Page:Illustrations of the Holy Word.pdf/23

Rh faith, and insisting on the subordination of the latter to the former; for faith is the first bidden (or called) to the wedding, in other words, man is first called to the heavenly marriage, when he is beginning to be principled in the knowledges of the goods and truths of faith; but the heavenly marriage itself is the conjunction of those knowledges with the life of charity; and therefore, in sitting down at this marriage feast, man ought to be apprized that charity is the more honourable, and that the law of conjunction requires that faith should give place and take the lowest room.

52. When the Lord says, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham, (Luke xix. 9,) He taught us, in the plainest terms, both what salvation is and what brings it. Salvation is to have the Saviour God dwelling with us, that is to say, in us; and it is the desire to see this God, and to fulfil His holy laws of love and charity, which induces Him to come to us. For the publican Zaccheus, in whose house the above words were spoken, it is written, sought to see Jesus, and it is written further, that he gave the half of his goods to feed the poor, and if he had taken any thing from any man by false accusation, he restored fourfold, by which is plainly signified, the life of charity. It is therefore an eternal law, that wheresoever there is faith in Jesus, and the life of charity, there Jesus Himself is, and wheresoever Jesus Himself is, there also is salvation, because wheresoever Jesus Himself is, there He begets His own image and likeness, which is the son of Abraham.

53. It is little considered, that there is such a thing