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.
[196]. “It may be asked, Is there no reason or nature of things? Yes; as certainly as there are things. But the nature and reason of things, considered independently of the divine Will, or without it, have no more obligation in them, than a divine worship considered independently of, and without any regard to the existence of God. For the Will of God is as absolutely necessary to found all moral obligation upon, as the existence of God is necessary to be the foundation of religious worship. And the fitness of moral obligations, without the Will of God, is only like the fitness of a religious worship without the existence of God.
And it is as just to say, that he destroys the reason of religion and piety, who founds it upon the nature and existence of God, as to say, he saps the foundation of moral obligations, who founds them upon the Will of God. And as religion cannot be justly or solidly defended, but by shewing its connexion with, and dependance upon, God’s existence; so neither can moral obligations be asserted with strength and reason, but by shewing them to be the Will of God.
It may again be asked, Can God make that fit in its self, which is in its self absolutely unfit to be done?