A treatise on divine union, designed to point out some of the intimate relations between God and man in the higher forms of religious experience

Front matter

DIVINE TrNTON,

INTIMATE BELATIONS BETWEEN GOD AND MAN m-tm

No. 3 COKNHILL.

Contents

PABT FIKST. 0, CM). AND THE KELATI0K8 HE- SUSTAINS TO HIS CEEATUEES.

PAGB

1.1-011 the Nature of Divine Union, , '. Q

Part Second

ON lAITH, AND THE UNION Or GOD AND MAN IN PAITH.

I -On Faith as an Element of the Divine Nature, . •;•/.•• '^^

i-On Faith as the Constitutive Element of Human and Divme ^ ^ ^^

m.^On'ie rdation of the Woik'of Christ to the Restoration of ^ ^ ^^

v.— Of the Union ofGod and Man in Faith,

Part Third

ON THE KNOWLEDGE 0. GOD, AND THE UNION 0. GOD AND MAN IN KNOWLEDGE. ,

I —All Knowledge necessarily m God,

Tl!-Human Knowledge based upon the Divine, .

in --Characteristics ofihe Knowledge which IS fromGod, 75

W -On the Gradual Development of Divine Knowledge, 81

v"— On the Union of God and Man in Knowledge

O CONTENTS.

Part Fourth

ON THE LOYE OF GOD, AND THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN IN LOVE.

I. — On the Nature of Pure or Holy Love, 94

n. — On the Scripture Declaration, that God is Love, ...... 99

ni. — On the Love of Existence in Distinction from the Love of

Character, IO5

rv. — Thoughts on the Creation of Holy Existences, 109

v. — On the Three Forms of Love ; namely, of Benevolence, of

Complacency, and of Union, II4

VI. — On the Union of God dnd Man in Love, 119

Vn. — On the Manifestations of Love in the Form of Sympathy, . 125 ^^^^' — On the Religion of Love as compared with the Religion of

Obligation, I3O

IX. — The Union of God with Man in Love excludes all Idolatrous Love of the Creatures, 135

Part Fifth

ON rail WllL OF GOD, AND THE UNION OF THE DIVINE AND HUMAN

WILL.

L — On the Relation of the Will of God with other parts of the

Divine Nature, I40

n.--OnthePerpetualIdentity of the Divine Will, . . . . . . . 145

ni. — On the Natural and Moral Supremacy of the Divine Will, . 150 IV. — On the Union of the Human and Divine Will, . ...... 153

V. — On the Different Degrees of Union with the Will of God, . . 160

VI. — On Training the Will to Habits of Subjection, 163

vn. — On the Relation of Suffering to Union, 167

Vni. — Illustrations of the Relation between God and Man, by the

Relative Position of Man and Child, * . . 173

Part Sixth. On The Union Of Man With God In His Providences

I. — On the True Idea of Providence, and its Extent, 183

n. -i- On the Law of Providence in Distinction from the Genet&l

Nature or Fact of Providence, . . ... . . . . . . ,y^^

in. ^ On the Stwctn^ds of the Retributions of the LaW o^f Pro^ rr.-^OfProvid«i«j#kC«aBieotio^ ]^q

CONTENTS. (

V. — On the Wisdom and Goodness of God, as displayed in hii3

Providential Arrangements, ....,, 212

VI. — On the Relation of Providence to Spiritual Growth, . . , .219 VII. — On the Law of Providence in Relation to Simplicity of Spirit, 223

VIII. — Of the Union of God and Man in Providence, 228

IX. — Relation of Harmony with Providence to the Order and Disorder which exist in the World, 234

X. — Illustrations of Interior or Spiritual Solitude, 238

XI.— '0^ the Spirit or Life which is the basis of this Union, . . .244

Part Seventh

IffNION WITH GOD IN THE WORK OF MAN's REDEMPTION.

L — On the Successive Developments of the Plan of Redemption, 252 n. — Of the Three Forms of Redemption — Physical, Mental and

Social, 261

in. — Of Union with God in the Work of Mental or Personal Redemption, " 269

IV. — Of Union with God in the Work of Redemption in relation to

others, 277

V. — Of Union with God in the Observance and the Duties of the

Sabbath, \ 285

VI.— ^ Of Union with God in the Redemption and Sanctification of

the Family, 290

Vn. — Of Union with God in the Work of Civil and National Redemption, 315

Vni. — On Union with God in the Redemption of the Arts and

Literature, 329

IX. — On the Nature and Practical Extent of the Power of Love, . 345 X. — Principles and Explanations on the Subject of Practical Holiness, 354

XL — On the Union of Man with God in the Spirit of Prayer, . . 362 Xn. — On the Relation of the Character of Man to the Happmess of

Part Eighth

OP THE PEACE OR REST OP THE SOUL IN A STATE OP UNION.

