and of course defectively and with partiality. But when the heat of the controversy had subsided, then the dispassionate inquirer could weigh the arguments on both sides, and profit by the new views which had opened to the visions of the combatants while sharpened by collision. Yet advantageous as religious controversies may have been to the cause of theology, by giving birth to more correct statements and better illustrations of the truth; not a little injury has also resulted from them. Seldom were they guided by the love of truth; but generally by violent party zeal subversive of all calm investigation. Seldom too, were they decided according to evidence; but oftener by extraneous circumstances, and sometimes by the decrees of the civil power. The modest voice of truth was drowned by the impassioned zeal of the stout polemic, and the more boldly and fiercely defended cause often prevailed over the more righteous. Polemic contests have led to useless speculations, and diverted attention from what is most important, the practical bearing of religion. They gave occasion for framing new articles of faith; by which the circle of subjects open to free inquiry was more and more contracted, and the Christian religion was reduced to a precise form, to which the highest importance was attached. The most important effects of controversies on the cause of theology, were the following: new principles were brought to light, which before were unknown; and others that were known, were modified and supported by new arguments. The estimate of the relative importance of doctrines was changed; and many a point, on which little stress had been laid, was elevated to an essential article of religion, and all who rejected it consigned to the class of heretics. For each party in a controversy endeavoured to make it appear, that its own opinion lay at the very foundation of religion, and to exalt it to an essential article of faith. The triumphant party generally set forth its creed, defining articles of faith and prescribing phraseology, in order to exclude from their communion all who differed from them. Thus the Arian controversy gave rise to a creed respecting the Trinity, and the Nestorian controversy caused the person and natures of Christ to be carefully determined; and generally, religious contests have been the means of establishing new dogmas, and of giving a new form and stricter definitions to old ones. While a zeal for purity of doctrine caused new speculative opinions to be introduced, there were some distinguished men, whose attention was directed to the practical abuses of doctrines. To counteract such abuses, they advanced propositions which became distinguishing doctrines of themselves and their party. Why, for instance, did Luther lay so much stress on justification by faith alone, without works? Because he saw the human satisfactions for sin in the Catholic church, to be worthless; and the meritorious works, by which the men of that age expected to purchase remission of their sins, excited his strong disgust. As the necessities of the times caused many doctrines, so on the other hand, many doctrines changed their character, because they were retained unaltered in a different state of the world. Principles that had once been harmless and even useful, became hurtful, when held fast after the state of things was totally changed. That the early Christians, for example, should at first have regarded oral communications, which were handed down in the church, as their only source of religious knowledge, and afterwards should have coupled the Christian scriptures with tradition, cannot surprise us. The circumstances and necessities of the times naturally led to this. But, that Christians should regard tradition as a proper source of knowledge, in modern times, when the lapse of centuries has rendered it uncertain, and the stream has become so turbid by foreign mixtures, must be very prejudicial to theology. FOURTH CAUSE, different helps for pursuing theology. The sciences stand in close alliance; each contributes directly or indirectly to enrich, correct or support the others; and with the cultivation of the sciences, the progress of theology is intimately connected. When barbarism spreads wide, then religion degenerates into mere forms of worship, and its doctrines are stamped with the ignorance of the age. Superstition prevails, and multiplies the articles of faith immeasurably. The more mysterious any doctrine is, the more it distances all human conception, so much the truer and more holy is it. The weakest proof, -the bare assertion of a man of influence, or even a marvellous story, is enough to satisfy a superstitious man and control his faith. Every doubt of a proposition so supported, is in his view, treason against the church and against God, and can be expiated only by the blood of the audacious doubter. The more ignorant men are, the more credulous also; and among such, it is easy for an honest enthusiast or a cunning deceiver to give currency to the most senseless thoughts. The history of the middle ages affords abundant proof, how low theology can sink, when ignorance becomes universal, and superstition mounts the throne. That great acuteness of intellect will seldom preserve a man from the infection of a reigning superstition, but only enables him to refine upon it, and to support it by more plausible arguVOL. I.