10878-10881]

of God? we may reply that it is a knowledge which implies unity of nature, community of goods, similarity of taste, and constant yearning after the same ends. Have we fully entered into this?-that to have anything whatsoever of this knowledge of God, there must be an actual unity of nature, because "if a man be not born of the Spirit" (as our Lord says) "he cannot see the kingdom of God." How many there are who deceive themselves with the idea that this knowledge is attained by constant study, whereas we are to receive this knowledge by God's gift. "The gift of God is eternal life." The Spirit it is that quickeneth into life. Let the Holy Spirit enter into the soul, and the man becomes in a position to commence the study of this God, the knowledge of whom is, through all eternity, to be the one aspiration of his soul. But never, till we have been made partakers of the Divine nature, can we even hope to commence this glorious study, or to have the very rudimentary elements of this knowledge of God. If there is one, therefore, in this assembly, conscious in his own soul that he has not been made a partaker of the very life of God, let that man know that he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. "For," says St. Paul, "what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God," &c. (1 Cor. ii. 11-14).

We must be made partakers of the Divine nature, being begotten of God (1 John v. 18), and we must have a deep sense of reality of this glorious union with God in Christ. This is not presumption. It is the condescension of God that brings us into our proper place when we realize that God has given to us an enjoyment of the very life of God, a suitable link to eternity itself, that cannot break, but that will only bind us closer and closer to Him who is the infinitely and absolutely Unknowable. Nor are we only to realize the unity of nature, but there must also be the knowledge of the community of goods (1 Cor. iii. 21-23). We have seen that it is impossible for any man to know who is not placed in sympathy with the one whom he seeks to know. This truth has been traced by theologians in language hardly becoming to a gathering like this, but one yearns to give some expression to that which one believes to be the great manifestation of this truth of God, and all can apprehend the thought that for a man to know the Divine he must have the Divine : for a man to know another he must be so united to that other as to have a sense of perfect community of interest, &c., in all that belongs to that other whom he would know.

There must be sympathy, and there must be realization of oneness in taste, habit, desire, property (Rev. xxi. 7), and prospect. If a man has not entered into the realization of the gifts of God (1 Cor. ii. 12), it is vain for him to speak of himself as knowing God. But let there be this realization, this giving out of one's trust to God's work of love, and the beginning of this enjoyment of all things in Christ; then

[SPIRITUALITY.

we are placed in a position wherein we may commence the further study of our God.-Rev. W. H. Webb Peploe.

2

SPIRITUALITY.

I. NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DIVINE SPIRITUALITY.

[10879] God is without all composition, without any parts, not having soul and body, as we have, not being compounded of substance and accident, as we are; but He is palpable, not to be discerned by any sense. Therefore Christ bids His disciples to feel Him: "Behold My hands and My feet (saith He) that it is I Myself; handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as I have." A spirit is that which is drawn from the sight of any corporeal sense whatsoever, and in this sense God is called a spirit. -John Preston, 1631.

[10880] The spirit insinuates itself, and enters into any bodily substance, without all penetration of dimension; that is, it is not held out of any place by reason of a body that is in it; it may be in it though the place be otherwise full; as you see the soul is in the body, you shall find nowhere an empty place, the body is every where whole; yet the Spirit insinuates itself in every part, and no body can keep it out And so is God; He is invisible, not seen by any eye, He moves Himself and all things in the world as He lists; and He doth what He doth with exceeding great strength; and then He fills every place, both heaven and earth; what bodies soever be there, yet He may be there notwithstanding. And thus you see in what sense this is to be understood, God is a spirit. -Ibid.

I

II. REASONS FOR THE DEDUCTIONS OF THIS DOCTRINE.

Because God is without composition.

[10881] He is so simple that there are no parts in Him: if He have no parts, then He must needs be simple, and without composition; and, indeed, of what should He be compounded? He was before all things, therefore necessarily He must be without all composition; all created spirits are without bodies, but all created spirits have a kind of composition; but God hath none: all created spirits, both angels and souls of men, have a kind of composition, they are compounded of act and power; but God hath neither matter nor form, nor is compounded of act and power, therefore He is without composition, and it may well be said that He is a spirit invisible and incorporeal.-R. Stock, 1641.

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Because God cannot be comprehended nor contained in any space.

