Saurin:

VII. But finally, the goodness of God must agree with his veracity. I mean that although the many Scripture-images of the goodness of God are imperfect, and must not be literally understood, they must, however, have a real sense and meaning. Moreover, I affirm, that the grandeur of the original is not at all diminished, but on the contrary, that our ideas of it are very much enlarged, by purifying and retrenching the images that represent it; and this we are obliged to do on account of the eminence of the divine perfections. And here, my brethren, I own I am involved in the most agreeable difficulty that can be imagined; and my mind is absorbed in an innumerable multitude of objects, each of which verifies the proposition in the text. I am obliged to pass by a world of proofs and demonstrations. Yes, I pass by the firmament with all its stars, the earth with all its productions, the treasures of the sea and the influences of the air, the symmetry of the body, the charms of society, and many other objects, which in the most elegant and pathetic manner, preach the Creator’s goodness to us. Those grand objects which have excited the astonishment of philosophers, and filled the inspired writers with wonder and praise, scarcely merit a moment’s attention to day. I stop at the principal idea of the prophet. We have before observed, that the term which is rendered pity in the text, is a vague word, and is often put in Scripture forth the goodness of God in general; however, we must ac knowledge, that it most properly signifies the disposition of a good parent, who is inclined to show mercy to his son, when he is become sensible of his follies, and endeavors by new effusions of love to re-establish the communion that his disobedience had interrupted: this is certainly the principal idea of the prophet. Now who can doubt, my brethren, whether God possesses the reality of this image in the most noble, the most rich, and the most eminent sense? Wouldst thou be convinced, sinner, of the truth of the declaration of the text? Wouldst thou know the extent of the mercy of God to poor sinful men? Consider then, 1. The victim that he has substituted in their stead. 2. The patience which he exercises towards them. 3. The crimes that he pardons. 4. The familiar friendship to which invites them. And 5. The rewards that he bestows on them. Ah! ye tender fathers, ye mothers who seem to be all love for your children, ye whose eyes, whose hearts, whose perpetual cares and affections are concentred in them, yield, yield to the love of God for his children, and acknowledge that God only knows how to love!

Let us remark, 1. The sacrifice that God has substituted in the sinner’s stead. One of the liveliest and most emphatical expressions of the love of God, in my opinion, is that in the gospel of St. John. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” ch. iii. 16. Weigh these words, my brethren, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Metaphysical ideas begin to grow into disrepute, and I am not surprised at it. Mankind have such imperfect notions of substances, they know so little of the nature of spirits, particularly, they are so entirely at a loss in reasoning on the Infinite Spirit, that we need not be astonished if people retire from a speculative track in which the indiscretion of some has made great mistakes. Behold a sure system of metaphysics. Convinced of the imperfection of all my know ledge, but particularly of my discoveries of the being and perfections of God, I consult the sacred oracles, which God has published, in order to obtain right notions of him. I immediately perceive that God, in speaking of himself, has proportioned his language to the weakness of men, to whom he has addressed his word. In this view, I meet with no difficulty in explaining those passages in which God says, that he has hands or feet, eyes or heart, that he goes or comes, ascends or descends, that he is in some cases pleased, and in others provoked.

Yet I think, it would be a strange abuse of this notion of Scripture, not to understand some constant ideas literally; ideas which the Scriptures give us of God, and on which the system of Christianity partly rests. I perceive, and I think very clearly, that the Scriptures constantly speak of a being, a person, or if I may speak so, a portion of the divine essence, which is called the Father, and another that is called the Son.

I think I perceive, with equal evidence in the same book, that between these two per sons, the Father and the Son, there is the closest and most intimate union that can be imagined. What love must there be between these two persons, who have the same perfections and the same ideas, the same purposes and the same plans? What love must subsist between two persons, whose union is not interrupted by any calamity without, by any passion within, or, to speak more fully still, by any imagination?

With equal clearness I perceive, that the man Jesus, who was born at Bethlehem, and was laid in a manger, was in the closest union with the Word, that is, with the Son of God; and that in virtue of this union the man Jesus is more beloved of God than all the other creatures of the universe.

No less clearly do I perceive in Scripture, that the man Jesus, who is as closely united to the Eternal Word, as the word is to God, was delivered for me, a vile creature, to the most ignominious treatment, to sufferings the most painful, and the most shameful, that were ever inflicted on the meanest and basest of man kind.

And when I inquire the cause of this great mystery, when I ask, Why did the Almighty God bestow so rich a present on me? Especially when I apply to revelation for an explication of this mystery, which reason cannot fully explain, I can find no other cause than the compassion of God.

