an ancient Greek poet of Megara in Achaia, flourished about the 59th Olympiad, 144 B.C. We have a moral work of his extant, containing a summary of precepts and reflections, usually found in the collections of the Greek minor poets.

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 fables of those poets and philosophers who wrote of the genealogy and exploits of the gods of Greece. 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 intercommunity of gods was universally admitted, and the heavenly bodies were adored as the dii 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 the 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 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 lyceum and scientific manner; and of 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 unsophisticated, 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 their author. Hence the necessity of a general acquaintance with the physical and mathematical sciences before a man enter on the proper study of theology, for he will not otherwise obtain just and enlarged conceptions of the God of the universe. See PHYSICS, No 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 subsistence; 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 disagreeable consequences, every man, before he enter on 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. fanum, 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 will teach him to think justly, 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 one of the most striking—the Pagan sought knowledge in a selfish way, to fecrete it for his own use; the Christian seeks it with the generous purpose (first in view, though last in execution) to impart it to others. 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 diffincinating the truth in his office of preacher of the gospel."

As every man, before he enters on 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 every body 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. He who is incapable of consulting the original scriptures, must rest his faith, not on the sure foundation of the word of God, but on the credit of fallible translators; and if he be at any time called on to vindicate revelation against the scoffs of infidelity, he will have to struggle with many difficulties which are easily solved 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 any thing on the bare authority of his master. Right principles in theology are of the utmost importance, and can rest on 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 to recommend to his consideration the following

PRELIMINARY DIRECTIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY.

CHRISTIAN theology is divided into two great parts, Christ natural and revealed; the former comprehending that theology 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 at present 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 consistent theist 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 Preliminary from sensation, and whose minds cannot, but by much discipline, 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 perceive the relation between the effect and its cause, so as to infer by the powers of their own reason the existence of the Creator from the presence of his creatures. Such revelations, however, could be satisfactory only to those who immediately received them. Whenever the Deity has been pleased by supernatural means to communicate any information to man, we may be sure that he has taken effectual care to satisfy the person so highly favoured that his understanding was not under the influence of any illusion; but such a person could not communicate to another the knowledge which he had thus received by any other means than an address to his rational faculties. No man can be required to believe, no man indeed can believe, without proof, that another, who has no more faculties either of sensation or intellect than himself, has obtained information from a source to which he has no possible access. An appeal to miracles would in this case serve no purpose; for we must believe in the existence, power, wisdom, and justice of God, before a miracle can be admitted as evidence of anything but the power of him by whom it is performed. See MIRACLE.

It is therefore undeniable that there are some principles of theology which may be called natural; for though it is in the highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each individual. We indeed admit many propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, and we receive these scriptures with gratitude as the lively oracles of God; but it is self-evident that we could not do either the one or the other, were we not convinced by natural means that God exists, that he is a Being of goodness, justice, and power, and that he inspired with divine wisdom the penmen of these sacred volumes. Now, though it is very possible that no man or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery; yet whatever propositions relating to the being and attributes of the first cause and the duty of man, can be demonstrated by human reason, independent of written revelation, may be called natural theology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first principles of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the foundation of the Christian revelation; for without a previous knowledge of it, we could have no evidence that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are indeed the word of God.

Our young divine, therefore, in the regular order of his studies ought to make himself master of natural theology before he enter upon the important task of searching the scriptures. On this subject many books have been published in our own and other languages; but perhaps there is none more worthy of attention than the Religion of Nature delineated by Mr Wollaston (B). It is a work of great merit, and bears ample testimony to its author's learning and acuteness: yet we think it ought to be read with caution. Mr Wollaston's theory of moral obligation is fanciful and groundless; and whilst we readily acknowledge that he demonstrates many truths with elegance and perspicuity, we cannot deny that he attempts a proof of others, for which we believe no other evidence can be brought than the declarations of Christ and his apostles in the holy scriptures. To supply the defects of his theory of morals, we would recommend to the student an attentive perusal of Cumberland on the Law of Nature, and Paley's Elements of Moral Philosophy. A learned author * af* Walburn affirms of Cumberland, that "he excels all men in fixing on the

