GOD THE CREATOR.
"In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth."--Gen. i. 1.
"GOD that made the world and all things therein.... He is Lord of heaven
and earth."--Acts xvii. 24.
"The Eternal Will is the creator of the world as He is the creator of
the finite person."--FICHTE.
_God is the first principle, the unconditioned cause of all existence._
This is the answer of Christian doctrine to the great problem presented
for solution in the preceding chapter. Whether this fundamental
presupposition shall be finally accepted as the only adequate solution
of the problem of existence will depend in a large degree upon our
apprehension of the Christian idea of God. We shall, therefore, open the
discussion by asking the question--What is the content of our conception
of God?
Dogmatic theology might rest satisfied with the simple affirmation,
"_God is_ GOD,"[17] as against all the captious demands of science, were
it not necessary to render an account to itself of what, at first sight,
might be pronounced a "sublime tautology." For, while it is hereby
confessed that God in his essential being is incomprehensible and
ineffable, so that to the Christian as well as to the philosopher he is
"the great Unknown," still it is not hereby admitted that it is
absolutely impossible to know God. To affirm that God is absolutely "the
Unknowable" is simply to assert his unreality. Mr. Martineau has finely
observed that this term is self-contradictory; for we affirm by the use
of it that we know so much that He can not be known. Nay, it assumes the
existence of God, and in the same breath separates us from Him forever.
But if it be admitted that God _is_, it can not be absolutely impossible
to know _what_ He is. The knowledge of existence and the form of
existence mutually condition each other. There must be something in the
understanding answering to the term in the language of mankind, and
there must be something in the realm of being which is the ground of the
idea in the reason of Man. The heathen have a presentiment, a dim
intuition of the "unknown God," and the inspired teacher may so "declare
Him" in human language that his hearers may receive a definite notion,
and attain to a practical knowledge of God.
The _idea_ of God is a common phenomenon of the universal intelligence
of our race, and must have been present to the thought of man even
before he uttered the _name_ of God.[18] The moment man becomes
conscious of himself, and knows himself as distinct from the world, that
same moment he becomes conscious of a _Higher Self_--a living Power upon
which both himself and the world depend. For this Higher Self all
nations have found a name. All languages have a term cognate with the
Saxon "God," which expresses that spontaneous consciousness of a
supernatural power which is common to all minds--that intuition of a
supramundane existence which is the ground and reason of all other
existence. Even Polytheism has a name for the abstract of all the gods,
which sets forth the ideas of being, power, causality, and personality.
And in Christian lands the term God, without any periphrasis, at once
represents the idea of a Being distinct from self and the world, who is
the Maker of the world and the Father of humanity. For all practical
ends it is enough to say God is _God_. It is only when reflective
thought seeks to express some more specific and determinate conception
of the Supreme Being that we find ourselves under the necessity of
adding other expletives to this term God.
It is therefore desirable that we should set down, in a provisional
form, the general conception of God as it exists in the mind of the
Theist and the Christian. I can not do this better than by selecting
from the writings of three men of diverse schools of thought--one a
Physicist, another a Metaphysician, the third a Theologian; and all in a
greater or less degree influenced by the teaching of the Christian
Scriptures.
My first selection will be from the "Meditations" of Descartes, who is
regarded as "the father of modern philosophy." "By the name of God,"
says he, "I mean an infinite, eternal, immutable, independent,
omniscient, omnipresent substance, by which I and all other things which
are have been created and produced."[19]
My second selection is from the "Principia" of Sir Isaac Newton, a work
which, by the general consent of the scientific world, is the greatest
contribution ever made to science. Sir Isaac Newton was a Physicist
rather than a Metaphysician; he will therefore represent to us the
conception of God entertained by the scientific Theist. At the close of
this his great work he writes: "The true God is a living, intelligent,
powerful Being, and, from His other perfections, it follows that He is
Supreme, or most perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and
omniscient; that is, His duration reaches from eternity to eternity, His
presence from infinity to infinity. He governs all things, and knows all
things that are or can be done. He is not eternity and infinity, but
eternal and infinite. He is not duration or space, but He endures and is
present. He endures forever, and He is every where present; and by
existing always and every where, He constitutes [or causes] duration and
space. Since every particle of space is _always_, and every indivisible
moment of duration is _every where_, certainly the Maker and Lord of all
things can not be _never_ and _nowhere_.... God is the same God, always
and every where. He is omnipresent, not _virtually_ [potentially] only,
but also substantially; for virtue can not subsist without substance. In
Him all things are contained and moved, yet neither affects the other.
God suffers nothing from the motion of bodies; bodies find no resistance
from the omnipresence of God. It is allowed by all that the Supreme God
exists necessarily; and by the same necessity exists _always_ and _every
where_.... We know Him only by His most wise and excellent contrivances
of things and final causes; we admire Him for His perfections; but we
reverence and adore Him on account of His dominion. A God without
dominion, providence, and final causes is nothing else but Fate and
Nature. Blind mechanical necessity, which is certainly the same always
and every where, could produce no variety of things. All that diversity
of natural things which we find suited to different times and places
could arise from nothing but the _ideas_ and _will_ of a Being
necessarily existing."
My last selection is from the "Grammar of Assent," by John Henry Newman,
formerly a Protestant, now a Catholic divine. Prior to his change of
theological position he published a remarkable work "On the Development
of Christian Doctrine in Aid of a Grammar of Assent," the design of
which is to exhibit the influence of philosophic thought upon the
evolution of Christian doctrine, and to bring it into harmony with the
theories of Cosmical, Physiological, and Historical development, which
seem for the present to be in the ascendant. For this reason I choose to
employ his words, as setting forth the conception of God which is
generally entertained by thoughtful men. At page ninety-seven of his
last work, "The Grammar of Assent," I read:
"There is one God, such and such in Nature and Attributes. I say 'such
and such,' for, unless I explain what I mean by _one God_, I use words
which may mean any thing or nothing. I may mean a mere _anima mundi_; or
an initial principle which once was in action and now is not; or
collective humanity. I speak then of the one God of the Theist and of
the Christian: a God who is numerically One, who is Personal; the
Author, Sustainer, and Finisher of all things, the Life of Law and
Order, the moral Governor. One who is Supreme and Sole; like Himself,
unlike all things besides Himself, which all are but his creatures;
distinct from, independent of, them all. One who is self-existing,
absolutely infinite, who has ever been and ever will be, to whom nothing
is past or future; who is all perfection, and the fullness and archetype
of every possible excellence, the Truth itself, Wisdom, Love, Justice,
Holiness; One who is All-powerful, All-knowing, Omnipresent,
Incomprehensible. These are some of the distinctive prerogatives which
I ascribe unconditionally and unreservedly to the great Being whom I
call God."
These statements of the Theistic conception will be regarded by most men
as adequate and satisfactory. They will be accepted by the scientific
Theist and approved by the dogmatic Theologian. They present the idea of
God within the sphere of Christian thought; that is, reflective thought
informed and illuminated by the revelations of God which are given in
the Christian Scriptures. At the same time it must be confessed that
they are defective in scientific form, philosophical development, and
logical articulation. They do not present the conception of God in
harmony with any _principles of Rational Integration_. They show no
attempt to combine the various elements of this conception in the unity
of an _Absolute Principle_, an _Ultimate and Fundamental Idea_.
The aim of all true philosophy is to attain to the insight of First
Principles, yea, to the insight of the Absolute First Principle from
which whatever now _is_ must be derived, and in which whatever _is_ must
have its intelligible ground and sufficient reason. There exists in man,
as the essential characteristic of his humanity, a power or faculty of
intelligence, best named the _Reason_, which awakens in him the desire
and furnishes to him the law that enables him to fulfill the inherent
desire of combining all his manifold knowledges in the unity of such
_Absolute First Principle_; and the one fundamental law of this faculty
is the _Law of Sufficient Reason_, which has been thus enounced by
Leibnitz: "Whatever exists, or begins to be, must have a sufficient
reason for its existence, and why it is as it is, and not otherwise;"
or, to give the principle a fuller, and at the same time a legitimate
expansion--For all genesis, or beginning, there must be an adequate
_Cause_; beneath all appearance, all changeful and fleeting phenomena,
there must be a permanent _Being_ or _Reality_; beyond all the diverse
and manifold, there must be an ultimate _Identity_, an incomposite
indivisible _Unity_; and in all order and special adaptation, there must
be a unifying _Thought_, a definite _Purpose_ and _End_.
The Reason of man can find satisfaction and harmony only in the
recognition of an Absolute First Principle which shall comprehend and
unite all these universal and necessary ideas which are the correlates
of the facts of experience; that is, an Absolute First Principle which
shall be the Ultimate Reality, the Ultimate Cause, the Ultimate Unity,
and the Ultimate Reason of all existence. In other words, the Reason is
not and can not be satisfied without "the clear insight of a _Causative
Principle_ containing, predetermining, and producing all the actual
results we see around us, with their orderly relations in reference to a
final purpose, reason, or end; and which causative principle exists not
only as the originative and constructive, but also as the conservative
energy of all things;" a Being who "is before all things, and by whom
all things consist," "from whom, in whom, and to whom are all things."
And now what is this Absolute First Principle, causative of all
existence, which the spontaneous reason has always intuitively
apprehended, and which the reflective reason has always found to be the
adequate, and only adequate explanation of the universe? I answer in a
word, it is AN UNCONDITIONED WILL OR SELF-DIRECTIVE POWER, SEEING ITS
OWN WAY, AND HAVING THE REASON AND LAW OF ITS ACTION IN ITSELF ALONE.
This always and every where has been intuitively apprehended, with more
or less clearness, as standing at the fountain-head of all existence.
This, then, we shall postulate as the fundamental axiom of all rational
integration, viz., AN UNCONDITIONED WILL, _the principle of all Reality,
all Efficiency, and all Perfection_.
1. An unconditioned Will which realizes itself in IPSËITY--self-potency
and self-affirmation; expresses itself in that august name of God "I
AM;" and constitutes ABSOLUTE REALITY.
2. An unconditioned Will which manifests itself in
ALTERITY--pluri-efficiency; utters itself in the "I WILL" of the
creative fiat; and constitutes INFINITE EFFICIENCY.
3. An unconditioned Will which returns to itself in TOTALITY--a complete
Ideal to be realized in Creation; which expresses its satisfaction in
pronouncing all things "very good," and constitutes PERFECT PERSONALITY.
The changeless correlation and inherent harmony of these ideas of the
reason (Reality, Efficiency, and Personality) may be rendered more
obvious by the following formula, after the method of Coleridge's "polar
logic."[20]
_PROTHESIS_
UNCONDITIONED WILL
/ | \
/-----------------/ | \------------------\
_THESIS_ / _MESOTHESIS_ \_ANTITHESIS_
/ | \
IPSËITY-----Efficient CAUSALITY Efficient----ALTERITY
\ | /
\ Final /
\-----------------\ | /------------------/
\ | /
TOTALITY
_SYNTHESIS_
PROTHESIS expresses the absolute identity or eternal co-inherence of
Reason, Love, and Power (the Divine Essence). THESIS expresses Power in
the form of Love (the Divine Self-sufficiency and Self-potency).
ANTITHESIS expresses Reason in the form of Power (the Divine
Efficiency). SYNTHESIS expresses the diversity in unity of Reason, Love,
and Power (the Divine Perfection). And MESOTHESIS expresses the
essential correlations which integrate the whole (the Triunity of the
manifested God). Thus Absolute Reality, Infinite Efficiency, and Perfect
Personality are all, as a triplicity, contained in the fundamental unity
of an unconditioned Will, which has Love as its motive, Power as its
agent, and Reason as its light and law.
And now let us retire within our own consciousness, and see if this
fundamental axiom of rational integration--Will as the principle of all
Reality, Efficiency, and Perfection--is not reflected in our reason, and
evolved in our inner experience. Do we not find that the central point
of our consciousness--that which makes each man what he is in
contradistinction from every other man--that which expresses the _real
essence of the soul_ apart from its formal processes and regulative
laws--is the WILL? Without Will man would fall back from the elevation
which he now assumes to the level of impersonal nature: in a word, he
would be a _thing_, and not a _power_. Power, spontaneity, causality,
will--these, or similar forms, express, as nearly as can be, the
essential nature or principle of the human soul.[21] Furthermore, it is
obvious that mere Power or Energy does not suffice for the notion of
Will--there must also be Reason and Affection.[22] Indeed, "Will is
contemplated universally as the inseparable union and perpetual
differentiation of Intelligence and originative Power, and as such the
sole ground of the intelligibility of all causation."[23]
A volitional act, a moral and responsible act, must be one which is
performed under the influence of motives, and for which, when called to
account, we can assign valid reasons. All true volition supposes a
purpose or end to be realized, an inward appetency or motive which makes
the end desirable, and the selection and adaptation of means to
accomplish that end. Power divorced from reason is simply _blind force_,
and can not be dignified with the name of Will. The mind of man is
sometimes in a predominant state of _knowing_, sometimes in a
predominant state of _feeling_, and sometimes in a predominant state of
_determination_. To call these separate faculties, however, is
altogether beside the mark. No act of intelligence can be performed
without some determination of the Ego, no act of determination without
some cognition, and no act of the one or the other without some amount
of feeling being mingled in the process. Thus, while each mental state
may have its distinctive characteristics, there is unity at the
root--_the identical Ego, spirit_, WILL.[24]
Sensibility is the condition, Reason is the light, Will is the centre of
human consciousness. Consciousness is a threefold phenomenon in which
feeling, knowing, and self-determination are reciprocal elements, and in
their connection and simultaneousness, and at the same time their
differentiation, they compose the entire intellectual life.[25] The
finite spirit or will unfolds itself, first, subjectively, in the
spontaneous affirmation of self-being or self-potency (IPSËITY);
secondly, objectively, in the exertion of power to produce motion,
change, phenomena (EFFICIENCY); thirdly, synthetically, in the unity of
motive and intention, purpose and act, means and end (PERSONALITY).
Thus does "Will present the middle point, which embraces _thought_ on
the one hand and _force_ on the other; and which yet, so far from
appearing to us to be a _compound_ arising out of them as an effect, is
more easily conceived as the originative prefix (prothesis) of all
mental phenomena.... It carries with it, in its very idea, the
co-presence of thought as the necessary element within whose sphere it
has to manifest itself; its phenomena can not exist alone; it acts on
preconceptions, which stand related to it, not however as its source,
but as its conditions, and are its co-ordinates in the effect, rather
than its generating antecedents."[26]
Psychological analysis leads us inevitably to this conclusion, that all
things are issued by Will, whether in the sphere of the finite or the
infinite, and therefore we postulate an UNCONDITIONED WILL, A PERFECT
MIND, at the source of all becoming. Thus, as Martineau truly remarks,
_between the_ FORCE _of the physical atheist and the_ THOUGHT _of the
metaphysical pantheist_, _we fix upon_ WILL _as the true balancing-point
of a moral theism_.
The intelligent reader scarce needs to be reminded that this is the
conclusion reached by reflective thought in that best and fullest
exhibition of it which is found in Greek philosophy. The great problem
of Greek philosophy, as of all philosophy, was, "What is the ἀρχῆ, the
First Principle--the ground and cause and reason of all existence?" The
final answer of that age is found in Plato, for Platonism was the
culmination, the ripened fruit of the ages of earnest thought which
preceded Plato. He gathered up, co-ordinated, and grasped into unity the
results bequeathed by the mental efforts of his predecessors. The
Platonic answer to this great question of philosophy is clear and
unequivocal. A perfect MIND is the primal source of all being--a Mind in
which Intellect, Efficiency, and Goodness are one and identical. "Mind
is the most worthy ἀρχῆ." "God is the most excellent of causes."[27]
"Mind is king of heaven and earth."[28] "Motion and life and soul and
mind are present with absolute being. We can not imagine being to be
devoid of life and mind, remaining in awful unmeaningness and
everlasting fixture."[29]
"Whatever begins to be, must necessarily be produced by some cause; for
nothing can have its generation without a cause." "The Maker and Father
of the universe ... had no beginning of his being." He formed the
universe according to the eternal model or archetype which his own
reason supplied, and for motives which his own essential goodness
proposed. "Let us now tell for what cause the Maker of this creation and
this universe made it as it is. He was _good_; and he who is good
grudges no advantage to any creature. Being thus free from envy, He
willed that the universe should be good like Himself; and this, the
special ground of the creation and the world, which we receive from the
wisest philosophers, we must accept."[30]
It would be easy to show that the recognition of intelligent Will, as
standing at the fountain-head of all the force which is manifested in
the universe, is common to the first Physicists of this age.
Grove concludes his admirable essay on "The Correlation of the Physical
Forces" with these words: "In all phenomena the more closely they are
investigated the more are we convinced that, humanly speaking, neither
matter nor force can be created or annihilated, and that an essential
cause is unattainable [by science]--_Causation is the_ WILL, _Creation
is the act_, _of God_."[31] Sir John Herschel has not hesitated to
express his conviction that "it is but reasonable to regard the Force of
Gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a consciousness or a
WILL existing somewhere."[32] Dr. Carpenter, with his usual sagacity in
penetrating to the essential point, remarks that the WILL "is that form
of Force which must be taken as the type of all the rest;" "Force must
be regarded as the direct expression of WILL."[33] "If," says Wallace,
"we have traced one force, however minute, to an origin in our own WILL,
while we have no knowledge of any other primary cause of force, it does
not seem an improbable conclusion that _all force may be_ WILL-FORCE,
and thus the whole universe is not only dependent on, but actually is
the will of higher intelligences or of one Supreme Intelligence."[34] In
short, the present attitude of science in relation to this great problem
is, I think, fairly represented by the Duke of Argyll: "Science, in the
modern doctrine of the Conservation of Energy and the Convertibility of
Forces, is already getting hold of the idea that all kinds of Force are
but forms and manifestations of some one Central Force issuing from
some one Fountain-head of Power." "This one Force, into which all others
return again, is itself but a mode of action of the Divine WILL."[35]
Even Spencer concedes that "the Force by which we ourselves produce
changes, and which serves to symbolize the cause of changes in general,
is the final disclosure of all analysis ... all other modes of
consciousness are derived from our consciousness of exerting Force."[36]
"The order of nature is doubtless very imperfect, but its production is
far more compatible with the hypothesis of an intelligent will than with
that of blind mechanism."[37] Physical science is surely coming into
harmony with metaphysical thought. It looks upon nature with the eye of
reason as well as the eye of sense. And it reduces the phenomena to
unity, not simply by comparative abstraction, which classifies under
resemblance, co-existence, and succession, but by that rational
integration which operates under the necessary laws of substance,
causality, intentionality, and absolute unity. It regards the forces of
nature as the product or manifestation of a higher force--a force which
is not merely dynamical in its nature--a force which can compass not
merely concurrent and antagonistic motions in space, but which is able
so to adjust these concurrences and antagonisms as to construct agencies
which shall realize designs--a force, therefore, which is thoughtful and
percipient: in one word, intelligent--a force, in fine, which is not a
mere mechanical dynamism in space and time, but a true Power existing in
its type and fullness: in one word--God.[38]
Thus does all reflective thought, whether directed to the phenomena of
the human mind or the phenomena of nature, confirm the _à priori_
intuition of an unconditioned Will unfolding itself in Thought and
Power, and completing itself in a harmonious Totality, as the First
Principle and Originative Cause of all existences and of all relations,
of all individual beings, and of that harmonious whole men call the
Cosmos.
And now we pass to the important question--How are we to bring all our
acquired conceptions of God into harmony with this fundamental idea?
Assuming that we have certain conceptions of God which are derived from
verbal instruction, and ultimately from Divine revelation, can we bring
these into unity under this First Principle? Or, in other words, can we
logically evolve the attributes and perfections of God out of this
fundamental Idea, and find the result in harmony with the Christian
doctrine?
As the object of thought, even of Christian thought, God must
necessarily be conceived by us under the fundamental categories of
_Being_, _Attribute_, and _Relation_. All objects of thought must come
under these categories, and out of or beyond these categories we can not
think at all. Furthermore, we can not think of God as the unconditioned
Being conditioning Himself, without conceiving Him as _Reality_,
_Efficiency_, and _Personality_. These constitute the conception of the
Divine essence whereby it is what it is. When we think of the Attributes
of such a Being, we must necessarily conceive them as _Absolute_,
_Infinite_, and _Perfect_.[39] And when we think of the Relations of
God to finite existences and finite consciousness, we are constrained to
regard Him as the _Ground_ and _Cause_ and _Reason_ of all dependent
being.
In the unity and completeness of this categorical scheme of thought, we
can not fail to recognize the following logical order:
BEING (Essentia) REALITY } EFFICIENCY } PERSONALITY }
ATTRIBUTE (Related Essence) ABSOLUTE } INFINITE } PERFECT }
RELATION (Free Determination) GROUND CAUSE REASON OR END
In the Absolute Reality we have the ultimate ground; in the Infinite
Efficiency we have the adequate cause; and in the Perfect Personality we
have the sufficient reason or final cause of all existence.
1. BEING or ESSENCE, as _Reality_, _Efficiency_, and _Personality_. The
intuition of Being is the most fundamental and the most abstract of all
ideas. After every property and relation has been eliminated, there
still remains the affirmation that something _is_. Non-existence, except
as the negation of being, is inconceivable. But, at the same time, pure
being is the most indeterminate of all ideas. Simple being, without
attributes, and out of all relation to other ideas, is a notion without
contents, and consequently indescribable and unknowable. For us,
therefore, pure abstract being is equal to non-being, and the paradox of
Hegel has some truth: Pure Being = Nothing.
Distinction--differentiation, determination--is the condition of all
reality. Real being must be determined, only pure nothing can be
undetermined. The least determined being is the least real; the most
determined is the most real, the most perfect being. Exactly in
proportion as the nature of beings is differentiated and complicated do
they rise in the scale of being. The vegetable has more determinations
than inanimate matter; the percipient animal has more determinations
than the vital plant; rational man has more determinations than the
percipient animal, he is the most complicated, the most determined, and
therefore the most perfect being in creation. An absolutely perfect
being must be the most determined of all beings; he must contain within
himself a fullness of determinations.
The pantheist Spinoza tells us that determination is negation--that is,
limitation. "_Omnis determinatio negatio est._" Nothing can be falser or
more arbitrary than this principle. Its fallacy consists in the
confusion of two things essentially different, namely, the _limits of a
being_, and _its determinate characteristics_. A pure Ego, by
determining itself to thought, affection, or action, is not thereby
limited. The limitation or the illimitation depends simply upon the
character of the thought, affection, or act as perfect or imperfect. "I
am an intelligent being, and my intelligence is limited; these are two
facts equally certain. The possession of intelligence is the
constitutive characteristic of my being which distinguishes me from the
brute. The limitation imposed upon my intellect, which can only see a
small number of truths at a time, is my limit, and this is what
distinguishes me from the Absolute Being, from Perfect Intelligence
which sees all truths at a glance. That which constitutes my
imperfection is not certainly my being intelligent; therein, on the
contrary, lies the strength, the richness, and the dignity of my being.
What constitutes my weakness and my nothingness is that this
intelligence is inclosed in a narrow circle. Thus, inasmuch as I am
intelligent, I participate in being and perfection; inasmuch as I am
only intelligent within certain limits, I am imperfect."[40]
Determination differs from limitation as much as being differs from
nothing.
The Causative Principle of all reality must itself be _real_, that is,
it must be a self-manifesting and self-conscious power, for there can be
no reality without consciousness. Being which is not known to itself,
and can not manifest itself, is as though it were not. Intuition, _sui
conscia_, is the essence of reality. Here being and knowing are
identical. It must also contain within itself a fullness of
determinations, must be rich in ideas, must be the archetype of all
possible existences. All forms and relations, all ideas and laws, all
individual and special adaptations, all harmonious systems, must be
present to the Absolute Reality. "Uncreated must be Mental Being. This
seems an invincible necessity of all thought. Whatever else, or whatever
more it is, it must be Mental Being" = REASON.
The Causative Principle of all efficiency must itself be _power_,
pluri-efficiency, it must be self-determined and self-moved, and
perfectly adequate to the production of being, motion, change, life, and
intelligence objective to itself; in a word, it must be adequate to the
realization of all the ideals which reason supplies; it must be
unlimited Infinite Efficiency = SPIRIT.
The Causative Principle of all personality must itself be
_personal_--that is, it must have a self-conceived, self-determined
purpose; must freely choose and wisely adapt the means to realize that
purpose; above all, it must have a worthy motive, a best and highest
reason for both purpose and act; and must make all conform to and result
in a moral order in harmony with the blessedness and worthy the
approbation of the All-perfect One. Intuition and choice, affection and
conscience--these are the grand momenta of personality.
The necessary demand of reason is that the first and originative cause
of all finite personality shall be Himself a person. Consciousness can
not arise out of unconsciousness, reason can not be generated from
unreason, personality can not have its birth from impersonality, no more
than something can be born of nothing. There must be intelligence
answering to our intelligence, freedom answering to our freedom, feeling
responding to our feeling, and moral sentiment unisonant with our moral
sentiment: in short, personality correlated with our personality, in the
cause and author of finite responsible being. That perfection which is
mirrored in our finite personality exists in all its fullness in the
unconditionally perfect Being, the Perfect Personality whose name is
LOVE.[41]
God, then, is the Absolute, Infinite, and Perfect Being in whom, by
whom, and for whom the finite has existence and consciousness. He is
_the unconditioned, conditionating Will_. The Divine Essence can not be
apprehended or expressed in a higher universal. This is the first dim
intuition of spontaneous reason, and the final goal of all reflective
thought. The Divine Being is He who is before all, and who originates,
destines, and conditions all. The Biblical idea of the unconditioned
Being is in perfect harmony with the philosophical idea. In the language
of Scripture, "the Will of God" stands for the remotest, inmost essence
of the Godhead--a will which is the absolute identity, the eternal
co-inherence of reason, power, and love. The Divine Will as efficient
cause is never dissociated from the Divine Will as the formal cause and
the final cause. That will is at once cause and law and reason of all
things. God "effectuates all things according to the _counsel_ (τὴν
βουλὴν = deliberation, purpose, design) of his own Will" (Eph. i.
11). And not only according to the counsel, but "according to the _good
pleasure_ (τὴν εὐδοκίαν = the benevolent affection) of his
own will" (ver. 5); a "good pleasure which He hath PURPOSED (προέθετο)
in Himself" (ver. 9). He "created all things, and for his
own _pleasure_ (θέλημα = will) they are and were created."
Here "Will" is clearly more than power, more than efficiency: it is
thought or purpose; it is reason or end; in a word, it is the identity
and co-inherence of reason, power, and love. The unconditioned Will as
revealed to us in Scripture is an _intelligent_ Will--a will that
thinks, deliberates, counsels, designs; and it is also a _benevolent_
Will--a will that loves and delights in and desires the good of being.
And in thinking and desiring it effectuates, for thinking and operating,
desiring and doing, are one with God. "He speaks and it is done, He
commands and it stands fast." Creation is a speech of God, a language in
which He reveals his thoughts, his purposes, his benevolent designs, his
will--that is, Himself. Every revelation of God is the development in us
of the consciousness of the REAL BEING (τὸ ὄντως ὄν). All the proofs of
the being of God--the etiological, the cosmological, the teleological,
and the moral--are centred in the _ontological_: this is first and last.
And just as our consciousness of the indivisible identical EGO as the
unity and co-inherence of reason, feeling, and power is the exact
arresting-point of psychological science, beyond which thought can not
pass, so our intuition of the unconditioned BEING as the absolute
identity of Reason, Power, and Love is the exact arresting point of
Theological science, beyond which nothing can be known. Spirit, Light,
Love--these designate essence or being. "GOD IS SPIRIT" (πνεῦμα =
Spirit, not a Spirit--John iv. 24), the self-moving, efficient,
animating principle, the unity and life-motion of the creative divine
activity; ἡ ζωὴ αἰώνιος--vita absoluta--underived, eternal Life (John v.
26; xi. 25; 1 John v. 20). GOD IS LIGHT (1 John i. 5), the
self-manifesting, intuitional, revealing principle = ὁ λόγος; the
Eternal Reason, in which Spirit becomes objective to itself, and God is
revealed to Himself (John i. 1; 1 Tim. vi. 16). GOD IS LOVE (1 John iv.
8, 16), the self-complete, self-sufficient, self-satisfying principle =
τὸ τέλος, the Perfect One (Matth. v. 48). This Divine Love finds its
fullest satisfaction in the κόσμος νοητός, the intelligible world as
revealed and rendered objective to Himself in "the WORD." Reason,
Spirit, Love are the simplest elements in the conception of the
unconditioned Being: Reason as Reality, Spirit as Efficiency, and Love
as Perfection.
The unconditioned Being is revealed, may we not say "incarnated,"[42] in
the κόσμος αἴσθησις--the sensible world: 1, by the incarnation
of the Spirit in the moving and animating forces of nature; 2, by the
incarnation of the Reason in the typical forms and permanent laws or
relations of the universe, by which reality becomes known to finite
minds; 3, by the incarnation of Love in the final causes, the benevolent
purposes, which are realized in the completed Cosmos and the life of
Humanity.[43]
2. ATTRIBUTE OR RELATED ESSENCE. The knowledge of the Divine Essence is
the root of the knowledge of the Divine Attributes, for in every
conception of an attribute the Divine Essence is, in some mode or other,
supposed. We may therefore define an attribute as a conception of the
unconditioned Being under some relation to our consciousness. That
conception may be either positive or negative, and the relation may
consequently be one of causation or abstraction.
When we conceive of the Divine Essence as _reality_, our conception is
in some measure determined by our consciousness of reality. The
intuition of reality is immanent to our own consciousness. We know self
as a reality, an indivisible, identical Ego--a unity, but yet a
conditioned and dependent reality, which must have its ground and cause
in an independent and unconditioned reality. Thus the pure intuition of
reality is a preluding for the affirmation of absolute reality. We can
not, however, affirm such reality on purely subjective grounds. To the
eye of reason, which is the organ of necessary and absolute truth, the
Divine Essence abstracts itself from the limits of space and time, and
absolves itself from all the determinations of objective being. It is a
reality which is not conditioned by _kind_, a reality which is
independent of, absolved from, undetermined by any other antecedent or
contemporaneous being--absolute reality.
Furthermore, when we conceive the Divine Essence as _power_ or
efficiency, our conception is in some measure determined by our
consciousness of power. We know ourselves as a power, a cause of our own
volitions, and a power which can control and modify external nature, but
yet a limited and finite cause. To the eye of reason the Divine
efficiency transcends all limitation and mensuration. It is a power
which is not conditioned by _quantity_. It is limitless power,
spaceless, all-mighty presence, self-directive power, carrying its own
light and seeing its own way--infinite efficiency.
And, finally, when we conceive of the Divine Essence as _personality_,
again our conception is in some measure determined by our consciousness
of personality. We are conscious of desiring and purposing, of
determining and doing, of approving and delighting in our artistic and
ethical creations, and in these we stand out from the plane of nature as
persons and not things. But we are also conscious of limitation and
imperfection. We fall short even of our own ideals; we feel we have
unsatisfied longings and daily wants. The Divine Essence reveals itself
to reason as exempt from all limitation by _degree_. "Pure personality
is no more limited than absolute being, but it is deeper by all the
contents of perfect consciousness." It is a personality which has no
defect and no want: unconditioned, unlimited perfection--perfect
personality.
Our conception of the Attributes of God may thus be formed through some
relation to our consciousness, but by a process of immediate
abstraction--the negation of all limitation by kind, by quantity, or by
degree.
1. As related to our intuition of real being; by abstraction from all
other being and personality--the _Immanent_ attributes of God.
2. As causally related to finite, dependent existence; by elimination of
all necessary limitation--the _Relative or Transitive_ attributes of
God.
3. As ethically related to finite personality; by elimination of all
imperfection--the _Moral_ attributes of God.
1. _The_ IMMANENT _attributes_. The absolute reality (REASON) must
necessarily be conceived as First, Supreme, and Sole; must be underived,
and therefore eternal; must be absolved from all necessary relation to
other being, and therefore independent; must be above all law of change,
and therefore immutable; must have incomposite unity, and therefore
indivisible; and must be the only one, for two absolutes would limit
each other, and are thus inconceivable. Finally, absolute reality must
be the fullness and archetype of all being in which every form and every
relation, every totality and every harmony, conceivable or possible,
must be ideally and eternally present.
ETERNITY (1 Tim. i. 17; vi. 15, 16; Rev. i. 4, 8; Heb. i. 8).
IMMUTABILITY (James i. 17; Psalm cii. 26, 27; Heb. i. 12).
UNITY (Isaiah xliv. 6; Eph. iv. 6; 1 Tim. ii. 5; John xvii. 3).
IDEALITY (Psalm cxxxix. 16; Rom. xi. 36; Acts xv. 18).
These are the immanent attributes of God.
2. _The_ TRANSITIVE OR RELATIVE _attributes_. The Infinite Efficiency
(SPIRIT) must necessarily be conceived as all-mighty, all-present, and
all-knowing. The Infinite Spirit fills, penetrates, moves, and vitalizes
the universe. He is in all, and through all, and transcends all. He can
not be bounded in space or limited in power, therefore He is spaceless
and infinite. "He is every where present, not virtually but
substantially, for virtue can not subsist without substance." And as the
All-mighty is present every where, present to all things, so all things
exist "in Him," and are present to Him in an immediate and intuitive
vision--He knows all things.
OMNIPOTENCE (Psalm cxv. 3; Jer. xxxii. 27; Rom. xi. 36; 1 Cor. viii. 6).
UBIQUITY (Psalm cxxxix. 7-13; Jer. xxiii. 23, 24; 1 Cor. xv. 28; Matth.
x. 29).
OMNISCIENCE (Psalm cxxxix. 1-6; Acts i. 24; Heb. iv. 13; Matth. vi. 8).
These are the relative or transitive attributes of God.
3. _The_ MORAL _attributes_. Perfect Personality (LOVE) must by the very
conception be wise and holy, righteous and blessed, for these are the
attributes of personality, and may all be ultimately grounded in love.
The reason of all existence and all personality is found, not in
infinite causality, but in the free love of the perfect personality.
This is the final cause of all existence. And if perfect Love be the
final cause of all existence, it must know the end, and ordain the law
and means. The highest end of the world is the perfect fellowship of man
with God; the physical must therefore be subordinated to the moral order
of the universe. The Perfect Personality must freely will to impart his
fellowship to those who are obedient to his moral law; and it must be
removed from fellowship with and deny itself to evil, which is
antagonistic to the ends of Love. Or, in other words, it must establish
a fixed and changeless relation between righteousness and blessedness in
the creature. It must approve the good and condemn the evil. And in
making the righteous "partakers of his joy," He must be "well pleased."
The absolute blessedness of God is found in the fullness and harmony of
the Divine life. He has in Himself the eternal and absolutely worthy
object of his love. But there is a Divine satisfaction, "a good pleasure
of God," which is found in the communication of Himself to the creature.
"He rejoiceth in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights are
with the sons of men." "He taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in
those that hope in his mercy."
WISDOM (Job xii. 13; Rom. xi. 33, 34; Eph. iii. 9, 10).
GOODNESS (Psalm xxxiii. 5; xxxiv. 8; cvii. 1, 8).
HOLINESS (Deut. xxxii. 4; Psalm v. 5; James i. 13, 17).
BLESSEDNESS (1 Tim. i. 11; vi. 15).
These are the moral attributes of God.[44] They are also called by
pre-eminence the Perfections of God, because they are free
determinations of the Divine nature, an everlasting "BECOMING," rather
than an eternal "BEING." The immanent attributes of God are a necessary
inbeing; the moral attributes of God are a voluntary outgoing, an
eternally free, alternative forth-putting of choice for the right and
the good.[45]
The doctrine concerning God above presented, in which we fain would
hope that philosophy and Christian thought are brought into harmony, may
now be summarily presented in the following schema:
_Fundamental Idea of Reason._ _Thought-Conceptions_
_Founded on Relations._
(Essence) {ETERNITY }
{as ABSOLUTE REALITY.... {IMMUTABILITY } Immanent
{UNITY } Attributes.
{IDEALITY }
UNCONDITIONED {OMNIPOTENCE } Transitive
WILL {as INFINITE EFFICIENCY.. {UBIQUITY } or Causal
{OMNISCIENCE } Attributes.
{WISDOM } Moral Attributes
{as PERFECT PERSONALITY {GOODNESS } (Relational).
{HOLINESS }
{BLESSEDNESS }
The references to the Sacred Scriptures already given will show the
harmony between the conceptions of reason and the verbal revelations of
God. Reason and Scripture unite in proclaiming that God is "the great
and holy _One_ that inhabiteth eternity," who "only hath immortality,"
"with whom is no variableness," and who "filleth all in all;" to whom
"all his works are known from eternity," in whose book "all our members
were written when as yet there was none of them," and whose "purposes,"
ideas, and plans are "eternal." These are mainly the immanent attributes
of God, conceptions which flow from the very idea of the Absolute and
Infinite Being. They are evolved from Real Being by the negation of all
limit, all parts, all change; the canceling of time and space and
matter, the recognition of God as pure Reason, pure Spirit, pure Love.
The Scriptures, however, deal more immediately with the causal,
transitive, and relational aspects of the Divine attributes--that is,
with the conception of God in his voluntary relations to finite being
and finite personality. They speak of God in his historically known
existence, as a Being who _voluntarily_ conditions his Omnipotence and
Sovereignty under concessions of self-reality, self-life, and freedom to
finite beings, without Himself being conditioned by any thing--a
_self-limitation_ which in nowise detracts from the absoluteness and
infinity of God--an _unconditioned conditionating Will_.[46]
The relation which God sustains to his works is not a _necessary_
relation--it is a _voluntary_ and self-imposed relation. Free Love is
the highest determining principle for the efficiency of Divine
Omnipotence. Power thus directed and conditioned by wisdom and love does
not, can not detract from the perfection of God. The substitution of
_choice_ for necessity is, in fact, no real limitation; on the contrary,
it ascribes to God the most _absolute perfection_.
The causal attributes of God, or those conceptions of God which are
especially grounded upon his relation to the world and humanity, are
properly divided into those which are Cosmical and those which are
Ethical. The first, of course, embrace his relation to the world, the
second his relation to personal, responsible beings. The content of the
cosmological conception is Omnipotence, Ubiquity, Omniscience. The
content of the ethical conception is Wisdom, Goodness, Holiness, and
Blessedness. God as the Creator and Sustainer of the world, God as the
Father, Teacher, and Ruler of humanity, are the two grand manifestations
of the one infinite and perfect Being, and "_Elohim_" and "_Jehovah_"
are his expressive and distinctive names, the first denoting the
cosmical activity of God, the latter his government and kingdom among
men.
These two grand aspects of the Divine manifestation are marked in the
Elohistic and Jehovistic portions of the first revelation given to the
Semitic race. They are still more distinctly recognized in Paul's
discourse before the assembled Athenian philosophers, where Christian
theology was for the first time presented to the Greek mind--God the
Creator and Conservator of the world (Acts xvii. 24, 25); God the
Father, Teacher, Ruler, and Judge of humanity (Acts xvii. 26-31).