Volume II, Treatise VII, Chapter VII

Of the Affections.of Admiration and Hope

ADMIRATION is the fifth affection in which we may exercise ourselves, by meditating on the mysteries of the passion—we may excite it in ourselves by admiring, for example, that God, who is impassible and immortal, suffers and dies; that he suffers and dies even for those who put him to death, and were so unworthy of all his favours; and that he suffers more than any one ever suffered. We may also employ ourselves in admiring the excess of his love and goodness for men; the riches of his infinite wisdom; and the depths of his counsels, in choosing so fit means for the salvation of mankind; and at the same time so agreeable to his justice and mercy. And without doubt, it is a kind of very holy prayer, to entertain ourselves in the consideration of so great wonders, as manifest themselves in the accomplishment of the world’s redemption; to examine them well, and to fill ourselves with astonishment, on beholding God, moved to so great an excess of goodness and love, towards his unworthy and ungrateful creatures, It is also a kind of most sublime contemplation; to be absorbed in the admiration of God’s works. Now the more we know them, and the more deeply we penetrate into them, the more this admiration increases: besides it contains in itself a great love of God, and deep gratitude for his benefits—so that it being an affection from which many advantages are derivable, we must exercise ourselves in producing frequent acts of it. The Hebrew text, puts the words “Sela” at the end of the verses of many of the Psalms, which is to remind us, that we must pause to give ourselves leisure to penetrate and admire the sense; and this teaches us also, that when we meditate upon these mysteries. we must examine them at leisure, and give ourselves time to admire the wonders they contain.

The sixth affection we may excite in ourselves by our meditation on the passion, is a lively hope and confidence in God, grounded upon what he has done for us, without our merit, and even after we had rendered ourselves unworthy of his favours. For when we reflect deeply on this, and on the ardent desires that Jesus Christ had for our salvation, the thirst whereof even augmented his sufferings upon the cross, we shall easily be moved to hope from the goodness and mercy of God, that he will freely bestow on us all that is necessary for our salvation. ‘ He who has not spared his only Son, but delivered him up for us, has he not also,” says the apostle, “with him given us all things?” (Romans 8:32) And in another place, the same apostle says, “if when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.’—-(Romans 5:10) This mode of reasoning is deserving of notice, and in it we may find great cause of comfort. For in effect, if God looked upon us with the eyes of mercy when we were his enemies, and when our sins ought to have provoked him tohatred; and ifhe would then, give so high a price to reconcile us to himself, in what manner will he not now look upon us, when the reconciliation is effected, and when we can hereafter cost him nothing? He who has loved us when we were disfigured and defiled with sin, how can he do otherwise now than love us, since he has washed us with his precious blood? And if when we fled from him and resisted his inspirations, he ceased not to go after us, and invite us to him; and if he ceased not doing it, till he had brought us into his house, how can he now forget and forsake us after bringing us to it.

It will also excite us to a holy confidence in him, if we pause to reflect on the infinite mercy of God, such as the church conceives it, when she addresses herself to him in these words, “Lord, to whom it belongs to have mercy and to pardon.” It is true, that God is just as well as merciful, and that his justice is as great as his mercy; because in God all his attributes are equally infinite; but the marks of his mercy are far greater, and more frequent than those of his justice. ‘ The Lord,” says David, “is sweet to all the world, and his mercy surpasses all his other works.’’ (Psalms 144:9) It seems as if his mercy more properly belonged to him, than any other of his attributes; because, it is by way of excellence called “the work of God;” and St. Paul says, “that God is rich in mercy.” (Ephesians 2:4) It is not but that he is rich in all things else, but he uses this mode,of speech to express that in this, he makes his riches more particularly to appear; as when one says, that a man is rich in furniture, in pictures, in precious stones and the like. The church also acknowledges this truth, when it says to God, “‘ that he makes his omnipotence known chiefly in pardoning and shewing mercy;” and in effect he seems to place his glory in this: as if a prince, for example, who is most accomplished in all things, should take pleasure chiefly in displaying his valour, liberality, or some other particular virtue.

