4. The Simplicity of God.

 

 

I. Simplicity means the exclusion of component parts, and is an attribute, although not a property of spirit. God is supremely spiritual, and is therefore supremely simple. He differs from matter, which has a necessary relation to quantity and therefore to parts. He differs from ourselves, in whom are found not only the composition of quantitative parts, but also the composition of body and soul, of faculties and qualities various in kind. He differs from the angels, in whom is found the composition of essence and existence, of substance and properties. So we must not consider the character of God as being composed of different qualities antagonistic to and checking one another. We must not think of His mercy as contending with His justice and frustrating it; nor of His promises and threats as representing different frames of mind. We must distinguish between what is figurative, or spoken according to human apprehension, and the inconceivable, inexpressible divine reality. Your soul, as a spiritual substance, is immensely superior to your material body. Endeavour to become more spiritual, and so more like to God, alienating yourself, as far as you can, from flesh and blood by means of prayer and mortification.

II. From this perfect simplicity of God’s essence which lies at the root of His immutability, it follows that He can receive no extrinsic addition of anything to His substance; nor is He, as we are, brought into new relationships to beings by any change of environment. So the course of events does not pass through the stages of past, present and future with regard to God. He is always acting, yet in His eternity there is no beginning of action, no end of action, no change of activity. We express the truth in an approximate way when we say that all things and all events are always present at once to God in His eternity, which is a simultaneous totality of life without any succession. So also God is everywhere, but He is not under the conditions of space; He is great, and yet is not extended or measurable; He creates all things, and is not the richer for them; He changes all things, and yet towards them He changes not. The simple essence of God is all things; it is law, it is love, it is justice, it is eternity. Hence you cannot divide God so as to possess Him partially. You possess Him entirely or not at all. One mortal sin excludes God entirely from the soul. You cannot disobey one of His laws and have the merit of obeying all the others. He cannot be present with you in one respect and absent in another. Hence the impossibility of that which so many attempt, viz., serving God simultaneously with mammon, or the world, or self.

III. Not only is God simple in the sense described; He is so in the further sense which excludes duplicity in thought, word or deed. All in Him is simple, straightforward, undisguised truth. In His teachings and in His dealings with us there is no admixture of Yea and Nay, of “I will” and “I won’t,” but all is categorical and positive, and no word of His can ever pass away. What God promises He will perform; His threats are literally true, and are not spoken for effect. Hypocrisy, double-dealing, paltering with the truth are abominations in His eyes. He demands from us, in our relations with Him, with ourselves, and with our neighbour, perfect candour, simplicity, consistency. “Wo to them that are of a double heart, and to wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that goeth on the earth two ways. Wo to them that are faint-hearted, who believe not God: . . . and have forsaken the right ways, and gone aside into crooked ways” (Eccli. ii. 14–16). There are many who would not wilfully deceive a neighbour with false words, yet do not shrink from deceiving themselves with vain excuses for not following the lead of light and grace; but they do not deceive God, and He will not be mocked. 

3. The Divine Perfections.

   

I. The attributes or perfections of God are those qualities which proceed from His Essence and manifest it to us. God possesses every actual perfection of creatures, and every conceivable perfection, in an infinite degree. As we cannot fully conceive them, we must try to rise to some inadequate appreciation of them by considering such manifestations of them as occur in the visible creation. There we have the incalculable vastness of the celestial world, the long epochs of cosmic time, the irresistible forces of nature, the varieties of beauty and marvellous works of skill and power, from solar systems down to the infusoria in a drop of water, the vast achievements and vaster cravings of human minds. All this has proceeded from God in the first instance. He surpasses it all. It is the merest dim reflection of the unimaginable splendour of God. How magnificent will be the full revelation of God given to us in glory! He contains all that we can desire. He alone can satisfy the immense cravings of human nature. Seek Him then above all things, and let nothing come between your soul and God to turn you from this wonderful treasure reserved for you. "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God !" (Rom. xi. 33).