X — On the True Idea of a Soul at Rest, 373

n. — The Soul in Union rests from Reasonings, 379

in. — The Soul in Union rests from Desires, 384

8 CONTENTS.

PACB cmp

IV. — The Soul in Union rests from the Reproofs of Conscience, . . 889

V. — The Soul in Union rests from Disquieting Fears, ^ .... .393

VI. — The Soul in Union rests from Conflicts with Providence, . . 397

Vn. — The Soul in Union rests from the Anxieties of Labor, . . . 402

Vm. — The holy Soul has Peace, because what it wants in itself it

t finds in God, 409

IX. — The holy Soul has Peace, because its action is natural and

without effort, .- . . . 413

X. — The Soul in Union with God has Rest, because it has passed

from the Meditative to the Contemplative State, . . . .419 XI. — Of the Spirit and Practical Course of the Man who is at rest

in God, 425

Xn. — The Soul in Peace is the true Kingdom of God, 430

Part First. Of God, And The Eelations He Sustains To His Crea- Tures

ON THE NATURE OF DIVINE UNION.

AH original life in God. — The life which is not from God, not life, hut death. — Of the union of God and man. — The basis of this union to he found in God's nature. — Of the different kinds or forms of union. — Union of pacification, of alliance, of nature.

From God aU things come. To God, as the universal originator and governor, all things are in subjection. In ascertaining what God is, we necessarily ascertain the position and responsibilities of those beings that come from God, and are dependent on him. The life of his moral creatures, so far as it is a right and true life, is a reproduction, in a finite form, of the elements of his own life. ^^God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him." Gen. 1 : 27. The Saviour, in speaking of himself, in his incarnate state, says, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me." John 13: 11. God, in carrying out and perfecting the great idea of a moral creation, subjects the infinity of his being to the limitations of humanity, and reproduces himself in the human soul. So that man's life may truly be described, as God's life in humanity.

2. Nor, in the strict sense of the terms, can anything but the Divine Life, or the Ufe of God in the soul, be called Hfe. Those who have gone astray from God, just so far as they have lost the divine life, and have sunk into the natural life, are dead. Hence, the expressions of the apostle: — ^'And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.'' Ephes. 2 : 1. The eternal vitality, the breath from the Infinite, the hfe of God in the soul, ceases to be in them. And being dead, by the absence of God as an indwelling principle, they must be recreated, or born again, by his restoration. It is not enough, that provision has been made, in the death of Christ, for man's forgiveness. Forgiveness, it is true, has its appropriate work. It cancels the iniquity of the past; but this is not all that is necessary. It is not without reason, that the learned Schlegel commences his profound work on the philosophy of history by saying, that ^^ the most important subject, and the first problem of philosophy, is the restoration in man of the lost image of God." The immortal nature must be made anew, must be re-constituted, if we may so express it, on the principle of life linked with life, of the created sustained in the uncreated, in the bonds of divine union,

3. In entering, therefore, upon the important subject of Divine Union, by which we mean the union of God with man, and of man with God, we must first direct our attention to the central truth, to which reference has already been made, and consider what God is. It is in God's nature, in what he is and what he requires, that the basis of union must be placed.

Before doing this, however, it is proper to make a few remarks, in explanation of that state of mind, and of that position of things, which are implied in that union of God and man,- which is the topic of this treatise. And we proceed to remark, in the first place, that the union, which ought to be established between God and man, and which the Gospel of Christ proposes to restore, is not merely an union of pacification. Man is now at war with his Maker. War cannot exist without division. Those who are in contest with each other, stand apart, not only alienated in heart, but separated in position. It is thus with God and man, while riian remains a sinner. When man ceases to contend, he is brought into union. But it is only the union of pacification. And it is not enough.

4. We remark again, that the union, which the mediatorial agency of the Saviour proposes to restore, is not merely an union of alliance. The first step is pacification. The two parties, God on the one side and man on the other, have entered infb a pacificatory arrangement, by which it is agreed that man shall cease to rebel and to fight, and God shall cease to resist his wicked attempts and to punish. In addition to this, which is more an union or harmony of position than of feelings, man is willing to unite his efibrts in carrying out the divine plans. God condescends to accept these indications and movements of return; — and thus there is constituted the additional union of alliance.

