Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 165 -
JOHN'S DIALOGUE WITH THE SUN-SAGE. THE RELATION BETWEEN CREATOR AND CREATURE.
1
(Now John speaks): "Dear friend, I have pondered your words and find that what you have said is in itself correct. However, your two extremes are over-accentuated and you draw too sharp a borderline between them.
2
It is true, indeed, that the Creator can never become a created being, or vice versa, but this neither constitutes a drawback for Him nor an advantage over the creature.
3
For, in the first place, He has no other matter to create the creature from but Himself. In the forming of a creature, He has to use the same substance of which He consists from eternity. And then He has out of Himself to keep it in the created shape whilst the creature has nothing to do for its Creator but to exist.
4
If the creature is as the Creator wants it - namely, within its destined order - it can also attain the perfection of its Creator. It can become a child of God and, so to speak, live in the same house with Him, and enjoy and make use of all His privileges. I would say that under such circumstances, neither the Creator nor the created being would have much of an advantage over the other.
5
Thus, the principle laid down by you is correct only as long as Creator and creature are standing opposite each other in will and actions as a result of the moral freedom of will conferred on the creature. The Creator's precedence can, of course, never be doubted since it is an irrefutable necessity.
6
However, when the created being, through cognizance and the active volition of the Creator's revealed will, breaks down the barrier, absorbs the Creator, becomes completely one with Him, then there remains the question:
7
Where is the Creator, as forever one and the same, more of a Creator: in Himself or in the creature? What would here be older: the creature as a being identical with and in the Creator, or the Creator as an identical being in the creature? For He Himself spoke: 'You are in Me and I in you.'
8
Considering that indisputable fact, I would say, dear friend, that you have somewhat exaggerated your statement and will have to revise it. What do you think about that now?"
9
(Says the sage): "Dear friend, I can see that you are mightily wise. Your assertions cannot be disproved, yet I still think that the productive nature of the Creator remains unchanged, whether He stands alone in isolation or whether, in accordance with His emanating property, He fills His creature like a vessel with His Being to the extent, of course, that the creature is capable of receiving Him.
10
Naturally, the creature will never be able to absorb the infinite fullness of the primordial being of the Godhead, for the infinite can be absorbed only by another infinite, and never by the finite that has gone forth from it.
11
From our world we can see a sun, the size of which - according to our calculations - must surpass ours thousands of times. However, I have often noticed how even the tiniest dewdrop absorbs the picture of that vast world in its complete shape, only in a size corresponding to its own volume. So there can be no doubt that we created beings are capable in a similar way of absorbing the Creator to the extent that He can be absorbed by us toward our perfection.
12
But then, what a vast difference between the picture of the sun in the dewdrop and the actual sun and, to a much greater extent, between the image of the Creator in His creature and the actual Creator! It would be hard to establish the number of dewdrops required to represent the true volume of that sun reflected in them.
13
In that instance, only two limited objects are comparing with each other. How impossible a comparison would become where the infinite meets the insignificant finite, limited by time and space.
14
The fact cannot be denied that the creative being in the creature is identical with the Creator, and vice versa; but here I must ask: In what proportion? It is essential to take this proportion into consideration because it proves clearly that, notwithstanding all the natural and moral equalities between Creator and creature, there will forever remain a gulf that cannot be bridged completely from either side.
15
In view of this, I stick to my principle insofar that the two opposites can never concur completely to become one. However, I shall welcome a more profound instruction in this matter."