Ch 5: Knowledge of God – in creation and governance of the world.

(follows from previous post)

 

True blessedness is found in knowing God.  So, that none may be excluded, God has been pleased “to daily place himself in our view, that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to behold him.”

“His essence indeed is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, distinct, and illustrious that none, however dull & illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse.”  (see Romans 1:20).  The heavens and the earth (and the human body, as a “miniature world” in this respect) give innumerable proofs for even “the most illiterate peasant”, indeed for anyone with the gift of sight!  

But if, in order to apprehend God, we need not look further than even our own human bodies, “what excuse can there be for the sloth of any man who will not take the trouble of descending into himself that he may find him?”

 

As well as sloth, pride stops man seeing God in himself; he “makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God.”  Others deny that we have an immortal soul; but the body is capable of more than just physical functions.  Rather, as we contemplate our own nature, we should remember that there is one God who governs all natures; it is preposterous not to.  

 

God’s perfection is also evident in the second class of God’s works: those above nature.  We can see his justice at work and upholded in the good being blessed and the wicked punished.  “Neither his power nor his wisdom is shrouded in darkness.”

 

So if you seek God, consider his works!  And remember: the knowledge of God we’re invited to cultivate isn’t that which flutters, but that which will prove substantial and fruitful, and rooted in the heart.  It should result not only in worship, but in considering the hope of eternal life.  

 

Yet few of us do this.  We look at his works and ascribe them to someone/something else.  So the whole world is overflowed with “an immense flood of error”.  This error is manifested and coloured in numerous ways, but is still the same denial of God.  So although (in reference to Hebs 11:3) the worlds are images of invisible things – a mirror in which we may behold God – it is by faith we understand that they were framed by the word of God.  Creation can’t lead us to know God on its own; it can only render us inexcusable (Acts 27:27).  Although we aren’t able naturally to know God clearly, we’re without excuse.  “We cannot plead ignorance, without being at the same time convicted by our consciences both of sloth and ingratitude.”  For no sooner do we see him slightly through creation, than we pass him by and worship our own ideas instead.  “By the erroneous estimate we form, we either so obscure or pervert his daily works, as at once to rob them of their glory and the author of his praise.”  

 

Hence, the folly of following our own authority on this subject.   “There was no pure and authentic religion founded merely on common belief.”

 

“God himself must bear witness to himself from heaven.”