view. Sense of Moral Obligation not a consciousness of the Absolute and Infinite.-Yet the Infinite is indirectly implied by the religious consciousness, though not apprehended as such; for the consciousness of limitation carries with it an indirect conviction of the existence of the Infinite beyond consciousness. - Result of the above analysis—our knowledge of God relative and not absolute -the Infinite an object of belief, but not of thought or knowledge; hence we may know that an Infinite God exists, but not what He is as Infinite. Further results of an examination of the religious consciousness. God known as a Person through the con sciousness of ourselves as Persons—this consciousness indispensable to Theism; for the denial of our own Personality, whether in the form of Materialism or of Pantheism, logically leads to Atheism. - Summary of conclusions-our religious knowledge is regulative, but not speculative- importance of this distinction in theological reasoning-conception of the Infinite inadmissible in Theology. Office of religious philosophy, as limited to finite conceptions.— Practical benefits of this limitation.- Conclusion, 114 LECTURE V. Distinction between Speculative and Regulative Truth further pursued. -In Philosophy, as well as Religion, our highest principles of thought are regulative and not speculative. - Instances in the Ideas of Liberty and Necessity; Unity and Plurality as implied in the conception of any object; Commerce between Soul and Body; Extension, as implied in external perception; and Succession, as implied in the entire consciousness. -Illustration thus afforded for determining the limits of thought-distinction between legitimate and illegitimate thought, as determined by their relation to the inexplicable and the self-contradictory respectively. Conclusion to be drawn as regards the manner of the mind's operation - all Consciousness implies a relation between Subject and Object, dependent on their mutual action and reäction; and thus no principle of thought can be regarded as absolute and simple, as an ultimate and highest truth. - Analogy in this respect between Philosophy and Natural Religion which apprehends the Infinite under finite forms-corresponding difficulties to be expected in each. - Provinces of Reason and Faith. - Analogy extended to Revealed Religion testimony of Revelation plain and intelligible when regarded as regulative, but ultimately incomprehensible to speculation - corresponding errors in Philosophy and Religion, illustrating this analogy. — Regulative conceptions not therefore untrue. The above principles confirmed by the teaching of Scripture. - Revelation expressly adapted to the limits of human thought. -- Relation of the Infinite to the Personal in the representations of God in the Old Testament. - Further confirmation from the New Testament.- Doctrine of the Incarnation; its practical position in Theology as a regulative truth; its perversion by modern philosophy, in the attempt to exhibit it as a speculative truth.-Instances in Hegel, Marheineke, and Strauss.- Conclusion, 136 LECTURE VI. Result of the previous inquiries — religious ideas contain two elements, a Form, common to them with all other ideas, as being human thoughts; and a Matter, peculiar to themselves, as thoughts about religious objects - hence there may exist two possible kinds of difficulties; the one formal arising from the universal laws of human thought; the other material arising from the peculiar nature of religious evidence. The principal objections suggested by Rationalism are of the former kind; common to all human thinking as such, and therefore to Rationalism itself. - Proof of this position by the exhibition of parallel difficulties in Theology and Philosophy. Our ignorance of the nature of God compared with our ignorance of the nature, of Causation. - Doctrine of the Trinity compared with the philosophical conception of the Infinite and the Absolute, as one and yet as many. - Doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son compared with the relation of an Infinite Sub stance to its Attributes. - Purpose of such comparisons, not to prove the doctrines, but to show the weakness of human reason with regard to them- true evidence of the doctrines to be found, not in Reason, but in Revelation. - Further parallels.- Doctrine of the twofold nature of Christ compared with the philosophical conception of the Infinite as coëxisting with the Finite.-Reason thus shown not to be the supreme judge of religious truth; for Religion must begin with that which is above Reason. - Extension of the same argument to our conceptions of Divine Providence. - Representations of General Law and Special Interposition- supposed difficulty in the conception of the latter shown to be really common to all human conceptions of the Infinite. - Both representations equally imperfect as speculative truths, and both equally necessary as regulative. - Imperfections in the conception of General Law and mechanical action of the universe - this conception is neither philosophically necessary nor empirically universal; and hence it is not entitled to supersede all other representations it is inapplicable to the phenomena of mind, and only partially available in relation to those of matter. - Conception of Miraculous Agency, as subordinate to that of Special Providence -no sufficient ground, either from philosophy or from experience, for asserting that miracles are impossible.- Comparison between the opposite conceptions of a miracle, as an exception to a law, or as the result of a higher law-both these conceptions are specula LECTURE VII. Philosophical parallel continued with regard to the supposed moral problem of the existence of Evil at all, which is itself but a subor- dinate case of the universal impossibility of conceiving the coëxist- ence of the Infinite with the Finite. - Contrast between illegitimate and legitimate mode of reasoning on evil and its punishment- illustrations to be derived from analogies in the course of nature and in the constitution of the human mind. - Extension of the argument from analogy to other religious doctrines Original Sin — Justification by Faith- Operation of Divine Grace.-Limits of - Right use of Reason in religious questions - Reason entitled to judge |