Against such a theory I must quote, as
embodying all that I would say, and corroborating, on entirely
independent ground, the Scriptural account of human morality--against
such a theory, I say I must quote the words of our greatest living
logician. "Language has no meaning for the words Just, Merciful,
Benevolent" (he might have added truthful likewise) "save that in which
we predicate them of our fellow creatures; and unless that is what we
intend to express by them, we have no business to employ the words. If
in affirming them of God we do not mean to affirm these very qualities,
differing only as greater in degree, we are neither philosophically nor
morally entitled to affirm them at all . . . What belongs to" God's
goodness "as Infinite (or more properly Absolute) I do not pretend to
know; but I know that infinite goodness must be goodness, and that what
is not consistent with goodness is not consistent with infinite goodness.
. . . Besides," he says--and to this sound reductio ad absurdum I call
the attention of all who believe their Bibles--"unless I believe God to
possess the same moral attributes which I find, in however inferior a
degree, in a good man, what ground of assurance have I of God's veracity?
All trust in a Revelation presupposes a conviction that God's attributes
are the same, in all but degree, with the best human attributes.
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