3. GOD’S TRUTH may be said to be an attribute which
characterise all God’s other moral attributes, and His intellect. The word “truth” may be simply defined as: that which is agreeable to the reality of things. God’s knowledge is perfectly true; being exactly correspondent with the reality of the objects thereof. His wisdom is true; being unbiased by error of knowledge, prejudice or passion. His justice is true; judging and acting always according to the real state of character and facts. His goodness is true; being perfectly sincere, and its outgoing exactly according to His own perfect knowledge of the real state of its objects, and His justice.
But in a more special sense, God’s truth is the attribute which characterises all His communications to His creatures. When these communications are promisory or minatory (threatening), It is called His faithfulness. This attribute has been manifested through two ways to man: the testimony of man’s senses and intelligent faculties; and, the testimony of Revelation.
If man’s confidence in God’s truth were undermined, the effect would be universally ruinous. Not only would the Scripture with all its doctrines, promises, threatening, precepts and predictions become worthless, but the basis of man’s own confidence in all his faculties would be undermined; and universal skeptism would arrest all action. Man could neither believe his fellow-man, nor his own experience, nor senses, nor reason, nor conscience, nor consciousness, if he could not believe God.
The evidences of God’s truth and truthfulness are two-fold. He deals truly in the informations which He has ordained for man’s own senses and faculties to give to him whenever they are legitimately used. God has so formed the human mind that we cannot, but take for granted, the legitimate informations of human senses, consciousness and intuitions. But this unavoidable trust is abundantly confirmed by subsequent experiences. The testimonies of one sense, for instance, are always confirmed by those of the others, when they are applied; e.g when the eye tells us that a given object is present, the touch, if applied confirms it. The expectation raised by man’s intuitive reason, for example, that like causes will produce like effects are always verified by the occurrence of the expected phenomena. Thus a continued process is going on, like the proving of a result in arithmetic. Either the seemingly informations of man’s senses are really true or the harmonious coherency of the set of errors which they assert is perfectly miraculous.
The second class of proof is from the Scriptures. Truth and faithfulness are often predicated of God in the most unqualified terms – 2 Cor.1:18; Rev. 3:7; 4:10; 9:3; 16:7; Deut. 7:9; Heb. 10:23; Titus 1:2. All the statements and doctrines of Scriptures, so far as, they come within the scope of man’s consciousness and intuitions are seen to be infallibly true; as for instance, that “the carnal mind is at enmity against God” that man “goes astray as soon as he is born, speaking lies” etc. etc. Again the Scripture presents a multitude of specific evidences of His truth and faithfulness, in the promises, threatenings and predictions which are contained in the Bible.
GOD’S HOLINESS: (A concurrence of God’s attributes) When places, Mount Zion, utensils, oils, meats, altars, days etc are called holy, the obvious meaning is that they are consecrated, that is, set apart for the religious service of God. This idea is also prominent when God’s priests, prophets and professed people, are called holy. But when applied to God, the word is most evidently not used in ceremonial, but a spiritual sense. Most frequently it seems to express, the general idea of His moral purity as in Lev. 11:44; Ps. 145:17; 1st Peter 1:15,16; sometimes it seems to express rather the idea of His Majesty, not exclusive of His moral perfections, but inclusive also of His power, knowledge and wisdom, as in Ps. 22:3; 48:1; Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8. Holiness therefore, is to be regarded, not as a distinct attribute, but as the resultant of all God’s moral attributes together. And as His justice, goodness and truth are all predicated of Him as a Being of intellect and will, and would be wholly irrelevant to anything unintelligent and involuntary, so His holiness implies a reference to the same attributes. His moral attributes are the special crown; His intelligence and will are the brow that wears it. His holiness is the collective and consummate glory of His nature as an infinite morally pure, active and intelligent Spirit.
(a) GOD’S INFINITY: (manifestation of His attributes) The foregoing are the august Divine attributes so far known to man. In another sense, it may be said that the summation of them lead to God’s other consummate attributes – His infinitude. This is an idea which can only be defined negatively, and means that by it God’s being and attributes are wholly without bounds. Some divines, especially of the modern schools assert that “infinitude is an idea which the human mind cannot have at all” perhaps, basing their assertion on Sir. W. Hamilton’s theory that: “the infinite mind cannot think the unconditioned; because to think it would limit it”. But against this, is the argument that the plain truth of this subject is, man’s mind does apprehend the idea of infinitude, (if not, how come we have the word?), but that it cannot comprehend it. (‘Senseualistic Philosophy of the 19th century’; chapter 10, by Robert Dabney). The human mind knows there is the infinite, but cannot fully know what is. God is absolutely without bound; His substance is immense; His duration, eternal; His knowledge, omniscience; His will omnipotence; His moral perfections, holiness – His essence is infinite.
