ard senses, whether by words,
or by miracles, or by any other visible "operations." No finite thing
can bring us a knowledge of God unless we already have within us a
sufficient knowledge of Him to make us able to appreciate and judge the
Divine character of the particular revelation; that is to say, we must
already have God in order either to seek Him or to find Him; or, as
Balling puts it, "Unless the knowledge of God precedes, no man can
discern Him." God is, therefore, the prius of all knowledge: "The
knowledge of God must first be, before there can be knowledge of any
particular things,"[36] and God must be assumed as present in the soul
before any basis of truth or of religion can be found. "The Light is the
first Principle of Religion; for, seeing there can be no true Religion
without the knowledge of God, and no knowledge of God without this Light,
Religion must necessarily have this Light for its first Principle."[37]
"Without thyself, O Man," he concludes, "thou hast no {131} means to look
for, by which thou mayest know God. Thou must abide within thyself; to
the Light that is in thee thou must turn thee; there thou wilt find it
and nowhere else. God is nearest unto thee and to every man. He that
goes forth of himself to any creature, thereby to know God, departs from
God. God is nearer unto every man than himself, because He penetrates
the most inward and intimate parts of man and is the Life of the inmost
spirit. Mind, therefore, the Light that is in thee."[38]

This Light--the first Principle of all Religion--is also called in this
little Book by many other names. It is "the living Word," "the Truth of
God," "the Light of Truth"; it is "Christ"; it is the "Spirit."[39] As a
Divine Light, it reproves man of sin, shows him that he has strayed from
God, accuses him of the evil he commits. It leads man into Truth, "even
though he has never heard or read of Scripture"; it shows him the way to
God; it gives him peace of conscience in well-doing; and, if followed and
obeyed, it brings him into union with God, "wherein all happiness and
salvation doth consist."[40] It operates in all men, though in many men
there are serious "impediments" which hinder its operations--"the lets to
it are manifold"--but as soon as a man turns to it and cleanses his inner
eye--removes the "lets"--he discovers "a firm foundation upon which he
may build stable and enduring things: A Principle whereby he may, without
ever erri