Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
(_c_) As deism tends to atheism, so the doctrine of continuous creation
tends to pantheism.—Arguing that, because we get our notion of force from
the action of our own wills, therefore all force must be will, and divine
will, it is compelled to merge the human will in this all-comprehending
will of God. Mind and matter alike become phenomena of one force, which
has the attributes of both; and, with the distinct existence and
personality of the human soul, we lose the distinct existence and
personality of God, as well as the freedom and accountability of man.
Lotze tries to escape from _material_ causes and yet hold to
_second_ causes, by intimating that these second causes may be
spirits. But though we can see how there can be a sort of spirit
in the brute and in the vegetable, it is hard to see how what we
call insensate matter can have spirit in it. It must be a very
peculiar sort of spirit—a deaf and dumb spirit, if any—and such a
one does not help our thinking. On this theory the body of a dog
would need to be much more highly endowed than its soul. James
Seth, in Philos. Rev., Jan. 1894:73—“This principle of unity is a
veritable lion’s den,—all the footprints are in one direction.
Either it is a bare unity—the One annuls the many; or it is simply
the All,—the ununified totality of existence.” Dorner well remarks
that “Preservation is empowering of the creature and maintenance
of its activity, not new bringing it into being.” On the whole
subject, see Julius Müller, Doctrine of Sin, 1:220-225; Philippi,
Glaubenslehre, 2:258-272; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 50; Hodge, Syst.
Theol., 1:577-581, 595; Dabney, Theology, 338, 339.
IV. Remarks upon the Divine Concurrence.
(_a_) The divine efficiency interpenetrates that of man without destroying
or absorbing it. The influx of God’s sustaining energy is such that men
retain their natural faculties and powers. God does not work all, but all
in all.
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