bishop of St Cyricus in Syria, in the 4th century, and one of the most learned fathers of the church, was born in the year 386, and was the disciple of Theodorus Mopsuestia and St John Chrysostom. Having received holy orders, he was with difficulty persuaded to accept of the bishopric of St Cyricus, about the year 420. He discovered great frugality in the expenses of his table, dress, and furniture, but spent considerable sums in improving and adorning the city of Cyricus. He erected two large bridges, public baths, fountains, and aqueducts, and laboured with great zeal and success in his diocese. Yet his zeal was not confined to his own church; he went to preach at Antioch and the neighbouring towns; where he became admired for his eloquence and learning, and had the happiness to convert multitudes of people. He wrote in favour of John of Antioch and the Neftorianians, against Cyril's Twelve Anathemas; he afterwards attacked the opinions of Nestorius, and was deposed in the synod held by the Eutychians at Ephesus; but was again restored by the general council of Chalcedon, in which he was present, in 451. It is thought that he died soon after; though others say that he lived till the year 457. There are still extant Theodore's excellent Commentary on St Paul's Epistles, and on several other books of the Holy Scriptures. 2. His Ecclesiastical History from the time of Arius to Theodore. THEOLOGY

Is a Greek word (θεολογία), and signifies that science which treats of the being and attributes of God, his relations to us, the dispensations of his providence, his will with respect to our actions, and his purposes with respect to our end. The word was first used to denote the systems, or rather the heterogeneous fables, of those poets and philosophers who wrote of the genealogy and exploits of the gods of Greece. Hence Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod, Phecydes, and Pythagoras, were called theologians; and the same epithet was given to Plato, on account of his sublime speculations on the same subject. It was afterwards adopted by the earliest writers of the Christian church, who styled the author of the apocalypse, by way of eminence, ὁ θεολόγος, the Divine.

Although every pagan nation of antiquity had some tutelary deities peculiar to itself, they may yet be considered as having all had the same theology, since an intercommunion of gods was universally admitted, and the heavenly bodies were adored as the divi majorum gentium over the whole earth. This being the case, we are happily relieved from treating, in the same article, of the truths of Christianity and the fictions of paganism, as we have elsewhere traced idolatry from its source, and shewn by what means "the foolish hearts of men became so darkened that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." See Polytheism.

The absurdities and inconsistency of the pretended revelation of the Arabian impostor have been sufficiently exposed under the words Alcoran and Mahometanism; so that the only theology of which we have to treat at present is Christian theology, which comprehends that which is commonly called natural, and that which is revealed in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. These taken together, and they ought never to be separated, compose a body of science so important, that in comparison with it all other sciences sink into insignificance; for without a competent knowledge of the attributes of God, of the several relations in which he stands to us, and of the ends for which we were created, it is obvious that we must wander through life like men groping in the dark, strangers to the road on which we are travelling, as well as to the fate awaiting us at the end of our journey.

But if this knowledge be necessary to all Christians, it is doubly so to those who are appointed to feed the flock of Christ, and to teach the ignorant what they are to believe, and what to do, in order to work out their own salvation. The wisdom and piety of our ancestors have accordingly founded professorships of theology in all our universities, where the principles of our religion are taught in a systematic and scientific manner; and the church has ordained, that no man shall be admitted to the office of a preacher of the gospel who has not attended a regular course of such theological lectures.

It must not, however, be supposed, that, by merely listening to a course of lectures however able, any man will become an accomplished divine. The principles of this science are to be found only in the word and works of God; and he who would extract them pure and unadulterated, must dig for them himself in that exhaustless mine. To fit a man for this important investigation, much previous knowledge is requisite. He must study the works of God scientifically before he can perceive the full force of that testimony which they bear to the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of this study.

Hence the necessity of a general acquaintance with the physical and mathematical sciences before a man enter upon the proper study of theology, for he will not otherwise obtain just and enlarged conceptions of the God of the universe. See Physics, n° 115.

