Kitabı oku: «True Christianity», sayfa 37
Chapter XXX.
Showing How God Manifests Himself To The Loving Soul, As The Supreme Beauty
O Lord my God, thou art very great: thou art clothed with honor and majesty; who coverest thyself with light as with a garment.– Ps. 104:1, 2.
As nothing is more lovely to a loving soul than Christ, and no good higher or more precious than God himself; so there is also nothing more beautiful in the sight of such a one than God. That soul looks upon God as the highest beauty, with which nothing in heaven and earth is to be compared; so that all the holy angels cannot sufficiently praise to all eternity this beauty of God. If all the holy angels in their lustre, and all the elect in their glory, were put together, it would nevertheless appear, that all their beauty and splendor proceed from God, who is the eternal glory and beauty; and that they are derived from the everlasting, infinite light and brightness. For as God is all good, and the highest good, so He is also all beauty, ornament, and glory.
2. And when a man beholds in spirit the glory of God, he forgets all the creatures, nay, the beauty of all the angels also; and mourns over nothing so much, as that he has offended this great Good with his wickedness, and this infinite eternal beauty and brightness with his impurity.
3. But because the Son of God, the brightness of his glory (Heb. 1:3), is become man, He hath made men partakers of his divine nature, and of his comeliness (2 Pet. 1:4), so that all who are in Christ by faith, are comely and glorious before God. Ps. 16:3. He remembers our defects and filthiness no more; for although his eyes see, yet the brightness of his glory, and the love of Christ cover them. Eph. 5:27.
4. The wise heathen Plato, considering the beauty of the creatures, of the luminaries, of the firmament, of the flowers in the fields, of the metals and animals, has by his reason drawn the conclusion, that God must of necessity be an eternal Being, beautiful above all things, because the beauty of all the creatures must be comprehended or concentrated in Him. But we say from the word of God, and the holy Evangelist St. John: “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2); that we then, being perfectly renewed after the likeness of God, shall really be an image, like unto God, through which his beauty, brightness, and glory will shine; but out of Jesus Christ our Lord, in the highest brightness and beauty of all. For in him is all fulness; and so it has pleased the Father that “in him should all fulness dwell” (Col. 1:19); and that “in him should be gathered together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (Eph. 1:10); which no finite creature can comprehend.
5. Therefore angels and men shall admire the brightness and beauty of Christ, especially the chosen children of God, “whose vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Phil. 3:21. And this is what Daniel says, “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.” Dan. 12:3. And as the 104th Psalm, ver. 2, says of God, “Thou coverest thyself with light,” so our covering or garment will also be nothing else but light and brightness.
Chapter XXXI.
Showing How God Manifests Himself To The Loving Soul As The Infinite Omnipotence
O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?– Ps. 89:8.
The love of God wills, that a loving soul should do good to all men, and be profitable both to foes and friends; not for the sake of its own profit and honor, but only for the sake of the love of God, which, as it were, moves his omnipotence to draw nigh unto us; which also, from its infinite treasure, gives us all we have, to the end that we should give again from love what the love of God has given us out of the treasury of his omnipotence.
2. Therefore, O man, be careful that thou appropriate nothing to thyself, but restore all to the omnipotence of God, who himself is all that thou hast and art. No creature can either give to, or take away from, thee; it is only the omnipotence of God which can do it. Nor can any creature comfort thee; the love of God alone can do it.
3. In this love, the loving soul sees the fulness of God's incomprehensible omnipotence, which comprehends in itself heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, but cannot be comprehended by any thing. For the whole world is to the omnipotence of God “as a drop of a bucket, and as the small dust of the balance.” Isa. 40:15.
4. And out of this fulness of God's omnipotence, all the powers of angels, men, and all other creatures, proceed. It sustains the firmament of Heaven. The motions of the sea and the powers of the earth proceed from it; so that heaven and earth are full of God, full of the divine power and operation, full of the Spirit of the Lord. The power of God, which is the might of his love, comprehends, incloses, and replenishes all things, but is comprehended by none. Ps. 139:2, etc.
