THAT WE MUST AVOID ALL CURIOSITY, AND HUMBLY ACQUIESCE IN GOD'S MOST WISE PROVIDENCE.
THE human spirit is so weak that when it would look too curiously into the causes and reasons of God's will it embarrasses and entangles itself in the meshes of a thousand difficulties, out of which it has much to do to deliver itself; it resembles smoke, for as smoke ascends it gets more subtle, and as it grows more subtle it vanishes. In striving to raise our seasonings too high in divine things by curiosity we grow vain or empty in our thoughts, and instead of arriving at the knowledge of truth, we fall into the folly of our vanity.
But above all we are unreasonable towards Divine providence in regard to the diversity of the means which he bestows upon us to draw us to his holy love, and by his holy love to glory. For our temerity urges us ever to inquire why God gives more means to one than to another; why he did not amongst the Tyrians and Sidonians the miracles which he did in Corozain and Bethsaida, seeing they would have made as good use of them; and, in fine, why he draws one rather than another to his love.
O Theotimus ! my friend, never, no never, must we permit
our minds to be carried away by this mad whirlwind, nor expect
to find a better reason of God's will than his will itself, which is
sovereignty reasonable, yea, the reason of all reasons, the rule of
all goodness, the law of all equity. And although the Holy
So in a thousand places of the holy Word we find the reason
why God has reprobated the Jews. Because, say S. Paul
and S. Barnabas, you reject the word of God, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles.1 And he that shall consider in tranquillity of heart Chapters IX. X. and XI. of the Epistle to the Romans, shall clearly see that God's will did not without reason reject the Jews; nevertheless, this reason must not be sought out by
man's spirit, which, on the contrary, is obliged to be satisfied
with purely and simply reverencing the divine decree, admiring
it with love as infinitely just and upright, and loving it with
admiration as impenetrable and incomprehensible. So that the
divine Apostle thus concludes the long discourse which he had
made concerning it: 0 the depth of the riches of the wisdom and
of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?2 By which exclamation he testifies that God does all things with great wisdom, knowledge and reason; yet so, that, as man has not entered into the divine counsels, whose judgments and designs are placed infinitely above our reach, we ought devoutly to adore
S. Augustine in a hundred places teaches us this practice. "No one cometh to Our Saviour," says he, "if not drawn; - whom he draws, and whom he draws not, why he draws this one and not that, - do not wish to judge if you do not wish to err. Listen once for all and understand. Art thou not drawn, pray that thou mayst be drawn." "Verily it is sufficient for a Christian living as yet by faith, and not seeing that which is perfect, but only knowing in part, to know and believe that God delivers none from damnation, but by his free mercy, through our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he condemns none but by his most just truth, through the same Lord Jesus Christ. But to know why he delivers this one rather than the other - let that man sound so great a depth of God's judgments who is able, but let him beware of the precipice." "These judgments are not therefore unjust because they are hidden:" "But why then does he deliver this man rather than that? We say again, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?3 His judgments are incomprehensible, and his ways unknown, and let us add this: Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability:"4 "Now he granteth not them mercy, to whom, by a truth most secret and furthest removed from men's thoughts, he judges it not fit to communicate his favours and mercy."
We see sometimes twins, of whom one is born alive and
receives Baptism, the other in his birth loses his temporal life,
before being regenerated to the eternal, and consequently the
one is heir of heaven, the other is deprived of the inheritance.
Now why does divine providence give such different fates to one
equal birth? Truly it might be answered that ordinarily God's
providence does not violate the laws of nature, so that one of
these twins being strong, and the other too feeble to support the
labour of his delivery, the latter died before he could be baptized,
the other lived; divine providence not willing to stop the course
of natural causes, which on this occasion were the reason why
Behold, Theotimus, the most holy way of philosophising on
this subject. Wherefore I have always considered that the
learned modesty and most wise humility of the seraphic Doctor
S. Bonaventure were greatly to be admired and loved, in the
discourse which he makes of the reason why divine providence
ordains the elect to eternal life. "Perhaps," says he, "it is by
a foresight of the good works which will be done by him that is
drawn, insomuch as they proceed in some sort from the will but distinctly to declare which good works being foreseen move
God's will, I am not able, nor will I make inquiry thereupon and there is no other reason than some sort of congruity, so that we might assign one while it might be another. Wherefore we cannot with assurance point out the true reason nor the true motive of God's will in this: for as S. Augustine says: 'Although the truth of it is most certain, yet
is it far removed from our thoughts.' So that we can say
nothing assuredly of it unless by the revelation of him who
knows all things. And whereas it was not expedient for our
salvation that we should have knowledge of these secrets, but
on the contrary, it was more profitable that we should be ignorant