But an acquaintance with the physical and mathematical sciences is not alone a sufficient preparation for the study of theology. Indeed it is possible for a man to devote himself wholly to any of these sciences, as to make it counteract the only purposes for which it can be valuable to the divine; for he who is constantly immersed in matter, is apt to suspect that there is no other substance; and he who is habituated to the routine of geometrical demonstration, becomes in time incapable of reasoning at large, and estimating the force of the various degrees of moral evidence. To avert these untoward consequences, every man, before he enter upon the study of that science which is the subject of the present article, should make himself acquainted with the principles of logic, the several powers of the human mind, and the different sources of evidence; in doing which he will find the greatest assistance from Bacon's Novum Organum, Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Reid's Essays on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Man, and Tatham's Chart and Scale of Truth. These works, of which the young student ought to make himself master, will teach him to think judiciously, and guard him against a thousand errors, which those who have not laid such a foundation are apt to embrace as the truths of God.

The man who proposes to study theology ought to have it in view, as the ultimate end of his labours, to impart to others that knowledge which he may procure for himself. "Amongst the many marks which distinguish the Christian philosopher from the Pagan, this (says a learned writer) is Warburton's most striking—the Pagan sought knowledge in a selfish way, to secrete it for his own use; the Christian seeks it with the generous purpose (first in view, though last in execution)" The Pagan philosopher, therefore, having cultivated the art of thinking, proceeds to that of speaking, in order to display his vanity in the dexterous use of deceit. On the other hand, the Christian philosopher cultivates the art of speaking, for the sole purpose of disseminating the truth in his office of preacher of the gospel.

As every man, before he enters upon the proper study of theology, receives, at least in this country, the rudiments of a liberal education, it may perhaps be superfluous to mention here any books as peculiarly proper to teach him the art of speaking; we cannot however forbear to recommend to our student the attentive perusal of Quintilian's Institutions, and Dr Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and the Belles Lettres. A familiar acquaintance with these works will enable him, if he be endowed by nature with talents fit for the office in which he proposes to engage, to express his thoughts with correctness and elegance; "without which, it has been well observed, that science, especially in a clergyman, is but learned lumber, a burden to the owner, and a nuisance to everybody else."

No man can proceed thus far in the pursuits of general science without having been at least initiated in the learned languages; but he who intends to make theology his profession should devote himself more particularly to the study of Greek and Hebrew, because in these tongues the original scriptures are written. By this we do not mean to insinuate that it is necessary for the man whose views aspire no farther than to the office of pastor of a Christian congregation, to make himself a profound critic in either of these ancient languages. The time requisite for this purpose is so long, that it would leave very little for other studies of infinitely more importance to him, whose proper business it is to instruct the ignorant in those plain and simple truths which are sufficient to guide all men in the way to salvation. Still, however, it is obvious, that he who is incapable of consulting the original scriptures, must rest his faith, not upon the sure foundation of the word of God, but upon the credit of fallible translators; and if he be at any time called upon to vindicate revelation against the loci of infidelity, he will have to struggle with many difficulties which are easily foiled by him who is master of the original tongues.

The student having laid in this stock of preparatory knowledge, is now qualified to attend with advantage the theological lectures of a learned professor; but in doing this, he should be very careful neither to admit nor reject anything upon the bare authority of his master. Right principles in theology are of the utmost importance, and can rest upon no authority inferior to that of the word of God. On this account we have long been of opinion, that a professor cannot render his pupils so much service by a systematical course of lectures, as by directing their studies, and pointing out the road in which they may themselves arrive in the shortest time at the genuine sense of the sacred scriptures. In this opinion we have the honour to agree with the ablest lecturer in theology that we have ever heard. The authors of all systems are more or less prejudiced in behalf of some particular and artificial mode of faith. He, therefore, who begins with the study of them, and afterwards proceeds to the sacred volume, sees with a jaundiced eye every text supporting the peculiar tenets of his first master, and acts as absurd a part as he who tries not the gold by the copel, but the copel by the gold. Before our young divine, therefore, sit down to the serious perusal of any one of those Institutes or bodies of theology which abound in all languages, and even before he read that which the nature of our work compels us to lay before him, we beg leave, with the utmost deference to the superior judgment of our more learned readers, to recommend to his consideration the following

Preliminary Directions for the Study of Theology.

Christian theology is divided into two great parts, natural and revealed; the former comprehending that which may be known of God from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and Godhead; the latter, that which is discovered to man nowhere but in the sacred volume of the Old and New Testaments.

