God alone is sufficient for Himself—is αὐταρκής, and hence not self-seeking, for that comes from not being satisfied, not sufficient for self. Out of Him the αὐταρκεία is pride, satisfaction with misery and itself a sin-dependence is the right, holy, loving, excellent place. To be independent, if we are not God, is folly, stupidity, and a lie, living in a lie. If we are God, we must be the only one, or we are it not at all. Yet in Christianity we are made partakers of the divine nature, in order to our having the fullest capacity of enjoyment; but we for that very reason have, He being perfectly revealed, such a knowledge of Him as makes us undividedly delight in His infinite excellence, and makes our dependence to be our deriving in love from infinite excellence, and in our normal state unmingled delight in it. The connection of the derivative and perfect objective character of divine life and love is what is so brought out in John, particularly in his epistle; it makes its essential depth and beauty, and when not seized, because not possessed, its difficulty and apparently mystic character. It is this which makes the Trinity have so pure and perfect a place to the soul; I do not use this as a proof, save as the real present enjoyment of anything proves to the heart it is true. In the Father I have absolute Godhead in its own intrinsic permanent perfection. In the Son I find what is divine (if not in the same perfection, I have not God revealed) brought out in man, fully wrought into all that is sinlessly human; so that it is not only suited to man, but to be apprehended (if morally capable of it) by man. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily, at the same time in the personal relationship of Son. And the Holy Ghost, besides my having a life from God, and so being partaker of the divine nature, is the power in me (morally as well as in power of apprehension), by which I apprehend and enter into communion with God, with the Father and the Son; while this presence of the Holy Ghost secures in my feebleness the truth and purity of this communion, because any inconsistency grieves Him, and He works in the conscience by the revelation of God, though not then in communion.