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
number, and God is not material substance that can be broken into
"parts," but an organized Spirit, we see that we may consider the
elements of his organization in their logical order; and, remembering
that absoluteness and infinity as qualities pervade all, we may examine
his nature and attributes without impiety.
Mr. Mansel says further: "But in truth it is obvious, on a moment's
reflection, that neither the Absolute nor the Infinite can be
represented in the form of a whole composed of parts." This is
tantamount to saying, the spiritual cannot be represented under the form
of the material--a truth so evident as hardly to need so formal a
statement. But what the Divine means is, that that Being cannot be known
as having qualities and attributes which may be distinguished in and
from himself; which is an error. God is infinite. So is his Knowledge,
his Wisdom, his Holiness, his Love, &c. Yet these are distinguished from
each other, and from him. All this is consistent, because infinity is
_quality_, and permeates them all; and not amount, which jumbles them
all into a confused, _indistinguishable_ mass.
In speaking of "human consciousness" as "necessarily subject to the law
of Time," Mr. Mansel says, "Every object of whose existence we can be in
any way conscious is necessarily apprehended by us as succeeding in time
to some former object of consciousness, and as itself occupying a
certain portion of time." In so far as there is here expressed the law
of created beings, under which they must see objects, the remark is
true. But when Mr. Mansel proceeds further, and concludes that, because
we are under limitation in seeing the object, it is under the same
limitation, so far as we apprehend it in being seen, he asserts what is
a psychological error. To show this, take the mathematical axiom,
"Things which are equal to the same things, are equal to one another."
Except under the conditions of Time, we cannot see this, that is, we do,
must, occupy a time in observing it. But do we see that the axiom is
under any condition of Time? By no means. We see, directly, that it is,
_must be_, true, and that in itself it has no relation to Time. It is
thus _absolutely_ true; and as one of the ideas of the infinite and
absolute Person, it possesses these his qualities. We have, then, a
faculty, the Reason, which, while it sees its objects in succession, and
so under the law of Time, also sees that those objects, whether ideas,
or that Being to whom all ideas belong, are, _in themselves_, out of all
relation to Time. Thus is the created spiritual person endowed; thus is
he like God; thus does he know "the Infinite." Hence, "the command, so
often urged upon man by philosophers and theologians, 'In contemplating
God, transcend time,'" means, "In all your reflections upon God, behold
him in his true aspect, in the reason-idea, as out of all relation." It
is true that "to know the infinite" _exhaustively_, "the human mind must
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