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| The Very Simplicity of God's Means of Working, a Stumbling-Block to the Carnal Mind. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
II.—The Very Simplicity of God’s Means of Working, a
Stumbling-Block to the Carnal Mind.
Well, but how great is the force of perversity for
so shaking the faith or entirely preventing its reception, that
it impugns it on the very principles of which the faith
consists! There is absolutely nothing which makes men’s minds
more obdurate than the simplicity of the divine works which are visible
in the act, when compared with the grandeur which is promised
thereto in the effect; so that from the very fact, that with so
great simplicity, without pomp, without any considerable novelty of
preparation, finally, without expense, a man is dipped in water, and
amid the utterance of some few words, is sprinkled, and then rises
again, not much (or not at all) the cleaner, the consequent attainment
of eternity8546
8546 Consecutio
æternitatis. | is esteemed the
more incredible. I am a deceiver if, on the contrary, it is not from
their circumstance, and preparation, and expense, that
idols’ solemnities or mysteries get their credit and
authority built up. Oh, miserable incredulity, which quite deniest to
God His own properties, simplicity and power! What then? Is it
not wonderful, too, that death should be washed away by bathing? But it
is the more to be believed if the wonderfulness be the reason why it is
not believed. For what does it behove divine works to be in
their quality, except that they be above all wonder?8547 We also ourselves wonder, but it is
because we believe. Incredulity, on the other hand, wonders, but
does not believe: for the simple acts it wonders at, as
if they were vain; the grand results, as if they were
impossible. And grant that it be just as you think8548 sufficient to meet each point is the divine
declaration which has forerun: “The foolish things of the world
hath God elected to confound its wisdom;”8549
and, “The things very difficult with men are easy with
God.”8550 For if God is wise
and powerful (which even they who pass Him by do not deny), it is with
good reason that He lays the material causes of His own operation in
the contraries of wisdom and
of power, that is, in foolishness and impossibility; since every virtue
receives its cause from those things by which it is called
forth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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