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
If the views now advanced are presentations of truth, a consistent
rationalism _must_ attribute "consciousness to God." _We_ are always
conscious of "limitation and change," because partiality and growth are
organic with us. But we can perceive no peculiarity in consciousness,
which should produce such an effect. On the contrary we see, that if a
person has little knowledge, he will be conscious of so much and no
more. And if a person has great capabilities, and corresponding
information, he is conscious of just so much. Whence, it appears, that
the "limitation and change" spring from the nature of the constitution,
and not from the consciousness. If, then, there should be one Person who
possessed the sum of all excellencies, there could arise no reason from
consciousness why he should be conscious thereof.
Mr. Mansel names as the "second characteristic of Consciousness, that it
is only possible in the form of a _relation_. There must be a Subject,
or person conscious, and an Object or thing of which he is conscious."
This utterance, taken in the sense which Mr. Mansel wishes to convey,
involves the denial of consciousness to God. But upon the ground that
the subject and object in the Deity are always identical the difficulty
vanishes. But how can man be "conscious of the Absolute?" If by this is
meant, have an exhaustive comprehension of the absolute Person, the
experience is manifestly impossible. But man may have a certain
knowledge, _that_ such Person is without knowing in all respects _what_
he is, just as a child may know that an apple is, without knowing what
it is. Again Mr. Mansel uses the terms absolute and infinite to
represent a simple unanalyzable Being. In this he is guilty of
personifying an abstract term, and then reasoning with regard to the
Being as he would with regard to the term. Absoluteness is a simple
unanalyzable idea, but it is not God; it is only one quality of God. So
with infinity. God is universal complexity; and to reason of him as
unanalyzable simplicity is as absurd as to select the color of the
apple's skin, and call that the apple, and then reason from it about the
apple. So, then, though man cannot comprehend the absolute Person _as
such_, he has a positive idea of absoluteness, and a positive knowledge
that the Being is who is thus qualified. Upon the subsequent question
respecting the partiality of our knowledge of the infinite and absolute
Person, a remark made above may be repeated and amplified. We may have a
true, clear, thorough knowledge _that_ he exists without having an
exhaustive knowledge of _what_ he is. The former is necessary to us; the
latter impossible. So, too, the knowledge by us, of any _a priori_ law,
will be exhaustive. Yet while we know that it _must_ be such, and not
otherwise, it neither follows that we know all other _a priori_ laws,
nor that we know all the exemplifications of this one. And since, as we
have heretofore seen, neither absoluteness nor infinity relate to
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