out understanding, and fo can have noEnd and Design of felf-prefervation, God preferves them, no less than men who are endowed with reafon, and forefight to provide for themfelves; Pfal.36.7.Thou preservest man and beast. And Pfal. 147 9. He giveth to the beast his food,and to the young Ravens when they cry. And fo our Saviour declares to us the particular Providence of God towards thofe Creatures, Matth. 6. 26. Behold the fowls of the air, for they for not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. V. 28, 29. Confider the lillies of the field,how they grow they toyl not,neither do they Spin: And yet I fay unto you, that Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. And tho' all the Creatures below man, being without understanding, can take no notice of this bounty of God to them, nor make any acknow.. ledgments to him for it, yet man, who is the Priest of the vifible Creation, and placed here in this great Temple of the World, to offer up Sacrifices of praife and thanksgiving to God, for his univerfal goodness to all his Creatures, ought to blefs God in D their Vol. VI. their behalf, and to fing praifes to him, Voi.VII, in the name of all the interiour Creatures, which are fubjected to his Dominion and Ufe; because they are all as it were his Family,his Servants and Utenfils, and if God fhould neglect any of them, and fufter them to perish and mifcarry, 'tis we that fhould find the inconvenience and want of them; and therefore we should on their behalf celebrate the Praises of God; as we find David often does in the Pfalms, calling upon the inanimate and the brute Creatures to praise the Lord. 4. The univerfal Goodness of God doth yet further appear; in providing fo abundantly for the Welfare and Happiness of all his Creatures, fo far as they are capable and fenfible of it. He doth not only fupport and preferve his Creatures in Being, but takes care that they fhould all enjoy that happiness and pleasure, which their natures are capable of. The Crea-, tures endowed with Senfe and Rea-fon, which only are capable of pleafure and happinefs, God hath taken care to fatisfie the feveral Appetites and Vol. VII. and Inclinations which he hath planted in them; and according as Nature hath enlarged their defires and capacities, fo he enlargeth his Bounty towards them; be openeth his hand, and fatisfeth the defire of every living thing. God doth not immediately bring Meat to the Creatures, when they are hungry; but it is near to them, commonly in the Elements wherein they are bred,or within their reach, and he hath planted Inclinations in them to hunt after it, and to lead and direct them to it; and to encourage felf-prefervation, and to oblige and inftigate them to it, and that they might not be melancholy and weary of Life, he hath fo ordered the nature of living Creatures, that Hunger and Thirftare most implacable defires, exceeding painful,and even intolerable; and likewife that the fatisfaction of thefe Appetites, fhould be a mighty pleasure to them. And for thofe Creatures that are young, and not able to provide for themselves, God hath planted in all Creatures a sopan,a natural Affection towards their young ones, which will effectually put them upon feeking Provifions D 2 A vifions for them, and cherishing them, Vol. VII. with that care and tendernefs which their weak and helplefs condition doth require; and reason is not more powerful and effectual in mankind to this purpose, than this natural instinct, is in brute Creatures; which fhews what care God hath taken, and what provifion he hath made in the natural Frame of all his Creatures, for the fatisfaction of the inclinations and appetites which he hath planted in them; the fatisfaction whereof is their pleafure and happiness. And thus I have done with the First head I propofed,the univerfal extent of God's goodness to his Creatures,let us now proceed,in the II. place, To confider more particularly the goodness of God to men; which we are more efpecially concerned to take notice of, and to be affected with it. And we need go no further than our own observation and experience, to prove the goodness of God; every day of our lives, we fee and taste that the Lord is good, all that we are, and all the good that we enjoy, and all that we expect and hope for, is from the divine goodness, every good and perfect gift defcends from above, from the Father of lights, Fam. 1. 17. And the best and most perfect of his gifts he bestows on the Sons of men. What is faid of the wisdom of God, Prov. 8. may be applyed to his goodness; the goodness of God fhines forth in all the works of Creation, in the Heavens and Clouds above, and in the Fountains of the great deep, in the Earth and the Fields, but its delight is with the Sons of men. Such is the goodness of God to man, that it is reprefented to us in Scripture, under the Notion of love. God is good to all his Creatures, but he is only faid to love the fons of men. More particularly the goodness of God to man appears, Vol. VII. 1. That he hath given us fuch noble and excellent Beings, and placed us in fo high a rank and order of his Creatures. We owe to him that we are, and what we are; we do not only partake of that effect of his goodness, which is common to us with all other Creatures, that we have received our being from him; but we are peculiarly obliged to him, for his more especial goodness, that he D 3 hath |