Note 195 — Quest. XC.

God is an infinite being. This also is a principle established by both natural and revealed religion. The soul of man is finite, and, to whatever perfection it may be advanced, it will always continue to be so. This is another indisputable principle. It would imply a contradiction to affirm, that an infinite Spirit can be seen, or fully known, in a strict literal sense, as it is, by a finite spirit. The human soul, therefore, being a finite spirit, can never perfectly see, that is, fully comprehend, as he is, God, who is an infinite spirit. The proposition in our text, then, necessarily requires some restriction. This inference arises immediate from the two principles now laid down, and this second consequence furnishes another ground of our reflections.

But, although it would be absurd to suppose, that God, an infinite spirit, can be fully known by a finite human spirit, yet there is no absurdity in affirming, God can communicate himself to a man in a very close and intimate manner proper to transform him. This may be done four ways. There are, we conceive, four sorts of communications; a communication of ideas; a communication of love; a communication of virtue, and a communication of felicity. In these four ways, we shall see God, and by thus seeing him as he is, we shall be like him in these four respects. We will endeavour by discussing each of these articles to explain them clearly; and here all your attention will be necessary, for without this our whole discourse will be nothing to you but a sound, destitute of reason and sense.

The first communication will be a communication of ideas. We shall see God as he is, because we shall participate his ideas; and by seeing God as he is, we shall become like him, because the knowledge of his ideas will rectify ours, and will render them like his. To know the ideas of an imperfect being is not to participate his imperfections. An accurate mind may know the ideas of an inaccurate mind without admitting them. But to know the ideas of a perfect spirit is to participate his perfections; because to know his ideas is to know them as they are, and to know them as they are is to perceive the evidence of them. When, therefore, God shall communicate his ideas to us, we shall be like him, by the conformity of our ideas to his.

What are the ideas of God? They are clear in their nature; they are clear in their images; they are perfect in their degree; they are complex in their relations; and they are complete in their number. In all these respects the ideas of God are infinitely superior to the ideas of men.

1. Men are full of false notions. Their ideas are often the very reverse of the objects, of which they should be clear representations. We have false ideas in physic, false ideas in policy, false ideas in religion. We have false ideas of honour and of disgrace, of felicity and of misery. Hence we often mistake fancy for reason, and shadow for substance. But God hath only true ideas. His idea of order is an exact representation of order. His idea of irregularity exactly answers to irregularity; and so of all other objects. He will make us know his ideas, and by making us know them he will rectify ours.

2. Men have often obscure ideas. They only see glimmerings. They perceive appearances rather than demonstrations. They are placed in a world of probabilities, and, in consideration of this state, in which it has pleased the Creator to place them, they have more need of a course of reasoning on a new plan, to teach them how a rational creature ought to conduct himself, when he is surrounded by probabilities, than of a course of reasoning and determining, which supposes him surrounded with demonstration. But God hath only clear ideas. No veil covers objects; no darkness obscure his ideas of them. When he shall appear, he will communicate his ideas to us, and they will rectify ours, he will cause the scales, that hide objects from us, to fall from our eyes; and he will dissipate the clouds, which prevent our clear conception of them.

3. Men have very few ideas perfect in degree. They see only the surface of objects. Who, in all the world, hath a perfect idea of matter? Who ever had perfect ideas of spirit? Who could ever exactly define either? Who was ever able to inform us how the idea of motion results from that of body; how the idea of sensation results from that of spirit? Who ever knew to which class space belongs? It would be very easy, my brethren, to increase this list, would time permit; and were I not prevented by knowing, that they, who are incapable of understanding these articles, have already in their own minds pronounced them destitute of all sense and reason. But God hath perfect ideas. His ideas comprehend the whole of all objects. He will communicate to us this disposition of mind, and will give us such a penetration as shall enable us to attain the knowledge of the essence of beings, and to contemplate them in their whole.

4. Men have very few ideas complex in their relations. I mean, their minds are so limited, that, although they may be capable of combining a certain number of ideas, yet they are confounded by combining a greater number. We have distinct ideas of units, and we are capable of combining a few: but as soon as we add hundred to hundred, million to million, the little capacity of our souls is overwhelmed with the multitude of these objects, and our weakness obliges us to sink under the weight. We have a few ideas of motion. We know what space of body, to which a certain degree of velocity is communicated, must pass through in a given time: but as soon as we suppose a greater degree of motion, as soon as we imagine an augmentation of velocity to this greater degree; as soon as we try to apply our knowledge of moving powers to those enormous bodies, which the mighty hand of God guides in the immensity of space, we are involved in perplexity and confusion. But God conceives infinite combinations. He will make us participate, as far as our minds can, his ideas; so that we shall be able to give a large expanse to our meditation without any fear of confusing ourselves.

5. In fine, the ideas of mankind are incomplete in their number. Most men think, there are only two sorts of beings, body and spirit; and they have also determined, that there can be only two. A rash decision in itself: but more rash still in a creature so confined in his genius as man. But the ideas of God are complete. He knows all possible beings. He will make us participate this disposition of mind, and from it may arise ideas of myriads of beings, on which now we cannot reason, because now we have no ideas of them. A communication of ideas is the first way, in which God will make himself known to us. This will be the first trait of our resemblance of him. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

The second communication of God to a beatified soul is a communication of love. We cannot possibly partake of the ideas of God without participating his love. To participate the ideas of God is to possess just notions. To possess just notions is to place each object in the rank, that is due to it; consequently, we shall regard the chief being as the only object of supreme love.