II. All that is contained in the Divine Essence is really one and indivisible; there is no real multiplicity of qualities. God's sanctity is His wrath, His mercy is His justice, His power and His love are one and the same. But in order to accommodate realities to our comprehension and to the limitations of our speech, we make a division of the divine attributes according to the different effects produced on us. The perfections of God are, then, from this point of view, numerous, and varied; we know of many, but there are many more which are not manifested in this limited sphere to our limited comprehension. Consider some classes of them. The negative attributes express indirectly God's infinite perfection by excluding from Him all conceivable limitations and imperfections; thus we say that God is uncreated, unchangeable, incomprehensible. The positive attributes, such as wisdom, power, goodness, are those which directly attribute perfections to God. Some perfections are immanent in God, such as His sanctity; while others express a relation of action towards us, as His providence, predestination, mercy. Some are incommunicable, according to that; "I will not give My glory to another" (Isa. xlii. 8); such are His eternity and immensity. Others again are communicated in a measure to us, like intelligence, prudence, the supernatural life, the beatific vision. Every good or great quality in creatures extorts your love or admiration; how much then does God deserve from you on account of His great attributes! You cannot know how great is your debt. Render Him all that you can.

III. We have no experience of good qualities unalloyed. We speak, accordingly, of having the "defects of our qualities" Our highest virtues, though infused by God, are limited and are accompanied by many faults. Our faith, our justice, our love, are all seriously imperfect. All things in us err by excess or deficiency. Reason is obscured, the will tends to love evil, power is ineffectual; greatness is dangerous to us, beauty is transient, desire is insatiable, gratification ends in disgust, our best virtues are spoiled by our conceit. With God how different! All is perfect. Action is without effort, repose without inactivity, justice without harshness, mercy without weakness, joy without drawbacks, power equal to His desires. There is no weariness, no failure, no disappointment. Rejoice that God, in whom you trust, is so perfect. Recognize your own imperfection and nothingness. Take no credit to yourself for anything; all that is good in you is from Him; all that is really your own is your weakness, your folly, your shame. And this is the whole of man without God. 

2. The Existence of God.

 

I. God exists. This is the first truth of all truths; it is eternally true, before all ages, without beginning; it is a necessary truth, for the opposite is inconceivable; it is the most important of all truths, for all things affirm it, and all depend upon it; and it is forever unchangeable. This truth is the foundation of that most universal, most constant of all phenomena, Religion. Around this all civilizations have grown up; because this alone furnishes a rational ground for virtue, for that suppression of natural savagery and selfishness which is necessary for social life. The recognition of this truth makes all the difference between high and noble lives, and noxious, degraded, animal lives. To all those who aspire to higher things, even though conscious of sin and depressed by their weakness, the existence of God is a source of strength and hope and joy. It gives them an ideal that is higher than mere matter, a hope that raises them above this world and enables them to bear its disappointments, courage to repent, and assurance of pardon. How miserable the lot of those who have deprived themselves of all this, who possess nothing and believe in nothing but themselves and possessions and pleasures! Thank God for having revealed so clearly this most glorious truth. Keep it always before your eyes and in your right hand, by continual remembrance of God, and by doing all your works for His glory.

II. The existence of God is not only revealed, it is also a truth of the natural order, enforced on our recognition by the material world around us. “For by the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of them may be seen so as to be known thereby” (Wisd. xiii. 5). The world proclaims the existence of a first principle, greater than itself, from which all things proceeded. The immensity, the splendor, the order of the universe, the perfection of the most insignificant but countless details, make known a great Being of infinite power and wisdom and goodness. So distinct is this teaching that the lowest barbarians, unable for the rest to rise above material things, yet hold firmly, with greater or less distinctness, this transcendent truth. Some individuals, no doubt, have rejected this doctrine; but we need not be surprised that humanity, like every other class of beings, has its aborted or atavic forms." The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us; Thou hast given gladness in my heart " (Ps. iv. 7). Look with reverence on this world which God has made. It is a revelation of God to us, and is not made superfluous by the higher and supernatural revelation; each illustrates the other. Search for God in each and you will find Him. 