NUMEN, ET VIM DEORUM; deinde aliquo tempore, patefactis terrae faucibus, ex illis abditis fedibus evadere in hae loca, quae nos incolimus, atque exire potuissent: cum repente terram, et maria, ccelumque vidissent: nubium magnitudinem, ventorumque vim cognovissent, adspexitfentique solem, ejusque tum magnitudinem, pulchritudinemque, tum etiam efficientiam cognovissent, quod est idem efficiet, tota ccelo luce diffusa: cum autem terras nox opacisset, tum ccelum totum cernerent atris diffutctum et ornatum, luneque lumine variatatem tum crescens, tum fene- scens, eorumque omnium ortus et occasus, atque in omni aeternitate ratos, immutabilieque cursus: haec cum vi- dentur, PROFECTO ET ESSE DEOS, et HAE TANTA OPERA DEORUM ESSE arbitarentur." 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.

(B) 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 Wooliton, 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 clergyman likewise, but remarkable only for 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 name; and sometimes, we are afraid, designedly, from a weak and bigoted abhorrence of every system of religion that pretends to have its foundation in reason and in the nature of things. Preliminary the true grounds of moral obligation, out of which natural law and natural religion both arise;" and we have ourselves never read a work in which the various duties which a man owes to his Maker, himself, and his fellow-creatures, are more accurately stated or placed on a surer basis than in the moral treatise of the arch-deacon of Carlile.

As Wollaston demonstrates with great perspicuity, the being and many of the attributes of God, it may perhaps appear superfluous to recommend any other book on that subject. The present age, however, having among other wonderful phenomena, witnessed a revival of Atheism, we would advise our student to read with much attention Cudworth's Intellectual System, and to read it rather in Mosheim's Latin translation than in the author's original English. It is well known that Cudworth wrote his incomparable work in confutation of Hobbes's philosophy; but instead of confining himself to the whimsies of his antagonist, which were in a little time to sink into oblivion, he took a much wider range, and traced atheism through all the mazes of antiquity, exposing the weakness of every argument by which such an absurdity had ever been maintained. In exhausting the metaphysical questions agitated among the Greeks concerning the being and perfections of God, he has not only given us a complete history of ancient learning, as far as it relates to these inquiries, but has in fact anticipated most of the sophisms of our modern atheists, who are by 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 on the important task of searching the scriptures. In doing this, he ought to devote himself as much as possible of the prejudices of education in behalf of a particular system of faith, and sit 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 personal 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 chasm 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 on 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.

"Imprest (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." * Tatham

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 Preliminary 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 attentively, he will have acquired such a love of truth as to embrace her wherever she may be found.

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 an interference with the rights of private judgment. 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 Armenian School, Episcopus's Theologia Institutiones, Limborch's Theologia Christiana, and Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, have long been held in the highest esteem; whilst the followers of Calvin have preferred the Institutiones of their master, Turretine's Institutio Theologia Elenctica, and Gill's Body of Divinity. This last work has many merits and many defects. Its style is coarse and tedious; and the author embraces every opportunity of introducing the discriminating tenets of his feet: but his book is fraught with profound learning, breathes the spirit of piety, and may be read with advantage by every divine who has previously formed the outlines of a system for himself.

As the Jewish and Christian dispensations are closely linked together, being only parts of one great whole, it is impossible to have an adequate notion of the latter without understanding the design of the former. Now, though the Mosaic religion is nowhere to be learned but in the Old Testament, it may be convenient for our student, after he has formed his own opinions of it from that sacred source, to know what has been written on the subject by others. For illustrating the ritual law, a learned prelate warmly recommends the Doctor Dubitantium of Maimonides, and Spencer's book entitled De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus. Both works have undoubtedly great merit; but our young divine will do well to read along with them Hermanni Witsi Aegyptica, and Dr Woodward's Discourse on the Worship of the Ancient Egyptians, where some of Spencer's notions are shortly and ably refuted. On the other parts of this dispensation, such as the nature of its civil government; the rewards and punishments peculiar to it (c); its extraordinary administration by appointed agents, endowed with supernatural powers, and with the gifts of miracles and prophecy; the double sense in which the latter is sometimes involved; and the language consequent on its nature and use—the reader will find much erudition and ingenuity displayed in the second part of Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated. That work is entitled to a serious perusal; for it displays great learning and genius, and, we believe, the heaviest censures have fallen on it from those by whom it was never read.

