The Mind’s Ascent to God by a Ladder of Created ThingsFifteenth step. CONSIDERATION OF THE GREATNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD BY

The righteousness of God is taken in Holy Scripture in four ways: first as universal righteousness, which comprises all virtues and is the same as holiness or uprightness. ‘Thus, ‘The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.”¹ Next it is taken as truth or fidelity, as in another Psalm, ‘That thou mayst be justified in thy saying’; thirdly it stands for justice distributing rewards, as in the second Epistle to Timothy, ‘There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day’; and lastly for justice punishing sins, as in another Psalm, ‘Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be their portion to drink, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.’

Therefore the greatness of the divine righteousness may be noted thus, by considering the breadth of his universal righteousness: the length thereof, that is of his truth and fidelity: the height of his righteousness distributing rewards in heaven: and its depth scourging the wicked in hell with everlasting punishments.

And to begin with the breadth: that righteousness is called by men universal, which so places a man that in every action he may conduct himself according to all the laws: and in this it comprehends all virtues, both theological and moral. But there is also a certain virtue called charity, which embraces all virtues in her bosom, commands the action of all virtues, and directs them to their final end. And this virtue, although it be a particular theological virtue, may yet be rightly called universal righteousness: for it so places man that he may conduct himself rightly towards God and towards his neighbour and thus fulfil the whole law. Thus the Apostle says, ‘Love worketh no ill,’ and, ‘He that loveth, hath fulfilled the law,’ and, ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law,’ and Saint Augustine in his book on Nature and Grace says, ‘Love begun is righteousness begun, love increased, righteousness increased, great love, great righteousness, perfect love is perfect righteousness.’

Moreover, in God are all virtues without any imperfection, and in the place of those which may imply imperfection there is something far better and more excellent; and thus no goodness is wanting to him, since in him goodness and holiness are so great and so boundless, that in the best sense he is worthy to be called the only good and only holy. Faith is therefore in God not a theological virtue, because faith is ‘of those things which are not seen’; but God sees all things. Nor is there hope in God, because hope is the expectation of things to come; but God expects nothing, since from eternity he possesses all things. Neither is there in God repentance for sin, because God cannot sin: nor humility, since humility hinders a man from rising vainly above himself, and causes him to remain in his proper place; but God has nothing above himself by which he may seek to rise, because he is the Most High. Yet charity, the queen of virtues, is in God most complete: for he loves himself with an infinite love, because he alone perfectly knows the infinite good of his own Essence. And he loves also all things which he made: for thus saith Wisdom, ‘Thou lovest all the things that are and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made,’ for God knows by his wisdom how to separate evil from good, that is defect from nature, even in the demons and the most wicked man, and he loves the nature which he made; the defect which he did not make, he hates. And further, there is such true charity in God that God himself willed to be called Love, as Saint John speaks when he says, ‘God is love.’ But our love, when compared with the divine, is very narrow: for there are very many things which we do not love, because in them we do not easily separate good from evil, and many good things we do not love well and therefore we do not love with true charity, because we are evil, and follow rather cupidity than charity. And we love God unperfectly, not only because we do not love him as much as his goodness deserves to be loved, to which measure not even the angels reach, but also because we love less than we ought and also less than we might if we gave ourselves with more attention and diligence to prayer and meditation.

This queen of virtues in the Lord of virtues is accompanied with singular magnificence, unbounded liberality, incredible kindness and beneficence, patience and long-suffering passing thought, goodness and sweetness more than fatherly, unfailing truth and fidelity, mercy filling heaven and earth, righteousness most upright and unswerving, and lastly holiness most pure and unspotted; so that ‘in his sight the stars are not pure,’ and the seraphim, amazed in astonishment, cry aloud, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.’

O my soul, if thou didst carefully consider these things, with what fear and trembling wouldst thou wait upon God in praise and prayer: and especially with what reverence and humility wouldst thou at the holy altar offer to the eternal Father, in the sight of the angels, his only-begotten Son, for the salvation of the living and the dead.

