Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
_Job 11:7—_“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find
out the Almighty to perfection?” _Rom. 11:33—_“how unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Every doctrine,
therefore, has its inexplicable side. Here is the proper meaning
of Tertullian’s sayings: “Certum est, quia impossible est: quo
absurdius, eo verius”; that of Anselm: “Credo, ut intelligam”; and
that of Abelard: “Qui credit cito, levis corde est.” Drummond,
Nat. Law in Spir. World: “A science without mystery is unknown; a
religion without mystery is absurd.” E. G. Robinson: “A finite
being cannot grasp even its own relations to the Infinite.” Hovey,
Manual of Christ. Theol., 7—“To infer from the perfection of God
that all his works [nature, man, inspiration] will be absolutely
and unchangeably perfect: to infer from the perfect love of God
that there can be no sin or suffering in the world; to infer from
the sovereignty of God that man is not a free moral agent;—all
these inferences are rash; they are inferences from the cause to
the effect, while the cause is imperfectly known.” See Calderwood,
Philos. of Infinite, 491; Sir Wm. Hamilton, Discussions, 22.
(_b_) _In the imperfect state of science, both natural and metaphysical._
This gives rise to a class of accidental mysteries, or mysteries which
consist in the apparently irreconcilable nature of truths, which, taken
separately, are perfectly comprehensible.
We are the victims of a mental or moral astigmatism, which sees a
_single_ point of truth as _two_. We see God and man, divine
sovereignty and human freedom, Christ’s divine nature and Christ’s
human nature, the natural and the supernatural, respectively, as
two disconnected facts, when perhaps deeper insight would see but
one. Astronomy has its centripetal and centrifugal forces, yet
they are doubtless one force. The child cannot hold two oranges at
once in its little hand. Negro preacher: “You can’t carry two
watermelons under one arm.” Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra,
1:2—“In nature’s infinite book of secresy, A little I can read.”
Cooke, Credentials of Science, 34—“Man’s progress in knowledge has
been so constantly and rapidly accelerated that more has been
gained during the lifetime of men still living than during all
human history before.” And yet we may say with D’Arcy, Idealism
and Theology, 248—“Man’s position in the universe is eccentric.
God alone is at the centre. To him alone is the orbit of truth
completely displayed.... There are circumstances in which to us
the onward movement of truth may seem a retrogression.” William
Watson, Collected Poems, 271—“Think not thy wisdom can illume away
The ancient tanglement of night and day. Enough to acknowledge
both, and both revere: They see not clearliest who see all things
clear.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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