The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-04-05

'RHSB1 EHR1 A
The Nashville american shows its APP
probation of DR.. T. A. HoYT by pub.
fishing in full (six columns of small type
the lecture delivered at the Olympic In
that city on 1.-The Limits of Human
Thought" 1t is an able and scholarly
discussion of a most difficult subject DR..
Hoyt undertakes to refute the transcend
entalist on the one hand, who says that
we may know all about the Absolute Cor
Cod, and the Agnostic on the other who
maintains That we can know nothing.
This them" DR.. Hoyt concludes, we take
to be the truth which lies between the two ex-
tremes-betweeR the opinion which holds that
we can know ALL and that which asserts that
we know nothing of God. God is at once
known and unknown, which truth is thus
clearly set forth by DR.. Thornwell vol l,
p 100:
In His transcendent being, as absolute and
infinite, though necessary object of faith, He
cannot be an object of thought. We cannot
represent Him to the understanding. nor think
Him as He is in Himself. But in and through
the finite He has given manifestations of His
lncomprehensible reality, which, though not suf.
hcent to satisfy the demands of speculation, are
amply adequate for all the ends of religion
Human knowledge is the same in form what
ever may be the diversity of its objects The
knowledge of God is consequently not different
IN IN kind from the knowledge of any other being.
Though unlimited in Himself the absence of
limitation in Him does not remove the limita-
ton of our faculties, and we are compelled to
know Him as men, under the same conditions
and restraints under which we know the finite
DR.. Hoyt continues:
Intelligence wisdom, power, liberty, good
ness, justice, truth, Righteousness, and beauty
these are attributes without which God is God
no more. Whence do we derive these concepts?
Whence are our notions of knowledge goodness
and TRUTH Most evidently they spring from
our own minds. Our own consciousness is the
storehouse from which they are drawn. We
can conceive no intelligence but the human; we
can think no power but that which is suggested
by the energy of our own wills; we can have
no moral intuitions but those which are given
by our own consciences. Man therefore sits for
the picture that he sketches of God But is God
only man on a large scale2 Is the infinite
only higher degree of the finite ? 1t is a say
ing OF the Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite, and
1t has generally been accepted as a sufficient in
dlcatlon OF the truth, that in ascending from the
creature to God we proceed by the method of
causallty, OF negation, and OF eminence. In the
way OF causallty, am constrained to affirm
that every perfection which is contained in the
enect was previously contained in the cause
but as the pertectlons of the creature exist un
der many limitations and conditions, which are
inconsistent with the notion of the infinite, am
LED IN the way Of negation to remove these
restrictions and defects, and to post the perfec
tons in the abstract. Then by the way of emf
nence strive to represent these perfections as
expanded even to infnity. Thought struggles
TO magnify until it sinks back upon itself ex
hausted in the effort. Examples of all these
methods the scholastic divines profess to find in
the Scriptures. Thus Psalm kew: 9, 10, is an
instance OF the way of causality: "He that
planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that
formed the eye, shall he not see2 He that chas-
tlseth the heather, shall not He correct? He
that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He
KNOW In Numbers xiii 19 we have an illus
tratlon OF the method of negation: "God is not
IAN, that He should lie; neither the son of
man, that He should repent. Hath He said,
and shall He not do it 2 or hath he spoken. and
shall He not make it good"
The method of eminence is signalzed in
Isaiah lvi: 8, 8: For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than
thoughts"
This is the process, and it is process natural
TO reason, as inevitable as the laws of thought
by which we are led to the belief of an alb.
soutely perfect being. The notion of an ems
reaIlSsiT'uno is not the arbitrary product of the
fancy, but the necessary result of speculation.
when cause Is sought for the manifold pheno-
mena of the finite.
Relative perfection is construed as the mani
festation of the absolute. 1t Is the form under
which 1t appears to our conditioned conscious
ness. 1t is not the same with 1t, nor like it.
but reveals it-reveals it as existing reveals it
as necessary article Of faith conceived only
under analogy. The relative perfection, in other
words IS the form or symbol under which the
absolute appears" The finite is at once the
proof of the manifestation of the infinite.
Such, in conclusion, is the nature of human
knowledge-its conditions and limitations. 1t
is phenomenal, relative, and finite 1t appre-
hends properties, qualities, relations, and only
such of these as are adapted to our faculties and
conditions. 1t cannot reach the Utmost nature
of matter, of mind, or of God These transcend
ent substances must ever remain beyond the
scope of our knowledge
Yet, so far as it goes, it is real knowledge
Neither our senses or our consciousness are
found false witnesses Their veracity is certified
by their author.
Hence, all systems which either dispute their
evidence or outrun their guidance must be false
Atheism is impossible, because it vainly en-
deavors to deny what is proclaimed alike by
nature and the soul
Agnosticism is absurdity since our nature
is fitted TO know, and the materials of knowl-