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With a simple faith, however excellent and praise worthy, the mind will not always rest contented. It begins to look at the grounds of its belief; it compares its own conceptions with those of others; and so far as its views are indistinct or unsettled, it endeavours to give to them precision and correctness. In these attempts, the human mind is apt to overleap the bounds, which by the nature of its powers are prescribed to its inquiries: it soars into bold speculations, and is lost in the mazes of its own movements. After many unsuccessful efforts, it begins to be more modest, to consider how far it can go, and to look at the field of its inquiries before it ventures upon them. From this propensity to speculation, the human mind, according as it proceeds more slowly or more hastily, forms for itself a greater or less number of new doctrines, which are annexed to its creed and incorporated in it. Thus from a simple faith, grew up a scientific theory, which afterwards was variously supported, decorated and modified, and which at one time sunk into a mere collection of creeds, and at another approximated to the ideal perfection of a science.

This aspiring disposition of the mind must have produced the greater varieties of opinion, in consequence of the vast difference in the abilities, education, and conditions of men, on which their views and judgment in regard to doctrines so much depend. Disparity of talents, education and aims, naturally produces diversity of opinions. Here, one man finds out new statements, and another new proofs, of what is currently received; there, those statements are called in question, and those proofs invalidated. The greater part of mankind, and even of teachers, are unqualified for deep investigations; and of course, they receive with blind acquiescence, the declarations of those who by their

superior talents, splendid virtues, or without much personal merit, by the concurrence of circumstances, have risen to respectability and gained the confidence of the many. Sometimes an individual gains ascendency over the age in which he lives; he gives a new direction to the current of opinion, and his conceptions are adopted by that and the succeeding generations. If any voices are raised to question or contest his assertions, they are unheeded or coercively silenced, because his influence is paramount. After a while however, the enthusiasm with which the great man was regarded cools down; he sinks to the level of a common man, and his once admired doctrines are viewed with indifference, or even discarded. Such, almost invariably, has been the course of religious opinions. Certain teachers acquired a high reputation; and they advanced new opinions and decisions, to which other Christians yielded assent, until they were eclipsed by new teachers, and sunk away forgotten.

It is a noticeable fact that, as with individual persons, so also with the human race at large, periods of activity and of repose alternately succeed each other. Seasons of advancing, of standing still, and of going back, seem as if they revolved in a circle. Now a period of inquiry arrives; investigations commence; a few great men take the lead, and a multitude follow after, emulous of their fame. From these exertions, the system of theology assumes a new character; many imperfections are removed from it, and many important truths are exhibited with new evidence and clearness. What attainments might be made, if progress in such a course were to continue! But now an unexpected pause ensues. would seem as if the human mind, having been overstrained, became exhausted and needed repose. In

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stead of advancing onward, men now are content thoughtlessly to repose over such doctrines as have been examined and settled; and from their fear of going too far, they actually take some steps back wards. Thus things remain, till a new excitement awakens again the slumbering spirit of inquiry. The history of theology in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the protestants came so far short of the pattern set them by the first reformers, is the best exemplification of these remarks.

The passions of men also have ever had great influence on changes in doctrine. The love of distinction leads some to hazard the publication of new opinions, which they advance with confidence and defend with pertinacity. Some, from their lust of empire, cannot endure, that the views they have formed of certain doctrines should not universally prevail; and therefore attempt, successfully or in vain, to enforce them on others. Sometimes personal enmity leads men to declare certain opinions erroneous and dangerous, and to denounce them, and procure their public condemnation. Sometimes the ardour of controversy leads an eager polemic to make assertions, which he would not have made in cooler moments; but which he will afterwards defend with unyielding obstinacy, and raise, if he can, to the rank of important articles of faith, in order to escape the mortification of acknowledging his error. Dissatisfaction with the world and gloomy melancholy have often engendered new opinions, which took colouring from the hue of the minds in which they originated. Thus have the pasions too often played a game with the understandings and judgments of men, even in matters of religion, and so become the cause of changes in opinion.

SECOND CAUSE, the external circumstances in which men lived.

Man has, as we have seen, a prin ciple of action within, and is not necessarily moved only by external things; yet history every where shows the vast influence these have on the mind, and their power to change men's views and judgments on religious subjects.