[10882] Corporeal things are comprehended, as the bodies that are in this place may be circumscribed; the reason is, because they have length, breadth, and depth; but no such thing is in God. I say all spirits are without these, and free from circumscription, then much more this spirit. This is that Solomon speaks of 1 Kings viii. 2: “Doth God indeed dwell among men, behold the heavens of heavens are not able to contain thee." So Jer. xxiii. 24: “I fill heaven and earth." Saint Cyprian saith, God is such an essence as is spiritual, and is in every place, and excluded out of no place, nor included in any place, but fills every place, therefore he must needs be a spirit invisible and incorporeal. Ibid.

3

Because God is not subject to senses. [10883] "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have :" the reason is, because spirits have not sensible qualities, which are the object of men's senses, much less hath God any such qualities; in God there is no mutability, nor change, therefore He is not subject to sense; for whatsoever is subject to sense is mutable; that which is the sharpest sense, and best able to comprehend, is the eyes, but this cannot comprehend God; God is infinite, and therefore cannot possibly fall under finite sense of man; that which is subject to sense is subject to man's understanding; but God exceeds man's understanding. He is great; we know Him not, saith Elihu ; we know Him no further than He doth reveal Himself, and when we know the most, how little of Him do we perceive. Therefore it follows from hence that God is a spirit.-Ibid.

III. IMPORTANCE OF THE PRINCIPLE INVOLVED IN DOCTRINE.

[10884] To deny the distinction between matter and spirit is to deny the spirituality of God, and to contradict the distinction which, as to man, is constantly kept up in every part of the Bible-the distinction between flesh and spirit. To assert that consciousness, thought, volition, &c., are the results of organization, is to deny also what the Scripture so expressly affirms, that the souls of men exist in a disembodied state; and that, in this disembodied state, not only do they exist, but that they think, and feel, and act, without any diminution of their energy or capacity. The immateriality of the Divine Being may, therefore, be considered as a point of great importance, not only as it affects our views of His nature and attributes, but because, when once it is established that there exists a pure spirit, living, intelligent, and invested with moral properties, the question of the immateriality of the human soul may be considered as almost settled. Those who deny that must admit that the Deity is material; or, if they start at this, they must be convicted of the unphilosophical and absurd attempt to

[SPIRITUALITY.

invest a substance, allowed to be of an entirely different nature (the body of man) with those attributes of intelligence and volition which, in the case of the Divine Being, they have allowed to be the properties of pure unembodied spirit. The propositions are totally inconsistent; for they who believe God is wholly an immaterial being, and that man is wholly a material one, admit that spirit is intelligent, and that matter is intelligent. They cannot, then, be of different essences; and if the premises be followed out to their legitimate conclusion, either that which thinks in man must be allowed to be spiritual, or a material Deity must follow. The whole truth of revelation, both as to God and His creature man, must be acknowledged, or the atheism of Spinoza and Hobbes must be admitted.-Rev. Richard Watson.

IV. CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM Doc

TRINE.

[10885] If God be a spirit, it follows of necessity that He is a person -a self-conscious, intelligent, voluntary agent. As all this is involved in our consciousness of ourselves as spirit, it must all be true of God, or God is of a lower order of being than man.

It follows also that God is a simple Being, not only as not composed of different elements, but also as not admitting of the distinction between substance and accidents. Nothing can either be added to or taken from God. In this view the simplicity as well as the other attributes of God are of a higher order than the corresponding attributes of our spiritual nature. The soul of man is a simple substance; but it is subject to change. It can gain and lose knowledge, holiness, and power. These are in this view accidents in our substance. But in God they are attributes, essential and immutable. Finally, it follows from God's being a spirit that He is a moral as well as an intelligent Being. It is involved in the very nature of rational voluntary being that it should be conformed to the rule of right, which in the case of God is His own infinite reason. These are primary truths, which are not to be sacrificed to any speculative objections. It is vain to tell us that an infinite spirit cannot be a person, because personality implies self-consciousness, and self-consciousness implies the distinction between the self and the not-self, and this is a limitation. It is equally vain to say that God cannot have moral excellence, because moral goodness implies conformity to law, and conformity to law again is inconsistent with the idea of an absolute Being. These are empty speculations; and even if incapable of a satisfactory solution, would afford no rational ground for rejecting the intuitive truths of reason and conscience. There are mysteries enough in our nature, and yet no sane man denies his own personal existence and moral accountability. And he is worse than insane who is beguiled by such sophistries into renouncing his faith in

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God as a personal spirit and a loving Father.Dr. C. Hodge.

