LXXVII. IMMENSE efforts have been made by human reason to elevate itself
to the conception of the Deity, to demonstrate His existence, and to
deduce with solid arguments His principal attributes. Yet, even that
quantum which human reason believes to have succeeded in establishing on
this exalted subject, has always had to encounter in the fields of proud
philosophy tenacious, or rather pertinacious, adversaries. Whereas
revelation, extricating man from the labyrinth of transcendental
abstrusities, presents him at once with a well constructed system of
theological science, which he has only to receive within his bosom, to
lead a happy life on earth, and attain his true goal beyond the grave.
The Divine word informs us of God, as a pure spirit, eternal and
immutable, incorporeal, absolute (that is, not dependent upon causes
without Himself), omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, all-perfect and
therefore all-holy (that is, possessing all the attributes in the
highest degree of perfection); one, because admitting not in Himself
distinctions of multiplicity, and sole, because beside him there is no
God; Creator of the universe from nought, therefore distinct from all
things created (which we would call, if allowed the expression,
_extramundane_); Creator of man in His image, having endowed him with
intelligence, liberty, and an immortal soul; provident and immediate[3]
to man, watching over his actions, punishing faults and rewarding
merits, and pardoning him who truly repents of evil committed; He is a
perpetual source of the purest love, hence a merciful father to all His
creatures, unto whom He continually pours forth treasures of His
kindness; He strengthens the weak, comforts the afflicted, enlightens
the ignorant, protects the oppressed, and grants the prayer of those who
trust in Him; He governs human events according to His will, now causing
human enterprises to succeed, anon to fail; always directing them to the
ends contemplated by His infinite wisdom, for He is the all-wise, just,
and faithful, whose promises are infallibly accomplished, and whose word
subsists to eternity. He sometimes suspends the order of nature, and
works miracles, whenever He deems it suitable to His high designs. He
established a covenant with the Abrahamitic race, and revealed to it His
holy law, by this means to illuminate and bless all mankind.
[Note 3: This expression is here used to indicate the direct and
special relation of God with man, and the direct government of mankind
by God, without intermediate agencies, in contradistinction to the other
terrestrial creatures, whose relation with the Creator is only general,
and which are governed through the medium of pre-established physical
laws.--THE TRANSLATOR.]
LXXVIII. Although these notions do not complete the idea of the
Divinity, much less can they claim to define His essence--for to the
very limited faculties of the human mind this will always remain
inconceivable--yet they are sufficient to afford such an instruction on
divine subjects as to satisfy the wants of humanity. With the guidance
of the elements offered, and by a conscientious meditation on those
Divine attributes, man will be able to dispel the superstitious notions
and the errors into which they have fallen, who have not consulted the
Divine word on such a subject; he will be able to sketch in his own mind
an idea, however incomplete, of the sublime object of his adoration, and
thus preserve himself from much that is evil. Having been destined to
live in society, and compelled to work in order to supply the
multifarious wants of his body; always more or less struggling with the
interests of his fellow men to secure a possession often disputed to him
by malice, or violence; and evil example and ignorance and the sensual
appetites being concurrently at work--man became naturally, in the course
of time, too easy a prey to passions, vice and error; he was overpowered
by materialism, and fell into sin. Therefore, the idea revealed to him
of a holy God, who watches over his destinies, who punishes the guilty,
rewards the virtuous, and pardons the penitent, is the best balsam that
could be administered, the best truth that could be taught to him; it
saves him from error, removes him from sin, invites him to direct his
view to heaven, restores him within the Divine grace, and opens to him
the prospect of an interminable beatitude.
LXXIX. Among those attributes, however, one becomes prominent, from its
importance; it is that which establishes an immediate relation, or
communion, as subsisting between the Creator and the rational creature;
a fundamental point on which the whole religion hinges. The intimacy of
such a relation manifested itself at the very beginning of the world by
God having created man _in His image_, by which expression it is meant,
that the Divine Maker bestowed some part of His perfections on the
noblest creature on earth, endowing it with intelligence, free-will, and
immortality; these high prerogatives conferred upon man, to a certain
degree, a similitude with his Maker, and from this similitude was
naturally to follow a closer relation of mutual love, than exists
between God and the other created things. Such a relation assumed a more
definite form when God took man under His special guardianship, whilst
He left the government of inanimate nature to physical laws, unalterable
and compulsory, which He had established in the first instant of
creation. The stupendous connection was lastly completed, by God having
communicated His will to men, and traced out to them the course they had
to follow, in order to render themselves worthy of the great boon, and
to attain the end destined for them. From all these circumstances it
became evident that God is _immediate_ to man.