Having proceeded thus far in the course, the student's Inquiry to next business should be to inquire seriously what evidence there is that the doctrines which he has so far studied were indeed revealed in times past by God. He must already have perceived, in the nature and tendency of the doctrines themselves, strong marks of their origin being more than human; but he must likewise have met with many difficulties, and he must prepare himself to repel the attacks of unbelievers. Here he will find opportunities of exerting the utmost powers of his reasoning faculties, and of employing in the service of religion all the stores he may have amassed of human learning. The scriptures pretend to have been written by several men who lived in different ages of the world; but the latest of them in an age very remote from the present. His first business therefore must be to prove the authenticity of these books, by tracing them up by historical evidence to the several writers whose names they bear. But it is not enough to prove them authentic. They profess to have been written by men divinely inspired, and of course infallible in what they wrote. He must therefore inquire into the truth of this inspiration. The Bible contains a number of truths doctrinal and moral, which are called mysteries, and asserted to be the immediate dictates of God himself. To evince this great point to man, a number of supernatural tests and evidences are inseparably connected with those mysteries; so that if the former be true, the latter must be so likewise. He must therefore examine these tests and evidences, to establish the divinity of the Holy Scriptures; and in this part of his course he will find much assistance from many writers whose defences of the truth and divinity of the Christian religion do honour to human nature.

The first step towards the embracing of any truth is, to get fairly rid of the objections which are made to it; and the general objections made by deistical writers to the Christian revelation are by no writer more completely removed than by Bishop Butler, in his celebrated work entitled The Analogy of Religion natural and revealed to the Constitution and Course of Nature. This book therefore the student should read with attention, and meditate on with patience; but as it does not furnish a positive proof of the divinity of our religion, he should pass from it to Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christianae, and Stillingsfleet's Origines Sacrae. Both these works are excellent; and the latter, which may be considered

(c) On this subject the reader will find many excellent observations in Bishop Bull's Harmonia Apostolica, with its several defences, and in a small book of Dr Wells's, entitled A Help for the Right Understanding of the several Divine Laws and Covenants, whereby man has been obliged through the several ages of the world to guide himself in order to salvation. considered as an improvement of the former, is perhaps the fullest and ablest defence of revelation in general that is to be found in any language. In this part of the united kingdom it is now indeed scarcely mentioned, or mentioned with indifference; but half a century ago the English divines thought it a subject of triumph, and styled its author their incomparable Stillingfleet. Other works, however, may be read with great advantage, and none with greater than Paley's Evidences of the Christian Religion, and Lellie's Short Method with the Deists; which last work, in the compass of a very few pages, contains proofs of the divinity of the Jewish and Christian revelations, to which the celebrated Dr Middleton confessed (p), that for 20 years he had laboured in vain to fabricate a specious answer (e).

Having satisfied himself of the truth of revelation in general, it may be worth the young divine's while to provide a defence of the Christian religion against the objections of modern Judaism. In this part of his studies he will need no other instruction than what he may reap from Limborch's work entitled De Veritate Religionis Christianae amica collatio cum erudito Judeo.

"In that disputation, which was held with Orobio, he will find all that the stretch of human parts on the one hand, or science on the other, can produce to varnish error or unravel sophistry. All the papers of Orobio in defence of Judaism, as opposed to Christianity, are printed at large, with Limborch's answers, section by section; and the subtlest sophisms of a very superior genius are ably and satisfactorily detected and exposed by the strong, profound, and clear reasoning, of this renowned remonstrant*." See OROBIO and LIMBORCH.

The various controversies subsisting between the several denominations of Christians, about points which separate them into different churches, ought next to be studied in the order of the course; for nothing is unimportant which divides the followers of that Master whose favourite precept was love. It has indeed been long fashionable to decry polemical divinity as an useless, if not a pernicious, study; but it is not impossible that this fashion has had its origin in ignorance, and that it tends to perpetuate those schisms which it professes to lament. We are, however, far from recommending to the young divine a perusal of the works of the several combatants on each side of a disputed question, till he has fitted himself for judging between them by a long course of preparatory study; and the only preparation which can fit him for this purpose is an impartial study of ecclesiastical history. He who has with accuracy traced the progress of our holy religion from the days of the apostles to the present time, and marked the introduction of new doctrines, and the rise of the various sects into which the Christian world is divided, is furnished with a criterion within himself by which to judge of the importance and truth of the many contested doctrines; whilst he who, without this preparation, shall read a multitude of books on any religious controversy, will be in danger of becoming a convert to his last author, if that author possess any tolerable share of art and ingenuity.

