148 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



may help to show what are the real principles of theological 

 progress as they have been manifested in the history of 

 the Church, and must be grasped by us and manifested in 

 us if we are to do real service to theology. 



It is not altogether accidental that our negative results 

 have preceded this positive investigation. For the line 

 of thought which brought us face to face with the problem 

 of the relation of theology to Scripture and convinced us 

 that theology is no mere deduction from Scripture is a 

 line of thought in the main historical. We saw that the 

 transition from the position of Owen to that of Cunning 

 ham takes place through the influence of the philosophy 

 of the eighteenth century as exhibited in Butler. And 

 the conclusion that theology must ultimately rest on an 

 inner consciousness, not on purely objective data, repre 

 sents the stage of thought which essentially characterises 

 our own century and belongs to the rebellion against 

 the formalism both of the old rationalism and the old 

 supernaturalism which marks the religious tendencies of 

 the present day. No^ this new current of thought 

 which surrounds us all and from which we cannot, even 

 though we would, entirely separate ourselves, has a positive 

 as well as a negative side ; but historically viewed it 

 was the negative side that appeared first. Thus the first- 

 fruits of the new movement in German theology appeared 

 to be wholly destructive. The overthrow of the old 

 rationalism seemed to be bought too dear by the fall of 

 the old supernaturalism and by the rise of a school which 

 attacked Scripture in a way of which the rationalists 

 had never dreamed. Even Schleiermacher appeared to 

 observers in this country to be a baneful power in theology. 

 But soon the so-called reaction followed, and we began 

 to assert that Germany was returning to the old theology ; 

 whereas, in fact, the properly reactionary movement was 

 very narrow indeed, and the real restorers of a believing 

 theology were disciples of the new school, followers 

 mainly of Schleiermacher, in whom the positive side of 



