CHARACTER OF THE CREATOR.
The preceding pages have exhibited the nature of mind, the object of its
formation, the right mode of action to secure this object, and the
causes and results of its right and wrong action, as indicated by reason
and experience.
We are now furnished with farther data to guide us in regard to the
character of our Creator, as we seek it by the light of reason alone.
We have seen, in the chapter on intuitive truths, that by the first of
these principles we arrive at the knowledge of some _eternal First Cause
of all finite things_.
By another of these principles we deduce certain particulars in regard
to his character as exhibited through his works. This principle is thus
expressed: "Design is evidence of an intelligent cause, and the nature
of a design proves the character and intention of the author." We are
now prepared to show how much must be included in this truth.
Our only idea of "an intelligent cause" is that of _a mind like our
own_. This being so, we assume that we are instructed, by the very
constitution of our own minds, that our Creator is a being endowed with
intellect, susceptibilities, and will, and a part of these
susceptibilities are those included in our _moral constitution_.
This moral nature, which we are thus led to ascribe to our Creator,
includes, in the first place, the existence of a feeling that whatever
lessens or destroys happiness is unfitted to the system of the universe,
and that _voluntary sacrifice and suffering to purchase the highest
possible happiness is fitted to or in accordance with the eternal nature
of things_.
Next, we are thus taught that in the Eternal Mind is existing that
_sense of justice_ which involves the desire of good to the author of
good, and of evil to the author of evil, which requires that such
retributions be _proportioned_ to the good and evil done, and to the
_voluntary_ power of the agent.
Lastly, we are thus instructed that the Author of all created things
possesses that susceptibility called _conscience_, which includes, in
the very constitution of mind itself, retributions for right and wrong
actions.
But while we thus assume that the mind of the Creator is, so far as we
can conceive, precisely like our own in constitutional organization, we
are as necessarily led to perceive that the _extent_ of these powers is
far beyond our own. A mind with the power, wisdom, and goodness
exhibited in the very small portion of his works submitted to our
inspection, who has inhabited eternity, and developed and matured
through everlasting ages--our minds are lost in attempting any
conception of the extent of such infinite faculties!
But we have another intuitive truth to aid in our deductions. It is that
by which we infer the continuance of a _uniformity in our experience_;
that is, we necessarily believe that "things will continue as they are
and have been, unless there is evidence to the contrary." Now all past
experience as to the nature of mind has been uniform. Every mind known
to us is endowed with intellect, susceptibility, and will, like our own.
So much is this the case, that when any of these are wanting in a human
being, we say he has "lost his mind."
Again: all our experience of mind involves the idea of the _mutual
relation of minds_. We perceive that minds are made to match to other
minds, so that there can be no complete action of mind, according to its
manifest design, except in relation to other beings. A mind can not love
till there is another mind to call forth such emotion. A mind can not
bring a tithe of its power into appropriate action except in a community
of minds. The conception of a solitary being, with all the social powers
and sympathies of the human mind infinitely enlarged, and yet without
any sympathizing mind to match and meet them, involves the highest idea
of unfitness and imperfection conceivable.
Thus it is that past experience of the nature of mind leads to the
inference that no mind has existed from all eternity _in solitude_, but
that there is _more than one eternal, uncreated mind_, and that all
their powers of enjoyment from giving and receiving happiness in social
relations have been in exercise from eternal ages. This is the just and
natural deduction of reason and experience, as truly as the deduction
that there is at least one eternal First Cause.
It has been argued that the _unity of design_ in the works of nature
proves that there is but one creating mind. This is not so, for in all
our experience of the creations of finite beings no _great design_ was
ever formed without a combination of minds, both to plan and to execute.
The majority of minds in all ages, both heathen and Christian, have
always conceived of the Creator as _in some way_ existing so as to
involve the ideas of plurality and of the love and communion of one mind
with another.
Without a revelation, also, we have the means of arriving at the
conclusion that the Creator of all things is not only a mind organized
just like our own, but that he always has and always will feel and act
right. We infer this from both his social and his moral constitution;
for he must, as our own minds do, desire the love, reverence, and
confidence of his creatures. The fact that he has made them to love
truth, justice, benevolence, and self-sacrificing virtue is evidence
that he has and will exhibit these and all other excellences that call
forth affection.
But we have still stronger evidence. We have seen all the causes that
experience has taught as the leading to the wrong action of mind. These
are necessarily excluded from our conceptions of the Creator. The
Eternal Mind can not err for want of knowledge, nor for want of habits
of right action, nor for want of teachers and educators, nor for want of
those social influences which generate and sustain a right governing
purpose; for an infinite mind, that never had a beginning, can not have
these modes of experience which appertain to new-born and finite
creatures.
Again: we have seen that it is one of the implanted principles of reason
that "no rational mind will choose evil without hope of compensating
good." Such is the eternal system of the universe, as we learn it by the
light of reason, that the highest possible happiness to each individual
mind and to the whole commonwealth is promoted by the right action of
every mind in that system. This, of necessity, is seen and felt by the
All-creating and Eternal Mind, and to suppose that, with this knowledge,
he would ever choose wrong is to suppose that he would choose pure evil,
and this is contrary to an intuitive truth. It is to suppose the Creator
would do what he has formed our minds to believe to be impossible in
_any_ rational mind. It is to suppose that the Creator would do that
which, if done by human beings, marks them as insane.