III. How shall we conceive to ourselves this supreme existence? Pagans have thought of God under human, unworthy, even degraded attributes. There are whole classes of Christians who transform the Deity into their own likeness, instead of modelling themselves upon Him. They attribute to God their own points of view; or they judge of His works as if they knew His motives, and as if His works were those of man. Watch for this tendency in yourself and suppress it. St. John represents the Divinity as universal light and life filling all things, and dazzling the comprehension of the world. We may think of Him as one supreme, boundless, formless, changeless spirit, the tranquil source of all the exuberant life and energy of the universe ; as manifested to us in the mysterious Trinity, and visibly in that Divine Person who became Jesus Christ. St. Augustine tells us that if we would approach to the idea of God we must think of Him as Supreme Love. See into what a sublime region we rise at once when we turn to God! How far above the sordid cares and pleasures of the world ! Live always in this region. Let this great truth, like the sun, shine ever before your eyes and illumine your life.

1. The Knowledge of God.

I. “All men are vain in whom there is not the knowledge of God” (Wisdom xiii. 1). Ignorance and want of reflection about divine things are two fruitful sources of anxiety, doubt, discontent, and sin in the world. “With desolation is all the land made desolate, because there is none that considereth in his heart” (Jeremias xii. 11). We need, not only to have learnt once for all, but to revolve continually in our minds, the great truths which God has revealed. The will, which is the embodiment of human energy, is a blind faculty, and, if left to itself, stumbles in the darkness; the intelligence is the torch that guides its footsteps. The intelligence must be formed by the knowledge of God and meditation on Him in order to be adequate to its great task; otherwise the will cannot burn with affection towards God and crave for moral goodness. We need this light always burning before us to illumine our path and help us to pick our steps. How great is the blindness and how lamentable the miscalculations and failures of those who have not this light! Consider how much you need the science of God, and how deficient you are in it. Resolve to apply yourself to it. Ask God to infuse it into your soul.

II. The remedy for ignorance and inconsideration is to be found in knowledge and meditation on Devotional Theology. As a science it will perfect the understanding, as devotion, the will. By this we shall learn to know of God and His attributes, the deep mysteries of the Trinity, the holy spirits who will be our companions for eternity, the significance of creation. We shall understand more about Our Lord Jesus Christ in His double nature as God and man, and the lessons of His life; His Blessed Mother also, in whom we can study mere human nature brought to its highest expression by the plenitude of grace and close association with the three Divine Persons. We shall be able to cast light upon the great problems that have perpetually exercised men’s minds—the origin of evil, the permission of sin and suffering, the object of our existence, the law of our perfection and happiness, the secrets of the future life, the designs of God’s Providence. We shall study God’s commands, the nature of virtue, the graces by which we are aided; and we shall receive comfort, strength, illumination, certainty, such as earthly science cannot give us. This divine study will lead us through knowledge to the love of God and the practical ordering of our lives. Beseech God to give you Wisdom that sitteth by His throne, to send her from the throne of His Majesty, to be with you, and labour with you, and preserve you by her power (Wisdom ix).

III. To attain to this divine science, the prime necessity, beyond all talent and cultivation, is purity of soul. Only the pure of heart can see God. “Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins” (Wisdom i. 4). The intellect must be purified by faith, which eliminates perturbing errors and dispels the mists that cloud the spiritual vision. The will is purified by innocence of life and adhesion to God in love. These faculties, like all others, are susceptible of cultivation, and of being perfected to an extent incredible to those who have not personal experience of it; they become sensitive to the finer vibrations of divine light and divine warmth which are lost upon the coarser sensibilities of the worldly, the selfish, the proud. Deplore the many impurities of your mind and affections. Ask God to send His angel with a burning coal from the altar to touch your heart and lips, and to purify you, if needs be, by fire, so that you may be capable of dwelling on His mysteries, singing His praises and loving Him. “To know Thee is perfect justice: and to know Thy justice and Thy power is the root of immortality” (Wisdom xv. 3).