144 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



At this point, however, we encounter a somewhat per 

 plexing degree of haziness in the current theological 

 opinions. The old theologians were on this as on most 

 points very explicit. They held that every fundamental 

 dogma was so clearly propounded in some place of 

 Scripture that only guilty negligence or perversion could 

 miss the truth. And accordingly they are accustomed 

 to deny that theology is properly a science. &quot; For 

 every science,&quot; says Owen in his Theologumena, &quot; is the 

 effect of, and is, therefore, regulated by the activity of, the 

 intellect with regard to its special object ; but theology 

 which is nothing else than the revelation of the divine 

 mind and will, the purum putum Dei verbum, neces 

 sarily goes before every conception of our mind concerning 

 its proper object and is the infallible rule of all our know 

 ledge &quot; (pp. 36, 37, 38). &quot; Scriptura,&quot; says Owen ex 

 pressly, &quot; est nostra theologia.&quot; So far as a theological 

 statement or confessional book aims at being more than 

 a mere compend of statements each of which rests im 

 mediately on divine revelation, it passes beyond the 

 bounds of theology. 



This position of Owen, though it rests on the false 

 conception of revelation as a supernatural communica 

 tion of doctrines and on the false identification of 

 Scripture and revelation which were current in his day, 

 is manifestly clear and consistent. The conservative theo 

 logy of our day on the other hand, though not free from the 

 influence of the fundamental errors of the older view, has 

 felt itself constrained to make very considerable modifica 

 tions on that view which by no means tend to clearness. 



No one now feels able to assert with Owen that the 

 doctrinal statements of Scripture yield in clearness to 

 no science. On the contrary, it is admitted I quote 

 from Dr. Cunningham &quot; that there is not one of the 

 peculiar doctrines of the Christian system which is set 

 forth in Scripture with such an amount of explicitness 

 as it was abstractly possible to have given to the state- 