5. Both steps, it must be admitted, are very important. What can be more wise in man, thaif to lay down the weapons of his warfare? What can be more pleasing, than to see him uniting his efibrts in the promotion of God's cause in the world? It would be difficult to exaggerate the beneficial results which necessarily fiow from these forms of union. All who come ta God must pass through them. But, in passing through them, they cannot attain the highest ends of their being, without going further.

And the reason is, that these two forms of union, although they exclude the idea of hostility, are consistent with, and imply, the existence of two parties; — each occupying his own position, «7ic? sustained in his own strength. It is true they have ceased to contend. It is tiue, also, they have entered into alliance with each other. But still, even under these more favorable circumstances, it cannot be said of man, in relation to God, as was said by the Saviour, in relation to his heavenly Father, *^I and my Father are one." The prayer of the Saviour, ^^ As thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us^^^ has not been fulfilled. There is still a point of union which has not been reached. Something more is necessary.

6. Union, therefore, as we desire to develop it in this treatise, is not merely a treaty of peace, nor even the closer compact of alliance ; but a combination or union of nature ; not the union of juxta-position, but of filiation ; not the union of convention, but the union of life.

It is to this union that all who are born of God must at last come; — not uniting with God, as man unites conventionally with his fellow-man, in the formation of civil society, or for any other purpose, but with that union of life with life which binds together the father and the son.

7. UndouT)tedly it must be admitted that this union is not reached at once. At least this is not the general method of God's operation. God works gradatim, step by step; by the gradualism of continually developed law, and not by the impromptus and ejaculations of blind efibrt, without any wise and permanent principles as the foundation of effort. It is a great thing to begin to return; it is a much greater to complete the return. It is a great thing even to look towards God with feelings of humility and faith. It is a much greater to find him, encouraged as it were by these soUcitations of humble faith, approaching nearer and nearer, in the mild radiance of a reconciled divinity; — melting away and removing, at every step of his approach, some envelopment of selfishness, until, the doors of every faculty being open, he enters his own purified temple, and becomes its everlasting centre. 1*

Chapter II. On The Eternity Of God

The principles of union with God, to be found in God's nature. — On the eternity of God. — Results involved in the fact of God's eternity. — Th^ eternity of God involves his unchangeableness. — God, in being eternal, the source of all true life. — Remarks on man's responsibility.

In proceeding in the investigation of the subject of union with God, it will be necessary, if we wish to arrive at satisfactory results, to consider briefly some of the leading elements, or principles, of the Divine Nature. We have already had occasion to say, that it is in God's nature, in what he is and what he requires, that the basis of union must be placed. It is obvious that there can be no imion between two parties who are at variance, unless there be a change on one side or the other, or on both. But it is hardly necessary to say, that, on the side of God, it is impossible for any change to take place, except that of a just correspondence with the altered relations of the other party. The perfection of his position ensures its immutability. The change, preparatory to union, must first take place in man. What this change must be, on what principles it must take place, in what directions it must extend, can be known only by what we know of God.

2. Perhaps it may be said, that the powers of the human mind are so restricted that they will not allow us to comprehend God fully. Undoubtedly our conception of him, based partly upon what is known, and

CHARACTER OF GOD.

hardly less upon what is unknown, is exceedingly imperfect. But its imperfection is reauced, and we are able to approximate the higher and more perfect idea of God, in proportion as we divest it of the lin^itations of form, time, and place. God is not the possessor or subject of any form, which is essential to him as an outward expression of his nature, although he may be said to live in all forms;— just as he is without a fixed and definite locality, although he may be said to be present in all places. And as he is not limited by form or by place, so he is not limited by time,

3. We may be said, therefore, in entering upon the remarks which remain to be made in this chapter, to begin where there is no beginning. That which begins to exist has a cause. That which exists without a cause is eternal. God only is without cause. God only is eternal.

Such is the great truth, which, in being connatural to the human mind, may be said to be written there by the pen of the Creator: a truth which is, to a considerable extent, the basjs of natural religion, and is recognized by all sound philosophy.

4 God only is eternal. Such being the case, all things that exist out of himself, are, and must be, from him. To say that a thing has its birth from the bosom' of its own causation, is the same as to say that it exists without a cause. And this is inconceivable. All things, therefore, are, by the necessity of the case, in alliance with God; — the creatures of his divine and infinite administration ; springing up, in the appropriate d^ of their generation, from the Uncreated Life ; — the Eife, which has been, now is, and will be everlasting.