But let us pass on to what remains. The length of the righteousness of God shows itself by the truth and fidelity thereof. God is faithful in all his words, saith the prophet; that is, the promises of the Lord, although pronounced many ages before by the mouth of the prophets, never will be frustrated, but fixed more firm than heaven and earth: for thus saith the Lord, ‘It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.’3| And our Lord means by the law not only the truth of the commandments, but also that of all his promises, for what the Lord commanded must be observed, or punishment follows, and what he promised is by everlasting truth established and performed. Whence the Lord also saith, ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away’; 4 and Isaiah, ‘The word of our God shall stand fast for ever’; 5 and David, ‘His commandments are true, they stand fast for ever and ever’; ® and the Apostle, ‘Let God be true but every man a liar,’7 and ‘It is impossible for God to lie.’® ‘The reason of this saying is that he, being wisdom, cannot be deceived, being omnipotence he cannot fail: but men, however wise, however good, however mighty, may both deceive and be deceived, because they neither know all things nor can they do all that they will, and they also that are good when they promise may soon become evil and not fulfil their promises.

Therefore if thou be wise, my soul, trust only in God, cleave only to him, and on him alone cast all thy caret Be anxious to walk with the Lord thy God and he will care for thee; beware with all thy might not to offend his righteousness, and his mercy will always defend thee, that thou shalt not need to fear what man or devil can do unto thee.

The height of the righteousness of God is perceived in the bestowal of heavenly reward which God himself, as the supreme and most righteous judge, hath prepared for those that have lived godly and righteously. And first we shall discern how great is the magnitude of his righteousness if we compare God as a Judge, with men that are judges: and next if we compare reward with reward, that is, the reward which God will give, with that which men usually give.

Men as judges, even when princes or prelates, who have subordinates or servants, for the most part do not give just rewards to those that deserve them, for either they are unable for want of ability to give all according to their deserts, or because they do not know accurately what they deserve, since this depends on sincerity of heart and devotion: or again, because of their own

ry St. Pet. v. 7.

covetousness or malice or some other perverse inclination, they will not bestow a just reward on the righteous labours of their underlings: or lastly, because they themselves are overtaken by death before they can pay the rewards they owe: or they to whom the rewards are due depart this life before they begin to taste the fruits of their labours. But God bestows upon all righteous men rewards for all their good deeds, not only just rewards, but even beyond their deserts; for what good deed can be more lowly and more hidden than to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty? And yet for this the Lord hath promised a reward, and of the magnificent reward promised by the Lord, Saint Luke writes, ‘Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom.’? Nor is there any danger that means will be wanting to God for giving rewards to all the righteous, since he himself is Lord of all things and can with his word alone multiply and increase all things to an infinite degree. And there is no fear that perchance he will be deceived in the number or value of the good deeds, since he is most wise, and all things lie open before his eyes and he himself trieth the reins and the heart of his well-deserving servants, and therefore he understands the mind, intention, fervour, and diligence with which they did all these things. And no one could suspect that there should be in God any ill will to defraud his servants and his children of their just recompense, since he is faithful in all his words. And lastly, he cannot die, since before all he is immortal, and all things live unto him, so that there is no danger of any, on account of death, being deprived of the due rewards.

Therefore it remains sure and established that all good works of all righteous men are justly rewarded by God, and thus it is very safe to treat with God in the matter of labour and reward, and dangerous and foolish to put one’s trust in men and to expect from them just rewards for our works.

Let us now compare rewards with rewards, divine with human, heavenly with earthly. What, I ask, can men bestow upon those who work for them all day, who pass whole nights without sleep, or lay down their very lives in battle? O blindness of men! What can they bestow but small, base, and abject things which will last but a very short time? God gives great, sublime, and eternal things, and yet the former are sought after, the latter despised.

Saint John Chrysostom compares the palaces, cities, and kingdoms of this world which men admire, with those mud buildings which children fashion out of clay.1 And indeed little houses and cottages are made by children with much labour, but they are laughed at by the elders, and often when the father or master sees the children leaving their books and too much taken up with these trifles, he throws all down with his foot and overturns in one moment the things which they very carefully and slowly constructed.

Even so, great palaces, towers, citadels, towns, cities, kingdoms of mortal men, in comparison with heavenly and eternal riches are as mud houses, and are laughed at by those blessed angels who behold them from above, and are often overturned by our heavenly Father and Master, that we may thereby understand how entirely vain and empty all these things are. And although now only a few observe this, yet in the Day of Judgement all shall see, when it will profit them little to understand. Saint Hilary in his commentary on Saint Matthew says that the Day of Judgement will show all these things to have been emptiness and naught.

But we will explain a little more clearly the nature of the heavenly rewards which are now spurned by many in favour of these earthly small rewards.

