It is difficult to contemplate and fully know the substance of God; who
fashions things changeable, yet without any change in Himself, and creates
things temporal, yet without any temporal movement in Himself. And it is
necessary, therefore, to purge our minds, in order to be able to see
ineffably that which is ineffable; whereto not having yet attained, we are
to be nourished by faith, and led by such ways as are more suited to our
capacity, that we may be rendered apt and able to comprehend it. And hence
the Apostle says, that "in Christ indeed are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge;"10
and yet has commended Him to us, as to babes in Christ, who, although
already born again by His grace, yet are still carnal and psychical, not by
that divine virtue wherein He is equal to the Father, but by that human
infirmity whereby He was crucified. For he says, "I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified;"11
and then he continues, "And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in
much trembling." And a little after he says to them, "And I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,12
even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."13
There are some who are angry at language of this kind, and think it is used
in slight to themselves, and for the most part prefer rather to believe that
they who so speak to them have nothing to say, than that they themselves
cannot understand what they have said. And sometimes, indeed, we do allege
to them, not certainly that account of the case which they seek in their
inquiries about God,--because neither can they themselves receive it, nor
can we perhaps either apprehend or express it,--but such an account of it as
to demonstrate to them how incapable and utterly unfit they are to
understand that which they require of us. But they, on their parts, because
they do not hear what they desire, think that we are either playing them
false in order to conceal our own ignorance, or speaking in malice because
we grudge them knowledge; and so go away indignant and perturbed.
________________
10 Col. ii. 3.
11 1 Cor. ii. 2, 3.
12 [St.Paul,, in this
place, denominates imperfect but true believers "carnal," in a relative
sense, only. They are comparatively carnal, when contrasted with the law of
God, which is absolutely and perfectly spiritual. (Rom. vii. 14.) They do
not, however, belong to the class of carnal or natural men, in
distinction from spiritual. The persons whom the Apostle here denominates
"carnal," are "babes in Christ."-W. G. T. S.]
13 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.