LXXX. As, in general, all the revelation, has for its object to benefit
humanity, so, in particular, when the divine word is directed to impart
to us the knowledge of God, it intends to teach us the duties we are
called upon to fulfil towards the Author of our existence; duties which
we could not well discharge if we were wanting in that knowledge. Now,
the first of these duties is to _love God_. Such a noble feeling, which,
as we have already stated, derives its origin from a relation of
similitude between him who loves and the object beloved, cannot be
kindled in us by effect of a mere command, as the motions of the heart
are not produced by authority. Therefore, while holy writ inculcates the
love of God, it at the same time indicates to us the means whereby this
sublime love will be promoted; and the means is _to walk in the ways of
the Eternal_. To understand the connection between the means and the
end, we must consider the different degrees of which love is
susceptible, and motives by which it is actuated. He who loves God
because of great favours received, is apt to feel a diminution of
attachment, or even indifference, on being overtaken by misfortune. He
who loves Him with a view to benefits in a future life, is also in
danger of ceasing to love, if some doubts were to arise in his mind and
to weaken his hopes. But when man loves God because he understands, and
admires, and adores in Him the aggregate of all perfections, and feels
within himself the flame of a desire to approach the Divine Majesty,
then his love is an inextinguishable love, for he abnegates his own
self, and centres his motives exclusively in the object beloved. This
kind of love, however, presupposes a uniformity of tendencies, which
causes the one who loves to esteem and to endeavour to appropriate the
qualities admired by him; and in this precisely consists the
resemblance, which produces the true love. Justice, faithfulness,
righteousness, mercy, and many other Divine attributes, which in the
biblical language are called _the ways of the Eternal_, cannot be fully
and worthily appreciated, except by him who uses all his endeavours to
adorn himself with such virtues, as far as his limited nature allows.
And now we can understand, why he cannot truly love who walks not in His
ways.
LXXXI. Another principal duty, issuing from the same revelation, is that
which is commonly called _fear of God_, an expression very frequent in
the sacred text, but which requires to be explained. The Hebrew word
used is susceptible of two different interpretations. It might apply to
the fear of retribution, suggested by the reflection that an
all-powerful God will not leave unpunished the transgressors of his
commands; or the same word might signify the sense of reverence and
unbounded veneration, with which the frail creature must feel almost
overwhelmed when thinking of its exalted Creator, who knows all, sees
all, and governs all. The former originates in the intellect, the latter
in the heart. It is obvious that the fear of punishment is not a
sufficient restraint to deter man, at all times, from sin; for in the
ebullition of impetuous passions, the intellect becomes offuscated and
impeded in the exercise of its functions, or frequently is itself
pressed into the service of the predominating passion. Not so the awe
and reverence inspired by the majesty of the Supreme King of the
universe. It pervades all the heart, disposes it to feelings of
submission and obedience, convinces it that man is at all times in the
presence of his Maker, and thus prevents inordinate material appetites
from bursting forth and rising forcibly to uncontrollable preponderance.
Hence it is that the fear of God, taken in the latter sense, is a
powerful prop which supports the religious edifice, is the most
effectual and valuable lesson we derive from the revelation of the
Divine attributes.
LXXXII. From these two principal duties, spring, as corollaries, others
of no less importance, which come, also, within the sphere of the first
cardinal point of biblical revelation, the knowledge of God. He, who
truly loves and fears God, will surely feel the necessity of placing in
Him exclusively all his trust, for he is convinced that there is no
being in nature, besides God, that can offer an infallible support to
human hopes. He will find in his heart an almost irrepressible impulse
to praise the Divine perfections, to extol His glory, to offer sincere
homage to the Sovereign of the universe, to worship and serve Him with
purity of heart, to thank Him for favours received, to supplicate Him
for help, to confess to Him sins committed, and to ask His pardon with
contrite spirit. All these and other like acts of filial dependence and
piety, find their expression in that elevated form of external worship
called _prayer_, which, whether exercised publicly in appropriate and
consecrated temples, or recited in the solitude of the domestic
closet,[4] whether strictly following an established formulary, or
pouring out the impulsive feelings of the heart, is always an urgent
want and an indispensable duty of every religious man. Lastly, the true
love and fear of God imply the obligation of avoiding, in all that
pertains to Divine worship, everything that might have the appearance of
idolatry, of intrusion of intermediate powers, or of any superstition
whatever; above all clearly emerges the duty of not abusing the holy
name of God, either by uttering it on trivial occasions--which would
tend to diminish the reverence due to Him--or by profaning it with an
invocation to a false testimony, whereby the detestable crime of perjury
would be consummated.
[Note 4: Public, as compared with private worship, has the undoubted
advantage of being in itself a public homage to the omnipotence of God,
and a solemn testimony of the dependence of man on Him. True, solitary
worship is often more likely to be attended with the requisite mental
abstraction from all worldly objects, and intellectual elevation of the
soul towards its Divine Source--a condition of mind indispensable to
establish a true spiritual communion in Prayer, and without which all
our orisons and ritual ceremonies would be but mechanical and
meaningless performances, a body without soul. It is this condition of
the mind that, in Talmudical style, is called [Hebrew: het-nun-vav-kaf],
as is well known, and that later ascetic writers termed [Hebrew:
tav-vav-dalet-dalet-vav-bet-het-he], from the circumstance that it is
superinduced by solitary meditation. But whenever this condition
is attained in a public service, then indeed is that service
"divine," and humanity is exalted in its approach to the Throne of
Mercy.--THE TRANSLATOR.]