morality or personality imply any limitation inconsistent with abso- lute perfection. We do not limit God when we say He cannot be irrational as well as rational, unconscious as well as conscious, finite as well as infinite, evil as well as good. The only limitation ad- mitted is the negation of imperfection. Reason is not limited when we say it cannot be unreason ; or spirit, when we say that it is not matter ; or light, when we say it is not darkness ; or space, when we say it is not time. We do not, therefore, limit the Infinite, when we exalt Him in our conceptions fi-om the unconscious to the conscious, from the unintelligent to the intelligent, from an imper- sonal something to the absolutely perfect personal Jehovah. All these difficulties arise from confounding the ideas of infinite and all. 4. The fourth argument on this subject is, that if we are not jus- tified in referring to God the attributes of our own nature, then we have no God. The only alternative is anthropomorphism (in this sense) or Atheism. An unknown God, a God of whose nature and of whose relation to us we know nothing, to us is nothing. It is a historical fact that those who reject this method of forming our idea of God, who deny that we are to refer to Him the perfections of our own nature, have become atheists. They take the word " spirit," and strip from it consciousness, intelligence, will, and morality ; and the residue, which is blank nothing, they call God. Hamilton and Mansel take refuge from this dreadful conclusion in faith. They say that reason forbids the ascription of these, or of any other attributes, to the Infinite and Absolute, but that faith protests against this conclusion of the reason. Such protest, how- ever, is of no account, unless it be rational. When Kant proved that there was no rational evidence of the existence of God, and fell back from the speculative to the practical reason (i. e., from reason to faith), his followers universally gave up all faith in a per- sonal God. No man can believe in the impossible. And if reason pronounces that it is impossible that the Infinite should be a person, faith in His personality is an impossibihty. This Mr. Mansel does not admit. For while he' says that it is a contradiction to affirm the Infinite to be a person, or to possess moral attributes, he neverthe- less says that, "Anthropomorphism is the indispensable condition of all human theology ; " ^ and he quotes from Kant^ this passage : *' We may confidently challenge all natural theology to name a single distinctive attribute of the Deity, whether denoting intelli- gence or will, which, apart from anthropomorphism, is anything
1 Limits of Religious Thought, etc., p. 261.
* " Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft." Works, edit. Rosenkranz, vol. viii. p. 282.
344 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. IV. — Can God be known ?
more than a mex'e word, to which not the shghtest notion can be attached, which can serve to extend our theoretical knowledge." It is greatly to be lamented that men should teach that the only way in which it is possible for us to form an idea of God, leads to no true knowledge. It does not teach us what God is, but what we are forced against reason to think He is.
Argument from the Revelation of God in Nature.
5. A fifth argument is from the fact that the works of God manifest a nature like our own. It is a sound principle that we must refer to a cause the attributes necessary to account for its effects. If the effects manifest intelligence, will, power, and moral excellence, these attributes must belong to the cause. As, therefore, the works of God are a revelation of all these attributes on a most stupendous scale, they must belong to God in an infinite degree. This is only saying that the revelation made of God in the exter- nal world agrees with the revelation which He has made of himself in the constitution of our own nature. In other words, it proves that the image of himself which He has enstamped on our nature is a true likeness.
Argument from Scripture.
6. The Scriptures declare God to be just what we are led to think He is, when we ascribe to Him the perfections of our own nature in an infinite degree. We are self-conscious, so is God. We are spirits, so is He. We are voluntary agents, so is God. We have a moral nature, miserably defaced indeed, God has moral excellence in infinite perfection. We are persons, so is God. All this the Scriptui'es declare to be true. The great primal revelation of God is as the " I am," the personal God. All the names and titles given to Him ; all the attributes ascribed to Him ; all the works attributed to Him, are revelations of what He truly is. He is the Elohim, the Mighty One, the Holy One, the Omnipresent Spirit; He is the creator, the preserver, the governor of all things. He is our Father. He is the hearer of prayer ; the giver of all good. He feeds the young ravens. He clothes the flowers of the field. He is Love. He so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish but have everlasting life. He is merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth. He is a present help in every time of need ; a refuge, a high tower, an exceeding great reward. The relations in which, according to the Scriptures, we stand to God, are such as we can sustain only to a being who is like ourselves. He