As I read through the last Great Southern Presbyterian's book on apologetics, Francis Beattie, in his discussion of the Ontological argument, wrote, "No writer in America has done more than Shedd, in the early chapters of his Dogmatic Theology, to vindicate this argument and to indicate its true nature and value."1 Here's Shedd,
The germ of the argument is found in the remark of Augustine (Trinity, "VII. iv.) that "God is more truly thought than he is described, and exists more truly than he is thought." This is one of those pregnant propositions, so characteristic of the Latin father, which compress a theory into a nut-shell. The meaning of it is, that while man's idea of God is truer to the reality than his description of him is, yet his idea is less true and credible than the reality itself. God's existence is more real than even our conception of him is for our own mind; and our conception, confessedly, is a reality in our consciousness. The subjective idea of God, instead of being more real than God, is less real. The "thing," in this instance, has more of existence than the "thought" of it has. This is exactly contrary to the postulate that underlies all the reasoning against the ontological argument; namely, that in no case is the object so real as the idea of it, and that therefore the existence of no object whatever can be inferred from the mere idea. Every subjective conception, it is contended, more certainly is, than its objective correspondent. Consequently, no mere thought, of any kind, can demonstrate the existence of a thing.2
The argument is derived, as the etymology denotes, from the idea of absolute and perfect in distinction from relative and imperfect being. It runs as follows. The human mind possesses the idea of an absolutely perfect Being; that is, of a Being than whom a more perfect cannot be conceived. But such perfection as this implies necessary existence; and necessary existence implies actual existence: because if a thing must be, of course it is. If the absolutely perfect Being of whom we have the idea does not exist of necessity, we can conceive of a being who does so exist, and he would be more perfect than the former. For a contingent being who may or may not exist, is not the most perfect conceivable; is not the absolutely perfect. In having, therefore, as the human mind unquestionably has, the idea of an absolutely perfect in distinction from a relatively perfect being, it has the idea of a being who exists of necessity; as in having the idea of a triangle, the mind has the idea of a figure with three sides. Necessity of being, therefore, belongs to perfection of being.3
The strength of Anselm's argument lies in two facts. 1. That necessity of existence is an attribute of being, and a perfection in it. 2. That necessity of existence is an attribute and perfection that belongs only to absolute and infinite being, not to relative and finite being.
It is clear, in the first place, that necessity of existence is an attribute. It can be affirmed of one being, and denied of another. God has this characteristic quality, and angels and men have it not. Both necessity and contingency are attributes of being. And necessity is a higher characteristic than contingency of existence. That which must be, is superior to that which may or may not be. That which cannot without logical contradiction be conceived not to be, is more perfect than that which can be so conceived. Hence there are grades of being. One species of being may be nearer to nonentity than another. The infinite and absolutely perfect is at an infinite remove from non-existence; the finite and relatively perfect is at only a finite distance from nonentity. We can conceive of the annihilation of the finite; but the annihilation of the infinite is an absurdity. "It is truly said," remarks Howe (Vanity of Man as Mortal), "of all created things, that their non esse is more than their esse; that is, they have more no-being than being. It is only some limited portion [degree] of being that they have; but there is an infinitude [infinite degree] of being which they have not. And so coming infinitely nearer to nothingness than to fulness of being, they may well enough wear the name of 'nothing.' 'All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing,' Isa. 40:17. Wherefore the First and Fountain-Being justly appropriates to himself the name I Am, yea tells us, He is, and there is none besides him; thereby leaving no other name than that of 'nothing' unto creatures."
And, in the second place, necessity of existence is an attribute and perfection that is unique and solitary. It cannot be ascribed to a finite created thing, any more than eternity of existence, or immensity of existence, or immutability of existence can be. The idea of the absolutely perfect differs from that of the relatively perfect, or the imperfect, in implying necessity and excluding contingency. The two ideas are totally diverse in this particular, so that the analysis of the one will give a result wholly different from that of the other. Because the idea of a stone, or a man, or of any finite thing, will not yield real entity or existence as the logical outcome, it does not follow that the idea of the infinite God will not.
The nature of the ontological argument will be seen still more clearly, by examining the objections that have been urged against it, and also the modifications of it since the time of Anselm.4
After stating the argument clearly, Shedd defined and refuted four objections (Gaunilo's idea of object does not involve its existence, Ueberweg's subjective motion, Leibnitz's mere possibility of existence, and an assertion that a Being possesses being5) to the Ontological Argument. Shedd recognized that the fourth argument is only valid against one of the forms of Cartesian's modification (which is not an improvement) of the argument.
Necessity of existence, as we have before remarked, is a true predicate, like the eternity of existence, and immensity of existence, and all the other attributes that describe absolute being and differentiate it from relative and finite being. And from this predicate, the objective actual existence of that to which it belongs can be inferred. In omitting it and attempting to make a predicate out of "existence" instead of "necessity of existence," Descartes lost an indispensable term of the syllogism, jumped directly from the premise to the conclusion, and exposed the argument to a valid objection.6
In concluding the argument, Shedd bemoans the neglect of a priori methods such as the ontological argument, which justifies why, for men, matter is all that there is.
The ontological argument is of uncommon importance in an age tending to materialism and to physical science. For it turns the human intellect in upon itself, and thereby contributes to convince it of the reality of mind as a different substance from matter. The recent neglect of a priori methods and over-valuation of a posteriori is one of the reasons why matter has so much more reality for many men than mind. If an object is not looked at, it gradually ceases to be regarded as an object at all. When theorists cease to contemplate mental and moral phenomena, they cease to believe that there are any. The gaze of the physicist is intent upon the physical solely. Consequently, the metaphysical, or spiritual becomes a non-entity. Out of sight, it is out of mind, and out of existence, for him. Analyzing and observing matter alone, he converts every thing into matter. The brain is the soul, and molecular motion is thought. What he needs is, to cultivate metaphysical in connection with physical studies; a priori, in connection with a posteriori methods; to look at mind as well as matter. In this way he gets a consciousness of mind, in distinction from the consciousness of matter.7
This ontological argument is one of the proofs for God's existence in Reformed Classical Apologetics, which forms the basis of classical theism. Theologians in the past acknowledged the importance of affirming this undeniable proof for the existence of God as the ultimate foundation of reality.