CHAPTER XVIII. THE NATURE OF MIND OUR GUIDE TO THE NATURAL ATTRIBUTES OF

GOD.

The _natural_ attributes of any mind are the powers and faculties to be exercised, while it is the _action_ or _voluntary use_ of these faculties that exhibits the _moral_ attributes.

Having gained the existence of a Great First Cause by the use of one principle of common sense, and the fact that this cause is an intelligent mind by another, it has been shown that a third of these principles leads to the belief that the natural attributes of God are like our own. We can not conceive of any other kind of minds than our own, because we have never had any past experience or knowledge of any other.

But while we thus conclude that the mind of the Creator is, so far as we can conceive, precisely like our own in constitutional organization, we are as necessarily led to perceive that the _extent_ of these powers is far beyond our own. A mind with the power, wisdom and goodness exhibited in the very small portion of his works submitted to our inspection, who has inhabited eternity, and matured through everlasting ages—our minds are lost in attempting any conception of the _extent_ of such infinite faculties!

Thus we are necessarily led to conceive of the Creator as possessing the intellectual powers described in previous pages. He perceives, conceives, imagines, judges and remembers just as we do.

So also all our varied susceptibilities to pleasure and pain exist in the Eternal Mind. The desire of good and the fear of evil which are the motive power in the human mind, exist also in the divine. Thus by the light of nature we settle the question that the existence of susceptibilities to pain and evil are not the results of the Creator’s will, but are a part of the eternal nature of things which he did not originate or control.

All the minds we ever knew or heard of are moved to action by desire to gain happiness and escape pain, and as we can conceive of no other kind of mind than our own, we must attribute to the Creator this foundation element of mental activity.

Thus we are led to attribute to the Creator all those susceptibilities included in _the moral sense_, as described in previous pages. His mind, like ours, feels that whatever makes _the most_ happiness with _the least_ evil is _right_; that is to say, _it is fitted to the eternal nature of things_, of which his own mind is a part.

So also the Creator possesses that _sense of justice_ implanted in our own minds, which involves the desire of good to those who make happiness, and of evil to those who destroy happiness; and which also demands that such retributions be _proportioned_ to the good and evil done, and to the _power_ of the agent.

So also we must conceive of the Creator as possessing the susceptibility of _conscience_, which includes in the very constitution of mind retributions for right and wrong action.

Again, we are led to conceive of God as a _rational free agent_, with power to choose either that which excites the _strongest desire_ or that which is perceived to be _best on the whole for all concerned_, even if it does not excite the strongest desire.

Again, we are to conceive of the Creator as possessing a belief in those principles of reason which he has implanted in our minds, and made our guide in all matters, both of temporal and religious concern.

Again, our experience of the nature and history of mind, leads to the inference that no being has existed from all eternity _in solitude_, but that there is _more than one eternal, uncreated mind_, and that all their powers of enjoyment from giving and receiving happiness in social relations have been in exercise from eternal ages. This is the just and natural deduction of reason and experience, as truly as the deduction that there is at least one eternal First Cause.

Again, all our experience of mind involves the idea of the _mutual relation of minds_. We perceive that minds are made to match to other minds, so that there can be no complete action of mind, according to its manifest design, except in relation to other beings. A mind can not love till there is another mind to call forth such emotion. A mind can not bring a tithe of its power into appropriate action except in a community of minds. The conception of a solitary being, with all the social powers and sympathies of the human mind infinitely enlarged, and yet without any sympathizing mind to match and meet them, involves the highest idea of unfitness and imperfection conceivable, while it is contrary to our uniform experience of the nature and history of mind.

It has been argued that the _unity of design_ in the works of nature proves that there is but one creating mind. This is not so, for in all our experience of the creations of finite beings no _great design_ was ever formed without a combination of minds, both to plan and to execute. The majority of minds in all ages, both heathen and Christian, have always conceived of the Creator as _in some way_ existing so as to involve the ideas of plurality and of the love and communion of one mind with another.

And yet the unity and harmony of all created things as parts of one and the same design, teach _a degree_ of unity in the authorship of the universe never known in the complex action of finite minds.

Thus a _unity_ and _plurality_ in the Creator of all things is educed by reason and experience from the works of nature.