3. Believers, who are delivered from the vindictive justice of God, have the highest reason for thankfulness; and it is a very great encouragement to them, under all the afflictive evils, which they endure, that the most bitter ingredients are taken out of them. It is true, they are not in themselves _joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterwards they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them, who are exercised thereby_, Heb. xii. 11. and let us not presume without ground, but give diligence, that we may conclude that these are the dispensations of a reconciled Father, who _corrects with judgment not in anger, lest he should bring us to nothing_, Jer. x. 24. It will afford great matter of comfort, if we can say, that he is, at the same time, _a just God, and a Saviour_, Isa. xlv. 21. and, as one observes, though he punishes for sin, yet it is not with the punishment of sin. XIV. God is most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness, all which perfections are mentioned together in Exod. xxxiv. 7. and we shall first consider his goodness, which, in some respects, includes the other, though in others it is distinguished from them, as will be more particularly observed. This being one of his communicable perfections, we may conceive of it, by comparing it with that goodness which is in the creature, while we separate from it all the imperfections thereof, by which means we may arrive to some idea of it. Therefore persons are denominated good, as having all those perfections that belong to their nature, which is the most large and extensive sense of goodness; or else it is taken in a moral sense, and so it consists in the rectitude of their nature, as we call a holy man a good man; or lastly, it is taken for one who is beneficent, or communicatively good, and so it is the same with benignity. Now to apply this to the goodness of God, it either includes in it all his perfections, or his holiness in particular, or else his being disposed to impart or communicate those blessings to his creatures, that they stand in need of, in which sense we are here to understand it as distinguished from his other perfections. This goodness of God supposes that he has, in himself, an infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness, enough to fill all things, and to make his creatures completely happy. This he had from all eternity, before there was any object in which it might be displayed, or any act of power put forth to produce one. It is this the Psalmist intends, when he says, Psal. cxix. 68. _Thou art good_, and when he adds, _thou doest good_; as the former implies his being good in himself, the latter denotes his being so to his creatures.