(b) GOD’S SUPREMACY: (manifestation of His Attributes) One of the consequences which flows from these perfections of God is His absolute sovereignty, which is so often asserted of Him in the Scriptures (see Dan 4:36; Rev. 19:16; Rom.9:15 to 23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 4:11) This supremacy does not include any power to do everything, such as, to punish an innocent creature – contradictory to God’s own perfection; but a righteous title to do everything, and control every creature, unconstrained by anything outside His own, will, but always in harmony with His own voluntary perfections. Righteous title means and carries not only physical potentia but also a moral potestas. The foundations of this righteous authority are, first, God’s infinite perfections; second, His creation of all His creatures out of nothing; and third, His preservation and blessing of them. This sovereignty, of course, carries with it, the correlative duty of implicit obedience on the part of man.
Another consequence which flows from the infinite perfection of God, is that He is entitled, not only, to dispose of man and his services, for His won glory, but to receive man’s supreme, sincere affections. Just as in degree, as the hearts of His intelligent creatures are right, will they admire, revere and love God, above all creatures, singly and collectively.
(c) GOD BENEVOLENCE: (a manifestation of His Attributes) “The world is full of the goodness of the Lord” This proclaims the benevolence of God. And, first, since God is the original cause of all things, all the happiness amids all His works is of His doing; and therefore proves His benevolence. Second, more definitely: the nature of all orders – sentient beings, if not violated, are constructed, in the main, to secure their appropriate well-being. Instances – the insect, the fish, the bird, the ox, the man. Third, many things occure in the special providence of God which show Him benevolent, such as providing remedial medicines etc.; for pains and special interpositions in danger. Fourth; God might compatibly with justice, have satisfied Himself with so adapting man’s external nature to his senses and mind, as to make it minister to his being and intelligence and thus secure the true end of his existence, without, in so doing, making it pleasant to his sense. Our food and drink might have nourished us, our senses of sight and hearing might have informed us, without making food, sweet, light, beautiful and sounds, melodious. And yet appetite might have impelled us to use our senses and take our food. Such in a word, is God’s goodness, that He turns aside to strew incidental enjoyment, the more unessential these are to His main end, the stronger the argument. Fifth, God has made all the beneficent emotions: love, sympathy, benevolence, forgiveness, delightful in their exercise; and all the malevolent ones as; resentment, envy, revenge, painful to their subjects; thus teaching us that He would have us propagate happiness and diminish pain. Last: Conscience which is God’s imperative, enjoins benevolence on man as one duty whenever, compatible with others. Benevolence is therefore God’s will; and doubtless, He who wills us to be so, is benevolent Himself.
Fatigue, confusion, worry are the result of weakness and limitation. To infinite knowledge and power, the fullest activities are infinitely easy, and so pleasurable. Commonsense argues from the perfection of God that He does uphold and direct all things by His providence. His wisdom and Power enable Him to do so. His goodness and justice impel Him to it, for it would be neither benevolent nor just, having brought sentient beings into existence, to neglect their welfare, rights and guilt. God’s wisdom will certainly prosecute those suitable ends for which He made the universe, by superintending it. To have made it without any object, or, having one, to overlook that object wholly after the world was already made, would not reflect the Creator’s wisdom.
The physical and moral evils in the universe are obviously so over-ruled, as to bring good out of evil. This is as far as the finite mind can follow. To sustain the presumption, the hypothesis have to be made, that for reasons not within finite understanding, it must be accepted with faith and honour, that God saw it was not possible to separate the existence of evils from that system which, as a whole, satisfied His own properest ends.
If the existence and moral perfections of God be admitted, no one will dispute that man bears moral relations to Him. This appears very simple from the fact that man is a moral being related to God as his Maker and providential Ruler. It is also inferable from the marks of probation, and a moral rule appearing in the course of nature. Further it is emphatically pronounced by the native supremacy of conscience, commanding us to obey. Rational Deists as well as Natural Theologians have attempted to deduce the duties man owes his Creator. They are usually (on grounds sufficiently obvious) summed up as: 1. Love with reverence and gratitude; 2. Obedience; 3. Penitence; 4. Worship.
The rule of obedience, is of course, in natural religion, the law of nature in the conscience
(continuing from last week)
