N00939:41
The glory of goodness. The goodness of God celebrated; in remarkable instances and improvements…
The glory of goodness. The goodness of God celebrated; in remarkable instances and improvements thereof: and more particularly in the redemption remarkably obtained for the English captives, which have been languishing under the tragical, and the terrible and the most barbarous cruelties of barbary. : [Six lines from Psalms]
printed by T. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1703
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
It was of old said, Ye that Love the Lord, Hate Evil. Oh! Sin, Sin, what an Evil, and an Hateful Thing wilt thou appear unto us, when we have the Lovely Goodness of God before our Eyes! Yea, Inasmuch as God is good, we must believe, That His Commandment is always Holy & Righteous, & Good. If the Commandment be good, Say, O Reasonable Soul, whether it be not an Evil Thing to Transgress the Commandment? It is Repentance to count it so. The more Good we see that GOD is, the more Vile we •hall see that SIN is. The goodness of ⟨p. 19⟩God, Le•ds us to loath and leave such a loathsome Vileness; and to say with him, Gen. 39.9. Oh, How shall I do this Wickedness, and Sin against God? Such, even such are the Resentments, wherewith Sin is to be considered. The Good God is of purer Eyes than to behold Sin: with what Eyes then shall I behold Sin, which is a Contradiction to the purity of God! Why should I by Sin, renounce my Dependence on God as my Creator and my Governor, & a pitiful Worm, go to control the Authority of the God, who has Millions of bright Angels to wait upon Him? Why should I by Sn, violate the Laws of the only Wise GOD, & find fault with that Will of Heaven, which is nothing but a transcript of the most Exquisite Wisdom? Why should I flout Omniscience, & slight Omnipotence, & by my bold Sin, dare Thunderbolts, & send a Defiance to the Almighty? Sin, 'Tis a Monster, whose mouth is always full of the most nefandous Blasphemies. Oh! Why does not the Goodness of God, stop the mouth of the Monster, and impose upon the Blasphemer an Eternal silence!
It was of old said, Ye that Love the Lord, Hate Evil. Oh! Sin, Sin, what an Evil, and an Hateful Thing wilt thou appear unto us, when we have the Lovely Goodness of God before our Eyes! Yea, Inasmuch as God is good, we must believe, That His Commandment is always Holy & Righteous, & Good. If the Commandment be good, Say, O Reasonable Soul, whether it be not an Evil Thing to Transgress the Commandment? It is Repentance to count it so. The more Good we see that GOD is, the more Vile we •hall see that SIN is. The goodness of ⟨p. 19⟩God, Leds us to loath and leave such a loathsome Vileness; and to say with him,