A26935:72
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.
3. That they would bethink them to what end it is that the Tempter and the Enemy of God doth thus deny his Goodness. Is it not a plain act of malice against God and us? Is it not that he may disgrace God as evil, and rob him of his Glory; and also that he may hinder man from Loving him, and so destroy all ⟨p. 94⟩piety, and virtue, and goodness in the World? Who can Love him whom he believeth to be bad, and so unlovely? And what Grace or happiness can there be without the Love of God?
4. That they would think what horrid wickedness this sin containeth (where Melancholy and involuntariness doth not extenuate it.) Is it any better than a denying that there is any God? As is said before; To be God is to be Perfectly Powerful, Wise and Good: And if ⟨p. 95⟩be none such, there can be no God: And then who made the World, and all that is Good in it by derivative goodness? Yea is it not to represent the most amiable blessed God, in Satan's Image (who is most evil and a Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44.) that so men may hate him and fly from him as they do from Devils? And can you tell how great a crime this is?
4. That they would think what horrid wickedness this sin containeth (where Melancholy and involuntariness doth not extenuate it.) Is it any better than a denying that there is any God? As is said before; To be God is to be Perfectly Powerful, Wise and Good: And if ⟨p. 95⟩