363 
No one, of course, attributed immutability to the Phenomenal Universe ; 
it was in many ways at all times changing. But the phenomenal past still 
exists, the predestinarian would say, in the mind of God ; the phenomenal 
futui-e is also, in some other way, in the Divine mind. “ It could not be 
otherwise ” ; the phenomenal present holding a middle and transitory 
position. But past, present, and future, it was said, are equally real, and 
only differ to man’s limited consciousness. This, however, almost antici- 
pated the view of modern Materialism. It is a doctrine of Philosophical 
“ Conservation” of Being, which amounts to the Eternity of the Universe, 
or the conditioning of the absolute with a necessity of phenomenal creation. 
We have thus sketched the intellectual side of the Predestinarian 
philosophy of the last three centuries, — a philosophy bound to the Phe- 
nomenal and essentially Materialist. Making Predestination Eternal, it 
made God a necessary Agent, and the Phenomenal Universe bound to 
Him, in the past in one mode, in the present in another mode, in the 
future in another mode, or possibly many others. To affirm the certainty 
of all things in the Phenomenal Universe, and ground that on the very 
nature of God who is eternal, is a kind of Pantheism. It is a doctrine of 
a God without free action, and a future (phenomenal or not) latent in Him 
as a certainty to work itself out. 
To conclude this part of our examination. 
We have seen the Argument which professed to magnify God as our 
Divine “Ruler” ending in a denial of God ; and we can but conclude that 
that Argument has been all wrong throughout. It even becomes a reductio 
ad absurdum , from the Theistical point of view. The real problem is, 
that which it was the one mighty aim of the schools to grapple with ; viz.. 
What is the relation of the Phenomenal to the Prse-phenomenal or Abso- 
lute ? It is in this form only that this ancient controversy can be 
rationally disposed of. 
It remains that we briefly indicate the principle of the Solution. 
1. Every Conscious being compares his own reflections with Reason, more 
or less distinctly discerned, as more than himself ; and the more he persists 
in “thinking reasonably,” and so satisfying himself, the more does he 
recognize an external Reason which he expects other men also to recognize 
in dealing with him. (Secs. 25, 52.) 
2. This external Reason is not ultimately disputable ; it lies, therefore, 
beyond the region of open debate or argument. But the perception of it 
is unequal in different conscious beings, and at different times. Even in 
detailed application or use it may vary at times, — the conscious agent 
being imperfect, or the phenomenal conditions distracting ; but it is reached 
after, and only satisfied by the recognition of other conscious agents. It 
may be, and ought to be, called by every one his own opinion, reason, or 
judgment ; but it is held as Right in se, by all who would be right. 
3. This external Reason, Right, or Good, is what is meant, (though not 
all that is meant), by the Absolute, the Proe-phenomenal. Just as there are 