What is necessary to answer the idea, that an upright soul forms of the lovely? The lovely object must answer three ideas: the idea of the great and marvellous; the idea of the just; and the idea of the good: and, if I may venture to speak so, of the beatifying. Now, it is impossible to know God without entertaining these three ideas of him alone; consequently it is impossible to know God without loving him. And this is the reason of our profound admiration of the morality of the gospel. The morality of the gospel is the very quintessence of order. It informs us, no creature deserves supreme love. It makes this principle the substance of its laws. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, Matt. xxii. 37.

How worthy of supreme love will this God appear, how fully will he answer the idea of the great and the marvellous, when we shall see him as he is! He will answer it by his independence. Creatures exist: but they have only a borrowed being. God derives his existence from none. He is a self-existent being. He will answer our idea of the magnificent by the immutability of his nature. Creatures exist: but they have no fixed and permanent being. They arise from nothing to existence. Their existence is rather variation and inconstancy than real being. But God, but I the Lord, says he of himself, I change not, Mal. iii. 6. the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Heb. xiii. 8. He is, as it were, the fixed point, on which all creatures revolve, while he is neither moved by their motion, shaken by their action, nor in the least imaginable degree altered by all their countless vicissitudes. He will answer the idea of the great and marvellous by the efficiency of his will. Creatures have some efficient acts of violation: but none of themselves.—But go back to that period, in which there was nothing. Figure to yourselves those immense voids, which preceded the formation of the universe, and represent to yourself God alone. He forms the plan of the world. He regulates the whole design. He assigns an epoch of duration to it in a point of eternity. This act of his will produces this whole universe. Hence a sun, a moon, and stars. Hence earth and sea, rivers and fields. Hence kings, princes, and philosophers. He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth, Psal. xxxiii. 9. God, then, perfectly answers our idea of the grand and the marvellous. He answers also the idea of the just.

It was he, who gave us an idea of justice or order. It was he, who made the greatest sacrifices to it. It was he, who moved heaven and earth to re-establish it, and who testified how dear it was to him by sacrificing the most worthy victim, that could possibly suffer, I mean his only Son.

Finally, God will perfectly answer our idea of the good and the beatifying. Who can come up to it except a God, who opens to his creatures an access of his treasures? A God, who reveals himself to them in order to take them away from their broken cisterns, and to conduct them to a fountain of living waters, Jer. ii. 13. A God, whose eternal wisdom cries to mankind, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that, which is not bread? and your labour for that, which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that, which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live. Isa. lv. 1-3.

We cannot, then, know God without loving him. And thus a communication of ideas leads to a communication of love. But this communication of love will render us like the God, whom we admire. For the property of love, in a soul inflamed with it, is to transform it in some sort into the object of its admiration. This is particularly proper to divine love. We love God, because we know his attributes; when we know his attributes, we know, we can no better contribute to the perfection of our being than by imitating them, and the desire we have to perfect our being will necessitate us to apply wholly to imitate them, and to become like him.

Let us pass to our third consideration. The third communication of God to a beatified soul is a communication of his virtues. To love and to obey, in Scripture-style, is the same thing. If ye love me, keep my commandments, is a well-known expression of Jesus Christ, John xiv. 15. He, who saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him, is an expression of our apostle, 1 John ii. 4. This is not peculiar to the love of God. To love and to obey, even in civil society, are usually two things, which have a very close connexion. But, as no creature hath ever excited all the love, of which a soul is capable, so there is no creature, to whom we have rendered a perfect obedience. It is only in regard to God, that there is an inseparable connexion between obedience and love. For when we love God, because we know him, we are soon convinced, that he cannot ordain any thing to his creature but what is useful to him; when we are convinced, he can ordain nothing to be performed by his creature but what is useful to him, it becomes as impossible not to obey him as it is not to love ourselves. To love and to obey is one thing, then, when the object in question is a being supremely lovely. These are demonstrations; but to obey God, and to keep his commandments, is to be like God.

The commandments of God are formed on the idea of the divine perfections. God hath an idea of order; he loves it; he follows it; and this is all he ever hath required, and all he ever will require of his intelligent creatures. He requires us to know order, to love it, to follow it. An intelligent creature, therefore, who shall be brought to obey the commandments of God, will be like God. Be ye perfect, as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect, Matt. v. 48. Be ye holy, for I am holy, 1 Pet. i. 16. Every man, that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure, 1 John iii. 3. These precepts are given us here on earth, and we obey them imperfectly now; but we shall yield a perfect obedience to them in heaven, when we shall see him as he is. Here, our apostle affirms, Whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, neither known him, ver. 6. that is to say, he who suffers sin to reign over him, doth not know God; for if he knew God, he would have just ideas of God, he would love him; and, if he loved him, he would imitate him. But in heaven we shall see, and know him, we shall not sin, we shall imitate him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Lastly, the fourth communication of the Deity with beatified souls is a communication of felicity. In an economy of order, to be holy and to be happy are two things very closely connected. Now we are in an economy of disorder. Accordingly, virtue and felicity do not always keep company together, and it sometimes happens, that for having hope in Christ we are, for a while, of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. xv. 19. But this economy of disorder must be abolished. Order must be established. St. Peter, speaking of Jesus Christ, says, The heavens must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things, Acts iii. 21. When all things shall be restored, virtue and happiness will be closely united, and, consequently, by participating the holiness of God we shall participate his happiness.

Sayrin.