Semler has made the just remark, that dogmatic history has its own geography, and that the Christian doctrines have received various modifications according to the diversities of countries. The cliImate in which men live, undoubtedly, affects their religious opinions. The modes of thinking and of elucidating and confirming doctrines, are very different in the East, from what they are in the West. The Asiatic demands employment for his imagination, on the wings of which he readily soars to a great height; he finds little difficulty in regarding as true, whatever appears to him awfully sublime, or awakens pleasing anticipations; and his conceptions are generally expressed in ingenious apophthegms and parables. The colder European seeks for a logical connexion in his ideas and conclusions, is more inclined to calm investigation, and is less disposed to depend on mere authority. Dry scholasticism would never flourish well on oriental ground. Egyptians showed a propensity to refined speculations; and in the stillness of solitude, opened their souls to mysterious influxes. Hence Eygpt gave birth to the Gnostic sects, to monkery, and to mystic theology. After reading the turbid conceptions and the tempestuous rage of the imagination in the works of Tertullian, who can doubt that the burning climate of Carthage gave him birth!-But geographic difference among Christians had another influence on the state of doctrines. The Greeks in the east were able to read the New Testament in its original lan

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guage, and the Old Testament in the Alexandrine version. Hence they were, for the most part, much better expositors than the western Christians, who adhere commonly to the Latin translation, and out of it drew many forced interpretations.

Not only did country and climate serve to modify Christian doctrines, but also the external condition of Christians. In the change of their condition, often lay the cause of their being more inclined to certain opinions, at one time than at another; and of their sometimes cultivating theology with much vigour, and at other times neglecting it. In western Asia, where the churches once flourished under eminent teachers, Christianity is now reduced to a ceremonial of worship, in which its primitive doctrines are unknown or misunderstood. Is not this change to be ascribed chiefly, to the pressure of a despotic government which has impaired the mental energy, and to a sense of bondage which depresses the spirits of those Christians? Thus has oppression at times obstructed all improvement among Christians. But in different circumstances, it has served only to awaken their enthusiasm, which led them into all the notions of which the enthusiastic mind is susceptible. For example, the doctrine of Christ's thousand years reign on the earth and of the previous destruction of the Roman empire, was a favourite doctrine with the early Christians, so long as the oppression they suffered from the Romans gave it peculiar interest, but not so, when the emperors of Rome themselves embraced Christianity. When the government became Christian, its situation and mode of proceeding had considerable influence on the state of doctrines. At times it interfered in religious matters, employed its authority to give currency to certain doctrines, and its power to suppress the contrary opinions.

Sometimes it imposed restraints on the spirit of inquiry, and at other times encouraged it. In these ways civil government has had too much connexion with the state of theological opinion.

Still more has the ecclesiastical government affected the state of theology. The teachers were the guides of the people, and controled the mode of thinking on religion in their age. If the education of

teachers was good, and ignorant and unworthy men were excluded from the sacred office, religious knowledge was extensive, correct, and efficient, in the churches. But whenever admission to the ministry and behaviour in it were not guarded, when the ignorant were admitted and the vicious tolerated, then the theology of the times gathered rust from the sordid hands to which it was entrusted. The teachers, addicted to idleness, or absorbed in other business than that of their calling, were unconcerned about the state of religious knowledge around them; or they attended to it only with a view to their own influence and aggrandizement, or to cloak their ambitious and selfish purposes.-The relations subsisting between teachers and their congregations, and those between different teachers or churches, must have had influence in shaping the faith of Christians. The greater dominion the teachers had over the consciences of their fellow men, the greater the intellectual bondage, and the less the effects of free discussion. The uniting the clergy in regular bodies, formed after the model of the civil establishment, which was confirmed by synods, was a most efficient means of promoting uniformity in doctrine, but also of damping the spirit of inquiry. When the government of the church, and what has generally been connected with it-the establishment of articles of faith, were the prerogative of a few lead

ing bishops, or of a single spiritual sovereign, the progress of dogmatics would take quite a different course from what it would if no human authority was admitted in matters of faith. Hence a thorough knowledge of the ecclesiastical regimen of an age, of the subordination and the rights of the clergy, as well as of the relation in which the churches of one country stood to those of other countries, must necessarily throw much light on the theology of that age, and account for many of the changes then produced.

Ecclesiastical usages have likewise had not a little influence on the course of opinions. Christianity in a short time after its establishment, was invested with a multitude of ceremonies, which were supposed to render it more venerable, and to increase its respectability and influence. These rites and customs multiplied immensely, and in the attempts to enforce or defend some of them, new doctrines were proposed, which, coinciding with established usages, were generally received and held valid. Thus for example, Thomas Aquinas, in order to justify the prevailing practice in his day, respecting indulgences and penance, invented the hypothesis of a treasury of good works, committed to the care of St. Peter's successors.

