Save yourself.

Letter Forty-Seven

May the good and loving God grant us now to taste and see how good the Lord is. The goodness of God is preached to us by almost all Holy Scripture, and there is hardly a chapter in which it is not mentioned. For God, who knows the heart, knows the weakness of our hearts, and the inclination that is convenient to despair, and the cunning of evil spirits, so everywhere He reminds us of His goodness and love for mankind.

The goodness of God is shown by His works.

1) That He commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, Matthew 5:45.

2) That he does not immediately execute the sinner, but awaits his repentance, as the Apostle says: "The goodness of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4).

3) That the penitent is favorably received and forgives his sins (Luke 15:4).

4) That He punishes the sinner, but mercifully and philanthropically.

5) That He does not disdain our prayer and singing and praise, Whom the Angels sing and praise with fear, but even calls and commands us to pray and ask Him for everything that pleases His will.

6) That He Himself converses with us in His holy word. Read the Scriptures and see what king does to his subjects as our God does to us? There is no such thing in the world! Taste and see how good the Lord is (Psalm 33:9).

7) God's goodness to us was revealed most of all in the incarnation of the Only-begotten Son of God. Here all the treasures of His goodness have been revealed, which we cannot comprehend. Our Saviour Himself preaches about this: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). This is the Gospel, this is the glad tidings, this is our hope and eternal life. Of this we dare to boast, and by this we shut the mouths of our slanderers: the Only-begotten Son of God came into the world for our sake, suffered, and died. If God is for us, who is against us (Romans 8:31)? Glory to the Father who was well pleased, and to the Son who suffered, and to the Holy Comforter the Spirit. May the glory of the Lord be forever.

8) Though here we eat and see the goodness of God, yet we will abundantly eat and see and enjoy in eternal life, according to His true promise: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Reasoning and tasting the goodness of God.