-No. III. 19 ments, appears from the examples of John Damascen, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm and others. In particular, the neglect or cultivation of good taste has had considerable influence on theology. When the religious teachers were very sensitive to the beautiful, the sublime, and the simple, and especially when the study of the unrivalled classic works of the Greeks and Romans enlightened and guided their vision, the effects were apparent in their theological productions. Their cultivated taste led them to avoid useless speculations and digressions, to exclude the lumber of useless words, and to exhibit religious truths in a profitable and becoming manner. Among the respectable names to which theology is a debtor, I will mention only those of Erasmus and Melancthon. the contrary, when good taste fled from the field of theology, then dogmatics shrunk up to a dry skeleton, acuteness degenerated into intricacy, precision into logomachy, and solidity into subtilty. Whoever reads the scholastic divines, e. g. Anselm, Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, cannot but admire their intellectual acumen; and he would often follow with pleasure the no ordinary train of their thoughts, if every page did not vexatiously remind him, that acuteness only, and not a chastened taste, was the inheritance of the scholastics. On pure doctrines of Christ. Now when the Bible was snatched from the hands of Christians, and kept back as an obscure or dangerous book; the faith of Christians must of course have rested wholly on the authority of their teachers, and it became loaded with much that was not genuine. On the other hand, the free use and careful study of the holy scriptures, promoted a reformation in theology; for many a dogma would be given up, when men discovered that the Bible contained not a vestige of it, or perhaps direct confutations of it. As the use of the Bible was so important, much also depended upon the manner in which it was interpreted. If the languages of the original were neglected, translations must be relied on; and as these seldom expressed the original accurately, men were in danger of believing doctrines, on the authority of the Bible, of which no traces occurred in the original. Examples in point, are numerous. The earlier Christians taught that God had committed the inhabitants of the world to the superintendence of angels, and that themselves had charge of the Jewish people. They likewise taught, that a part of the angels had debauched the daughters of men, and for this crime were thrust out of heaven. The first of these opinions was derived from Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, and the last, from Gen. vi. 2. Neither would have been found in the Bible, had not the Septuagint version been their sole dependance. But the consequences of neglecting the original text are most apparent in the Latin fathers, who being confined to their Latin translation, drew from it many opinions, which with more knowledge of philosophy, they could never have derived from the Bible. Various examples occur even in Augustine, who as an interpreter was long admired and followed. Not only a knowledge of lan guages, but also just principles of interpretation, are necessary for deriving doctrines from the scriptures. We may compare them to a glass, through which the scriptures are viewed, and which imparts its own colour to all the objects seen. If in expounding the Bible, we assume some one principle as our fundamental rule, from which we will never deviate, as for example, the authority of the church, or of some distinguished theologian ;--or if we chase every ingenious allegory through all its windings, and in addition to the simple meaning of the words, seek for hidden and mysterious meanings; we shall be led to very different results, and shall collect very different materials for our system of theology, than if we had examined the sense of holy scripture by grammatical rules, and had transferred ourselves back to the age and the circumstances of the writers. To be sensible of the effects of a change in exegesis on dogmatics, we need only compare one of the recent systems of theology, with a system written forty years ago. It will be seen at the first glance, that many tenets, once supposed to be undeniably biblical, are now regarded as not biblical, and are therefore either expunged from the system of divinity, or are stated very differently, since the time that Ernesti and Semler introduced new principles of interpretation. The state of philosophy has likewise contributed much to the changes in theology. The doctrines of a revealed religion ought indeed to be sought for only in a hermeneutical and historical way: mixing philosophy with such a religion, must be viewed as in a sense corrupting it. But when its doctrines have been ascertained, we cannot avoid an inquiry, how far they agree with the dictates of philosophy; and the great use of philosophy, in stating, arranging and supporting these doc trines can not be denied. Now phi- ions. Impartial history shews us losophy has had both her friends, who recommended her as a safe auxiliary to the clergy; and her opposers, who maintained that the honour of divine truth was profaned by her touch. Sometimes she was considered only as a convenient instrument, serviceable when used to support the established system ; and the only offices allowed her, related to the form of doctrines, the selection and statement of the proofs, and the arrangement of the parts of the system. In regard to the substance of doctrines, she might not hazard a query, without being charged with a criminal intrusion into the sanctuary of religion. On the other hand, sometimes