bulk nor form. The Bible everywhere recognizes as tnie the intuitive convictions of men. One of tliose convictions is that spirit is not matter, or matter spirit ; that different and incompati- ble attributes cannot belong to the same substance. In revealing, therefore, to us that God is a Spirit, it reveals to us that no attri- bute of matter can be predicated of the divine essence. The real- istic dualism which lies at the bottom of all human convictions, underlies also all the revelations of the Bible.
B. Consequences of the Spirituality of Crod.
If God be a spirit, it follows of necessity that He is a person — a self-conscious, intelligent, voluntary agent. As all this is in- volved in our consciousness of ourselves as spirit, it must all be true of God, or God is of a lower order of being than man.
It follows also that God is a siinpleJBeing, not only as not com- posed of different elements, but also as not admitting of the dis- tinction between substance and accidents. Nothing can either be added to, or taken from God. In this view the simplicity, as well as the other attributes of God, are of a higher order than the cor- responding attributes of our spiritual nature. The soul of man is a simple substance; but it is subject to change. It can gain and lose knowledge, holiness, and power. These are in this view acci- dents in our substance. But in God they are attributes, essential and immutable.
Finally, it follows from God's being a spirit, that He is a moral as well as an intelligent Being. It is involved • in the very nature of rational voluntary being, that it should be con- formed to the rule of right, which in tlie case of God is his own infinite_j;eason. These are primary truths, which are not to be sacrificed to any speculative objections. It is vain to tell us that an infinite spirit cannot be a person, because personality implies self-consciousness, and self-consciousness implies the distinction between the self and the not-self, and this is a limitation. It is equally vain to say that God cannot have moral excellence, because nu)ial goodness implies conformity to law, and conformity to law again is inconsistent with the idea of an absolute Being. These are empty speculations ; and even if incapable of a satisfactory solu- tion, would afford no i-ational ground for rejecting the intuitive truths of reason and conscience. There are mysteries enough in our nature, and yet no sane man denies his own personal existence and moral accountability. And he is worse than insane who is beguiled by such sophistries into renouncing his faith in God as a personal spirit and a loving Father.
380 PART I. - THEOLOGY. [Ch. Y. — Divine Attributm.
The Scriptures confirm these Views. It need hardly be remarked that the Scriptures everywhere rep- resent God as possessing all the above-mentioned attributes of a spirit. On this foundation all religion rests ; all intercourse with God, all worship, all prayer, all confidence in God as preserver, benefactor, and redeemer. The God of the Bible is a person. He spoke to Adam. He revealed himself to Noah. He entered into covenant with Abraham. He conversed with Moses, as a friend with friend. He everywliere uses the personal pronouns. He says, " I am," tJiat " is my name." I am the Lord your God. I am merciful and gracious. Call upon me, and I will answer you. Like as a lather pitieth his children, so the Lord pitietli them that fear Hmi. O thou that hearest prayer, to thee shall all flesh come. Our Lord has put into our lips words which reveal that God is a spirit, and all that being a spirit implies, when He teaches us to say: " Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy king- dom come. Thy will be done." Everywhere the God of the Bible is contrasted with the gods of the heathen, as a God who sees, hears, and loves. These are not regulative., they are real truths. God does not mock us when He thus presents Himself to us as a personal Being with whom we can have intercourse, and who is everywhere present to help and save. " To human reason," says Mansel, " the personal and the infinite stand out in apparently irreconcilable antagonism ; and the recognition of the one in a re- ligious system almost inevitably involves the sacrifice of the other." * This cannot be so. According to the Bible, and according to the dictates of our own nature, of reason as well as of conscience, God is a spirit, and being a spirit is of necessity a person ; a Being who can say I, and to whom we can say Thou.
§ 5. Infinity. Although God reveals Himself as a personal Being capable of fellowship with man, whom we can worship and love, and to whom we can pray with the assurance of being heard and answered ; nevertheless He fills heaven and earth ; He is exalted above all we can know or think. He is infinite in his being and perfections. The ideas with which we are most familiar are often those of which we are the least able to give an intelligent account. Space, time, and infinity, are among the most difficult pi'oblems of human thought. What is space? is a question which has never been sat- isfactorily answered. Some say it is nothing; where nothing is,
1 Limits:, p. 148.