righteousness; it consists not with the goodness of God to reward the one, and to let the other lie in the ruines of its first nothing: To bestow joy upon the one, for its being principal, and leave the other without any Sentiments of joy, that was instrumental in those good Works, both commanded, and approv'd by God: He that had the goodness to pity our Original Dust, will not want a goodness to advance it: And if we put off our Bodies, 'tis but afterwards to put them on repair'd, and fresher. From this Goodness, the Upright may expect all the Happiness their Nature is capable of.