First, there will be in the heavenly kingdom many good things or rather all good things which can be desired, for all that live there will be happy, and happiness is defined to be a meeting together of all good things. And so there will be the good things of the mind, wisdom and virtue: goods of the body, beauty, health, strength: external good things, riches, pleasure, honour.

And next, all these things will exist in the highest, perfect, and most eminent degree: for God, who shows his power in the creation of the world from nothing, and his wisdom in guidance and providence, and his love and goodness in the redemption of mankind by the mystery of the Incarnation and Passion of his Son, will then show the magnificence of his bounty in the distribution of rewards, of palms and crowns to those who shall triumph over their enemy the devil.

And this wisdom will not be the beholding of divinity in the glass of the creature, but the very open vision of the Being of God, of the Cause of all causes, and of the first and highest truth, from which most glorious vision the souls of the saints will shine with such splendid light, that Saint John, speaking of that future glory, saith, ‘We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’1 From the highest wisdom proceeds charity, the queen of virtues; charity so fervent, that always abiding in the highest good, it neither will nor can be separated from it. So the whole soul and all its powers shall remain established in the most complete happiness. The body will shine like the sun, as the Lord himself testifies when he says, * Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,’ ? and such will be its beauty: health will be immortality, strength will be impassibility; and lastly, the body which is now animal will then be spiritual,' that is, so perfectly obedient to the movement of the spirit, that it will surpass the wind in agility and pass through walls by its subtilty. Its riches will be so great that it will want nothing but God, and in God to possess all things: for he hath set him over all his goods. What shall I say of pleasure, since it is written, ‘They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house: and thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures as out of a river’ ?3 What mind can conceive the delight of enjoying the highest good, of seeing beauty itself, of tasting sweetness itself, of entering into the joy of the Lord, that is, to participate in that joy which makes God happy? The honour and glory of the saints surpasses all speech, for in the sight of the whole world, of all men and angels, every saint will be praised by God himself and will be crowned as conqueror, and, the highest honour of all, will be placed as sharer of his kingdom on the very throne of Christ: for in the Apocalypse we read thus, ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.’4 The prophet marvels at this sublime honour when he sings, ‘How dear are thy friends unto me, O God, firmly established is their princedom.’5 And if to this multitude and excellence of good things we add eternity, as an unspeakable adjunct, who can conceive the greatness of this heavenly felicity? and yet what we can scarcely conceive by thought, we shall prove by possessing, if by living soberly, righteously, and godly ® we shall at length arrive unto that happy country; for those goods which the children of Christ acquire by momentary labours, shall indeed last for ever.

What sayest thou to this, O my soul? Wouldst thou pursue the games of children in building little houses of mud, rather than enjoy the possession of the eternal kingdom? Wouldst thou rather, which I abhor to think, take delight in the pleasures of beasts than come to the ineffable delights of angels? By thy mercy, O Lord, turn this away from the soul of thy servant, and rather pierce my flesh with the fear of thee and let obedience to thy law be to me ‘sweeter than honey and the honeycomb,’ ! that crucifying my flesh with its affections and lusts,2 I may aspire to the spiritual and everlasting pleasures of thy Paradise. Grant to thy servant, O Lord, to follow the footsteps of thy Christ, who, ‘meek and humble of heart,’ 3 “when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not’;4 grant me to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and with some confidence to look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 5

There remains to be considered the righteousness which God will exercise towards sinners in the deep abyss of hell. If this is to be done attentively and seriously, let us first understand how very true is that which the Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Hebrews, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ For if as we follow the order which we have followed in regard to righteousness rewarding the merits of saints, God the righteous Judge will punish all sins, even the lightest, such as an idle word, for thus we read in the Gospel, ‘Every idle word that men shall speak, ye shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgement.’: There are many sins indeed which men do not punish, either because they are unable to do so, the criminals withstanding or running away, or because they do not know whether the sins have been committed or not, or perhaps have not been sufficiently proved by lawful witnesses: or again, because they are unwilling to punish, being either bribed or influenced by favourites, or degraded by their own malice.

