A History of Bohemian LiteratureLützow, Francis, hrabe
History
A History of Bohemian Literature
Lützow, Francis, hrabe
Czech literature -- History and criticism
Rather let us in meekness, holding the strong and true
Christian faith, merit that we may once contemplate our God, through
our Lord Christ, when in that eternal kingdom of His our eyes shall
be entirely and truly cleared. Let not sin so entirely blind us that
we--God forbid it!--for some reason or other forget God, not loving
Him in true faith above everything else. For the Scripture sayeth,
'If you do not believe, you will not understand.' Therefore, children,
it beseems you to think and speak of so sublime a subject with awe and
dread and discretion, and to listen with attentive ears and a pious
heart, with love and not from frowardness."
Chapter xxii. of the _Reči Besedni_ strongly brings out the acumen and
lucidity with which Štitný elaborated his often difficult theological
definitions. The comparisons by which he endeavours to render clearer
the dogma of the Trinity are very striking. The chapter begins as usual
with a question: "How then did it happen that only the Son of God
accepted human nature in the unity of His person?" The father answers:
"The Father or the Holy Ghost could have done so, as well as the Son.
But the Lord God wished thus to accomplish this; thus in the council
of all the persons of the glorious Godhead, the Holy Trinity, was it
decreed--That the wisdom of the Son of God should, as was fitting,
overcome the cunning of the devil; that the devil should truly lose his
dominion over men when the Divine Wisdom was led to death in the human
personality of one who was not obliged to die; and that the same person
who in the Holy Trinity is eternally the Son should become the Son of
Man.
"And that you may in a manner understand this also, how the Son of God
Himself in His own personality received the human nature, and not the
Father nor the Holy Ghost--though the whole Trinity is one God, and at
the same time each person is a complete divinity--let us consider the
similar case of the sun. Not that it is the same with it as with the
Creator, but I say there is a resemblance.
"The sun has also its Trinity--that is, the body of the sun, the light
which proceeds from it, and also the heat of the sun; but when the sun
comes to us it gives us its light and its heat. But the light alone
takes (on itself) that colour of the glass or the membrane or the cloud
through which it appears to us; but the sun itself and the heat will
not have this colour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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