The conception of God, as a powerful and righteous person, is first given us in our constitutional feeling of dependence and of moral accountability. Starting with this conception, we may abundantly demonstrate his wisdom, goodness, power, etc., and thus reciprocally confirm the evidence for his being from the work of his hands in his physical and spiritual creation, in his wrorks called natural, as providence, and in his works called supernatural,
CAN IT BE LOGICALLY DEMONSTRATED ? 15
as miracles, prophecies, inspiration, and spiritual regeneration. — See Hansel's Limits of Keligious Thought. Lect. IV.
10. What are the principle arguments by which this great truth has been generally defended by orthodox Theists ?
The six principle arguments used to maintain the being of a God are as follows :
I. The a priori argument which seeks to demonstrate the being of a God from certain first principles involved in the essential laws of human intelligence.
11. The cosmological argument, or that one which proceeds after the cl posteriori fashion, from the present existence of the world as an effect, to the necessary existence of some ultimate and eternal first cause.
III. The teleological argument, or that argument which, from the evidences of design in the creation, seeks to establish the fact that the great self-existent first cause of all things is an intelli- gent and voluntary personal spirit.
IY. The moral argument, or that argument which, from a consideration of the phenomena of conscience in the human heart, seeks to establish the fact that the self-existent Creator is also the righteous moral governor of the world. This argument in- cludes the consideration of the universal feeling of dependence common to all men, which together with conscience constitutes the religious sentiment.
V. The historical argument, which involves — (1.) The evident providential presence of God in the history of the human race. (2.) The evidence afforded by history that the human race is not eternal, and therefore not an infinite succession of individuals, but created. (3.) The universal consent of all men to the fact of his existence.
VI. The scriptural argument, which includes — (1.) The mira- cles and prophecies recorded in Scripture, and confirmed by testi- mony, proving the existence of a God. (2.) The Bible itself, self- evidently a work of superhuman wisdom. (3.) Revelation, de- veloping and enlightening conscience, and relieving many of the difficulties under which natural Theism labors, and thus confirm- ing every other line of evidence. — Dr. Hodge.
16 THE BEING OF GOD.
11. What is the meaning of the phrases a priori and onto- logical ?
The phrase d priori, as contrasted with the phrase a posteri- ori, signifies an argument proceeding downward from causes to effects, or from general and necessary principles to some particular consequence necessarily resulting from them. An a posteriori argument, on the other hand, is one proceeding in the contrary direction, from effects upward to their cause, or from certain par- ticular consequences to the general and necessary principles from which they result.
An ontological argument is one (ontology is compounded of two Greek words, meaning the science of real existence, or exist- ence in its absolute reality, as distinguished from phenomena or things as they appear to us to be relatively to our faculties of perception), " which proposes to discover or establish the fact of any real existence, either beyond the sphere of the present world, or in any other way incapable of being the direct object of con- sciousness, which can be deduced immediately from the possession of certain feelings or principles and faculties of the human soul." — Ancient Philosophy by W. Archer Butler, vol. i., ch. 3, p. 68.
12. What is the famous d priori argument for the existence of God, as set forth by Dr. Samuel Clarice ?
By far the ablest and most famous argument for the being of God ever constructed on d priori principles is that set forth in the Boyle lectures of Dr. S. Clarke, delivered in London, a. d. 1704. Its main points are as follows :
I. As it is certain that something does exist now, something must have existed from all eternity ; since it is contradictory to conceive of any thing commencing to exist, except through the intervention of some preexisting cause, pp. 9 and 10, 4th Lon- don edition, A. d. 1716.
II. Whatever has existed from eternity must be self-existent, or necessarily existent, i. e., must have the ground or reason of its existence at all times and in all places alike of an equal necessity in itself, p. 15.
III. The only true idea of a self-existent or necessarily exist- ent being is the idea of a being, the supposition of whose not existing is an express contradiction, p. 16.
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