she has been able either openly or silently to go much farther, and to raise herself from a handmaid to a mistress. Now dogmatics must have assumed a totally different aspect, according as it was pursued in the one or the other of these ways. Frequently there was a sharp contest between the friends and the opposers of philosophy; and whenever the former triumphed, the consequence was, that theology put on the livery of the reigning philosophy of the age, and appeared clad in Platonic, Aristotelian, Cartesian, Wolfian or Kantean drapery, as the fashion happened to be. And yet theologians have always ostensively founded their doctrines on the Bible, even when in fact derived from the prevailing philosophy; and though the Bible was often cited merely to support the conclusions of philosophy, and if it did not readily afford such support, was stretched on the rack of forced interpretation; still every age has claimed the merit of having a system which was in most beautiful harmony with the Bible. Finally, theological history holds a place among the auxiliary branches of knowledge, which might contribute to changes in religious opin the origin of opinions, and thus discovers various tenets to be modern corruptions of Christianity. It divests us of many prepossessions, and leads us to examine and to judge with candour. The high authority of the famous ecclesiastical councils, for example, must sink in our view, when we have learned from impartial history the manner and materials of their composition, and the mode of their proceedings. Yet hitherto the influence of history on dogmatics, has been the less extensive, because the composing of good histories, is a service, which past ages have left for these later times to perform. All the causes now enumerated have affected the state of theology, sometimes more, and sometimes less, at one time silently and imperceptibly, at another openly and notoriously. And though the doctrines of Jesus were always made the foundation, yet the modifications they received were numberless. SURPRISE IN DEATH. "WE are all borderers upon the river of death, which conveys us into the eternal world, and we should be ever waiting the call of our Lord, that we may launch away, with joy, to the regions of immortality; but thoughtless creatures that we are, we are perpetually wandering far up into the fields of sense and time, we are gathering the gay and fading flowers that grow there, and filling our laps with them as a fair treasure, or making garlands for ambition to crown our brows, till one and another of us is called off on a sudden, and hurried away from this mortal coast: those of us, who survive, are surprised a little, we stand gazing, we follow our departing friends, with a weeping eye, for a minute or two, and then we fall to our amusements again, and Cool groves, and shady copses here, There brooks, and winding streams appear, grow busy, as before, in gathering While change of objects still new pleas the flowers of time and sense. how fond we are to enrich ourselves with these perishing trifles, and adorn our heads with honours and withering vanities, never thinking which of us may receive the next summons to leave all behind us, and stand before God! but each presumes, "it will not be sent to me." We trifle with God, and things eternal, or utterly forget them, while our hands and our hearts are thus deeply engaged in the pursuit of our earthly delights all our powers of thought and action are intensely busied amongst the dreams of this life, while we are asleep to God, because we vainly imagine he will not call us yet." "There are some beautiful verses, which I have read perhaps thirty years ago, wherein the ingenious author describes the different sta ges of human life, under the image of a fair prospect, or landscape, and death is placed, by mistaken mortals, afar off beyond them all. "Since the lines return now upon my remembrance, I will repeat them here with some small alteration. They are as follow: "Life and the scenes that round it rise, Share in the same uncertainties. Yet still we hug ourselves with vain presage, Of future days, serene and long, Of pleasures fresh, and ever strong, An active youth, and slow declining age. "Like a fair prospect still we make Things future pleasing forms to take: First, verdant meads arise, and flow'ry fields; ures yields. "Farther fine castles court the eye, There wealth and honours we espy: Beyond, a huddled mixture fills the stage, Till the remoter distance shrouds The plains with hills, those hills with clouds, There we place death behind old shiv'ring age. "When death, alas! perhaps too nigh, In the next hedge doth skulking lie, There plants his engines, thence lets fly his dart; Which, while we ramble without fear, The first of the above quotations will remind the reader of the following beautiful lines of Cowper. "Op'ning the map of God's extensive plan, We find a little isle, this life of man; Eternity's unknown expanse appears, Circling around and limiting his years. The busy race examine, and explore, Each creek and cavern of the dang❜rous shore, With care collect what in their eyes excels, Some shining pebbles, and some weeds and shells; Thus laden, dream that they are rich and great, And happiest he that groans beneath his weight: The waves o'er take them in their serious play, And every hour sweeps multitudes away; They shriek and sink, survivors start and weep, Pursue their sport, and follow to the deep, A few forsake the throng; with lifted eyes Ask wealth of heaven, and gain a real prize. |