There are many histories of the Christian church which possess great merit, but we are acquainted with none which appears to us wholly impartial. Mosheim's is perhaps the most perfect compend (f); and one of books its greatest excellencies is, that on every subject the best comm writers are referred to for fuller information. The ed. indeed should often be consulted, not only to supply the defects necessarily resulting from the narrowness of the limits which the author, with great propriety, prefixed to himself; but also to correct his partial obliquities; for with all his merits, and they were many and great, he is certainly not free from the influence of prejudice. Indeed there is no coming at the true history of the primitive church, but by studying the works of the primitive writers; and the principal works of the first four centuries will amply reward the labour of perusing them (g). The rise and progress of the reformation in general, the most important period of church-history, may be best learned from Sleidan's book De Statu Religionis et Republicae, Caroli V. Cefare, Commentarii; the History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland from Knox and Spottiswood; and that of the Church of England from the much applauded work of Bishop Burnet.

After this course of ecclesiastical history, the young divine may read with advantage the most important controversies which have agitated the Christian world. To enumerate these controversies, and to point out the ablest authors who have written on each, would be a tedious, and perhaps not a very profitable task. On one controversy, however, we are induced to recommend a very masterly work, which is Chillingworth's book against Knott, entitled The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation; in which the school jargon of that Jesuit is admirably exposed, and the long dispute between

(d) This piece of information we had from the late Dr Berkeley, prebendary of Canterbury, who had it from Archbishop Secker, to whom the confession was made.

(e) To these defences of revelation we might have added the collection of sermons preached at Boyle's lecture from 1691 to 1732, published in three volumes folio, 1739; the works of Leland; Bishop Newton's Dissertations on Prophecy; and above all, Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History, with the Supplement to it. But there would be no end of recommending eminent writers on this subject. We have mentioned such as we most approve among those with whom we are best acquainted; but we must, once for all, caution the reader against supposing that we approve of every thing to be found in any work except the sacred Scriptures.

(f) The bishop of Landaff, in the catalogue of books published at the end of his Theological Tracts, recommends several other ecclesiastical histories as works of great merit; such as Dupin's, Echard's, Gregory's and Formey's, together with Paul Ernesti Jablonski Institutiones Historiae Christianae, published at Frankfort in three volumes, 1754-67.

(g) For a proof of this position, and for a just estimate of the value of the Fathers, as they are called, see the introduction to Warburton's Julian, and Kett's Sermons at Bampton's Lectures. One of the most plausible objections to the study of polemical divinity, is its tendency to give a rigid turn to the sentiments of those long engaged in it; whilst we know, from higher authority that "the end of the commandment is charity." But for preserving charity in the minds of Christians, there are better means than absolute ignorance or indifference to truth. Charity is violated only when a church unreasonably restrains the inquiries of its own members, or exercises intolerance towards those who have renounced its jurisdiction. The injustice of the first species of ecclesiastical tyranny is exposed in a very mannerly manner by Jeremy Taylor in his Liberty of Prophecying, and by Stillington in his Irenicum; the injustice of the second, by Loeke in his celebrated Letters on Toleration. The man who shall peruse these three works, and impartially weigh the force of their arguments, will be in little danger of thinking uncharitably of those from whose principles the love of truth may compel him to dissent.

