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he does not deny that we can know something of His Being or nature. But this knowledge
cannot be obtained by a priori methods, but only in an a posteriori manner through the
attributes, which he regards as real determinations of the nature of God. They convey to us at
least some knowledge of what God is, but especially of what He is in relation to us.
In dealing with our knowledge of the Being of God we must certainly avoid the position of
Cousin, rather rare in the history of philosophy, that God even in the depths of His Being is not
at all incomprehensible but essentially intelligible; but we must also steer clear of the
agnosticism of Hamilton and Mansel, according to which we can have no knowledge
whatsoever of the Being of God. We cannot comprehend God, cannot have an absolute and
exhaustive knowledge of Him, but we can undoubtedly have a relative or partial knowledge of
the Divine Being. It is perfectly true that this knowledge of God is possible only, because He has
placed Himself in certain relations to His moral creatures and has revealed Himself to them, and
that even this knowledge is humanly conditioned; but it is nevertheless real and true
knowledge, and is at least a partial knowledge of the absolute nature of God. There is a
difference between an absolute knowledge, and a relative or partial knowledge of an absolute
being. It will not do at all to say that man knows only the relations in which God stands to His
creatures. It would not even be possible to have a proper conception of these relations without
knowing something of both God and man. To say that we can know nothing of the Being of
God, but can know only relations, is equivalent to saying that we cannot know Him at all and
cannot make Him the object of our religion. Dr. Orr says: “We may not know God in the depths
of His absolute being. But we can at least know Him in so far as He reveals Himself in His
relation to us. The question, therefore, is not as to the possibility of a knowledge of God in the
unfathomableness of His being, but is: Can we know God as He enters into relations with the
world and with ourselves? God has entered into relations with us in His revelations of Himself,
and supremely in Jesus Christ; and we Christians humbly claim that through this Self-revelation
we do know God to be the true God, and have real acquaintance with His character and will.
Neither is it correct to say that this knowledge which we have of God is only a relative
knowledge. It is in part a knowledge of the absolute nature of God as well.”[Side-Lights on
Christian Doctrine, p. 11.] The last statements are probably intended to ward off the idea that
all our knowledge of God is merely relative to the human mind, so that we have no assurance
that it corresponds with the reality as it exists in God.
C. The Being of God Revealed in His Attributes.
From the simplicity of God it follows that God and His attributes are one. The attributes cannot
be considered as so many parts that enter into the composition of God, for God is not, like men,
composed of different parts. Neither can they be regarded as something added to the Being of