Jonathan Edwards - Gods Goodness

If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God’s justice in hatred of sin or in punishing it, . . . or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God’s grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. No matter how much happiness he might bestow, his goodness would not be nearly as highly prized and admired. . . . and the sense of his goodness heightened.

The Miscellanies, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Edited by Thomas A. Schafer, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), no.348, pp. 419-20.