5. As high as God is over all things, so deeply also is he in all things, and all things are in him, according to St. Paul, who says, “Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Rom. 11:36); and again, “Who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Eph. 4:6.
6. Since God is so great and over all things, nothing surely can be equal to him; and he that will be so, makes himself a god, commits the greatest sin, and falls into the pit of perdition. And since God is all, all that is without him must be as nothing. Therefore from God's omnipotence, man learns to know his own nothingness, and to fear God, who delights in them only that “humble themselves under his mighty hand.” 1 Peter 5:6.
7. Now as great and high as God is in his omnipotence, even so low is he made by his love. Behold our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Son, the powerful arm of God, by whom were all things created, and by whom all things consist (1 Col. 1:16, 17); how deeply has he descended by his love, and how lowly and humble has he made himself among all creatures!
8. Therefore, even as we cannot fathom, much less express in words, the omnipotence of God; so neither can we fathom with our thoughts the humility and lowliness of Christ. Nevertheless, as deep as is his descent, so high is also his ascent far above all heavens. Eph. 4:10. Unto him be honor and praise to all eternity. Amen.
O God! O Jesus! O blessed Spirit! Thou unchangeable mind! Thou inextinguishable light! Thou Peace which cannot be disturbed! Thou indivisible unity! Thou infallible truth! Thou ineffable bounty! Thou immeasurable might! Thou infinite wisdom! Thou incomprehensible Goodness! Thou omnipresent eternity! Thou Life of all the living! Do Thou enlighten me, do Thou sanctify me, do Thou quicken me!
Chapter XXXII.
Showing How The Loving Soul Knows God As The Highest Righteousness And Holiness
Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep.– Ps. 36:6.
All who love God acknowledge him to be the highest and most holy righteousness, which pervades all, and is over all. This in God is his most holy will; in angels holy obedience; in man, the testimony of his conscience; in all creatures, it is the order of nature, whereby God has ordered all things in number, weight, and measure. All that is done against this order, is contrary to God and nature.
2. All sins, therefore, in the world, are committed against God's righteousness, and the sinner thereby offends all creatures, even all the angels in heaven, and his own conscience, and sets them in hostility against himself. For when God is offended and provoked to anger, all creatures are also offended and made angry; so, too, when God is reconciled, all creatures are reconciled also, and rejoice over such a man. Hence St. Paul says, that all things are reconciled by Christ, whether they be “things in earth or things in heaven” (Col. 1:20): and this, because God is reconciled through him. Therefore the Lord says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke 15:10. The angels rejoice for man's own sake.
3. But if God be not reconciled to man, all creatures, angels, and nature itself, execute vengeance upon him. Hence come the dreadful judgments of God: and it is impossible to avert such vengeance and judgments. “Thou art to be feared, O God; and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still.” Ps. 76:7, 8. Thus may we see in the plagues of Egypt how all creatures executed vengeance upon the wicked.
4. From the most holy righteousness of God, when offended, proceeds also the curse; as Moses, the man of God, witnesses, when he speaks of the transgression of the divine law. Deut. 27:15, etc.
5. It is a curse when the justice of God executes such vengeance, that the cursed cannot enjoy any good, either from God or the creature, but is made an “abhorring unto all flesh.” Isa. 66:24. “A curse is a liableness and condemnation unto eternal misery.” Therefore a curse is terrible and dreadful unto all creatures, so that they cannot endure it. And this is the highest vengeance of the justice of God.
6. From the most holy righteousness of God proceed also those wonderful, unsearchable, secret, dreadful judgments, whereof David says, “Thy judgments are a great deep” (Ps. 36:7); and St. Paul, “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33.
7. When, therefore, we consider them, we see therein the righteousness of God, of which the man of God, Moses, says, “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense,” saith the Lord. “If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people! for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land and to his people.” Deut. 32:35, 41, 43.
