Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
(_a_) It is chargeable with a _petitio principii_, in making our own
personal experience the measure of all human experience. The same
principle would make the proof of any absolutely new fact impossible. Even
though God should work a miracle, he could never prove it.
(_b_) It involves a self-contradiction, since it seeks to overthrow our
faith in human testimony by adducing to the contrary the general
experience of men, of which we know only from testimony. This general
experience, moreover, is merely negative, and cannot neutralize that which
is positive, except upon principles which would invalidate all testimony
whatever.
(_c_) It requires belief in a greater wonder than those which it would
escape. That multitudes of intelligent and honest men should against all
their interests unite in deliberate and persistent falsehood, under the
circumstances narrated in the New Testament record, involves a change in
the sequences of nature far more incredible than the miracles of Christ
and his apostles.
(_a_) John Stuart Mill, Essays on Theism, 216-241, grants that,
even if a miracle were wrought, it would be impossible to prove
it. In this he only echoes Hume, Miracles, 112—“The ultimate
standard by which we determine all disputes that may arise is
always derived from experience and observation.” But here our own
personal experience is made the standard by which to judge all
human experience. Whately, Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon
Buonaparte, shows that the same rule would require us to deny the
existence of the great Frenchman, since Napoleon’s conquests were
contrary to all experience, and civilized nations had never before
been so subdued. The London Times for June 18, 1888, for the first
time in at least a hundred years or in 31,200 issues, was
misdated, and certain pages read June 17, although June 17 was
Sunday. Yet the paper would have been admitted in a court of
justice as evidence of a marriage. The real wonder is, not the
break in experience, but the continuity without the break.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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