In these directions for the study of theology, we might have enumerated many more books on each branch of the subject well deserving of the most attentive perusal; but he who shall have gone through the course here recommended, will have laid a foundation on which he may raise such a superstructure as will entitle him to the character of an accomplished divine. His diligence must indeed be continued through life; for when a man ceases to make acquisitions in any department of learning, he soon begins to lose those which he has already made; and a more contemptible character is nowhere to be found than that of a clergyman unacquainted with the learning of his profession. This learning, however, is not to be acquired, and indeed is scarcely to be preserved, by studying bodies or institutes of theology; and though we have mentioned a few generally approved by two rival sects of Christians, and must, in conformity with the plan of our work, give another ourselves, we do not hesitate to declare, that the man who has carefully gone through the course of study which we have recommended, though it be little more than the outlines on which he is to work, may, with no great loss to himself, neglect ours and all other systems. For as an excellent writer*, whom we have often quoted, well observes, "to judge of the fact whether such a revelation containing such a principle, with its mysteries and credentials, was actually sent from God, and received by man, by examining the evidences and circumstances which accompanied it—the time when, the place where, the manner how, it was delivered—the form in which it descends to us—and in what it is contained—together with the particular substance and burden of it—and how every part is to be rightly understood: these are the various and extensive subjects which constitute the sublime office of theologic reasoning and the proper study of divinity." On this account we shall pass over slightly, many things which every clergyman ought thoroughly to understand, and confine ourselves, in the short compend which we are to give, to the chief articles of Christian theology. In doing this, we shall endeavour to divest ourselves of party prejudices; but as we are far from thinking that this endeavour will be completely successful (for we believe there is no man totally free from prejudice), we cannot conclude this part of the article more properly than with the following solemn Charge,† Dr Tayor of Norwich, which a very learned divine ‡ always prefaced his lectures.

I. "I do solemnly charge you, in the name of the A charge of God of Truth, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and before whose judgement-seat you must in no long time appear, that in all your studies and inquiries of a religious nature, present or future, you do constantly, carefully, impartially, and conscientiously, attend to evidence, as it lies in the Holy Scriptures, or in the nature of things, and the dictates of reason; cautiously guarding against the fallacies of imagination, and the fallacy of ill-grounded conjecture.

II. "That you admit, embrace, or assent to no principle or sentiment by me taught or advanced, but only so far as it shall appear to you to be supported and justified by proper evidence from revelation or the reason of things.

III. "That if, at any time hereafter, any principle or sentiment by me taught or advanced, or by you admitted or embraced, shall, upon impartial and faithful examination, appear to you to be dubious or false, you either suspect or totally reject such principle or sentiment.

IV. "That you keep your mind always open to evidence: That you labour to banish from your breast all prejudice, prepossession, and party-zeal: That you study to live in peace and love with all your fellow Christians; and that you steadily assert for yourself, and freely allow to others, the unalienable rights of judgment and conscience."

PART I. OF NATURAL THEOLOGY.

SECT. I. Of the Being and Attributes of God.

HE who cometh to God, says an ancient divine*, deeply read in the philosophy of his age, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. This is a truth as undeniable as that a man cannot concern himself about a nonentity. The existence of God is indeed the foundation of all religion, and the first principle of the science which is the subject of this article. It is likewise a principle which must command the assent of every man who has any notion of the relation between effects and their causes, and whose curiosity has ever been excited by the phenomena of nature. This great and important truth we have elsewhere endeavoured to demonstrate (see Metaphysics, Part III. Chap. vi.); but it may be proved by arguments less abstruse than the nature of that article required us to use. Of these we shall give one or two, which we hope will be level to every ordinary capacity; while, at the same time, we earnestly recommend to the young divine a diligent study of those books on the the subject which we have mentioned in the preceding directions.

We see that the human race, and every other species of animals, is at present propagated by the co-operation of two parents; but has this process continued from eternity? A moment's reflection will convince us that it has not. Let us take any one man alive, and let us suppose his father and mother dead, and himself the only person at present existing: how came he into the world? It will be said he was produced mechanically or chemically by the conjunction of his parents, and that his parents were produced in the same manner by theirs. Let this then be supposed; it must surely be granted, that when this man was born, an addition was made to the series of the human race. But a series which can be enlarged may likewise be diminished; and by tracing it backwards, we must at some period, however remote, reach its beginning. There must therefore have been a first pair of the human race, who were not propagated by the conjunction of parents. How did these come into the world?

* See Best, Boyle's Lectures.

