402 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



tion, for which means were then unattainable. The 

 whole realm of exegesis and criticism could not be re 

 volutionised in a day. Methods of interpretation really 

 inconsistent with Protestant principles crept back in 

 detail. And very soon the original living conception of 

 God s Word began to grow stiff and cold. Men s chief 

 interest lay in doctrinal polemic, and that interest seemed 

 to be best served when Scripture was viewed mainly as a 

 Divine body of doctrine. Even in the system of Calvin, 

 whose commentaries are distinguished by an attempt far 

 beyond his age to take a broad philosophical view of the 

 history of revelation, the growing tendency towards a 

 one-sided exaltation of what is doctrinal appears in 

 marked contrast to the spirit of Luther s earliest Reforma 

 tion writings. And the days of the Epigoni saw the 

 growth of a Protestant scholasticism, which left room for 

 advance in the details of exegesis, but effectually checked 

 a just appreciation of the human characteristics of the 

 Bible. Theologians arose to whom the boldness of Luther 

 appeared audacity, and who gave up the justest results 

 of Calvin s exegesis as verging towards Rationalism. 

 The immediate perception of God s voice speaking in 

 Scripture had grown dull, and a generation which required 

 to have the divineness of the Bible proved to it by in 

 tellectual arguments had lost the firm ground which alone 

 could give freedom to do justice to the truly human 

 characters of the record of revelation. Thus one side 

 of the original Reformation impulse was more or less 

 absolutely divorced from the theology of the Church. 

 The desire for a more truly historical treatment of Biblical 

 theology expressed itself in the school of Cocceius in forms 

 not unsuspected by the stricter orthodoxy, and often not 

 free from extravagance ; while the literary and aesthetic 

 qualities of the Bible became an object of study to men 

 who shared in that revulsion against dogma which waxed 

 so strong towards the close of the seventeenth century. 

 Thus arose the breach between the theological and the 



