A26935:27
Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted…
Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damnation / by Richard Baxter ... ; published and prefaced by a friend at whose desire it was written, and to whom it was committed.
London: printed for N. Simmons, 1671
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Quest. 14. What if it were but one or two in a whole Kingdom that were damned, and that only for obstinate unpersuadable final refusal of grace and salvation, and all the rest of the World should be saved; tell me, would you then still suspect God of cruelty, or deny his Goodness? If not, I further ask you;
Quest. 14. What if it were but one or two in a whole Kingdom that were damned, and that only for obstinate unperswadable final refusal of grace and salvation, and all the rest of the World should be saved; tell me, would you then still suspect God of cruelty, or deny his Goodness? If not, I further ask you;
Quest. 15. Have you so good acquaintance with the extent of the universe, the superior World ▪ the number of Angels and blessed spirits, as that you are sure that it is proportionably more in the ⟨p. 30⟩whole universe, that are miserable? Though some peevish men have wrangled at what I have said of this in my forecited Books, I am so far from flattering their self conceited Wisdom that I will say it over again, That it is agreed on by Philosophers that the Earth as to the universe, is no bigger than a point or inch is to the whole earth; we see over our heads, a wonderful Sun, a multitude of fixed and unfixed Stars, of wonderful magnitude, divers of them many times bigger than all the earth; besides the vast Ethereal interspaces; we see in a Tube ⟨p. 31⟩or Telescope a marvellous Likeness of the Moon to this Earth, with Shades, inequalities, &c. Multitudes of Stars in the Galaxy and elsewhere, are discernible in the Telescope, which without it no eye can see; Little know we how far the World extendeth it self, beyond all these Stars and Sun which we can see: or whether there be Millions of the like beyond our sight: The Scripture telleth us of innumerable Angels, Holy and Glorious spirits that attend Christ in the service of this lower World. No Scripture telleth us whether all the Glorious