The mere phraseology used in religious discourse, has had influence on the revolutions of opinion. If a man, in order to give dignity to certain ideas, uttered them with sublime obscurity, or clothed them in bold allegories and pompous imagery; a subsequent age would be misled to put an erroneous construction upon his flights of oratory, and to receive his allegorical covering for the simple truth; and thus would found on his authority, doctrines, of which he himself, had no conception. The rise of the doctrine of transubstantiation, may

serve both for illustration and confirmation of this remark.

But the circumstance that most advanced or retarded theological knowledge, was the degree of freedom, with which men were allowed to investigate and express opinions on religious subjects. Whenever a man would shudder to have a new thought occur to him, lest the utterance of it should destroy his peace for life, and cause him to be branded with the odious name of heretic; then, the field of dogmatics would remain a barren waste, for no one would dare to cultivate it. Those able to improve the science of theology, would shrink from the attempt, because the results of their investigations must be kept as a profound secret, locked up in their own breasts. They would carefully avoid making any new remarks, or would study to conceal them under ambiguous and artful language, where for the most part they would lie unseen and useless. In such an age, if some daring spirit ventured farther, in defiance of custom and the laws, and openly expressed his views; those views were at once hunted down by the outcry of the multitude, or crushed beneath the weight of power. They could rarely spread far, or meet a fair examination. In general, the narrower the circle of subjects allowed to free enquiry, the greater the uniformity of doctrine, and of apodictical assurance, but the more also, of blind submission, and of adherence to mere formulas. On the contrary, when the careful investigator is encouraged to bring forward the results of his enquiries, and when the reflecting querist is not refused liberty to express his difficulties and doubts; some ferment may indeed arise, and more diversity of opinion prevail, but theology will then be stripped of its excrescences and false appendages, and its deficiencies being discovered, will afford opportunity for at

tempts to supply them. And though such an age may at first, seem more eager to pull down than to build up, yet in the end it produces this solid advantage, that the doctrines of Christianity are set in a clearer light, and defended by more solid arguments. From free inquiry, if it is conducted with impartiality and modesty, the truth must in the end, always derive advantage. Finally, among the outward circumstances, producing a change in Christian doctrines, the character of the religions supplanted by Christianity must not be overlooked. The first Christian churches were gathered among Jews and Pagans. But how could such persons, on embracing a new faith, discard at once, the whole train of their former conceptions and opinions! Rather, while they cordially embraced Christianity as their new religious directory, their former ideas became intermixed with its instructions. Thus both Jewish and Pagan opinions were transplanted into Christian ground, and thereby contributed to shape or modify several doctrines of the church.

THIRD CAUSE of changes in doctrine, namely, the varying necessities of the times.

Jesus and his apostles stated their doctrines in the manner best suited to the exigences of the age in which they lived; and they dwelt most on those doctrines which were comprehensible by their immediate hearers and readers, and most important to their sanctification and comfort. But every age has its peculiar character and wants; and while the teachers who succeeded the apostles, endeavoured to adapt their precepts and language to the necessities of their own times, they introduced great varieties of senti

ment.

Christians have found themselves obliged to defend their faith against those who impugned both its credibility and its importance. This led

them to a more thorough examination of the principles they professed, and to the invention of more convincing arguments with which to meet gainsayers. A Jew was not to be confuted in the same way as a pagan; and new attacks called for new replies, and new objections for new proofs. To meet the exigences of controversy, Christians had to exhibit more clearly the connexion and dependance of many doctrines, to explain apparent contradictions, and to set up new definitions and distinctions. Sometimes also they have chosen to abandon a long received opinion, because it appeared to them untenable, and they feared that a perseverance in defending it would bring other doctrines under suspicion. How greatly, for instance, have the writings of deists contributed to change the aspect of modern dogmatics!

But a more fruitful source of change was the zeal, sometimes honest and sometimes selfish, for preserving the Christian faith pure and uncorrupt. This zeal has given rise to continual controversy in the church, from the days of the apostles to the present times. And in one point of view, these controversies have been advantageous to theology; for they have been a most powerful excitement to new and profound investigation. The ardour of conflict and the desire of victory fire the mind, and lead it to examine every source of proof for the opinion maintained, to discover every weak side of the opinion attacked, and to anticipate and guard against every possible objection.. Not unfrequently the mind is pushed on, by this cause, to make inquiries and discoveries, of which it would not otherwise have formed a conception. Theology indeed has seldom derived much benefit from a controversy, so long as the heat of the contest continued; because the disputants almost invariably judged and reasoned from passion,

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