Concerning the extent of natural theology many opinions have been formed, whilst some have contended that there is no such thing. Into these disputes we mean not to enter. We believe that one of them could have had no existence among sober and enlightened men, had the contending parties been at due pains to define with accuracy the terms which they used. Whatever be the origin of religion, which we have endeavoured to ascertain elsewhere (see Religion, no 6-17.), it is obvious, that no man can receive a written book as the word of God till he be convinced by some other means that God exists, and that he is a Being of power, wisdom, and goodness, who watches over the conduct of his creature man. If the progenitor of the human race was instructed in the principles of religion by the Author of his being (a fact of which it is difficult to conceive how a confident thief can entertain a doubt), he might communicate to his children, by natural means, much of that knowledge which he himself could not have discovered had he not been supernaturally enlightened. Between illustrating or proving a truth which is already talked of, and making a discovery of what is wholly unknown, every one perceives that there is an immense difference (A).

To beings whose natural knowledge originates wholly from sensation, and whose minds cannot, but by much difficulty advance from sense to science, a long series of revelations might be necessary to give them at first just notions of God and his attributes, and to enable them to perceptions.

---

(A) The discriminating powers of Aristotle will not be questioned; and in the following extract made by Cicero from some of his works which are now lost, he expresses our sentiments on this important subject with his usual precision:

"Præclare ergo Aristoteles, si essent, inquit, qui sub terra semper habitavissent, bonis, et illustribus domiciliis, quæ effrent ornata signis atque picturis, instruæque rebus iis omnibus, quibus abundant ii, qui beati putantur, nec tamen effrent unquam supra terram: accipiant autem fama et auditione, esse quoddam numen, et vim deorum; deinde aliquo tempore, patefactis terræ faucibus, ex illis abditis sedibus evadere in loca, quæ nos incolumis, atque exire potuisse: cum repente terram, et maria, eodemunque vidissent: nubium magnitudinem, ventorumque vim cognovisset, ad pexissimæ fætem, ejusque tum magnitudinem, pulchritudinemque, tum etiam efficientiam cognovisset, quod id diem effeceret, toto celo luce diffusa: cum autem terras nox opacæfet, tum caelum totum cernerent altris distinctum et ornatum, lunæque luminum varietatem tum crescentem, tum senecentem, eorumque omnium ortus et occasus, atque in omni æternitate ratos, immutabileque cursus: hæc cum viderent, proiecto et esse deos, et hæc tanta opera deorum esse arbitrarentur." De Nat. Deorum, lib. ii. § 37. From this passage it is evident, that the Stagyrite, though he considered the motions of the heavenly bodies, the ebbing and flowing of the sea, and the other phenomena of nature, as affording a complete proof of the being and providence of God, did not however suppose that from these phenomena an untaught barbarian would discover this fundamental principle of religion. On the contrary, he expressly affirms, that before a man can feel the force of the evidence which they give of this important truth, he must have heard of the existence and power of God.

(a) It may not be improper to inform the reader, that Mr Wollaston, the author of the Religion of Nature, was a different man from Mr Woolton, who blasphemed the miracles of our Saviour. The former was a clergyman of great piety, and of such moderate ambition as to refuse one of the highest preferments in the church of England when it was offered to him; the latter was a layman remarkable for nothing but gloomy infidelity, and a perverse desire to deprive the wretched of every source of comfort. In the mind of the former, philosophy and devotion were happily united; in the mind of the latter, there was neither devotion nor science. Yet these writers have been frequently confounded; sometimes through inadvertence from the similarity of their names; and sometimes, we are afraid, designedly, from a weak and bigotted abhorrence of every system of religion that pretends to have its foundation in reason and in the nature of things. no means such discoverers as they are supposed to be by their illiterate admirers.

The student having made himself master of natural theology, and carefully endeavoured to ascertain its limits, is now prepared to enter upon the important task of searching the scriptures. In doing this, he ought to divest himself as much as possible of the prejudices of education in behalf of a particular system of faith, and fit down to the study of the sacred volume as of a work to which he is an entire stranger. He ought first to read it as a moral history of facts and doctrines, beginning with the books of Moses, and proceeding through the rest, not in the order in which they are commonly published, but in that in which there is reason to believe they were written (see Scriptures). If he be master of the Hebrew and Greek languages, he will doubtless prefer the original text to any version; and in this perusal we would advise him to consult no commentator, because his object at present is not to study the doctrines contained in the bible, but merely to discover what are the subjects of which it treats. Many histories of the bible have been written; and were we acquainted with a good one, we should recommend it as a clue to direct the young divine's progress through the various books which compose the sacred volume. Stackhouse's history has been much applauded by some, and as much censured by others. It is not a work of which we can express any high degree of approbation; but if read with attention, it may no doubt be useful as a guide to the series of facts recorded in the scriptures. Between the Old and New Testaments there is a great chain in the history of the Jewish nation; but it is supplied in a very able and satisfactory manner by Dr Prideaux, whose Old and New Testament connected is one of the most valuable historical works in our own or any other language. Shuckford's Sacred and Profane History of the World connected is likewise a work of merit, and may be read with advantage as throwing light upon many passages of the Old Testament; but this author is not entitled to the same confidence with Prideaux, as his learning was not so great, and his partialities seem to have been greater.