But God is Almighty, and therefore no one can resist his power. He is in every place and so no one can hide from him: ‘Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit, or whither shall I go then from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven, thou art there: if I go down to hell, thou art there also.’ 2

He is most wise and knows all things, even those obscure and hidden in the inmost recesses of the heart: and he is in no need of witnesses in order that crimes may be proved, since the consciences of men are to the Lord as a thousand witnesses: and lastly, no gifts, no favours, can corrupt the justice of God, since he is in no need of our goods. And therefore it remains that there is no sin, great or small, grave or light, which can escape the judgement of God and the avenger of sinners, unless it have been purged beforehand by penitence: for in the degree in which in this life his mercy is generous in pardoning, in that same degree after this life will his justice be severe and rigid in punishing.

Of the time of this life Isaiah says, ‘In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee’; 3 and the Apostle explaining this in the second Epistle to the Corinthians says, ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation’;4 and of the future time after this life

« St. Matt. xii. 36. 7 Ps.cxxxix.6. 3 Isa.xlix.8. 4 2 Cor. vi. 2. Zephaniah cries, ‘That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm.’ !

And not only will all sins be punished with terrible torments which will be so great that man can now scarcely imagine them: for as ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,’? so neither hath eye seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what the Lord hath prepared for them that hate him. For there will be very many punishments of sinners in hell, very many, and pure, that is, unmingled with any consolations, and (which infinitely increases the misery) everlasting.

There will be very many punishments, I say, since each power of the mind and each bodily sense will have its own torture. Weigh the words of the sentence of the supreme Judge, which are contained in the Gospel, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.’3 ‘Depart,’ he saith, that is, depart from the company of the blessed, deprived for ever of the vision of God, which is the highest and essential beatitude and the last end for which ye were created.

‘Cursed,’ that is, hope no longer for any kind of blessing, for ye are deprived of all the influence of grace, of all hope of salvation: no longer shall there rain upon you the water of wisdom nor the dew of good inspirations; no longer shall a ray of heavenly light shine upon you, nor grace of penitence take root in you; no flower of charity, nor fruit of good works, nor shall the ‘Dayspring from on high’ visit you henceforth for ever. Ye shall lack not only spiritual goods but also bodily, not only eternal but temporal; there shall be for you no riches, no delights, no consolation, but ye shall be like the fig-tree which, cursed by me, at once dried up from the roots.!

* Into fire,’ that is, into a fire burning and unquenchable which will embrace and torment with sharpest pains, not one member, but all the members.

* Everlasting,’ that is, into fire which needs no feeding of wood in order to burn for ever, but is kindled by the breath of Almighty God, so that as your sin can never be wiped away, so your punishment will never end. And so most rightly doth Isaiah the prophet cry, ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?’2 and so he says no one can patiently bear this, but they are compelled to bear it, impatient and wrathful and hopeless, though unwilling; and he adds, ‘Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched,’3 and these words the Lord pronounces not once only, according to Saint Mark.4

The worm of conscience and recollection of the present time is added, for the wicked, if they willed, by a little care could have escaped the punishment and could have enjoyed everlasting delights. And lest any one should think that the condemned can take some refreshment by walking about and changing their place, hear what the Lord himself says, ‘Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 5

And so those wretched ones bound hand and foot in everlasting chains will lie always in the same place, deprived of the light of sun and moon and stars, scorched with fiery heat, weeping and groaning and gnashing their teeth with rage and despair. And not only do they suffer in hell most grievous pains, thrust into that one place most full of horrors, but beyond that, the extremest want of all things, disgrace, dishonour, with the utmost shame and confusion: for they shall lose in a moment palaces, fields, vineyards, cattle, clothing, gold, silver, and precious stones, and be brought to such destitution that with the rich glutton they shall desire a drop of cold water and shall not be heard. These proud and boastful men who, impatient of all trouble in this present life would suffer no disgrace, but preferred dignity and honour before all things whatsoever, in that theatre of the whole human race and all the angels, than which a greater never was nor shall be, will see revealed and publicly shown all their evil deeds, even those committed in darkness or hidden in the recesses of the heart, the most shameful betrayals, robberies, incest, sacrilege; for as the Apostle says in the former Epistle to the Corinthians, when the Lord shall come to judge the world he ‘will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God,’ * and doubtless there will be also blame from God to each impious and wicked man.

