And if we were more righteous and more loving, we should
understand more how God's will was a loving and a righteous will; how
His justice was His mercy, and His mercy His justice, instead of
dividing His substance, who is one God, by fancying that His mercy
and His justice are two different attributes, which are at times
contrary the one to the other.
We read nothing here about God's absolute purposes, and fixed
decrees, whereof men talk so often, making a god in their own fallen
image, after their own fallen likeness. The Lord, the Word of God,
of whom the Bible tells us, does not think it beneath his dignity to
say: "It repenteth me that I have made man." Different, truly, from
that false god which man makes in his own image. Man is proud, and
he fancies that God is proud; man is self-willed and selfish, and he
fancies that God is self-willed and selfish; man is arbitrary and
obstinate, and determined to have his own way just because it is his
own way; and then he fancies that God is arbitrary and obstinate, and
determines to have His own way and will, just because it is His own
way and will. But wilt thou know, oh vain man, why God will have His
own way and will? Because His way is a good way, and His will a
loving will; because the Lord knows that His way is the only path of
life, and joy, and blessing to man and beast, yes, and to the very
hairs of our head, which are all numbered, and to the sparrows,
whereof not one falls to the ground without our Father's knowledge;
because His will is a loving will, which wills that none should
perish, but that all should come and be saved in body, soul, and
spirit.
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