any man read the pretended philosophical demonstrations of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the resurrection of the body, or any other of the great truths of the Bible, and he will feel at liberty to re- ceive or to reject it at pleasure. It has no authority or certainty. It is the product of a mind like his own, and therefore can have no more power than belongs to the fallible human intellect.
o. Dogmatism is, therefore, in its practical effect, destructive of faith. In transmuting Christianity into a philosophy, its wliole na- ture is changed and its power is lost. It takes its place as one of the numberless phases of human speculation, which in the history of human thought succeed each other as the waves of the sea, — no one ever abides.
4. It proceeds on an essentially false principle. It assumes the competency of reason to judge of things entirely beyond its sphere. God has so constituted our nature, that we are authorized and necessitated to confide in the well-authenticated testimony of our senses, within their appropriate sphere. And in like manner, we are constrained to confide in the operation of our minds and in the conclusions to which they lead, within the sphere which God has assigned to human reason. But the senses cannot sit in judg- ment on rational truths. We cannot study logic with the micro- scope or scal])el. It is no less irrational to depend upon reason, or demand rational or philosophical demonstration for truths which become the objects of knowledge only as they are revealed. From the nature of the case the truths concerning the creation, the pro- bation, and apostasy of man, the purpose and plan of redemption, the person of Christ, the state of the soril in the future world, the relation of God to his creatures, etc., not depending on general principles of reason, but in great measure on the purposes of an intelligent, personal Being, can be known only so far as He chooses to reveal them, and must be received simply on his authority.
The Testimony of the Scriptures against Dogmatism.
5. The testimony of the Scriptures is decisive on this subject. From the beginning to the end of the Bible the sacred writers pre- sent themselves in the character of witnesses. They demand faith in their teachings and obedience to their commands not on the ground of their own superiority in wisdom or excellence ; not on the ground of rational demonstration of the truth of what they taught, but simply as the organs of God, as men appointed by Him to reveal his will. Their first and last, and sufficient reason for faith is, " Thus saith the Lord." The New Testament writers, es-
48 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. m. — Rationalism.
pecially, repudiate all claim to the chai-acter of philosophers. They taught that the Gospel was not a system of truth derived from rea- son or sustained by its authority, but by the testimony of God. They expressly assert that its doctrines were matters of revelation, to be received on divine testimony. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" (1 Cor. ii. 9-11.) Such being the nature of the Gospel, if received at all it must be received on authority. It was to be believed or taken on trust, not demonstrated as a philosophical system. Nay, the Bible goes still further. It teaches that a man must become a fool in order to be wise ; he mifet renounce dependence u^on his own reason or wis- dom, in order to receive the wisdom of God. Our Lord told his disciples that unless they were converted and became as little chil- dren, they could not enter into the kingdom of God. And the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, and in those ad- dressed to the Ephesians and Colossians, that is, when writing to those imbued with the Greek and with the oriental philosophy, made it the indispensable condition of their becoming Christians, that they should renounce philosophy as a guide in matters of re- ligion, and receive the Gospel en the testimony of God. Nothing, therefore, can be more opposed to the whole teaching and spirit of the Bible, than this disposition to insist on philosophical proof of the articles of our faith. Our duty, privilege, and security are in believing, not in knowing ; in trusting God, and not our own un- derstanding. They are to be pitied who have no more trustworthy teacher than themselves.
6. The instructions of the Bible on this subject are abundantly confirmed by the lessons of experience. From the time of the Gnostics, and of the Platonizing fathers, the attempt has been made in every age to exalt faith into knowledge, to transmute Christianity into philosophy, by demonstrating its doctrines on the principles of reason. These attempts have always failed. They have all proved ephemeral and worthless, — each successive th«- orizer viewing with more or less contempt the speculations of his predecessors, yet each imagining that he has tlie gifts for compre- hending the Almighty.
These attempts are not only abortive, they are always evil in their effects upon their authors and upon all who are influenced by