Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
Hutton, Essays, 1:11—“Conscience is an ideal Moses, and thunders
from an invisible Sinai”; “the Atheist regards conscience not as a
skylight, opened to let in upon human nature an infinite dawn from
above, but as a polished arch or dome, completing and reflecting
the whole edifice beneath.” But conscience cannot be the mere
reflection and expression of nature, for it represses and condemns
nature. Tulloch, Theism: “Conscience, like the magnetic needle,
indicates the existence of an unknown Power which from afar
controls its vibrations and at whose presence it trembles.” Nero
spends nights of terror in wandering through the halls of his
Golden House. Kant holds that faith in duty requires faith in a
God who will defend and reward duty—see Critique of Pure Reason,
359-387. See also Porter, Human Intellect, 524.
Kant, in his Metaphysic of Ethics, represents the action of
conscience as like “conducting a case before a court,” and he
adds: “Now that he who is accused before his conscience should be
figured to be just the same person as his judge, is an absurd
representation of a tribunal; since, in such an event, the accuser
would always lose his suit. Conscience must therefore represent to
itself always some other than itself as Judge, unless it is to
arrive at a contradiction with itself.” See also his Critique of
the Practical Reason, Werke, 8:214—“Duty, thou sublime and mighty
name, that hast in thee nothing to attract or win, but challengest
submission; and yet dost threaten nothing to sway the will by that
which may arouse natural terror or aversion, but merely holdest
forth a Law; a Law which of itself finds entrance into the mind,
and even while we disobey, against our will compels our reverence,
a Law in presence of which all inclinations grow dumb, even while
they secretly rebel; what origin is there worthy of thee? Where
can we find the root of thy noble descent, which proudly rejects
all kinship with the inclinations?” Archbishop Temple answers, in
his Bampton Lectures, 58, 59, “This eternal Law is the Eternal
himself, the almighty God.” Robert Browning: “The sense within me
that I owe a debt Assures me—Somewhere must be Somebody, Ready to
take his due. All comes to this: Where due is, there acceptance
follows: find Him who accepts the due.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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