Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

What if he transfers from us, what we have? He takes no more, than what his Goodness first imparted to us; And never takes so much from his People, as his Goodness leaves them: If he strips them of their lives, he leaves them their Souls, with those faculties he furnished them with at first, and removes them from those Houses of Clay to a richer Mansion. The time of our Sufferings here, were it the whole Course of our Life, bears not the proportion of a moment, to that endless Eternity wherein he hath designed to manifest his Goodness to us. The Consideration of Divine Goodness would teach us to draw a Calm, even from Storms, and distil Balsam from Rods; If the Reproofs of the Righteous be an excellent Oil,^* we should not think the Corrections of a good God, to have a less Virtue.

What if he transfers from us, what we have? He takes no more, than what his Goodness first imparted to us; And never takes so much from his People, as his Goodness leaves them: If he strips them of their lives, he leaves them their Souls, with those faculties he furnisht them with at first, and removes them from those Houses of Clay to a richer Mansion. The time of our Sufferings here, were it the whole Course of our Life, bears not the proportion of a moment, to that endless Eternity wherein he hath design'd to manifest his Goodness to us. The Consideration of Divine Goodness would teach us to draw a Calm, even from Storms, and distil Balsom from Rods; If the Reproofs of the Righteous be an excellent Oyl,^* we should not think the Corrections of a good God, to have a less Vertue.

1. *Psal. 145.5.

5. A sense of the Divine Goodness, would mount us above the World. It would damp our appetites after meaner things, we should look upon the World not as a God, but a Gift from God, and never think the Present better than the Donor. We should never lie soaking in muddy Puddles, were we always filled with a sense of the richness, and clearness of this Fountain, wherein we might bath our selves: Little petty Particles of good would give us no content, when we were sensible of such an unbounded Ocean. Infinite Goodness rightly apprehended, would dull our desires after other things, and sharpen them with a keener edge, after that which is best of all. How earnestly do we long for the presence of a Friend, of whose good will towards us, we have full experience?