586 



THEOLOGY. 



are not to be left unexplored ; the errors, mistaken 

 interpretations, and false reasonings of men are not 

 to be allowed to remain unmolested ; and hence 

 theological science embraces a wide range, and 

 breaks forth both on the right hand and on the left. 



The primary work of a theologian must be the 

 consideration of the evidences of Christianity. He 

 must ascertain what revelation is, and where it is 

 to be found. For this purpose he must ascertain 

 that the books of the Old and New Testaments are 

 genuine and authentic. He must ascertain that 

 they are genuine, that is, that they are really the 

 composition of the authors whose names they bear; 

 for, it is only on the supposition of this, that we 

 can believe the report of supernatural facts in them 

 to be true, and that it was not rejected by those 

 who were cognizant of these reported facts ; and 

 that what are exhibited as predictions, were writ- 

 ten prior to the events which they profess to fore- 

 tell. He must also ascertain their authenticity, 

 that is, that what they give forth as a statement of 

 facts, is really such. To this he must add the 

 whole body of arguments, by which the system of 

 truth contained in them is proved to be divine; he 

 must elucidate the nature and characteristics of 

 inspiration itself; and he must satisfactorily deter- 

 mine what the particular books are, in which the 

 dictates of inspiration may be found. When he has 

 done all this, he has before him the source whence 

 all his doctrines are to be derived ; the authority 

 by which they are all sanctioned ; and the basis on 

 which his belief of each of them is to rest. Here 

 what is strictly and properly theology commences, 

 and we may now give some account of the various 

 aspects in which it may be contemplated, and the dif- 

 ferent parts of which it maybe regarded as composed. 



Exegetical TTieologyis first in natural order; it is 

 also, in many respects, first in point of importance : 

 it consists in the interpretation and explanation of 

 the scriptures. If revelation is the only source of 

 theological doctrines, and the standard to which 

 they are to be conformed, too high a value cannot 

 be set upon accurate exegesis, or the correct and 

 certain evolution of the sense of its different an- 

 nouncements; and since many passages of the bible 

 have long had different meanings attached to them, 

 by different classes of persons, and since there is 

 thus the mist of preconceived opinions, and, it may 

 be also, the distorting medium of inveterate preju- 

 dice, thrown between us and the exhibitions of 

 truth in the scriptures, it is evident that the true 

 interpretation may often be very far from being 

 satisfactory to us. For this reason, and for various 

 others which may easily be conceived, exegetical 

 theology must have something by which to find its 

 way, and something to which to appeal in vindica- 

 tion of the results of its labours. For these pur- 

 poses it makes uie of hermeneutics, or the -science 

 of interpretation, which comprises and exhibits the 

 principles and rules according to which the meaning 

 of an author may be judiciously, accurately, and 

 satisfactorily ascertained. Thus exegetical theo- 

 logy, when properly conducted, is nothing more 

 than the practical application, to the scriptures, of 

 the theory and precepts of sacred hermeneutics. 

 The Christian church is becoming extensively 

 alive to the truth of this remark, and nothing can 

 augur better for its peace, that peace which is the 

 result of the triumph of sound doctrine, and the 

 destruction of those errors which deface her beauty 

 and mar her prosperity. For this consummation 

 we must look to the labours of wise, learned, can- 



did men, in this department of the sacred science, 

 and not to the mere repetition of ancient glosses, 

 or the production of new and ingenious comments, 

 or the profound reasonings of the metaphysician, or 

 the subtle arts of the logician. The history of 

 this important branch of theology is in many 

 respects truly humiliating, and fraught with lessons 

 of admonition and caution. Even in the first cen- 

 tury, though the generality of those who performed 

 the office of interpreters, studied above all things 

 plainness and perspicuity, yet several adopted the 

 absurd and corrupt custom used among the Jews, 

 of darkening the plain words of holy scripture, by 

 insipid and forced allegories, and of drawing them 

 violently from their proper and natural significa- 

 tion, in order to extort from them certain mysteries 

 and hidden meanings. The epistle of Barnabas, 

 which is yet extant, and which certainly belongs to 

 the first century, whoever may have been its author, 

 is a proof of this. So rapid was the declension 

 thus begun, that of the commentators of the second 

 century, of whom we have any account, there was 

 not one who did not attribute a double sense to the 

 words of scripture: the one sense obvious and 

 literal; the other hidden and mysterious, which lay 

 concealed, as it were, under the veil of the out- 

 ward letter. The former they treated with the 

 utmost neglect, and turned the whole force of their 

 genius and application to unfold the latter. In 

 other words, they were more studious to darken the 

 holy scriptures with their idle fictions, than to in- 

 vestigate their true and natural sense. Some of 

 them also forced the expressions of sacred writ out 

 of their obvious meaning, to apply them to the 

 support of their philosophical systems ; a custom 

 most pernicious, which has much prevailed, and of 

 which Clemens of Alexandria is said to have given 

 the first example. The critical principles, if such 

 they deserve to be called, of those who were not 

 content with the literal meaning of scripture, were, 

 in the third century, reduced into a system by the 

 celebrated Origen. In his Stromata, book x., he 

 says, " The source of many evils lies in adhering to 

 the carnal or external part of scripture. Those 

 who do so, shall not attain to the kingdom of God. 

 Let us, therefore, seek after the spirit and the sub- 

 stantial fruit of the word, which are hidden and 

 mysterious." And again, " The scriptures are of 

 little use to those who understand them as they are 

 written." The hidden sense he divided into moral 

 and mystical. " The moral sense of scripture dis- 

 plays those doctrines that relate to the inward 

 state of the soul, and the conduct of life. The 

 mystical, or spiritual sense, represents the nature, 

 the laws, and the history of the spiritual or mystical 

 world. We are not yet at the end of the labyrinth ; 

 for he subdivided this mystical world of his own 

 creation into two distinct regions, the one of 

 which he called the superior, i. e. heaven ; by the 

 other, or inferior, he meant the church. This led 

 to a division of the mystical sense, into an earthly 

 or allegorical sense, adapted to the inferior world, 

 and a celestial or anagogical one, adapted to the 

 superior region." (Mosheim, Cent. 3, ch. 3.) Not 

 widely different from this is the system of the 

 Schoolmen, as expressed in the following verses, 



" Litera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria^ 

 Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia." 



Origen's method of interpretation was that which 

 came to be almost universally followed. Among 

 the commentators there were, indeed, not a few 