But so great will be the disgrace and confusion of wicked men in this assembly, that Saint Basil, in explaining the thirty-third Psalm, fears not to say that this will be the heaviest punishment of all, especially to the hypocrites and proud and all those greedy of honour, to whom honour has been in this world in place of God, an idol. But if these things which we have said concerning the loss of all good things as well heavenly as earthly, and concerning the most bitter sorrows and ignominy and disgrace, were to have some end, or at least some kind of consolation, or had some mingling of refreshment as all troubles in this life have, it might be thought that in some way these ills could be borne; but as it is quite certain and beyond all doubt that the happiness of the blessed without any admixture of misery will last for ever, so also the unhappiness of the damned will be always without any admixture of solace, that is, it will endure for ever: and they certainly are most blinded and foolish who do not endeavour with all their power, through any tribulation, danger, infamy, and death, which the Apostle calls momentary and light afflictions, to come to the kingdom of heaven and the happiness thereof.

And if perchance any should wonder why God, who is most merciful, hath assigned so cruel and lasting punishment to man’s sins which very quickly pass away and which do not seem to be so grievous: let him hear Saint Augustine on the City of God: ‘He that holds the condemnation too severe or even unjust, cannot truly apportion the guilt who incurred it, or the ease in avoiding the sin’; and further on, ‘Who can fully relate the guilt of disobedience to a precept so easily kept, standing neither in awe of the commander’s majesty nor in fear of the terrible punishment awaiting disobedience?’ 2

Saint Augustine indeed is speaking of the sin of the first man: but the condition is the same in all sins. For if we weigh it truly and not deceitfully, we shall find that every mortal sin is exceeding great and in three respects: First, it is a dreadful thing that the creature should not obey the Creator, when the dignity of the Creator is separated by an infinite distance from the lowliness of the creature, and by nature the creature is servant and by nature the Creator is Lord, and whatever the creature is or has he owes to the Creator and the Creator owes nothing to the creature.

Second, if the commands of the Creator were grievous, yet the creature ought to obey, but, ‘His commandments are not grievous,’ and his yoke is sweet and his burden is light, as the Saviour himself saith, therefore how great and inexplicable is the fault for worms of earth not to obey their Creator and in so easy a matter; besides, if God had not threatened sinners with the punishment of eternal death, perchance man might have brought forward an excuse for his sin, but since he has been so often and so specially warned by prophets and apostles that the punishment will be eternal, who will excuse the rebellion of sinners?

Lastly, if the sin of men condemned were not eternal, we might wonder why the punishment of sin should be eternal; but when the obstinacy of the condemned is eternal, what marvel if the punishment be also eternal? And the persistent pleasure in evil which will be common to condemned men and to devils, this perverse will, I say, turned away from God the highest good which shall so for ever remain, makes holy men have a greater horror of a deadly sin than of the fire of hell. Hear what Edwin the Englishman wrote of Anselm in the second book of his life: ‘Conscience,’ he says, ‘is my witness, I lie not, that often we have heard him [Anselm] profess under the witness of truth, that if on one side he perceived the horror of sin and on the other he perceived the bodily pain of hell and must of necessity be overwhelmed by one of the two, he would choose rather hell than sin. And another thing perchance no less wonderful to some, he was used to say, namely, that he would rather be pure and innocent from sin and be in hell, than being defiled by polluting sin, possess the kingdom of heaven.’ If this holy man spoke and felt thus because being illuminated by God he knew sin to be more grievous than the pains of hell, how much more will God, who pierces even to the depth, the malice and defilement and perversity of sin, truly judge and award the punishment which he hath appointed from all eternity as most due thereto. Therefore, O my soul, make no mistake, be not led away, be not like unto those ‘Who profess that they know God, but in works deny him.’! For many have faith, but habitually not actually, like a sword hidden in its scabbard; for if they actually believed, and believing, seriously considered, that God is faithful and just and that in truth punishments very heavy and unending and without any admixture of consolation are prepared for the wicked: it could not be that they would do things they do, and ‘drink,’ as it is said in the book of Job,? ‘iniquity like water,’ that is, commit so many and so great sins as easily and fearlessly and joyfully as if reward, not punishment, were due to sinners.

Do thou, I say, believe firmly, and believing, oft remember, that God is in this present life ‘the Father of mercies,’ 3 and ready mercifully to forgive the sins of all that truly repent, and that after this life he will become the God of vengeance,4 and will exact from sinners those penalties which he hath prepared and which he commanded to be preached by his prophets and apostles, and to be handed down in writing for the remembrance of years to come. And in so doing it will come to pass that, being lifted up as it were by two wings, the fear of unutterable torments and the hope of exceeding great rewards, thou wilt pass in safety through the dangers of this present life and wilt come to life and rest everlasting. Amen. Printed by A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd.