4. In case of disagreement, we should renew our independent
investigations in each domain, for the purpose of detecting the error
into which we have fallen.
In conducting an investigation upon such principles, we shall, with
almost absolute certainty, find ourselves in each domain, following rays
of light, which will converge together in the true theory of the Will.
ERRORS OF METHOD.
Two errors into which philosophers and divines of a certain class have
fallen in their method of treating the department of our subject now
under consideration, here demand a passing notice.
1. The two methods above referred to, the psychological and theological,
which should at all times be kept entirely distinct and separate, have
unhappily been mingled together. Thus the subject has failed to receive
a proper investigation in the domain, either of theology or of
philosophy.
2. In reasoning from the Scriptures to the theory of the Will
pre-supposed in the same, _the wrong truth_ has been adduced as the
basis of such reasoning, to wit: _the fact of the Divine foreknowledge_.
As all events yet future are foreknown to God, they are in themselves,
it is said, alike certain. This certainty necessitates the adoption of a
particular theory of the Will. Now before we can draw any such
conclusion from the truth before us, the following things pertaining to
it we need to know with absolute certainty, things which God has not
revealed, and which we never can know, until He has revealed them, to
wit: the _mode_, the _nature_, and the _degree_ of the Divine
foreknowledge. Suppose that God should impart to us apprehensions
perfectly full and distinct, of the mode, nature and degree of His
foreknowledge of human conduct. How do we know but that we should then
see with the most perfect clearness, that this foreknowledge is just as
consistent with the theory of the Will, denied by the philosophers and
divines under consideration, as with that which they suppose necessarily
to result from the Divine foreknowledge? This, then, is not the truth
from which we should reason to the theory of the Will pre-supposed in
the Bible.
There are truths of inspiration, however, which appear to me to have a
direct and decisive bearing upon this subject, and upon which we may
therefore safely base our conclusions. In the Scriptures, man is
addressed as a moral agent, the subject of commands and prohibitions, of
obligation, of merit and demerit, and consequently of reward and
punishment. Now when we have determined the powers which an agent must
possess, to render him a proper subject of command and prohibition, of
obligation, of merit and demerit, and consequently of reward and
punishment, we have determined the philosophy of the Will, really
pre-supposed in the Scriptures. Beneath these truths, therefore, and not
beneath that of the divine foreknowledge, that philosophy is to be
sought for. This I argue--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account