This his religion, as he intimates, was founded upon the most solid ground of reason; for as the great Father and Lord of all is certainly matchless, and unrivalled in majesty and in power, so is he disinterested, wonderful, and glorious in bounty and compassion; averse and slow to anger, but ready to receive, to favour and reward, all who diligently seek, and faithfully serve him. “The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

In discoursing on this subject, I shall consider, First, some arguments that support, or prove it.

Secondly, illustrate its extensive signification and import in some remarkable instances, and conclude with a practical application.

First, I am to consider some arguments that establish this sentiment.

Our great Lord and Master has taught us, that there is none good but one, that is God. By which expression we may understand, that there is none so perfectly disinterested, so diffusively, and so astonishingly good as God is. For, in another place, he instructs us both how to comprehend, and rely on, this unchangeable and never-failing attribute of the divine nature; resembling it to, or representing it by, an human quality or virtue, namely, the affection and tender regard of parents to their children. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?” From whence it is obvious to remark, that as the humane and generous man has a peculiar tenderness for his more immediate descendants, and, proportionally to his power and influence, is willing and active to succour and relieve the indigent, to divide care, lessen misery, and diffuse happiness through the world; inconceivably more affectionate is the eternal Parent unto, and regardful of, all his intelligent creatures, truly disposed, according to their rank of existence, to promote their welfare; and beyond comprehension inclined to conduct them, through the greatest variety of circumstances, to the noblest perfection, and the highest degree of felicity. In his righteous and benevolent nature there cannot possibly be the most distant tendency to caprice, severity, or selfishness; for the multitude of sharers, he knows, can never subtract from his inexhaustible fulness. He created to communicate. In every evil which he prevents, he is pleased, and in all the good that he bestows, he glories. His goodness dictated the bestowing of existence, in all its forms, and with all its properties. His goodness displays itself in sustaining and disposing of all things. His goodness connects unnumbered worlds together, in one spacious, vast, and unbounded universe, and embraces every system. “His tender mercies are over all his works.”

Without goodness, what apprehensions could we entertain of all the other attributes of the Divine Being? Without the utmost extent of benevolence and mercy, they would hardly be perfections, or excellencies. And what would an universal administration produce, in the hands of an evil, or a partial, or malevolent direction, but scenes of horrour and devastation? Not affliction and punishment for the sake of discipline and correction, to prevent the offence, or reform the sinner; but heavy judgements and dreadful vengeance, to destroy him; or implacable wrath and fiery indignation, to prolong his misery, and extend the duration of his torture through the revolving periods of an endless eternity.

Without the most enlarged notions of an infinite and everlasting goodness in the divine nature, an impenetrable gloom must hang over every mind, and darkness over-spread the whole face of being. Neither could any other conceivable sentiment disperse our suspicions, or banish one of our guilty, or superstitious fears. For suppose he confined his goodness to a few, without any reasonable cause or just ground, and we could be so whimsically partial to ourselves, as to conceit that we were of this select number; yet there could be no security of happiness, not even to this little flock. He that chose them by chance, might as accidentally abandon them; and, as the former was without reason or goodness, the latter might be without righteousness or mercy. Therefore it is infinitely desirable to think, and we are confident of the truth of our idea, that “the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

For if he be self-existent, omnipotent, and possessed of perfect liberty; if it be impossible for him ever to err, or mistake, in what is good and fitting, and if he enjoys an infinite ability to effect, with a thought only, what shall always be for the greatest advantage, he must be originally and essentially, immutably and for ever good.

Holy Scripture, as if beauty and goodness were synonymous terms, or inseparable qualities, thus describes him; “How great is thy goodness! And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” And as if glory and goodness signified the same thing, you find Exodus xxxiii. 18, 19. “And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.” To which the answer is, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee.” And when, as it is written in the next chapter, the Lord descended, and proclaimed his name, or published the attributes in which he is peculiarly delighted, what is this distinguishing name, or what these divine and glorious attributes? “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.” The Apostle sums up all these in one word, when he saith, “God is love.” Which leads me to the second thing proposed,

Namely, to illustrate the extensive signification and import of this subject by some remarkable instances. “The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

No bounds can be fixed to the divine presence, nor is any part of illimitable space without his inspection, and active influence. There is nothing remote, or obscure to him, nor any exceptions to his favour among all the works of his hands. Far and wide then as is the vast range of existence, so is the divine benevolence extended; and both in the previous trial, and final retribution, of all his rational and moral productions, “The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

In the first place, to illustrate this, we need only to take a transient view of the outworks of the visible creation, a general survey of the nature and correspondence of the various parts of this regular and grand machine, this finished and stupendous fabrick, in which every thing is contrived and concluded for the best.

For do but imagine an appetite, or faculty altered; or a change in the object prepared to gratify it, in any respect. Suppose a material alteration, or considerable difference in nature, and we shall easily perceive, it would be a manifold disadvantage, either to individuals, or to the whole. Suppose the earth otherwise than it is, or the atmosphere and surrounding air to be varied, and in any degree more rarefied or more condensed; suppose the element of water greatly increased, or considerably diminished; or the sun’s blazing orb fixed nearer, and its vertical beams therefore stronger, or suppose it more remote, and its heat sensibly abated, the alteration would be a misfortune, if the difference did not terminate in misery and destruction. So that from the present adjustment, proportion, and accommodation of all matters in the wide creation, the consequence is fairly drawn, and very evident, that “God is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

This is certain of the whole of God’s works, and is peculiarly apparent in man, the principal inhabitant of this earth. For, as his welfare, dignity and satisfaction, nay his happiness, and even the end of his being, depend on, and arise from, his regularity and constancy in virtue, what an infinite concern hath the Deity expressed about it? What, that can consist with liberty, hath been omitted by supreme wisdom, in this most important affair? To incline him to be moderate in all his gratifications, true pleasure proceeds from nothing else. To keep off intemperate indulgence, and to guard him against all voluptuous excesses, it is so ordained, that extravagance and inconvenience are near together, and that vice and pain are, though not immediate and inseparable associates, never far asunder; and that it is impossible for that soul to be calm and at ease, which iniquity has stained, and which impenitent guilt corrodes.