Let the schools take their way, let reason lose itself in speculations, yea, let faith find it difficult to submit to a doctrine, which has always appeared with an awful solemnity to those who have thought and meditated on it; for my part, I abide by this clear and astonishing, but at the same time, this kind and comfortable proposition, ” God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” When people show us Jesus Christ in the garden, sweating great drops of blood; when they speak of his trial before Caiaphas and Pilate, in which he was interrogated, insulted, and scourged; when they present him to our view upon mount Calvary, nailed to a cross, and bowing beneath the blows of heaven and earth; when they require the reason of these formidable and surprising phenomena, we will answer, It is because God loved mankind; it is because ” God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”

Extracted from, “The Compassion of God,” by James Saurin in, Sermons of Rev. James Saurin, Late pastor of the French Church at the Hague, (New York: Harper Brothers, 1843), 89-90.

The Long-Suffering of God with Individuals

ECCLESIASTES viii. 11, 12.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. For the sinner doth evil a hundred times, and God prolongeth his days.

THE Wise Man points out, in the words of the text, one general cause of the impenitence of mankind. The disposition to which he attributes it, I own, seems shocking and almost incredible; but if we examine our “deceitful and desperately wicked hearts,” Jer. xvii. 9; we shall find, that this disposition, which, at first sight, seems so shocking, is one of those, with which we are too well acquainted. “The heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.” Why? “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily.”

This shameful, but too common, inclination, we will endeavor to expose, and to show you that the long-suffering, which the mercy of God grants to sinners, may be abused either in the disposition of a devil, or in that of a beast, or in that of a philosopher, or in that of a man. He who devotes his health, his prosperity, and his youth, to offend God, and, while his punishment is deferred, to invent new ways of blaspheming him; he, who follows such a shameful course of life, abuses the patience of God in the disposition of a devil. He, who enervates and impairs his reason, either by excessive debauchery, or by worldly dissipations, by an effeminate luxury, or by an inactive stupidity, and pays no regard to the great end for which God permits him to live in this world, abuses the patience of God in the disposition of a beast.

He who from the long-suffering of God infers consequences against his providence, and against his hatred of sin, is in the disposition, of which my text speaks, as a philosopher. He, who concludes because the patience of God has continued to this day that it will always continue, and makes such a hope a motive to persist in sin, without repentance or remorse, abuses the patience of God in the dis position of a man. As I shall point out these principles to you, I shall show you the injustice and extravagance of them.

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Rudolph Gualther (1519-1586)

Secondary Sources: Brief Biography:

1) Gwalther, Rudolf (also Walther, Walthard, Gualther; 1519-1586), third Antistes (or Bishop) of the Reformed Church of Zurich, following Bullinger and Zwingli in that office. Gwalther was Bullinger’s student at Kappel in 1528, and later, upon taking up residence in Bullinger’s house in Zurich in 1532, came to be treated almost as a son. In 1537 Gwalther traveled to England, and from 1538 to 1541, with a scholarship from Zurich, he studied at Basel, Strasbourg, Lausanne, and Marburg. He attended the Colloquy of Regensburg with the theologians from Hesse in 1541, where Calvin was also present. Upon returning to Zurich in 1541, Gwalther married Regula Zwingli, the daughter of the reformer, who also was a resident in the Bullinger household. After her death in 1565, he married Anna Blarer. In 1541 Gwalther became pastor at Schwamendingen. The following year he succeeded Leo Jud as pastor of Saint Peter’s church in Zurich. For more than thirty years he worked closely with Bullinger until the latter’s death in 1575. In his Testament, Bullinger named Gwalther his successor.

As the leader of the Zurich church, Gwalther defended the Zurich version of the Protestant faith, especially against the Lutheran authors of the Formula of Concord. He was instrumental in developing good relations between the Zurich church and other Reformed churches in Europe. He had many contacts in England, where he was very influential, particularly as an advocate of the Zurich model of the state church. Gwalther’s son, Rudolf, received a master of arts degree from the University of Oxford in 1574, and Gwalther regularly corresponded with English bishops and others.

Gwalther’s works include Latin homilies on all the gospels, as well as on Acts of the Apostles, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and the twelve minor prophets. He also edited three volumes of the works of Zwingli and translated many of Zwingli’s German works into Latin. Gwalther’s famous work on the Anti-Christ (Der Endtchrist, 1546) was translated into several languages. He wrote poems and two works on metrics. He even tried his hand at drama (Nabal comoedia sacra, 1562). After his death his sermon notes on Esther, Isaiah, Psalms 1 to 94, and on all the books of the New Testament except Revelation were published. J. Wayne Baker, “Gwalther, Rudolf,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Oxford University Press, 1996), 2:203.

