Having considered the arguments in favor of the doctrine that God is, and also the various systems opposed to Theism, we come now to consider the question, Can God be known ? and if so, How ? that is, How does the mind proceed in forming its idea of God, and, How do we know that God really is what we believe Him to be ?
§ 1. Ciod can he known.
It is the clear doctrine of the Scriptures that God can be known. Our Lord teaches that eternal life consists in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. The Psalmist says, "In Judah is God known" (Ps. Ixxvi. 1). Isaiah predicts, that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord " (Is. xi. 9). Paul says even of the heathen, that they knew God, but did not like to retain that knowledge (Rom. i. 19, 20, 21, 28).
A. State of the Question.
It is, however, important distinctly to understand what is meant when it is said, God can be known.
1. This does not mean that we can know all that is true con- cerning God. There were some among the ancient philosophers who taught that the nature of God can be as fully understood and determined as any other object of knowledge. The modern spec- ulative school teaches the same doctrine. Among the propositions laid down by Spinoza, we find the following : " Cognitio seternae et infinitae essentias Dei, quam unaquaeque idea involvit, est adeequata et perfecta." ^ Hegel says, that God is, only so far as He is known. The sin against the Holy Ghost, according to Hegel, is to deny that He can be known.^ Cousin holds the same doctrine. " God in fact," he says, "exists to us only in so far as He is known." ^
According to Schelling, God is known in his own nature by
1 Mhices, ii. prop. xlvi. edit. Jena, 1803, vol. ii. p. 119.
2 See Mansel's Limits of Religious Thought, Boston, 1859, p. 301.
3 Sir William Hamilton's Discussions, p. 16. Princeton Review on Cousin's Philot.'iphy, 1856.
336 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. IV.— Can God be known ?
direct intuition of the higher reason. He assumes that there is in man a power which transcends the Hmits of the ordinary conscious- ness (an Anschauungs Vermogen), which takes immediate cogni- zance of the Infinite. Hegel says that " Man knows God only so far as God knows Himself in man ; this knowledge is God's self- consciousness, but likewise a knowledge of the same by man, and this knowledge of God by man is the knowledge of man by God." ^ Cousin finds this knowledge in the common consciousness of men. That consciousness includes the knowledge of the Infinite as well as of the finite. We know the one just as we know the other, and we cannot know the one without knowing the other. These philos- ophers all admit that we could not thus know God unless we were ourselves God. Self-knowledge, with them, is the knowledge of God. Reason in man, according to Cousin, does not belong to his individuality. It is infinite, impersonal, and divine. Our knowl- edge of God, therefore, is only God knowing Himself. Of course it is in no such sense as this that the Scriptures and the Church teach that God can be known.
G-od Inconceivable. 2. It is not held that God, properly speaking, can be conceived of; that is, we cannot form a mental image of God. "All con- ception," says Mr. Mansel,^ " implies imagination." To have a valid conception of a horse, he adds, we must be able " to com- bine " the attributes which form " the definition of the animal " into " a representative image." Conception is defined by Taylor in the same manner, as " the forming or bringing an image or idea into the mind by an effort of the will." In this sense of the word it must be admitted that the Infinite is not an object of knowledge. We cannot form an image of infinite space, or of infinite duration, or of an infinite whole. To form an image is to limit, to circum- scribe. But the infinite is that which is incapable of limitation. It is admitted, therefore, that the infinite God is inconceivable. We can form no representative image of Him in our minds. The word, however, is often, and perhaps commonly, used in a less restricted sense. To conceive is to think. A conception is therefore a thought, and not necessarily an image. To say, therefore, that God is conceivable, in common language, is merely to say that He is thinkable. That is, that the thought (or idea) of God involves no contradiction or impossibility. We cannot
1 Werke, xii. p. 496, edit. Berlin, 1840.
2 Prolegomena Logica, edit. Boston, 1860, p. 34.