A26935:32
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. 16. Are you well acquainted with the nature and degrees of the future miseries which tempt you to think that God is cruel? They are not all of one degree; What if much of them be still voluntary to the miserable souls? The Devils who are now tormented in Hell, are yet inhabitants of the air, and exercised in voluntary acts ⟨p. 36⟩of Malice. I take it to be no small degree of Hell which the ungodly choose and love and possess among us here on Earth, and will not be dissuaded from; They are without all holy Communion with God, and they would be so, They are out of Heaven and they would be so; They are debased and confined to sensual pleasures, and worldly vanities and they will be so; They are the drudges of the Devil and the servants of the flesh, and the slaves of men, and they would be so; They are defiled with sin, and imprisoned in their ⟨p. 37⟩own Concupiscence and they would be so: They are corrupted and tantalized, and vexed, and tossed up and down by their irregular desires; In a word, they have the plague of sin and have neither holiness nor true happiness, and so they will have it to be and will not be cured; Now these tempted persons can see a misery in pain; but can see no such evil in sin, for which such pain should be inflicted: when as sin it self and that which they are willing of, is so great a part of their misery, as that in this life, the rest is as nothing to it. And ⟨p. 38⟩though, no doubt, much will be involuntary hereafter, we know not what the proportion will be between the voluntary and Involuntary part.
Quest. 16. Are you well acquainted with the nature and degrees of the future miseries which tempt you to think that God is cruel? They are not all of one degree; What if much of them be still voluntary to the miserable souls? The Devils who are now tormented in Hell, are yet inhabitants of the air, and exercised in voluntary acts ⟨p. 36⟩of Malice. I take it to be no small degree of Hell which the ungodly choose and love and possess among us here on Earth, and will not be disswaded from; They are without all holy Communion with God, and they would be so, They are out of Heaven and they would be so; They are debased and confined to sensual pleasures, and wordly vanities and they will be so; They are the drudges of the Devil and the servants of the flesh, and the slaves of men, and they would be so; They are defiled with sin, and imprisoned in their