2) Gualter, Rodolphus, son-in-law of Zwingli, and one of the first Swiss Reformers, was born at Zurich Nov. 9, 1519, succeeded Bullinger as pastor, became superintendent at Zurich in 1575, and died Nov. 25, 1586. His commentaries are highly esteemed and rare, viz. HomiliF cccxi in MatthFum (Zurich, 1590-96, 2 vols. fol.):–Homil. clxxv in Acta (Zurich, 1577, fol.). He wrote also a strong anti-papal treatise, Antichristus (Zurich, 1546, 8vo). A complete edition of his works appeared at Zurich in 1585 (15 vols. 8vo).–Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Généale, xxi, 810; Winer, Theol. Literatur, ii, 555; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, i, 1350. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, eds. John McClintock and James Strong (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 3:1024.

Online Source: Theological Meditations

Primary Sources:¹

Salvation pertains to all men:

1) Howbeit, because this bliss or felicity shall not seem to pertain to a few persons, or to one Nation only: he shows expressly how far it ought to be extended, including within the blessing that comes by Christ, all the kindreds of the earth. For (as Paul says) he that ordained these things, “is not the God of the Jews only, but of all Nations also.” And we are everywhere warned, that touching our salvation, there is no difference of nations before God, but (as Peter afterward testifies) “in all people they that fear him, and work righteousness, are accepted with him.” Further Christ himself says, that the salvation, whereof he is the author, appertains to all men, where he testifies in the Gospel, that “many shall come from the East, and from the West, and rest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Whereunto this also appertains, where he gives the commandments to his Apostles to preach the Gospel over all the world, Mark 16, Act. 1. Radulpe Gualthere, An Hundred, threescore and fifteen Sermons, uppon the Acts of the Apostles, trans., by Iohn Bridges, (London: 1572), 187.

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God is Love

John 4:16.

DID we only give credit to the text, did we but view God as love-on this simple translation into another belief, would there be the translation into another character. We should feel differently of God, the moment that we thought of Him differently; and with the establishment of this new faith, there would instantly emerge a new heart and a new nature. For, let us attend, in the first place, to the original conception of Humanity, placed and constituted as it now is, m reference to this great and invisible Being–secondly, let us adduce the likeliest considerations, the likeliest arguments, by which to overcome this conception, and to find lodgement in the human breast or another and an opposite conception in its place–And, thirdly, let us stop to contemplate the effect of such a change in the state of man’s understanding as to God, on the whole system of his feelings and conduct

I. Under the first general head, then, let it be observed–that there are two reasons why we should conceive God to be so actuated as to inspire us with terror, or at least; with distrust; instead of conceiving Him to be actuated by that love which the text ascribes to. Him; and which were no sooner believed than it would set us at ease, and inspire us with delightful confidence.

1. The first of these reasons, which we shall allege, admits of being illustrated by a very genera experience of human nature. It may be shortly stated thus–Whenever placed within the reach of any Being, of imagined power, but withal of unknown purpose–that Being is the object of our dismay. It is not necessary for thin, that we should be positively assured of His hostility. It is enough, that, for aught we. know, He may be hostile; and that, for aught we know, He has strength enough For the execution of His displeasure. Uncertainty alone will beget terror; and the fancies of mere ignorance, are ever found: to be images of fear. It is thus, that a certain recoil of dread and aversion, would be felt in the presence of a strange animal, whatever the gentleness of its nature–if simply it a nature were unknown. And hence, too, the fear of a child for strangers, who must first make demonstration of their love by their gifts, or their caresses they can woo it into confidence. And, so also the consternation. of savages, on the first approach of a mighty vessel to their shores–more especially if in smoke, and thunder, ans feats of marvelous exhibition, it hath given the evidence of its power. It may a voyage of benevolence; but this they as yet know not. They only behold the power; and power beheld singly tremendous. And many often are the vain attempts at approximation, the fruitless demonstrations and signals of good-will, ere they can conquer their distrust ; or recall them to free and fearless intercourse, from the woods or the lurking-places to which they had fled for safety. Such, then, is the universal bias of nature, whenever the power is known and the purpose is unknown. Men give way to the visions of terror, to the dark misgivings of a troubled imagination. The quick and instant suggestion, on all these occasions, is that of fear; and the difficulty, an exceeding difficulty, for it is if working against a constitutional law or tendency of the heart, is to reassure it into confidence.

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