Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 381

Chap.

THIS rRINCIPlUM

II]

principles

of

my

AND

OUll

consciousness

are

CONSCIOUSNESS

common

to

357

me

with

men, while with the inspiration of Crod mind of the sinner^ one has it and the other has

into the it

not,

two stand over against each and he who has it, has it not, must deny it by the contradiction of him who has it not.

He

wlio

almost

all

so that these

;

other. is

often shocked

This, however,

not the case with inspiration only. In many other domains one knows an inner impulse, which is foreign to

is

Think

another.

the poet, the virtuoso, the hero, and

of

The want

of general consent is no proof and often works the effect, that conviction becomes the more firmly founded. Contradiction can weaken, but it can also strengthen. The question only is, whether there is sufficient ground for the fact of its being present in one and absent in the other. Therefore, the Reformed theologians have ever considered theolog}' also to rest upon the election. If one reasons that all men are entitled to the same thing, and that every sinner

the adventurer.

want

of

of foundation,

has the right to equal gifts of grace, then the fact "that

us

not faith " (2 Thess. iii. 2) is an " offence " to and this weakens our sense of what God works upon

men have

all ;

and it,

in

our soul.

that one

man

is

Hence there more deeply

is

nothing to be done about

sensible of this than another,

and that even this sense of God's inspiration appears mucli more clearly in one age than in another. Human supports

When

avail nothing here.

cannot penetrate to us in lift

the fogs are too dense, the sun

its full

splendor

;

or lessen, the light of itself shines again

as soon as they

more brightly

in

our eyes; and the law remains intact: in thy light shall we see light. The conflict concerning the reality of inspiration mav safely, therefore, be ended. Because it is primordial, it cannot be demonstrated

;

and because

admits of no proof,

And

it

it

it is sufficient unto itself and cannot be harmed by counterproof.

was seen by our fathers entirely

correctly, in so far

as they founded their confession of the Scripture ultimately

upon no other testimony than the witness of the Holg All that you add to this may serve as a support to

Spirit.

the

side-wall,

but

is

never, either wholly or in part, the

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