II. There remains another large class of rationalists, distin- guished among themselves however by many special triats, and carrying their principles to very various degrees, who, while ad- mitting the fact of a divine revelation, assert the right of reason to sit in judgment upon the truth, and to discriminate in the record the true from the false. Thus, (1.) different inspired books have been rejected on internal evidence. (2.) The supernatural element has been declared irrational. The old school rationalists denied that this element was in the Scriptures, and try by des- perate feats of exegesis to prove it not there. The result of that controversy has anihilated that school of rationalists for ever. The new school admit that there is a supernatural element in the Scriptures, and that so far forth the Scriptures are not pure, rational truth, and are to be improved upon. (3.) The distin- guishing doctrines of the gospel have either been rejected or radi- cally perverted, because regarded in their genuine form inconsist- ent with man's innate, moral sentiments. — See Mansel's Lectures of Eeligious Thought, Lecture 1, and Pearson on Infidelity, Part L, chap. iii. and iv.
9. Hoiv may it he shown that a supernatural revelation is possible ?
The natural sources through which men derive whatever knowledge they may attain to by nature are, 1st, Their bodily senses ; 2d, Their inward consciousness informing them through the laws of their own mental, moral, and emotional constitution. 3d. By reflection and imagination these materials of knowledge are with infinite variety rearranged in new relations, and new
44 THEOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES.
consequences are logically deduced from them. 4th. The experi- ence and the results of the reflection of other men, conveyed to them through language.
Now it appears self-evident that the Grod who made man may at any time convey to men any new knowledge their faculties are capable of receiving.
I. Even new simple ideas may be excited within his mind by means of a supernatural spiritual illumination and inward expe- rience. God does act upon the finite soul, though we can not understand how he acts ; and yet we can understand that if such an experience be excited in the mind, the man would have the same knowledge of the matter of this new experience that he has of the matter of his perceptions through his bodily senses.
II. It is clear that Grod may convey by means of visions, lan- guage or otherwise any information not involving new elementary ideas, just as any man may, by means of signs, convey any such information that he is possessed of to the mind of another.
Many modern rationalists make a very senseless objection to the possibility of what they call a " book revelation." They ar- gue that a book is composed of words, and that words are mere arbitrary signs which have power to excite only those ideas which are already in the mind ; and therefore if Paul, by a divine influ- ence, had been elevated to the intuition of a new spiritual truth, he could not by words communicate those spiritual truths to any who have not already the same ideas latent in their minds. In answer to this, we admit that simple or elementary ideas can not be first taught by words. No man can know color without an eye, or moral right without a moral sense. — (See Lock's Essay, Book IV., chap, xviii, sect. 3.) But, on the other hand, it is too plain to be denied.
I. That the revelations of the Bible consist principally of facts, promises, commands, and threatenings, and that the reception of no new elementary ideas, in the proper sense of that word, is in- volved in Christian faith. The primary ideas of the soul, intellec- tual and moral, are involved in this revelation, and gloriously ex- alted in new combinations and relations. — See Alexander's Moral Science, chaps, ii. and xii.
II. That Grod can convey to man, by means of language, in- formation with regard to himself and his purposes, not involving
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION NECESSARY. 45
new elementary ideas, just as clearly and as certainly as one man can convey any new information to any other.
III. The Scriptures themselves teach that the spiritual beauty and power of the revelation they convey can be discerned only by means of a supernatural spiritual illumination and inward practi- cal experience. The work of the Spirit accompanying the word completes the revelation ; and although the Spirit thus dispensed communicates no new truth, but only leads the heart and con- science to the experience of the full spiritual idea conveyed by the word, yet there is a true sense in which the Bible is a revelation only to those who have the Spirit.
10. How may it be shown that a supernatural revelation is necessary for man ?