V. SCRIPTURAL CONFIRMATION OF DOC

TRINE.

[10886] It need hardly be remarked that the Scriptures everywhere represent God as possessing all the above-mentioned attributes of a spirit. On this foundation all religion rests; all intercourse with God, all worship, all prayer, all confidence in God as preserver, benefactor, and redeemer. The God of the Bible is a person. He spoke to Adam. He revealed Himself to Noah. He entered into covenant with Abraham. He conversed with Moses, as a friend with a friend. He everywhere uses the personal pronouns. He says, I am," that "is My name. I am the Lord your God. I am merciful and gracious. Call upon Me, and I will answer you." Our Lord has put into our lips words which reveal that God is a spirit, and all that being a spirit implies, when He teaches us to 66 say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." Everywhere the God of the Bible is contrasted with the gods of the heathen, as a God who sees, hears, and loves. These are not regulative, they are real truths. God does not mock us when He thus presents Himself to us as a personal Being with whom we can have intercourse, and who is everywhere present to help and save. "To human reason," says Mansel, "the personal and the infinite stand out in apparently irreconcilable antagonism; and the recognition of the one in a religious system almost inevitably involves the sacrifice of the other." This cannot be so. According to the Bible, and according to the dictates of our own natnre, of reason as well as of conscience, God is a spirit, and being a spirit is of necessity a person; a Being who can say I, and to whom we can say Thou.-Ibid.

3

INVISIBILITY.

I. INVISIBILITY ESSENTIAL TO THE PERFECTION OF GOD AS A SPIRITUAL AND PERFECT ESSENCE.

[10887] That God should be invisible is a necessity of His perfection. An infinite Being never can be revealed in all His glory, and in the fulness of His being, to any limited faculty and sense, or in any local manifestation whatever. Heaven is no more capable of "containing" God than the earth, although more of His glory is displayed there. And angels and sainted souls in heaven, in their highest raptures, in their clearest visions, no similitude."—A. Raleigh, D.D. [10888] Even if it be allowed that he is always

see

[INVISIBILITY.

to retain the human form-a question on which divines are not unanimous, and on which Scripture says expressly nothing, or very littleallow that our blessed Lord will always, through eternity, retain His glorified humanity in heaven, and be seen in that, and be loved and worshipped in that, the question still is, What will be seen? Just, only in more full measure and without any obscuration, what was seen on earth, the Divine shining through the human. That is, a part of the Divine fulness and perfection shining upon the beholders through the medium of a perfect humanity; the spiritual essence, the infinite power and presence of God will still be deep within, quite beyond, high above, far away. Ah, let us thank God that He is what He is that no man can see Him! He is perfect so-He would not be perfect else! He is a portion so-He would not be a portion else! What I can see can never be a portion to my immortal soul; a spiritual substance requires a spiritual portion; the child-spirits need the Father of spirits.—Ibid.

II. SCRIPTURAL DECLARATIONS OF DIVINE INVISIBILITY.

[10889] God is invisible. We have not many Scriptures which teach this expressly and formally, but those which teach it are so clear and strong, and there are so many others which imply and involve it, that there cannot be the doubt of a moment what the doctrine of Scripture is. Job says, "Behold I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold Him He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him." I cannot, in any way, penetrate the dark mantle of His invisibility. When God gave the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, they "heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude" (Deut. iv. 12, 15). In

I Timothy vi. 15, 16, we have a glorious description of God (the very reading of which seems to lift us to a mountain-top) as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." And John says, "No man hath seen God at any time.”—Ibid.

III. HUMAN PERCEPTION OF THE INVISIBLE GOD.

I The means of this perception. (1) Clear-sighted faith.

