37. The answer which we have to give, is that which we have already
repeatedly stated. Man is an intellectual, moral, religious, and
spiritual creature. If we consider these attributes, we shall see that
they are such as to give him a special relation to God, and as we
conceive, and must conceive, God to be; and may therefore be, in God,
the occasion of special guardianship, special regard, a special
dispensation towards man.
38. As an intellectual creature, he has not only an intelligence which
he can apply to practical uses, to minister to the needs of animal and
social life; but also an intellect by which he can speculate about the
relations of things, in their most general form; for instance, the
properties of space and time, the relations of finite and infinite. He
can discover truths, to which all things, existing in space and time,
must conform. These are conditions of existence to which the creation
conforms, that is, to which the Creator conforms; and man, capable of
seeing that such conditions are true and necessary, is capable, so far,
of understanding some of the conditions of the Creator's workmanship.
In this way, the mind of man has some community with the mind of God;
and however remote and imperfect this community may be, it must be real.
Since, then, man has thus, in his intellect, an element of community
with God, it is so far conceivable that he should be, in a special
manner, the object of God's care and favor. The human mind, with its
wonderful and perhaps illimitable powers, is something of which we can
believe God to be "mindful."
39. Again: man is a moral creature. He recognizes, he cannot help
recognizing, a distinction of right and wrong in his actions; and in his
internal movements which lead to action. This distinction he recognizes
as the reason, the highest and ultimate reason, for doing or for not
doing. And this law of his own reason, he is, by reflection, led to
recognize as a Law of the Supreme Reason; of the Supreme Mind which has
made him what he is. The Moral Law, he owns and feels as God's Law. By
the obligation which he feels to obey this Law, he feels himself God's
subject; placed under his government; compelled to expect his judgment,
his rewards, and punishments. By being a moral creature, then, he is, in
a special manner, the subject of God; and not only we can believe that,
in this capacity, God cares for him; but we cannot believe that he _does
not_ care for him. He cares for him, so as to approve of what he does
right, and to condemn what he does wrong. And he has given him, in his
own breast, an assurance that he will do this; and thus, God cares for
man, in a peculiar and special manner. As a moral creature, we have no
difficulty in conceiving that God may think him worthy of his regard and
government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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