Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation: Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer — John Shaqi
Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation: Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert SpencerJones, Jesse Henry
Religion
Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation: Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer
1. _Absoluteness is that distinctive spiritual_ QUALITY _of the
necessary Being which establishes Him as unqualified except by Himself,
and as complete_.
2. Absoluteness and Unconditionedness are,--the one the positive, and
the other the negative term expressive of the same idea.
3. _Infinity is that distinctive spiritual_ QUALITY _of the necessary
Being which gives to Him universality_.
Absoluteness and Infinity are, then, spiritual qualities of the
self-existent Person, which, distinguishing Him from all other persons,
constitute Him unique and supreme.
It is a law of Logic, which even the child must acknowledge, that
whenever, by a process of thought, a result has been attained and set
forth, he who propounds the result is directly responsible for all that
is logically involved in it. The authority of that law is here both
acknowledged and invoked. The most rigid and exhaustive logical
development of the premises heretofore obtained, which the human mind is
capable of, is challenged, in the confidence that there can be found
therein no jot of discrepancy, no tittle of contradiction. As germain,
and important to the matter in hand, some steps in this development will
be noted.
In solving the problem placed before us, viz: To account for the being
and continuance of the Universe, we have found that the Universe and its
Cause are two distinct and yet intimately and necessarily connected
beings, the one dependent upon the other, and that other utterly
independent; and so that the one is limited and finite, and the other
absolute and infinite; that the one is partly thing and partly person,
and that to both thing and person limitation and finiteness belong;
while the other is wholly person, and consequently the pure, absolute,
and infinite Person. We have further found that absoluteness and
infinity are spiritual qualities of that one Person, which are
incommunicable, and differentiate Him from all other possible beings;
and which establish Him as the uncaused, self-active ground for all
possible beings besides. It is then a Person with all the limitations
and conditions of personality,--a Person at once limited and unlimited,
conditioned and unconditioned, related and unrelated, whose limitations,
conditions, and relations are entirely consistent with his absoluteness
and infinity, who is the final Cause, the Ultimate Ground of the
Universe.
The finite person is self-conscious, and in a measure
self-comprehending; but he only partially perceives the workings of his
own being. _A fortiori_, must the infinite Person be self-conscious, and
exhaustively self-comprehending. The finite person is an intellect,
sensibility, and will; but these are circumscribed by innumerable
limitations. So must the infinite Person be intellect, sensibility, and
will; but His intellect must be Universal Genius; His sensibility Pure
Delight, and His will, as choice, Universal Benevolence, and as act,
Omnipotence.
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