St. Bernard says, that it is natural to God to be merciful; that favours and benefits flow naturally from his hands, and that he awaits not our merits to shew mercy towards us: but to punish, seems a thing very strange and disagreeable to him; because we must provoke, and even constrain him by our sins to do this, And as it is proper to the bee to make honey, and not to sting, but when provoked: so it is proper to God to bestow graces, and not to punish, till men provoke, and in a manner constrain him thereunto by their crime. Nor does he even then fail to display his mercy by the pain and sorrow he expresses in being obliged to chastise us. ‘It was only when this wickedness of man observed no bounds, but increased daily, that he resolved to send the flood. He waited to the very last; and even then, “touched with grief,” he says, “TJ will blot out from the face of the earth man whom I have created.” (Genesis 6:6,7) These words shew, that it was not without extreme regret, that he was moved to destroy man. Does not the gospel also say, that when Jesus Christ denounced the ruin of Jerusalem, “beholding the city he wept over it?’ (Luke 19:41) And does not he himself say by the prophet Isaias, “Alas! I shall have at length satisfaction of my enemies, and shall be revenged of them?”—(Isa. i. 24.) He speaks in this place as a judge full of compassion, who, obliged to condemn a criminal to death, signs the warrant with tears. But his tenderness for us stops not here. He shews his infinite mercy, and the desire he has _of our salvation, even in his threats, as St. Chrysostom takes notice on these words of the royal prophet, “if you convert not yourselves, he has bent his bow, he has made it ready, and has prepared his arrows that will cause death, he has made them red hot.” (Psalms 7:13) It is a great goodness of God, and a wonderful clemency, he says, to threaten us in this manner with a blow, and to wish to alarm us with the fear of his chastisement, that we may endeavour to avoid it. He treats us as fathers treat their favourite children, whom they wish to frighten by words, in order to prevent the necessity of chastisement. Moreover, as the holy doctor takes notice, the sword wounds one near you; to produce an effect with it, you need but draw it, and make a push—but the arrow strikes from a distance; and to wound with a bow, it is necessary to bend it, to draw the arrows out of the quiver, and to fit them to the string, all which requires both a great deal of time and trouble. Thus God, continues this holy father, threatens us with a bow, that we have time to escape his correction, according to the words of the prophet; “thou hast given a sign to those that fear thee, that they may fly before thy bow, and that those whom thou lovest may be delivered.” (Psalms 59:4) When God designed to destroy the world by the flood, he gave notice thereof, a hundred years beforehand, to give men time to think what to do, and how to prepare for their security. In fine, he is all filled with love for men, and does all he can, not to be obliged to chastise them. The same saint, speaking of the curse which God gave to the serpent, that had seduced Eve, says, admire the infinite mercy of God to man; for as a father who finds the sword with which some one had lately \

killed his son, is not content to revenge his death upon the murderer only, but takes the sword and breaks it into a thousand pieces; so God does the like to the serpent, condemning him as the instrument of the devil’s malice, to everlasting punishment. God wills not the death of a sinner—he does not wish to destroy men: to prove this, I need but say that long since, you have given him cause to destroy you; he might have plunged you into hell, the very first time you fell into mortal sin: but his infinite goodness. would permit neither death, nor the devil to carry you away. “Do I wish the death of a sinner, and not rather,” says our Lord, “that he should turn from his ways and live.” (Ezechiel 18:23) He has ransomed you at too dear a rate, to be willing to lose you; you have cost him his blood and his life, an infinite price, which he desires should not be unprofitable to you; and therefore, “he wills,” on the contrary, as the apostle says, “that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). These considerations, with many others, which the Scriptures and fathers furnish us with, but especially those we may draw from the passion and merits of Jesus Christ, ought to help to produce in us a confidence in the mercy of God.

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