In thus making himself master of the history of the Old and New Testaments, the student will unavoidably acquire some general notion of the various doctrines which they contain. These it will now be his business to study more particularly, to ascertain the precise meaning of each, and to distinguish such as relate to the whole human race, from those in which Abraham and his posterity were alone interested. He must therefore travel over the sacred volume a second time; and still we would advise him to travel without a guide. From Walton's Polyglot Bible, and the large collection called Critici sacri, he may indeed derive much assistance in his endeavours to ascertain the sense of a difficult text; but we think he will do well to make little use of commentators and expositors, and still less of system-builders, till he has formed some opinions of his own respecting the leading doctrines of the Jewish and Christian religions.

"Impeached (says an able writer) with an awful sense of the importance of the sacred volume, the philosophical divine will shake off the bias of prejudices however formed, of opinions however sanctioned, and of passions however constitutional, and bring to the study of it the advantage of a pure and impartial mind. Instead of wasting all his labour upon a number of minute and less significant particulars, and of refining away plain and obvious sense by the subtleties of a narrow and corrosive mind, his first object will be to institute a theological inquiry into the general design of the written word; and from principles fully contained and fairly understood, to illustrate the true nature and genius of the religious dispensation in all its parts. He will mark the difference between the first and second covenants, and observe the connection that subsists between them. He will trace the temporary economy of the Old Testament, and weigh the nature and intent of the partial covenant with the Jews; observing with astonishment how it was made introductory of better things to come; and he will follow it through the law and the prophets in its wonderful evolutions, till he see this vast and preparatory machine of providence crowned and completed in the eternal gospel. This New Testament, the last and best part of the religious dispensation, he will pursue through the sacred pages of that gospel with redoubled attention; contemplating the divine foundation on which it claims to be built, the supernatural means by which it was executed, and the immortal end which it has in view."

In the course of this inquiry into the import of the sacred volume, the student will pay particular attention to the circumstances of the age and country in which its various writers respectively lived, and to the nature of the different styles, analogical and parabolical, in which it is written. He will likewise keep in mind that God, whom it claims for its author, is the parent of truth, and that all his actions and dispensations must be consistent with one another. He will therefore compare the different passages of the Old and New Testaments which relate to the same doctrine, or to the same event, reasonably concluding that the bible must be the best interpreter of itself; and though the opinions which he thus forms may often be erroneous, they will seldom be dangerous errors, and may easily be corrected by mature reflection, or by consulting approved authors who have treated before him of the various points which have been the subject of his studies. Of this mode of proceeding one good consequence will be, that, having from the sacred scriptures formed a system of theology for himself, he will afterwards study the systems of other men without any violent prejudices for or against them; he will be so much attached to his own opinions as not to relinquish them in obedience to mere human authority, at the same time that he will be ready to give them up when convinced that they are not well founded; and if he have read the scriptures to any good purpose, he will have acquired such a love of truth as to embrace her wherever she may be found, whether among Papists or Protestants, in the school of Arminius or in that of Calvin.

As we have supposed that every man, after having formed a theological system of his own, will consult the systems of others, it may perhaps be expected that we should here recommend those which, in our opinion, are most worthy of his attention. To do this, however, would, we apprehend, be a very ungracious interference with the rights of private judgment. It would be to arrogate to ourselves a divinity kind of authority to which, when assumed by others, we have cautioned our readers not to submit. But lest we should be suspected of wishing to bias the mind of the young student toward the short system which we are obliged to give, we shall just observe, that by the divines of what is called the Arminian school, Episcopius's Theologia Institutiones (c), Limborch's Theologia Christiana, and Locke's Reasonableness

(c) There is, however, one chapter of this work which the majority of Arminians loudly condemn. Episcopius acknowledges