And any good points in us, or in these Corinthians, as
St Paul says expressly (here and elsewhere), are not our own, but come
from Christ, by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit.
I know many people do not think thus. They think of God as looking only
at our faults; as extreme to mark what is done amiss; as never content
with us; as always crying to men, Yes, you have done this and that well,
and yet not quite well, for even in what you have done there are blots
and mistakes; but this and that you have not done, and therefore you are
still guilty, still under infinite displeasure. And they think that they
exalt God's holiness by such thoughts, and magnify His hatred of sin
thereby. And they invent arguments to prove themselves right, such as
this: That because God is an infinite being, every sin committed against
Him is infinite; and therefore deserves an infinite punishment; which is
a juggle of words of which any educated man ought to be ashamed.
I do not know where, in the Bible, they find all this. Certainly not in
the writings of St Paul.
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