MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA TREATISE I. GOD. 23. THE LIBERTY OF GOD.
CARAVAGGIO
St Jerome
c. 1606
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA
TREATISE I. GOD
23. THE LIBERTY OF GOD.
I. Liberty is a great and magnificent prerogative. God possesses it in perfection, in a manner beyond our conception. We delight in it, and are continually extending it and safeguarding it ; but how imperfect it is with us! Our liberty consists to a considerable extent in restraints on liberty, so that each may be protected against the inevitable encroachments of others. As our liberties increase so do our laws. The most autocratic monarch is restrained in his freedom by international law, by public opinion, by etiquette and custom, by neighbouring countries and by his subjects. Above all, the freest of mankind are subject to God, bound to accept His revelation and obey His laws ; they can indeed disobey, but by so doing they become subject to penal consequences here and hereafter. There are other limitations of our freedom imposed by God, which we are not able to transgress ; we are bound down to a narrow corner of the universe, we are limited to a few years of life, we are checked continually by the weakness of our faculties. God is absolutely independent and sovereign, and can dispose of infinite powers. Such liberty united to such power would be terrible in any being not possessed of infinite wisdom and goodness. In God all these faculties are one. We, too, require goodness in proportion to our share of liberty. Otherwise liberty becomes a mere instrument of oppression in the hands of the strong and the few. The machinery of law is a mere makeshift to supply the want of moral goodness as a check on the abuses of individual liberty.
II. God is absolutely free in the determinations of His will towards creatures. This is not the liberty of caprice and continual change, but a free determination, immutable and eternal nevertheless, because founded on perfect knowledge of all things present and future. As towards Himself the determination of God s will is fully voluntary, but it is a necessity of His perfect nature. It is impossible for God to do otherwise than delight in the perfection and beauty and the operations of His Divine Essence. But God was not necessitated in creating this world. He freely chose to act, and accordingly called into being this universe with all its series of creatures, instead of an indefinite number of others which He might have made. Now that God has created the present universe, its material elements go on necessarily in the path of life and growth appointed for them, and they cannot now be other than they arc ; but this necessity is created by the fact of God's action, and did not exist anteriorly to compel Him to make things as they are. Pay homage to God s liberty by dedicating yours to His service. Thus only will you find true liberty of action and success in your works.
III. Further, in the execution of His will God is free from all interference and obstruction. There is none to question His liberty or His actions. "Who shall say to Thee, What hast Thou done ; or who shall withstand Thy judgments?" (Wisd. xii. 12). No difficulty deters God. The whole universe is no more strain on His power than the creation of a particle of dust. One act of volition is sufficient to call into existence all the substances, all the enormous forces, all the varied life and intricate arrangements of the world. Our liberty is not complete, because we are liable to fall into sin ; our best resolutions fail, and we are but broken reeds. " To will good is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good I find not. For the good which 1 will, 1 do not ; but the evil which I will not, that I do " (Rom. vii. 18, 19). Not so with God. Sin and injustice can find no place in Him, nor can they force Him to compromise with them. Keep yourself free from sin. This is the truest liberty here, and the greatest exercise of human strength and determination. This gives you the true liberty of God.
I. Liberty is a great and magnificent prerogative. God possesses it in perfection, in a manner beyond our conception. We delight in it, and are continually extending it and safeguarding it ; but how imperfect it is with us! Our liberty consists to a considerable extent in restraints on liberty, so that each may be protected against the inevitable encroachments of others. As our liberties increase so do our laws. The most autocratic monarch is restrained in his freedom by international law, by public opinion, by etiquette and custom, by neighbouring countries and by his subjects. Above all, the freest of mankind are subject to God, bound to accept His revelation and obey His laws ; they can indeed disobey, but by so doing they become subject to penal consequences here and hereafter. There are other limitations of our freedom imposed by God, which we are not able to transgress ; we are bound down to a narrow corner of the universe, we are limited to a few years of life, we are checked continually by the weakness of our faculties. God is absolutely independent and sovereign, and can dispose of infinite powers. Such liberty united to such power would be terrible in any being not possessed of infinite wisdom and goodness. In God all these faculties are one. We, too, require goodness in proportion to our share of liberty. Otherwise liberty becomes a mere instrument of oppression in the hands of the strong and the few. The machinery of law is a mere makeshift to supply the want of moral goodness as a check on the abuses of individual liberty.
II. God is absolutely free in the determinations of His will towards creatures. This is not the liberty of caprice and continual change, but a free determination, immutable and eternal nevertheless, because founded on perfect knowledge of all things present and future. As towards Himself the determination of God s will is fully voluntary, but it is a necessity of His perfect nature. It is impossible for God to do otherwise than delight in the perfection and beauty and the operations of His Divine Essence. But God was not necessitated in creating this world. He freely chose to act, and accordingly called into being this universe with all its series of creatures, instead of an indefinite number of others which He might have made. Now that God has created the present universe, its material elements go on necessarily in the path of life and growth appointed for them, and they cannot now be other than they arc ; but this necessity is created by the fact of God's action, and did not exist anteriorly to compel Him to make things as they are. Pay homage to God s liberty by dedicating yours to His service. Thus only will you find true liberty of action and success in your works.
III. Further, in the execution of His will God is free from all interference and obstruction. There is none to question His liberty or His actions. "Who shall say to Thee, What hast Thou done ; or who shall withstand Thy judgments?" (Wisd. xii. 12). No difficulty deters God. The whole universe is no more strain on His power than the creation of a particle of dust. One act of volition is sufficient to call into existence all the substances, all the enormous forces, all the varied life and intricate arrangements of the world. Our liberty is not complete, because we are liable to fall into sin ; our best resolutions fail, and we are but broken reeds. " To will good is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good I find not. For the good which 1 will, 1 do not ; but the evil which I will not, that I do " (Rom. vii. 18, 19). Not so with God. Sin and injustice can find no place in Him, nor can they force Him to compromise with them. Keep yourself free from sin. This is the truest liberty here, and the greatest exercise of human strength and determination. This gives you the true liberty of God.
MEDITATIONS ON CHRISTIAN DOGMA BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES BELLORD, D.D.
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