Paradoxes of Christian Life

Lord Bacon says, in his essays on the “Different Characters of the Christian”:

“A Christian is one that believes things his reason cannot comprehend and hopes for things which neither he nor any man alive ever saw; he believes three to be one, and one to be three; a father not to be older than his son, and a son to be equal with his father. He believes himself to be precious in God’s sight, and yet loathes himself in his own; he dares not justify himself even in those things wherein he can find no fault with himself, and yet believes that God accepts him in those services wherein he is able to find many faults. He is so ashamed as that he dares not open his mouth before God, and yet comes with boldness to God, and asks him anything he needs; he has within him both flesh and spirit, and yet he is not a double-minded man. He is often led captive by the law of sin, yet it never gets dominion over him; he cannot sin, yet can do nothing without sin. He is so humble as to acknowledge himself to deserve nothing but evil, and yet he believes that God means him all good, …”

This whole essay is so remarkable that even some devout Christians could not comprehend it, and thought Bacon must have fallen into a sudden fit of skepticism or mental aberration.