8. In these words, Moses declares the vengeance of God upon all the wicked, who resist the righteousness of God. Against them God will whet his glittering sword; that is, his dreadful sentence and judgment, at which the earth feareth, and is still. Ps. 76:8. And him, upon whom God executes his vengeance and judgment, all the world cannot save; according to the words of the Psalm: “O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud.” Ps. 94:1, 2. Here we read that although the Lord God is a gracious, loving, kind, merciful, long-suffering God, to all them that fear him, he is nevertheless a just judge, according to his righteousness, of all the wicked that transgress against his righteousness.
9. He, therefore, sets before us in his word, not only instances of his grace and mercy, but also of his justice and vengeance; such as those of the deluge, Sodom and Gomorrah, Pharaoh in Egypt, and in the Red Sea; Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; Saul, Ahithophel, Ahab, Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Sennacherib; and in the New Testament, Herod, and many more; in every one of whom, we may see the wonderful judgment and vengeance of God. Therefore he is called, a God of vengeance, “unto whom vengeance belongeth,” because he is the most holy, and the most righteous God; nay, righteousness itself. Therefore, the saints (Rev. 6:10) appeal to the justice of God with a loud voice, saying: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
10. Such judgments of God are executed daily, but are rightly understood only by believing and holy souls, according to the words of the Psalm: “With thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.” Ps. 91:8. This saying is not to be understood according to carnal passions and affections, but it is to be considered spiritually; for it imports that we are to give unto the Lord our God, the praise of his righteousness; and to say, “Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments” (Ps. 119:137); and “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” Ps. 145:17. Thus holy and believing souls delight to see the wonderful judgments of God; yet not according to the flesh, so as to rejoice over the destruction and perdition of the wicked (which would proceed from self-revenge); but, according to the spirit, they take delight, that is, they acknowledge and praise the righteousness of God, who fulfilleth his word, and is a righteous God. And at the same time, they lament and weep over the perdition of the wicked, even as our Saviour wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41); and as David wept over Absalom. 2 Sam. 18:33.
11. So, then, we are here to have a twofold respect, namely, to God and to men. If we look upon the destruction of men, we are justly to be sorrowful; but if we look upon God, we are to praise his justice, for he doeth wrong unto none. Ps. 92:15.
Chapter XXXIII.
Showing How The Loving Soul Considers God As The Eternal Wisdom
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.– Acts 15:18.
God ordains, governs, moves, and regulates all things according to his unsearchable wisdom, as it is written (Isa. 45:4-12): “I have even called thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me. – I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things. – Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”
2. This is a powerful testimony concerning the eternal wisdom, and the wondrous, incomprehensible government of Almighty God, which may be first observed in this, that he has called every one of us by his name, and has surnamed us, though we did not know him, and were not yet in being. This our name by which God calleth us, is our faith, our outward calling, and our whole course of life. There we are inclosed in, or surrounded with, God's eternal wisdom and providence, as it respects our whole life, its beginning, middle, and end (Ps. 139:16), or as to our going out and coming in. Ps. 121:8. “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” (Ps. 147:4); that is, he gives them their courses, powers, and operations. How much more doth he so in reference to men! God forms the light and creates darkness. He makes peace, and creates evil; that is, as to the evil of punishment, the just reward of sin; this he creates and permits; nay, he calls the sword, and causes an alarm of war to be heard. Jer. 49:2.
3. In a word, he ordains all things wisely. He sees and hears all things before, according to the words of the Psalmist: “Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?” Ps. 94:8-10.
4. Here king David teaches us that God has laid a mirror of his omniscience and eternal wisdom into man, into the hearing ear, and seeing eye, those two wonderful powers of the human body.
5. It is extremely offensive to a man, to hear and see anything unjust or unreasonable; how much more to God, who has an all-seeing eye and an all-hearing ear, must men's ingratitude be offensive; he having ordained all things by his wisdom, in order to be serviceable unto men. He has made the sun by his wisdom to give light, not unto itself, but to us; the water affords drink, not to itself, but unto us; the earth brings forth fruits, not for itself but for us; the fire warms, not for itself, but for us; the air gives breath, not to itself, but to us; the bread feeds, not itself, but us; the herbs do not heal themselves, but us.
