GOD'S GOODNESS VINDICATED. 581 tions, and the mysteries of providence, conclude or doubt against God's goodness; that is, whether indeed there be a God. I have spoken so fully to this case in my "Reasons of the Christian Reli- gion," chapter iv. that I would desire you to peruse it. I shall now only giveyou twentyquestions, which the temptedperson may challenge all the subtlety and maliceof hell to answer; for it is easy to justify the goodness of God. Quest. 1. 'Is it not certain that there is a world, in which is abundance of createdgoodness ?' The earth is but a point as to all the world. There is a sun, and moon, and multitudes of glori- ous stars, which are manyof them manifold greater than the earth. There are angels, there are men, there are variety of creatures in this lower part of the creation, which have all their excellency: all the men on earth cannot, by any contribution of their counsels, discern the ten thousandth part of the excellency of this little par- cel of God's works. And as to the whole, it is next to nothing which we comprehend : every worm, every plant excelleth the highest human apprehension. Is there no physical goodness' in all this unmeasurable, this harmonious, this .glorious frame ? Look about you, look upwards, and deny it ifyou can. And is there no moral goodness in holy men and angels ? And is there no felicity and glorious goodness in all the heavens? What mind can be so black as to deny all created goodness? Quest. 2. ' Is pot all the goodness of the whole creation com- municated from God ?' Did it snake itself? Or who else made it? Are not all effects from their causes ? And is he not the first cause? See what I have said to prove this fully in the aforesaidTreatise. Quest. 3. ' Hath God made a world that is better than him- ' self ?' Could he give more goodness than he had to give? Must not he needs be better than all his works? Quest. 4. ' Is he fit to be quarreled with for want of goodness, who hath infinitely more goodness than the whole world besides?' More than sun and stars, heaven and earth, angels and men, all set together in all their single and their united, harmonious worth ? If he be better than all, is he not most beyond accusation or exception? Quest. 5. ' Must not God necessarily excel his works ? Must he needs make every worm a god? Or must he make any god, or .equal to himself?' Is not that a contradiction? And is there not necessarilyan imperfection in all that is not God ? Noth- ing can be so great, so wise, so good, so holy, so immutable, so- self-sufficient, so blessed, as God. Quest. 6. ' Is not God's creation a. harmonious universe, of which individuals are but the parts ?' Are not the parts for the
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