my mind's eye, I cannot make an image of it. This seems to be a materialistic way of looking at things. The same may be said of cause, substance, and soul, of none of which can we frame a mental image ; yet they are not unthinkable. A thing is unthinkable only when it is seen to be impossible, or when we can attach no mean- ing to the words, or proposition, in which it is stated. This impos- sibility of intelligent thought may arise from our weakness. The problems of the higher mathematics are unthinkable to a child. Or, the impossibility may arise from the nature of the thing itself. That a triangle should have four sides, or a circle be a square, is absolutely unthinkable. But in neither of these senses is the Infi- nite unthinkable. It is not impossible, for Hamilton and Mansel both admit that God is in fact infinite ; nor is that proposition un- intelligible. It conveys a perfectly clear and distinct idea to the mind. When the mind affirms to itself that space is infinite, i. e., that it cannot be limited, it knows what it means just as well as when it says that two and two are four. Neither is an absolute beginning unthinkable. If, indeed, by absolute beginning is^meant uncaused beginning, the coming into existence of something out of nothing, and produced by nothing, then it is impossible and there- fore incogitable. But the dictum is applied to a creation ex nihilo, which is declared to be unthinkable. This, however, is denied. We will to move a limb, and it moves. God said. Let there be light, and light was. The one event is just as intelligible as the other. In neither case can we comprehend the nexus between the antecedent and the consequent, between the volition and the effect; but as facts they are equally thinkable and knowable.
It is not possible to give the evidence scattered through the writings of Hamilton and Mansel, that they use the word " to know " in the sense of comprehending, or, forming a mental image of the object known. Mansel ^ quotes the following sentence from Dr. McCosh's work on the " Method of the Divine Govern- ment," namely, " The mind seeks in vain to embrace the infinite in a positive image, but is constrained to believe, when its efforts fail, that tiiere is a something to which no limits can be put." This sentence Mansel says may be accepted " by the most uncompro- mising adherent " of Sir W. Hamilton's doctrine, that the infinite is unthinkable and unknowable. To know, therefore, according to Hamilton and Mansel, is to form a mental image of; and as we cannot form such an image of God, God cannot be known. Man- sel is disposed to think that this reduces the controversy to a
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860 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. IV. — Can God be known ?
matter of Avords. And Dr. Tyler, in his able exposition of Hamil- ton's philosophy, says,^ " So it be admitted, as it must, that all our intelligence of God is by analogy, it matters but little, practically, whether the conviction be called knowledge, belief, or faith." It is, however, very far from being a dispute about words. For Hamilton constantly asserts that God is not, and cannot be, what we think He is. Then we have no God. For what is God as infinite, if as Mansel says, " The Infinite, if it is to be conceived at all, must be conceived as potentially everything and actually nothing." 2
What is meant hy Knowledge. Knowledge is the perception of truth. Whatever the mind per- ceives, whether intuitively or discursively, to be true, that it knows. We have immediate knowledge of all the facts of consciousness ; and with regard to other matters, some we can demonstrate, some we can prove analogically, some we must admit or involve ourselves in contradictions and absurdities. Whatever process the mind mav institute, if it arrives at a clear perception that a thing is, then that thing is an object of knowledge. It is thus we know the objects with which heaven and earth are crowded. It is thus we know our fellow men. With regard to anything without us, when our ideas, or convictions concerning it, cori'espond to what the thinp really is, then we know it. How do we know that our nearest friend has a soul, and that that soul has intelligence, moral excel- lence, and power ? We cannot see or feel it. We cannot form > mental image of it. It is mysterious and incomprehensible. Ye> we know that it is, and what it is, just as certainly as we know thai we ourselves are, and what we are. In the same way we know that God is, and what He is. We know that He is a spirit, that He has intelligence, moral excellence, and power to an infinite de- gree. We know that He can love, pity, and pardon ; that He can hear and answer prayer. We know God in the same sense and just as certainly as we know our father or mother. And no man can take this knowledge from us, or persuade us that it is not knowledge, but a mere irrational belief.
Samiltons Doctrine Leads to Scepticism. 3. The principles on which Hamilton and Mansel deny that God can be known, logically lead to scepticism. Hamilton has indeed rendered invaluable service to the cause of truth by his
1 See Progress of Philosophy, by Samuel Tyler, LL.D., p. 207. 8 Limits of Religious Tlioughi, p. 94.