5. It is this truth which, more than anything else, makes the eternity of God a matter of so deep interest.

It is the eternity of God which constitutes him, in one of the most essential respects, the tiniversal Father. Everything which exists having, before the time of its existence, no power or possibihty of self-origination, must have had its birth from him. And we may go further even than this. The fact of his eternity, taken in connection with his other attributes, involves the idea, that all things are not only from hina, but always have been, and are now, in him. His eternity embraces the future as well as the present. His mind sweeps over all, understands all, sustains all, regulates all, unites all in one. The successive developments of being and action, which arrest and occupy the human mind in the different stages of their progress, are' a present reality to him. Their causation does not remove them from that which causes ,• — and time does not, and cannot, take them out of eternity. They are what they are, because they are in him ; — and out of him they must necessarily cease to be. And thus he is constituted, by the very elements of his nature, the circumference as well as the centre, the end as well as the beginning, the universal All.

6. That man does not perceive this, is true. And he does not perceive it, because, trying to see in his own light, and not in the light which God himself is ready to impart, his ^'foolish heart is darkened,^ ^ None can know God, in the fullest sense of the terms, but those who are fully restored to him. Separated to a great distance by the repulsive power of selfishness, God, iBiStead of being the universal and the all, is not only very remote, and much diminished in appearance, to tl^e who are not in harmony with him, but is even doubtful in existence. '^ The fool hath said in his heart, There isno God." But it does not follow, because <5fod is not known, that he does not exist ; nor, because

CHARACTER OF GOD. Vl

he is not realized as eternal, that he is not eternal. Existence does not depend upon perception. "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

7. God, being the Eternity of things, is the reality. By reality, we mean that which is substantial and essential, that which is permanent^ as well as that which is just and good ; not the shadow of the rock, but the rock itself; not the reflection of the sun, but the sun itself; the I AM, as he names himself, because there is no other adequate expression of him, the beings and not merely the heginnmg to be. His eternity involves his essentiality, because, as we see no reason why he should begin to exist, so we see no reason why he should begin to change. His unchangeableness is but a part of his eternity. From him, as the essential, or the I am, all pther things not only flow out as from the original foui?tain, but continue to live from him as from a present life.

8. Here, then, is the beginning, the foundation principle, of our argument. God, in being eternal, is the source of all things, whatever they may be, which have an existence, or rather the appearance of existence, separate from himself. In other words, all things which are finite, and are created in time, embodied though they may be in their own form, and sustained by their appropriate laws of being, are necessarily from him and by him. And thus, when we consider things in their origin and relations, how they all come from God, and how they are all dependent on him, we shall obtain one of the most important conceptions which we associate with God, namely, that in his life is the true life, and that out of his life there is nothing but death. We shall thuS; in this view of God, and of the relations he sustains to other beings, realize, in a true and high sense, the import of those expressions which are so often found in writers of great reUgious experience, — expressions Hable to be perverted, but still conveying a great truth in a concise form, — "the all of God, and nothing of the creature."

9. These views, undoubtedly, when we come to speak of man's moral responsibility, will be entitled to their just modifications. It is our object at the present time, in as few words as possible, to present the general truth under consideration in the strong light which properly belongs to it, unembarrassed by subordinate distinctions. When we assert that the doctrine of God's eternity involves the idea that all things come from him, we of course mean that they come from him by a tme desceTii ; — that they have their origin from him in the line of a just filiation. If man, in the exercise of his moral responsibility, — forgetting and abusing the fact that he is of God and lives his true life only in union with God, — undertakes to become a self -originator, and to do things in his own supposed strength and wisdom, it would be absurd to speak of such things as of divine origin.

Chapter III. On The Omnipresence Of God

Necessity of Divine Omnipresence. — Of its extent. — Of its nature, or mode. — God present to everything in the entireness of his being. — Relation of these views to the doctrine of Divine Union,

God, who, in trai;iscending the limitations of time, is eternal, in transcending the limitations of place, is also everywhere present. It is not possible for him to be confined to particular places and things, to the exclusion of other places and things, but he is and must be God everywhere.

" If I take the wings of the morning," says the Psalmist, " and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand hold me."* And again he exclaims, *' Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence 7 "

2. God is present in everything we see, in everything we touch;, present in clouds, and rivers, and forests; present in our bodies; present in our spirits; present, with variations of manner and degree, in every thought and feeling. Philosophy and poetry, in all ages of the world, and in all countries, repeat and confirm this great truth of the Scriptures.

" Should Fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant, barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song ; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beams

Flame on the Atlantic isles j 't is naught to me, Since God is ever present, ever felt, In the void waste, as in the city full.''

