Deus, qui omnipoténtiam tuam parcéndo máxime et miserándo maniféstas: multíplica super nos misericórdiam tuam; ut, ad tua promíssa curréntes, cœléstium bonórum fácias esse consórtes. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.
O God, who declareſt thy almighty power moſt chiefly in ſhewing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us ſuch a meaſure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promiſes, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treaſure; through Jeſus Chriſt our Lord. Amen.
Keynote: Attainment through ObedienceGod's commandments are not the arbitrary orders of a despot, any more than natural laws are the arbitrary commands of scientists. Men who understood nature have told us the result of innumerable observations and experiments expressed in a few words as formulas, and these formulas are called natural laws. But it is not these laws which determine the workings of nature; nature worked long before there were scientists to observe her. It is nature which determines the laws, not the laws which determine nature.
So it is which spiritual laws, sometimes, according to the personalizing habit of thought of the ancients, spoken of as God's commands. Men who knew the nature of God have told us things concerning His nature, and have formulated the divine principles as God's laws.
It is God's nature which determines the nature of His universe. As God is in spirit, so is His manifestation in form. As above, so below; the divine nature is expressed in all that He created and sustains.
It was Christ Jesus who "showed us the Father". If "that mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus", you will obey the commandments of God spontaneously because it was your nature to; and just as you will be healthy if you live according to the "the laws of nature", so will you be harmonious if you live according to "God's commandments" and will be "made partakers of the heavenly treasure".
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