Probabilities | Page 7

the same Something is more probable

to be every where, than the same Nothing (if the phrase were not
absurd), to be any where: we may, so to speak, divide infinity into
spaces, and prove the position in each instance: moreover, as that
Something is essentially--not a unit as of many, but--unity involving all,
it follows as most probable that this Whole Being should be ubiquitous;
in other parlance, that the one God should be every where at once: also,
there being no limit to what we call Space, nor any imaginable hostile
power to place a constraint upon the One Great Being, this Whole
Being must be ubiquitous to a degree strictly infinite: "HE is in every
place, beholding the evil and the good."
Such a consideration (and it is a perfectly true one) renders necessary
the next point, to wit, that God is a Spirit. No possible substance can be
every where at once: essence may, but not substance. Corporeity in any
shape must be local; local is finite; and we have just proved the anterior
probability of a One great Existence being (notwithstanding unity of
essence) infinite. Illocal and infinite are convertible terms: spirit is
illocal; and, as God is infinite--that is, illocal--it is clear that "God is a
Spirit."
We have thus (not attempting to build up faith by such slight tools, but
only using them to cut away prejudice) arrived at the high probability
of a God invested with His natural qualities or attributes; Self-existence,
Unity, the faculty of being every where at once and that every where
Infinitude; and essentially of a Spiritual nature, not material. His moral,
or accidental attributes (so to speak), were, antecedently to their
expression, equally easy of being proved probable. First, with respect
to Power: given no disturbing cause--(we shall soon consider the
question of permitted evil, and its origin; but this, however disturbing
to creatures, will be found not only none to God, but, as it were, only a
ray of His glory suffered to be broken for prismatic beauty's sake, a
flash of the direction of His energies suffered to be diverted for the
superior triumph of good in that day when it shall be shown that "God
hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the time of
visitation")--with the datum then of no disturbing cause obstructing or
opposing, an infinite being must be able to do all things within the
sphere of such infinity: in other phrase, He must be all-powerful. Just

so, an impetus in vacuity suffers no check, but ever sails along among
the fleet of worlds; and the innate Impulse of the Deity must expand
and energize throughout that infinitude, Himself. For a like reason of
ubiquity, God must know all things: it is impossible to escape from the
strong likelihood that any intelligent being must be conversant of what
is going on under his very eye. Again; in the case both of Power and
Knowledge, alike with the coming attributes of Goodness and
Wisdom--(wisdom considered as morally distinct from mere
knowledge or awaredness; it being quite possible to conceive a cold eye
seeing all things heedlessly, and a clear mind knowing all things
heartlessly)--in the case, I say, of all these accidental attributes, there
recurs for argument, one analogous to that by which we showed the
anterior probability of a self-existence. Things positive must precede
things negative. Sight must have been, before blindness is possible; and
before we can arrive at a just idea of no sight. Power must be precursor
to an abstraction from power, or weakness. The minor-existence of
ignorance is an impossibility, unless you prëallow the major-existence
of wisdom; for it amounts to a debasing or a diminution of wisdom. Sin
is well defined to be, the transgression of law; for without law, there
can be no sin. So, also, without wisdom, there can be no ignorance;
without power, there can be no weakness; without goodness, there can
be no evil.
Furthermore. An affirmative--such as wisdom, power, goodness--can
exist absolutely; it is in the nature of a Something: but a negative--such
as ignorance, weakness, evil--can only exist relatively; and it would,
indeed, be a Nothing, were it not for the previous and now
simultaneous existence of its wiser, stronger, and better origin. Abstract
evil is as demonstrably an impossibility as abstract ignorance, or
abstract weakness. If evil could have self-existed, it would in the
moment of its eternal birth have demolished itself. Virtue's intrinsic
concord tends to perpetual being: vice's innate discord struggles always
with a force towards dissolution. Goodness, wisdom, power have
existences, and have had existences from all eternity, though gulphed
within the Godhead; and that, whether evidenced in act or not: but their
corruptions have had no such original existence, but are only the