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| Trace God's Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness.
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Chapter
XVII.—Trace God’s Government in History and in His
Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness.
These considerations show that the entire order of
God as Judge is an operative one, and (that I may express myself in
worthier words) protective of His Catholic2898
| 2898 Catholic,
because diffused throughout creation (Pamelius). |
and supreme goodness, which, removed as it is from judiciary emotions,
and pure in its own condition, the Marcionites refuse to acknowledge to
be in one and the same Deity, “raining on the just and on the
unjust, and making His sun to rise on the evil and on the
good,”2899
—a bounty
which no other god at all exercises. It is true that Marcion has
been bold enough to erase from the gospel this testimony of Christ to
the Creator; but yet the world itself is inscribed with the goodness
of its Maker, and the inscription is read by each man’s
conscience. Nay, this very long-suffering of the Creator will
tend to the condemnation of Marcion; that patience, (I mean,) which
waits for the sinner’s repentance rather than his death, which
prefers mercy to sacrifice,2900
averting from the
Ninevites the ruin which had been already denounced against
them,2901
and vouchsafing to Hezekiah’s tears an
extension of his life,2902
and restoring his
kingly state to the monarch of Babylon after his complete
repentance;2903
that mercy, too,
which conceded to the devotion of the people the son of Saul when about
to die,2904
and gave free
forgiveness to David on his confessing his sins against
the house of Uriah;2905
which also restored the house of Israel as
often as it condemned it, and addressed to it consolation no less
frequently than reproof. Do not therefore look at God simply as Judge,
but turn your attention also to examples of His conduct as the Most
Good.2906
Noting Him, as you do, when He takes
vengeance, consider Him likewise when He shows mercy.2907
In the scale, against His severity place His
gentleness. When you shall have discovered both qualities to co-exist
in the Creator, you will find in Him that very circumstance which
induces you to think there is another God. Lastly, come and examine
into His doctrine, discipline, precepts, and counsels. You will perhaps
say that there are equally good prescriptions in human laws. But Moses
and God existed before all your Lycurguses and Solons. There is not one
after-age2908
which does not take
from primitive sources. At any rate, my Creator did not learn
from your God to issue such commandments as: Thou shalt not kill; thou
shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear
false witness; thou shalt not covet what is thy neighbour’s;
honour thy father and thy mother; and, thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. To these prime counsels of innocence, chastity, and justice,
and piety, are also added prescriptions of humanity, as when every
seventh year slaves are released for liberty;2909
when at the same period the land is spared from tillage; a place is
also granted to the needy; and from the treading ox’s mouth the
muzzle is removed, for the enjoyment of the fruit of his labour before
him, in order that kindness first shown in the case of animals might be
raised from such rudiments2910
to the
refreshment2911
of
men.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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