That they flowed from the pen of a
Bishop, is one of many extraordinary facts which have grown out of
theological controversy. They are questions strongly suggestive of
another. Is it possible to have experience of, or even to imagine a
Being with attributes so strange, anomalous, and contradictory? To that
question reason prompts an answer in the negative--It is plain that
Bishop Watson was convinced 'no man by searching can find out God.' The
case is, that he, in the hope of converting Deists, ventured to
insinuate arguments highly favourable to Atheism, whose professors
consider an admission of utter ignorance of God, tantamount to a denial
of His existence. Many Christians, with more candour, perhaps, than
prudence, have avowed the same opinion. Minutius Felix, for example,
said to the Heathen, 'Not one of you reflects that you ought to know
your gods before you worship them.' [20:2] As if he felt the absurdity
of pretending to love and honour an unknown 'Perhaps.' That he did
himself what he ridiculed in them proves nothing but his own
inconsistency. To the Author of this Apology it seems certain, a God
whose being is not as our being, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts,
and whose ways are not as our ways, is neither more nor less than the
merest figment of ill-regulated imagination.
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