Absurdities of immaterialism

by Orson Pratt

It takes light over eight minutes to come from the sun to the earth. Charnock says, "The light of the sun cannot be cut into parts." This is not true; for if an opaque body, one million of miles in diameter, were to be placed at any given instant half way between the earth and sun, the light of the sun would still continue to be seen for upwards of four minutes after the intervention of this body. The rays of light between the earth and the opaque body would be entirely cut off from the rays on the opposite side of the body.

It matters not whether the corpuscular or the undulatory theory of light be adopted—whether the particles of light emanate from the sun or merely vibrate; each atom is separate from every other atom, and each is only a part of the great whole. An infinite number of parts enter into the vast assemblage of luminous atoms. Light radiates from the sun in all directions, and fills the surrounding spaces by a part being in one space and a part in another, and not, like Mr. Charnock's god, the whole being repeated in every part of space. That part of the essence of light which is in one place, cannot by any possibility be in any other place at the same instant. In one sense it may be said to be one light, or the same light, because the properties are alike. Each particle is a distinct, separate essence from every other particle, but the qualities of each are alike or similar. Therefore, in this sense we may speak of the light of the sun as one light, though it possesses an infinite number of parts, the same as we speak of God being one God, though the parts of his essence are infinite in number. Mr. Charnock says, "Whatsoever hath parts is finite, but God is infinite, and, therefore, hath not parts of his essence." Space likewise is infinite, and therefore, according to this gentleman's logic, it can have no parts. Duration is infinite, and, therefore, it also must be without parts. What would a cubic inch of space be? Any man that was not insane would at once say that it is a part of space. Therefore, if an infinite space or an infinite duration can have parts, why not an infinite essence have parts?

"The Lord he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else."—Deut. iv. 39. Such a passage when referring to the person of God, should be understood the same as we would understand a similar expression concerning any earthly ruler: for instance, it can be said of her Majesty, she is queen in Great Britain and also in Canada, and there is none else; that is, there is none else that is queen in these two places. This would have no reference to her person being in these two places at the same time; it only shows that she should be the only acknowledged queen in these two places. But when God says, "I fill heaven and earth," he has reference to his Holy Spirit, a part of which fills heaven, and another part fills the earth. That part which fills the earth has the same wisdom, knowledge, glory, and power as the part that fills the heaven; hence, though distinct and separate essences, their perfections and attributes are one. One wisdom—one glory—one power, pervade every part of this glorious essence. This oneness is such that the part which fills the earth will never act contrary to the will of the part which fills the heavens. The essence possesses a plurality of parts, but the wisdom possesses no divisibility of parts; it is infinite wisdom in every part. Wisdom cannot be divided into parts any more than love, hope, joy, or fear. A truth is identically the same truth whether possessed by one or a million of persons, and is not susceptible of being divided into fractions. The Holy Spirit is called "The Spirit of Truth." Though the essence that possesses this truth may be divided into an infinite number of parts, occupying an infinite number of separate spaces, yet the truth that pervades them all is ONE truth. It is the indivisibility and unity of these perfections or qualities that constitute the oneness of the Godhead.

3.—Mr. Taylder supposes my assertion that "there is no such thing as moral image," to be unscriptural, and that "it denies in some respects the moral perfections of the Godhead." (Taylder's Tract, page 33.)

We still maintain that there cannot be any such thing as moral image independently of an essence or substance to which it belongs. And this is the only sense which we intended to convey in our tract on the "KINGDOM OF GOD." Indeed, it is there expressly said, that "Morality is a property of some being or substance. A property without a substance or being to which it appertains is inconceivable. A property can never have figure, shape, or image of any kind." This is a truth admitted by all philosophers. Sir Isaac Newton in the Scholium, at the end of the "principia," in speaking of God says, "He is omnipresent, not by means of his virtue alone, but also by his substance, for virtue cannot subsist without substance." Virtue or morality cannot subsist without substance; hence it can have no image without substance. Substance alone can have an image. Such an image may have the property of virtue, or of morality, and by reason of this property may be called a virtuous image, or a moral image. It is in this sense alone that the apostle Paul applies the term image to the new man. "Ye have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him." Col. iii. 10. "Ye have put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. iv. 24. Now what is this new man? It is the spirit of man renewed in its properties, but not changed in its substance or essence. This substance previously to the renewal of its qualities was immoral, after the renewal it became moral or virtuous, possessing the same quality in a degree as the substance or image of the Deity. The substance of the Deity may be termed a moral substance or image, the same as the substance of gold is called a yellow substance, or yellow image, if it resembles a person. The yellowness of gold could not be an image independently of the substance, neither could the morality of the Deity be an image independently of his essence.

