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 Nestorians, against Cyril's Twelve Anathemas: he afterwards attacked the opinions of Nestorius, and was deposed in the synod held by the Eutychians. THEOLOGY

The word "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, ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ, 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 shown 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 tended for 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 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 so 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 disagreeable consequences, every man, before he enters 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. 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 secret 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 disseminating 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 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. 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 coppel, but the coppel 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, 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 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 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 from

(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: "Praeclare ergo Aristoteles, si essent, inquit, qui sub terra semper habitavisset, bonis, et illustribus domiciliis, quae essent ornatae signis atque pictoris, instructaque rebus illis omnibus, quibus abundant ii, qui beat putantur, nec homen exessent unquam supra terram: accipissent autem fama et audizione, esse quoddam numen."