Anaximander tells us*, that the first men and all animals were bred in warm moisture, inclosed in crustaceous skins like crab-fish or lobsters; and that when they arrived at a proper age, their shelly prifons growing dry, broke, and made way for their liberty. Empedocles informs us, that mother Earth at first brought forth vast numbers of legs, and arms, and heads, &c. which approaching each other, arranging themselves properly, and being cemented together, started up at once full grown men.

Surely those sages, or their followers, should have been able to tell us why the earth has not in any climate this power of putting forth vegetable men or the parts of men at present. If this universal parent be eternal and self-existent, it must be incapable of decay or the smallest change in any of its qualities; if it be not eternal, we shall be obliged to find a cause for its existence, or at least for its form and all its powers. But such a cause may have produced the first human pair, and undoubtedly did produce them, without making them spring as plants from the soil. Indeed the growth of plants themselves clearly evinces a cause superior to any vegetative power which can be supposed inherent in the earth. No plant can be propagated but from seed or slips from the parent stock; but when one contemplates the regular process of vegetation, the existence of every plant implies the prior existence of a parent seed, and the existence of every seed the prior existence of a parent plant. Which then of these, the oak or the acorn, was the first, and whence was its existence derived? Not from the earth: for we have the evidence of universal experience that the earth never produces a tree but from seed, nor seed but from a tree. There must therefore be some superior power which formed the first seed or the first tree, planted it in the earth, and gave to it those powers of vegetation by which the species has been propagated to this day.

Thus clearly do the processes of generation and vegetation indicate a power superior to those which are usually called the powers of nature. The same thing appears no less evident from the laws of attraction and repulsion, &c. pears no less evident from the laws of attraction and repulsion, which plainly prevail through the whole system of matter, and hold together the stupendous structure. Experiment shows that very few particles of the most solid body are in actual contact with each other (see Being: Optics, N° 63—68. Physics, N° 23.) and that there are considerable interstices between the particles of every elastic fluid, is obvious to the smallest reflection. Yet the particles of solid bodies strongly cohere, whilst those of elastic fluids repel each other. How are these phenomena accounted for? To say that the former is the effect of attraction and the latter of repulsion, is only to say that two individual phenomena are subject to those laws which prevail through the whole of the classes under which they are respectively arranged; whilst the question at issue is concerning the origin of the laws themselves, the power which makes the particles of gold cohere, and those of air repel each other. Power without substance is inconceivable; and by a law of human thought, no man can believe a being to operate but where it is in some manner or other actually present: but the particles of gold adhere, and the particles of air keep at a distance from each other, by powers exerted where no matter is present. There must therefore be some substance endowed with power which is not material.

Of this substance or being the power is evidently immense. The earth and other planets are carried round the sun with a velocity which human imagination can scarcely conceive. That this motion is not produced by the agency of these vast bodies on one another, or by the interposition of any material fluid, has been shown elsewhere (see Metaphysics, N° 196—200. and Optics, N° 67.); and since it is a law of our best philosophy, that we are not to multiply substances without necessity, we must infer that the same Being which formed the first animals and vegetables, endowing them with powers to propagate their respective kinds, is likewise the cause of all the phenomena of nature, such as cohesion, repulsion, elasticity, and motion, even the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves.

If this powerful Being be self-existent, intelligent, and independent in his actions and volitions, he is an original or first cause, and that Being whom we denominate God. If he be not self-existent and independent, there must be a cause in the order of nature prior and superior to Him, which is either itself the first cause, or a link in that series of causes and effects, which, however vast we suppose it, must be traced ultimately to some one Being, who is self-existent, and has in himself the power of beginning motion, independent of every thing but his own intelligence and volition. In vain have Atheists alleged, that the series may ascend infinitely, and for that reason have no first mover or cause. An infinite series of successive beings involves an absurdity and contradiction (see Metaphysics, N° 288.): but not to insist on this at present, we shall only beg leave to consider such a series as a whole, and see what consequences will flow from the supposition. That we may with logical propriety consider it in this light, is incontrovertible; for the birth of each individual of the human race shows that it is made up of parts; but parts imply a whole as necessarily as an attribute implies its subject. As in this supposed series there is no cause which is not likewise an effect, nor any body moving another which was not itself moved by a third, the whole is undeniably equivalent to an infinite effect, or an infinite body moved: but if a finite effect must necessarily have proceeded from a cause, and a finite body