Chapter XXXVII.
Reasons Why God Certainly Hears Our Prayers.
Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee; for thou wilt answer me.—Ps. 86:5-7.
Thus saith the prophet Jeremiah, “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.” Lam. 3:22-24.
2. In these words the Holy Spirit gives us strong consolation in our afflictions, drawn from the goodness and lovingkindness of God; without which we should immediately be consumed. As in the natural world light and darkness, by the appointment of God, alternately succeed each other, so do light and darkness, joy and sorrow, in the spiritual world. Hence there is a necessity that the light should spring up after darkness, and joy after sorrow, in the souls of the righteous. Ps. 97:11. For both our life and our well-being depend entirely upon the loving-kindness of God: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. He is the never-failing fountain and spring of life and happiness. His works testify this, for by the effects we judge of the cause. Since, therefore, God is the Maker and Creator of all things that have life, it follows that He is Life itself; and as He is the original of all that is good, it follows, that He himself is the Supreme Good and Love itself. For this reason He is called the Living God, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16); not only from his essence, as being an original, necessary Being, but also from the effects which he produces; because he giveth and preserveth breath, and life, and motion to all things. Acts 17:25; Ps. 104:27. “Thou (O Belshazzar), hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.” Dan. 5:23. “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jer. 2:13. “The Lord is thy life, and the length of thy days.” Deut. 30:20. “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Ps. 27:1. Whence it follows, that God is in effect the life of every living creature, and produces and preserves life in all, according to the words of St. Paul, “Of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever.” Amen. Rom. 11:36. “Christ is all in all.” Col. 3:11.
3. Now though all creatures derive their life from God, yet man has received it from his Maker in a more eminent degree; for as he is endowed with a rational soul, it follows that he enjoys a more noble life than the rest of the creatures. The life of angels again is more noble and glorious than [pg 292] that of men, because the glory and majesty of God manifest themselves more illustriously in them. Hence also, angels are described in 2 Thess. 1:7, as “mighty,” because they are not subject to vanity and change like man. But the most noble life is that of Jesus Christ our Lord, because he is God and Life itself; according to St. John, “This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20); that is, He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. (Nicene Creed.)
4. And as God is the fountain and principle of life, so he is also of all good. For he is the supreme and eternal GOOD, and whatsoever bears the marks and characters of good, is derived from this original. Thus, every creature has received a small portion of the divine goodness, by which it bears witness of its Maker, and in some manner calls upon man to do the same. Thus the vine speaks to us, “Consider, O man, that the sweetness of my juice, with which I cheer thy heart (Ps. 104:15), is the gift of my Maker.” And so the bread: “That virtue, O man, by which I satisfy thy hunger, is bestowed on me by my Creator and thine.” This is the meaning of that saying of St. Augustine: “That God has, as it were, shed some drops of his divine goodness upon all the creatures, that they might thereby contribute to the happiness of man.” And the Psalmist says: “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.” Ps. 65:11.
5. That which, in nature, we call the goodness of God, is, by the Scriptures, called the grace of God; this bearing relation to the soul, and that to the body. And as God has, by a thousand ways, discovered his goodness in the great Book of nature, so he has, in innumerable instances, discovered his grace and mercy in the Book of his word, all which are completed in Christ, who is the great centre of all the treasures of divine goodness and love that are distributed in heaven and earth.
6. Now, as it is the nature of every good being to be communicative, and otherwise it ceases to be good (for who can tell what is good, unless it thus discover itself?); so no man could know whether God were good and gracious unless he had communicated his grace and goodness to others. Who could have known the inestimable benefits of Christ as a Saviour, if he had not so abundantly manifested his love towards us?