[10890] God is in our life to be seen. He who can be seen nowhere with the bodily sight -whom we might follow and seek in vain through all the realms of space, whom we should never find on brightest mountain-tops, if they were transfigured with the light of Tabor, —nor in solemn grove, nor in deepest forest shade, nor among the flowers of Eden, if Eden were restored; no! nor could we see Him in

10890-10895]

heaven itself if we were there ;-He can be seen and felt by the soul, by the spiritual perception, by that wonderful faculty called "faith," which is just our soul seeing God. By that faculty we can see Him in all our earthly ways, at our right hand, at our left, behind, before, around, above, about our bed, about our path, in the field of labour, in the place of rest, in the flow of prosperity, in the ebb of adversity, in the sunshine of joy, in the darkness of sorrow, in the hardness of duty, in the sweetness of recompense, in the battle of life, in the conquering moment of death-God everywhere! God always! God for evermore !-Ibid.

2 The mighty power and influence of this perception.

[10891] Victory never passes from the soldier who endures and fights as seeing Him who is invisible; and, on the other hand, never sits on the plume of any one who does not see Him. Nothing, nothing but the sight of Him can preserve souls from falling in the shock of such a fray! It would have been a vain boast of David to say, "I shall not be moved," if he had not said before, "He is at my right hand." In vain had Joseph cried, "How shall I do this great wickedness?" unless he had added, "and sin against God." In vain, seven times in vain, had Paul said, "Nevertheless I live," unless he had also said, "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."-Ibid.

3 The satisfying joy of this perception.

[10892] It is the grave delusion of this world that men think, and are led on by the devil and their own evil hearts to think more and more, that they can find sufficing portion in material things; that they can gather and hold, hammer and make, brighten and beautify, until they shall be satisfied, until they shall say to the outward world and visible universe, "Hold! It is enough! Now we are at rest!" It is the grand discovery of the Scriptures, and the good message of salvation, that God only is enough for man. Spirit for spirit-Creator for creature -the Invisible for the invisible. We have never seen our own souls, we shall never see their portion. We feel, although we do not see, ourselves, and in our best moments rejoice with great joy in our own existence! We feel in our spiritual sense—although we do not see our God, and in our best moments we rejoice with exceeding great joy, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, that He is our all-sufficient, unchanging, everlasting portion.—Ibid.

[INFINITY.

essence or substance, of which His perfections are the essential attributes or modes of manifestation. When it is said that God is infinite as to His being, what is meant is that no limitation can be assigned to His essence. It is often said that our idea of the infinite is merely negative. There is a sense in which this may be true, but there is a sense in which it is not true. It is true that the form of the proposition is negative when we say that no limit can be assigned to space, or possible duration, or to the being of God. But it implies the affirmation that the object of which infinity is predicted is illimitable. It is as much a positive idea which we express when we say a thing is infinite as when we say that it is finite. We cannot, indeed, form a conception or mental image of an infinite object, but the word nevertheless expresses a positive judgment of the mind. Sir William Hamilton and others, when they say that the infinite is a mere negation, mean that it implies a negation of all thought. That is, we mean nothing when we say that a thing is infinite. As we know nothing of the inhabitants of the other planets of our system, if such there be, or of the mode in which angels and disembodied spirits take cognizance of material objects, our ideas on such subjects are purely negative, or blank ignorance. "The infinite," Mansel says, "is not a positive object of human thought." Every man, however, knows that the propositions" Space is infinite," and "Space is finite," express different and equally definite thoughts. When, therefore, we say that God is. infinite, we mean something; we express a great and positive truth.-Dr. C. Hodge.

[10894] When we speak, however humbly and reverently, of things great and small in God's regard; of things too trifling, and of other things not too trifling, for His notice, we are forgetting that it is the attribute of the Infinite and Self-Existent One to measure not with man's measure the relative or the positive; that to God nothing can be great but Himself. -C. J. Vaughan.

2 The infinite not the all.

[10895] The infinite, although illimitable and incapable of increase, is not necessarily all. An infinite body must include all bodies, infinite space all portions of space, and infinite duration all periods of duration. Hence Mr. Mansel says that an infinite being must of necessity include within itself all actual and all possible forms or modes of being. So said Spinoza, many of the schoolmen, and even many Christian theologians. The sense in which Spinoza and Mansel make this assertion is the fundamental principle of pantheism. Mr. Mansel, as we have seen, escapes that conclusion by appealing to faith, and teaching that we are constrained to believe what reason pronounces to be impossible, which itself is an impossibility. The sense in which theologians teach that an infinite being must comprehend within it all being, is, that in the infinite is the cause or