6. The eternal wisdom of God has planted so many powers in the creatures, and has so wisely distributed them, that they are, as it were, so many hands through which the wisdom and goodness of God divide these treasures among us, according to the words of Job: “Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:9, 10. And “Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee” (Ver. 7); that “with God is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.” Ver. 13, 14. “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them.” Job 26:7, 8.
7. Since then the Lord our God ordaineth all things by his wisdom, he ordaineth all our crosses; and therefore we are not to murmur, but to praise his wisdom, and to learn patience; for things cannot proceed otherwise than as they are ordained by God. But not only the things that befall us in particular, are the most wise order of God; but also all great national plagues, famine, pestilence, wars, and revolutions of states. And although we may think that these are nothing but confusion, perdition, and destruction, yet there reigns the wisest order of God. This we may gather from the histories of Holy Writ, where famine, wars, pestilence, desolations of the kingdoms of the world, the destruction of the Jewish kingdom, and of empires, the Babylonian Captivity, and many similar events, are described. “I know,” saith Solomon (Eccles. 3:14), “that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.”
8. And again, “Consider the work of God; for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” Eccles. 7:13.
9. If we consider it aright, we must own that God could not have ordered things more wisely. So we may say also, with reference to the persecutions of the saints, both in the Old and New Testament; to our Lord Jesus Christ; the holy Gospel; the holy martyrs; and all other things. In our sight, these all seem to be absurd, and foolish, and yet they are the highest wisdom of God.
10. As then we are to give unto God the praise of righteousness, in all his wonderful judgments; so we are also to give unto him the praise of wisdom, in all the wonderful changes of the world, and in all our crosses and sufferings; knowing that he can direct all evils to a good end, and out of evil derive good: so that in all things, how confused soever they may appear unto us, there shineth forth his wisdom, even as his righteousness doth in all his judgments.
11. But the loving soul sees the wisdom of God especially in the restoration and redemption of the human race, and in the renovation of the soul and the faculties thereof. For so it pleased the wisdom of God, that the corrupt image of God in man, should be renewed by the divine substantial image of God, that is, by Christ. After man had lost by sin that blessed wisdom, that glorious light of his intellect, by which he knew God aright, and so had fallen into the utmost blindness, nay, into eternal darkness, wherein he must have dwelt forever; the Son of God, who is the eternal wisdom of the Father, became man, and a light of life unto men (John 1:4), that he might bring back those that had gone astray; that he might teach the ignorant; call to himself the sinners; and rekindle in them the light of the knowledge of God by faith and the Holy Ghost; nay, that he might unite himself to the soul of man, and might shine forth therein.
12. Secondly: after the will of man was entirely turned away from God, perverted, and wholly changed into disobedience, striving against God in all things; the Son of God was made man, that he might be unto us a pattern of perfect obedience; that he might heal our evil will; implant his good will in our hearts; renew our will through the Holy Ghost; and make us partakers of his holy obedience by faith; according to those words of Scripture (Gal. 3:14), “That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith;” nay, that he might unite himself to us, and live in us, that so our will also might be made conformable unto God.
13. Thirdly: because the affections of our hearts, and all our faculties, were in contrariety to God, and “every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts, was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5); the Son of God, who is love itself, became man, that he might give us a heart wholly new; that he might plant therein the love of God, and sincere humility and meekness; that he might take from us the old carnal heart, and unite himself with us, that so we might be made of one heart, mind, and spirit with him; all which are the fruits of his most holy incarnation wrought in us.
14. And this is the highest wisdom of God, that by his dear Son, He thus reneweth man. For as God has created man by his wisdom, after his perfect image; so He hath also, by his dear Son, who is eternal wisdom, and who was made man, created man anew, and regenerated him to a new image of God, wherein his wisdom, glory, and righteousness should shine forth forever. It is in this chiefly that the image of God consists.
15. Thus the corrupt image of God in man, is renewed by the substantial image of God, which is Christ.