The spiritual substance of man was formed in the beginning after the same image as the spiritual substance of the persons of the Father and Son. Previously to the fall these spirits were all moral in their nature; by the fall the spirits of men lost their morality and virtue, but not their essence—that continued the same; by the new birth man regains his morality and virtue, while the essence remains the same; it now becomes a moral virtuous image, whereas the same substance was before immoral. Paul, in speaking of the resurrection, says, "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." I Cor. xv. 49.

This cannot mean a heavenly image without substance; for when man rises from the dead, he certainly will rise with flesh and bones. The immortal bodies of the saints when they rise from the grave "will be fashioned," as Paul says, "like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ." As Jesus ascended into heaven with a body of flesh and bones, so will his saints bear the same image, having flesh and bones after "the image of the heavenly." That these glorious bodies of immortal flesh and immortal bones will be moral images, in the sense above stated, there is no doubt. But such a thing as a moral image in the sense that the immaterialists use the term, is a clear impossibility. Such an image, as we remarked in our treatise on the "KINGDOM OF GOD," never can and never will have "an existence only in the brains of modern idolaters."

4.—Mr. Taylder falsely accuses us of denying "the personality of each person in the Trinity, making each to be only a part in the Godhead." (Taylder's Tract, page 34.)

This author very well knows that the personalities in the godhead are not denied by us. It will be seen on the very pages to which he has so frequently referred, that we believe the Father and Son to be two separate distinct personages, as much so as fathers and sons of the human race; it will there be seen that we also believe the Holy spirit to be a separate distinct substance from the two substances of the Father and Son. That all may see that this author has wrongfully accused us of denying "the personality of each person in the Trinity," we make the following extract from our treatise on the "KINGDOM OF GOD."

"The Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a material being. The substance of which he is composed is wholly material. It is a substance widely different in some respects from the various substances with which we are more immediately acquainted. In other respects it is precisely like all other materials. The substance of his person occupies space the same as other matter. It has solidity, length, breadth, and thickness, like all other matter. The elementary materials of his body are not susceptible of occupying, at the same time, the same identical space with other matter. The substance of his person, like other matter, cannot be in two places at the same instant. It also requires time for him to transport himself from place to place. It matters not how great the velocity of his movements, time is an essential ingredient to all motion, whether rapid or slow. It differs from other matter in the superiority of its powers, being intelligent, all-wise, and possessing the power of self-motion to a far greater extent than the coarser materials of nature. "God is a spirit." But that does not make him an immaterial being—a being that has no properties in common with matter. The expression, "an immaterial being," is a contradiction in terms. Immateriality is only another name for nothing. It is the negative of all existence. A "spirit" is as much matter as oxygen or hydrogen. It has many properties in common with all other matter. Chemists have discovered between fifty and sixty kinds of matter; and each kind has some properties in common with all other matter, and some properties peculiar to itself which the others do not inherit. Now, no chemist in classifying his substances would presume to say, this substance is material, but that one is immaterial, because it differs in some respects from the first. He would call them all material, though they in some respects differed widely. So the substance called spirit is material, though it differs in a remarkable degree from other substances. It is only the addition of another element of a more powerful nature than any yet discovered. He is not a being "without parts," as modern idolators teach; for every whole is made up of parts. The whole person of the Father consists of innumerable parts; and each part is so situated as to bear certain relations of distance to every other part. There must also be, to a certain degree, a freedom of motion among these parts, which is an essential condition to the movements of his limbs, without which he could only move as a whole.