Conscience, or our moral consciousness, is no less deceptive. Mr. Mansel admits that we are conscious of dependence and of moral obligation ; that this involves what he calls " the consciousness of God," i. e., that we stand in the relation to God of one spirit to another spirit, of one person to another pei'son ; a person so supe- rior to us as to have rightfully supreme authority over us, and who has all the power and all the moral perfections which enter into our idea of God. But all this is a delusion. It is a delusion, because what our moral consciousness thus teaches involves all the con- tradictions and absurdities above mentioned ; because it is said to teach not what God is, but only what it is desirable that we should think He is ; and because we are told that it is blasphemy to think that He is what we take Him to be.
The theory, therefore, of Hamilton and Mansel as to the knowl- edge of God is suicidal. It is inconsistent with the veracity of consciousness, which is the fundamental principle of their philos- ophy. The theory is an incongruous combination of sceptical principles with orthodox faith, the anti-theistic principles of Kant with Theism. One or the other must be given up. We cannot believe in a personal God, if an infinite person be a contradiction and absurdity.
God has not so constituted our nature as to make it of necessity deceptive. The senses, i-eason, and conscience, within their appro- priate spheres, and in their normal exercise, are trustworthy guides. They teach us real, and not merely apparent or regulative truth. Their combined spheres comprehend all the relations in which we, as rational creatures, stand to the external world, to our fellow- men, and to God. Were it not for the disturbing element of sin, we know not that man, in full communion with his Maker, whose favour is light and life, would have needed any other guides. But man is not in his original and normal state. In apostatizing from God, man fell into a state of darkness and confusion. Reason and conscience are no longer adequate guides as to " the things of God." Of fallen men, the Apostle says : " That when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was dark- ened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools ; and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things " (Rom. i. 21-23) ; or, worse yet, into an absolute and infinite being, without consciousness, intelligence, or moral character ; a being which is potentially all things, and actually
364 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. IV. — Can God be known ?
notliing. It is true, therefore, as the same Apostle tells us, that the world by wisdom knows not God. It is true in a still higher sense, as the Lord himself says, that no man " knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." (Matt. xi. 27.)
Necessity of a Supernatural Revelation.
We need, therefore, a divine supernatural revelation. Of this revelation, it is to be remarked, first, that it gives us real knowledge. It teaches us what God really is ; what sin is ; what the law is ; what Christ and the plan of salvation through Him are ; and what is to be the state of the soul after death. The knowledge thus com- municated is real, in the sense that the ideas which we are thus led to form of the things revealed conform to what those things really are. God and Christ, holiness and sin, heaven and hell, really are what the Bible declares them to be. Sir William Hamilton^ di- vides the objects of knowledge into two classes : those derived from within, from the intelligence ; and those derived from experience. The latter are of two kinds : what we know from our own expe- rience, and what we know from the experience of others, authen- ticated to us by adequate testimony. In the generally received sense of the word this is true knowledge. No man hesitates to say that he knows that there was such a man as Washington, or such an event as the American Revolution. If the testimony of men can give us clear and certain knowledge of fiicts beyond our experience, surely the testimony of God is greater. What He re- veals is made known. We apprehend it as it truly is. The con- viction that what God reveals is made known in its true nature, is the very essence of faith in the divine testimony. We are cer- tain, therefore, that our ideas of God, founded on the testimony of his Word, correspond to what He really is, and constitute true knowledge. It is also to be remembered that while the testimony of men is to the mind, the testimony of God is not only to, but also within the mind. It illuminates and informs ; so that the tes- timony of God is called the demonstration of the Spirit.
The second remark concerning the revelation contained in the Scriptures is, that while it makes known truths far above the reach of sense or reason, it reveals nothing which contradicts either. It harmonizes with our whole nature. It supplements all our other knowledge, and authenticates itself by harmonizing the testimony of enlightened consciousness with the testimony of God in his Word.
1 Lectures on Logic. Lecture 32d.