3. But we may, perhaps, distinguish between the fact and the nature or mode of God's presence. Admitting the great truth of the universahty of the divine presence, the question still remains, — is God present directly or indirectly, present by a direct and immediate personality, or only by the subordinate and intermediate presence and agency of other beings ?

It cannot be doubted, I suppose, that many persons, who hold to the doctrine of God's omnipresence speculatively, are apt to think of him, notwithstanding, as a God over us, without thinking of him, in an equal degree, as a God with us. ^^ We behold him, but not now; we see him, but not nigh.^^^ This was a mistake of some of the ancient heathen philosophers, and was, perhaps, comparatively innocent in them, who looked upon God as omnipresent virtually rather than really, as sending out the universahty of his presence from a local residence in the heavens, and as administering the affairs of the universe, in all its parts, not personally, but by a secondary and distant agency. Some Christians also, those who are beginners in the Christian life, have regarded God in a similar light; namely, in a character and position like that of an earthly monarch; beholding him, in imagination, seated on a throne of great splendor, but infinitely remote, and governing his numerous kingdoms by means of angelic or other agencies.

4. This is certainly an imperfect view of God's omnipresence; not so much false, perhaps, as defective, and suited to certain degrees of Christian experience, but not to its highest results. The presence of God,

* Numbers 24: 17.

when rightly understood, is a direct and immediate presence; a presence which allows of no other object or agency between itself and the object with which it i$ united. ^^ He is not far from every one of us," says the apostle; " for in him we live, and move, and have our being."* If we may be allowed to illustrate the subject from the analogies of the material world, we may, perhaps, say, in expressions which suggest the truth, if they do not fully convey it, that God's presence constitutes, to the soul, and to all beings and things which exist, a spiritual atmosphere. "As the birds, when they fly, whichever way they go, though they change their place, still fly in the air, and everywhere meet the air; as the fishes, which swim in the seas, everywhere find the waters, and are encompassed with them on all sides ; so we, how much soever we change our place, and whithersoever we please to go, shall everywhere meet with God. And God, says St. Augustine, shall be more present within us, in the very midst of our being, than we are ourselves."!

5. Nor is this all that is to be said on this subject. Owing to the limited powers of our minds, and that confusion of our ideas which is the result of sin, we are apt to think of God as present in all places, not in the entireness or wholeness of his being, but by the spreading out or diffusion of his being ; so that, in a given place or a given object, considered as separate from other places and objects, there is not the whole of God present, but only a part of him in that particular place or object. This also seems to be an error. God is not only imiversally present, but, wherever he is present at all, he is present without separation, present as God complete, in the fulness and perfection of his divinity.

* Acts 17 : 27, 28. f Boudon, God Everywhere Present, Ch.I.

J4 DIVINE UNION.

6. And this is true in small things, as well as in great. God tells us that he clothes the hlies of the field, that he watches over and protects the sparrow, and feeds the young ravens. But it would he a mistake to suppose, after the manner of men, who know only and feel only m particulars and by degrees, that he does this hy a part of Ms nature only, while the greater and better part of his thought, and of his immense heart of love, is given to other objects. On the contrary, he is a God equally present to everything, without distinction of place or degree of existence, — as much present, in the extent and unity of his being, to an insect as to a man or angel. Undoubtedly this view, even with the explanatory and very just remark that he is not so much comprehended and received by inferior beings as by those which are greater, conveys a wonderful idea of God; but not so wonderful as to furnish a reason for its disbelief and rejection. The infinite Godhead, stooping, by the very perfection of his nature, condescends to take an interest in all things he has made, — to hear the songs of his own birds, to play with the shepherd's flocks as they sport on the sides of the mountains, and to rejoice with the young lions as he feeds them in the forest. It is not a portion of God, not a half or a tithe of the Divme Existence, as our imperfect conceptions of thmgs are apt to suppose, but a whole God, -God in the mfimty of his perfections, — that watches over and rejoices in

them. , ^ ,

So that it is necessary to add to the idea of the universality of his presence that of the directness and intimacy of his presence, and also that of the fulness and perfection of his presence. .

7. It is hardly necessary to say, that this view ot God's omnipresence is important in explaining the facts

CHARACTER OF GOD.

and relations of Divine Union. The physical union, if these views are correct, is already complete. God cannot have locality, and man cannot be without it. And man's locaUty is always in God, although his character may not harmonize with his position. And here is the source of his unhappiness. To be in God by physical position, and out of God by divergency of character, is to be the subject of the greatest discord and misery. On the contrary, if we add harmony of character to harmony of place, if we add to the embrace of God's physical presence the higher and nobler embrace of his moral perfections, then we have realized the true elements of divine union, and have become one.