The parts of man’s body are wonderfully designed, and curiously constructed; regularly disposed of, and most accurately proportioned for the safety and advantage of the whole. As apt as we may be to quarrel with our nature, suppose an instinct was struck out of our frame, or a single passion taken from us; suppose our senses any ways altered, by being either strengthened, or impaired; or even reason refined and abstracted to such a degree as to render us wholly negligent of food and raiment, necessary exercises, and secular concerns; in any of these instances, the imaginary emendation would be a real deficiency, and a proportionable deduction from the moment and quantity of our happiness.

It is evidently the same with respect to all the other creatures we are acquainted with. Their nature and condition, their qualities and circumstances, are so adapted to one another, that, as the intellectual powers of a being of a more exalted nature would not probably suit an inhabitant of this lower world, so, neither would the capacities of human nature guide the fowls of the air, or conduct the beasts of the field, to so much happiness, as they find, by following the motions and impulses of sense and instinct. And if reflection, enlarged ideas, and moral discrimination, be denied them, it is plainly because they would be a burthen and a misfortune, rather than a benefit to them.

But these universal notices, and undeniable testimonies of divine goodness, throughout the animated regions of earth, sea, and air, in the propriety and suitableness of creatures to their state, and objects to their appetites, are too evident and obvious to all men to need enlargement. God’s works are all wonderful; and in wisdom, and with goodness, hath he made them.

Secondly, this attribute is likewise illustriously displayed in the divine providence and government of the creation, though our faculties are too limited and scanty, and our views too narrow and imperfect, to trace its secret and mysterious ways.

An omnipotent support, and a perfectly wise direction, are evident in the laws established, and regularly observed through all the divine productions in heaven above, or on the earth beneath. Neither have the most celebrated philosophers been able, with all their boasted sagacity, and after all their laborious researches into the volume of nature, to assign any other cause, but an invisible agency, and an immediate energy of Providence, for mutual attraction in bodies, and the determination of all portions of matter to their center; for the great strength of appetite, instinct, and sagacity, in animals; that the prevalence and continuance thereof should be so precisely and exactly commensurate to the occasions which require them, and that they should be no longer urgent, than for the time necessary, as in the affection for their young. All which do greatly illustrate the wisdom and goodness of God’s administration, and superintending care.

Holy writ elegantly and emphatically describes the excellence of goodness in the divine Providence, in various places, particularly in this Psalm, of which my text is a part. “The eyes of all wait upon thee: thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desires of every living thing. Behold (saith our blessed Saviour) the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Not one individual can be so minute and inconsiderable as to escape the notice of Heaven’s all-surveying eye; nor one so importantly large, and seemingly self-sufficient, as to subsist a moment without the divine support. By him all things consist: “The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.”

But man appears the distinguished charge of the beneficent Creatour; and unless Providence had connected rational beings by the peculiar strong ties of mutual obligation, perpetual dependency, and inseparable interest, they would, of all creatures, be the most destitute and miserable; for there is not one that in the first stages of its existence is so totally helpless, and absolutely insufficient for its own preservation, support, or defence, as man. Therefore parental tenderness is both early and passionate, permanent and lasting. Our social dispositions and affections are enlarged to the utmost limits, and continue with us in the concluding decays, and last end of this mortal life; that we may always love one another, and glorify “the Lord who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works.”

The consequences, in the last place, which result from the arguments you have heard, are so obvious, that I make no doubt but your own thoughts have already anticipated them. Ingratitude among men hath, in every age, and in every region of the earth, been an object of general detestation, and universally accounted a glaring indication of depravity of heart. If the case stand thus among mortals, whose common interests require a reciprocation of kindness and beneficence, how greatly is the crime aggravated, when it is committed against that Being, whose goodness towards the sons of men is perfectly disinterested! The exertions of divine Providence in our behalf tend solely to our own welfare; nor can any thing we do in return contribute, in the smallest degree, to the augmentation of the happiness of the Almighty Benefactor. This unquestionably ought to be sufficient to exact from us the most profound veneration, the most fervent gratitude, and implicit obedience to his sacred laws.

David, after having enumerated the tender mercies of God, is penetrated with the strongest sense of devotion. “My mouth (he exclaims) shall speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.” Such was the tribute which the royal psalmist thought due to the Deity for the creation and preservation of man. The debt is accumulated to us in an infinite proportion; for while we are bounden to the same return for the same benefits voluntarily conferred upon us, a grander obligation is superadded to that for the ”means of grace,” and for “the hope of glory.” Were the mercies of the Lord limited to the tenure of our present existence, great and glorious as they are, the human mind would be clouded by the consciousness that a very few years must exclude us for ever from the participation of them. But since the gracious rays of life and immortality have dissipated the gloom that hung upon futurity, since, by the propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God, death is disarmed of his sting, and the grave deprived of its victory, divine goodness hath received its perfect consummation.

If gratitude, praise, and adoration, therefore, be due to the Authour of our being for those blessings which we enjoy at present, it is no less our highest interest so to use them in this previous state of trial, that we may finally exchange them for those purer and incorruptible treasures reserved for the righteous in the kingdom of heaven.

Which that we may all do, may that God who created and preserves us grant, through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!