Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third SeriesRobertson, Frederick William
Religion
Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third Series
Robertson, Frederick William
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
But we will enter into this more deeply. The first power or
consciousness in which God is made known to us is as the Father, the
Author of our being. It is written, "In Him we live, and move, and
have our being." He is the Author of all life. In this sense He is not
merely our Father as Christians, but the Father of mankind; and not
merely the Father of mankind, but the Father of creation; and in this
way the sublime language of the prophets may be taken as true
literally, "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy;" and the language of the canticle which belongs to
our morning service, "the deeps, the fountains, the wells," all unite
in one hymn of praise, one everlasting hallelujah to God the Father,
the Author of their being. In this respect, simply as the Author of
life, merely as the supreme Being, God has reference to us in relation
to the body. He is the Lord of life: in Him we live, and move, and
have our being. In this respect God to us is as law--as the collected
laws of the universe; and therefore to offend against law, and bring
down the result of transgressing law, is said in Scripture language,
because applied to a person, to be provoking the wrath of God the
Father.
In the next place, the second way through which the personality and
consciousness of God has been revealed to us is as the Son. Brethren,
we see in all those writers who have treated of the Trinity, that much
stress is laid upon this eternal generation of the Son, the
everlasting sonship. It is this which we have in the Creed--the Creed
which was read to-day--"God, of the substance of the Father, begotten
before the worlds;" and, again, in the Nicene Creed, that expression,
which is so often wrongly read, "God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God," means absolutely nothing. There are two statements made
there. The first is this, "The Son was God:" the second is this, "The
Son was--_of_ God," showing his derivation. And in that, brethren, we
have one of the deepest and most blessed truths of revelation. The
Unitarian maintains a divine Humanity--a blessed, blessed truth. There
is a truth more blessed still--the Humanity of Deity. Before the world
was, there was that in the mind of God which we may call the Humanity
of His Divinity. It is called in Scripture the Word: the Son: the Form
of God. It is in virtue of this that we have a right to attribute to
Him our own feelings; it is in virtue of this that Scripture speaks of
His wisdom, His justice, His love. Love in God is what love is in man;
justice in God is what justice is in man; creative power in God is
what creative power is in man; indignation in God is that which
indignation is in man, barring only this, that the one is emotional,
but the other is calm, and pure, and everlastingly still. It is
through this Humanity in the mind of God, if I may dare so to speak of
Deity, that a revelation became possible to man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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