The One Hundred Aphorisms — Book the First

ONE HUNDRED

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ONE HUNDRED

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1. The true wisdom of man is situate in the knowledge of God, the Creator, and Redeemer.

2. This knowledge is implanted in us naturally and its result ought to be the worship of God, correctly ordered, or a reverence of Deity conjoined with fear and love.

3. But this seed is corrupted by ignorance whence arises a superstitious worship: and by wickedness; whence proceed a slavish fear, and a hatred of Deity.

4. The knowledge of Deity is procm-ed also from other sources, viz., from the workmanship of the universe, and from the Sacred Scriptures.

5. The workmanship of the universe teacheth, of what sort is the goodness, virtue, justice, wisdom of God, in creating tilings of heaven and of earth, and in preserving them by a government ordinary and extraordinary, in which his Providence clearly becometh known. The same workmanship teacheth us the degree of our indigence, that we may learn to jdace our trust in the goodness, power, and wisdom of God; to obey his commandments, to make him our refuge in adversities, to refer to him what endowments we have, and to accept them with thanksgiving.

6. God the Creator is known also from the sacred Scriptures, the essential qualities of which are to be considered, viz., that they are true, and have issued from the Holy Spirit; facts which are proved by the witnessing of the Holy Spirit, by the practical force and ancientness of the Scriptures, by the sureness of Prophecy, by the wondrous preservation of the Law, by the calling and writings of Apostles, by the assent of the Church, by the constancy of Martyrs. Whence it is manifest that those fanatics overthrow all the principles of piety who, setting less by the Scriptures, fly over to " revelations."

7. It is to be considered what the Scriptures teach, viz., what is the nature of God in itself, and in the creation and administration of thinss.

8. The nature of God is Infinite, Invisible, Eternal, Omnipotent: hence it follows, that, they who assign a visible form to God, are in error. The nature of God is also of one essence, in which are Three Persons, of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit.

9. In creation of things we are to consider specially, heavenly, and spiritual subsistencies; i. e. 1st, Angels, some of whom are good, and the guardians of the pious; others, evil, not as created such, but as corrupted: 2ndly, Terrestrial existencies, particularly man, whose perfection shineth out in his soul and body.

10. The nature of God manifests itself in the administration of things, after a twofold manner. There is a catholic administration, by which God governs all creatures, in reference to the quality, which he bountifully dispensed to each at its crea-

tion.

11. There is also a special administration, which is noticed in the purport of contingencies, so that, if an individual be the subject of adversity or prosperity, it is his duty to ascribe the same wholly to God. Also, in the order of things which act by reason of an established law of nature, in which things, however there is naturally set a character peculiar to each, yet they exercise not their own native force, except as far as they are i;uiiled by the present hand of God.

12. The divine administration is to be considered also in the system of time, past and future. Of the past, that we may know that all things fall out according to the dispensation of God, working either through ordinary, or without ordinary, or against ordinary [means]. So that, let whatsoever happen, it will fall out to the pious for good, and to the ungodly for evil. Of the future it teaches, what is the proper scope of human deliberation, and what use may be made of lawful things, yet so that Providence, on which we repose, may be invested with its own means.

13. Lastly, from the order to be considered, of the fruits which the pious collect from the same. For we know with certainty, 1. That the whole human race, and specially his own Church, doth engage the care of God. 2. That God doth, by his own nod, rule all things, and govern them by his own wisdom. 3. That God hath the power of doing good sufficiently ample, because in his hand are heaven and earth: all creation is devoted in submission to him; the pious arc at rest under his protection, and the power of infernal beings is hekl in restraint by his authority. Nothing doth happen by chance, although causes may be hidden, but by the will of God, and this as well being secret, we cannot scrutinize, but reverently adore, as pronounced in the Law, and in the Gos])el.

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