10895-10897]

ground of all that is actual or possible. Thus Howe says, "Necessary being must include all being." But he immediately adds, not in the same way, "It comprehends all being, besides what itself is, as having had, within the compass of its productive power, whatsoever hath actually sprung from it; and having within the compass of the same power, whatsoever is still possible to be produced." This, however, is not the proper meaning of the words, nor is it the sense in which they are generally used. What the words mean, and what they are generally intended to mean by those who use them is, that there is only one being in the universe; that the finite is merely the modus existendi, or manifestation of the infinite. Thus Cousin says, God must be "infinite and finite together... at the summit of being and at its humblest degree.. at once God, nature, and humanity." A thing may be infinite in its own nature without precluding the possibility of the existence of things of a different nature. An infinite spirit does not forbid the assumption of the existence of matter. There may even be many infinites of the same kind, as we can imagine any number of infinite lines. The infinite, therefore, is not all. An infinite spirit is a spirit to whose attributes as a spirit no limits can be set. It no more precludes the existence of other spirits than infinite goodness precludes the existence of finite goodness, or infinite power the existence of finite power. God is infinite in being because no limit can be assigned to His perfections, and because He is present in all portions of space. A being is said to be present wherever it perceives and acts. As God perceives and acts everywhere, He is everywhere present. This, however, does not preclude the presence of other beings. A multitude of men even may perceive an act at the same time and place. Besides, we have very little knowledge of the relation which spirit bears to space. We know that bodies occupy portions of space to the exclusion of other bodies; but we do not know that spirits may not coexist in the same portion of space. A legion of demons dwelt in one man.-Ibid.

II. THE INFINITY OF GOD IN RELATION TO SPACE.

[10896] The infinitude of God, so far as space is concerned, includes His immensity and His omnipresence. These are not different attributes, but one and the same attribute, viewed under different aspects. His immensity is the infinitude of His being, viewed as belonging to His nature from eternity. He fills immensity with His presence. His omnipresence is the infinitude of His being, viewed in relation to His creatures. He is equally present with all His creatures, at all times, and in all places. He is not far from any one of us. "The Lord is in this place," may be said with equal truth and confidence, everywhere. Theologians are accustomed to distinguish three modes of presence in space. Bodies are in space circum

[ETERNITY.

scriptively. They are bounded by it. Spirits are in space definitively. They have an ubi. They are not everywhere, but only somewhere. God is in space repletively. He fills all space. In other words, the limitations of space have no reference to Him. He is not absent from any portion of space, nor more present in one portion than in another. This of course is not to be understood of extension or diffusion. Extension is a property of matter, and cannot be predisented as a spiritual Being, without form, invisible, whom no man hath seen or can see; dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, and full of glory; as not only the creator, and preserver, but as the governor of all things; as everywhere present, and everywhere imparting life, and securing order; present in every blade of grass, yet guiding Arcturus in His course, marshalling the stars as a host, calling them by their names; present also in every human soul, giving it understanding, endowing it with gifts, working in it both to will and to do. The human heart is in His hands; and He turneth it even as the rivers of water are turned. Wherever, throughout the universe, there is evidence of mind in material causes, there, according to the Scriptures, is God, controlling and guiding those causes to the accomplishment of His wise designs. He is in all, and over all things; yet essentially different from all, being over all, independent, and infinitely exalted. This immensity and omnipresence of God, therefore, is the ubiquity of the Divine essence, and consequently of the Divine power, wisdom, and goodness. As the birds in the air and the fish in the sea, so also are we always surrounded and sustained by God. It is thus that He is infinite in His being, without absorbing all created beings into His own essence, but sustaining all in their individual subsistence, and in the exercise of their own powers.—Ibid.

I

5 ETERNITY.

I. THE EVIDENCES OF GOD'S ETERNITY.

His eternity is evidenced by His selfexistence and immutable nature.

[10897] God hath life in Himself: John v. 26, "The Father hath life in Himself." He is the "living God," therefore "steadfast for ever" (Dan. vi. 26). He hath life by His essence, not by participation. He is a sun to give light and life to all creatures, but receives not light or life from anything, and therefore He hath an unlimited life; not a drop of life, but a fountain; not a spark of a limited life, but a life transcending all bounds. He hath life in Himself; all creatures have their life in Him, and from Him. He that hath life in Himself doth necessarily exist, and could never be made to exist, for then He had not life in himself, but in that which