THEOLOGY THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 



91 



to ua, as they have their counterparts in the present 

 day. The scholastic theology attempted to clear and 

 discuss all questions by reason and argument. It 

 substituted the principles of the philosophy that hap- 

 pened to be approved of at the time, in place of the 

 principles of the oracles of God ; it laid aside the 

 study of the scriptures, and adopted the arts of the 

 subtle dialectician. During the dark ages its cham- 

 pions acquired great celebrity, and were honoured 

 with the high sounding titles of Angelic, Seraphic 

 Doctors, &c. Their speculations are now almost 

 forgotten, and their works, the products of genius 

 of the highest order, are seldom or never read. 

 Contempt, or utter oblivion, has been their merited 

 portion. But the spirit of their theology still sur- 

 vives, and presents itself in the Rationalism of the 

 present age, the philosophy of which is indeed of 

 a more liberal character, but which is still found 

 demanding that religion should behold in it its 

 creator and lord. The mystical theology referred 

 almost every thing to the intellectual light, and the 

 secret emotions which in various ways, and more 

 especially by contemplation and an austere disci- 

 pline, might be excited and cherished in the human 

 heart. The adherents of this system, by their vio- 

 lent explications, forced the word of God into a 

 conformity with their visionary doctrines, their en- 

 thusiastic feelings, and the system of discipline they 

 had drawn from the excursions of their irregular 

 fancies. The avowal of their principles may now 

 be rare, but it is scarcely possible but that in every 

 age they shall have followers. A man under the 

 influence of feelings, which apparently are those of 

 piety, and may to a certain extent be such, will 

 ever be ready to trust to these, and to suppose that 

 religion must necessarily be conformed to them, 

 except he is preserved from this error by an en- 

 lightened understanding, a humble heart, and the 



Spirit of God The patristic, or as it has been also 



called positive theology, leaned on human authority. 

 Its votaries cared not to ask how the word of God 

 decided any question, but what was the opinion of 

 the ancient fathers. Even their commentators 

 were mere compilers of the comments of their pre- 

 decessors. Multitudes, both learned and ignorant, 

 still seem to lean to this system, which has " a show 

 of humility." These are not to be found merely 

 in the church of Rome, which professedly sets a 

 value on this slavish system. How much reason is 

 there to fear, that while confessions of faith are 

 maintained by Protestants to be only subordinate 

 standards, not a few are practically giving them a 

 higher place ? The enlightened Christian will ever 

 remember that these are fallible and of no authority 

 except as the convenient external bonds of union 

 adopted by ecclesiastial communities. In deciding 

 on truth and error, he will not appeal to them, but 

 to the word of God, and will be ready to follow it, 

 whithersoever it may lead. Yet while he feels 

 himself thus subjected to the sole authority of the 

 word of God, he will not neglect to take advantage 

 of the labours of the wise and good, nor ima- 

 gine that these may not help us to understand 

 it ; but still he will " prove all things, and 

 hold fast that which is good." Nothing can be 

 more pitiful than the attempts of some writers to 

 dissuade us from making use of these human aids. 

 " I have little doubt, that nothing would be more 

 mortifying to them, than our adopting their advice 

 ir its full extent, and treating their own writings 

 with as little regard as they wish us to express for 

 the writings of others." 



THEOMANCY (from Ow, God, and px,*, 

 prophecy) was that species of prophecy in which a 

 god himself was believed to reveal futurity. Oracles 

 were considered as public institutions for prophesy- 

 ing at distinct places and periods ; but the communi- 

 cations embraced under the head of theomancy were 

 extraordinary predictions, not limited by any such 

 restrictions. There were three classes of persons 

 who considered themselves as particularly the sub- 

 jects of such communications : 1. the possessed, 

 i. e. such as believed themselves possessed by some 

 daemon (q. v.) ; 2. enthusiasts (enthusiastce, theo- 

 pneustee'), who pretended to be seized by a certain 

 enthusiasm with which a god had inspired them ; 3. 

 ecstatics, i. e. such as fell into ecstasies. They 

 lay as if in a trance, and, when they recovered their 

 consciousness, spoke of having witnessed the 

 strangest things, which were considered as indicat- 

 ing that the soul, during the trance, had left the 

 body, and gone into another world, to visit the 

 abodes of the gods or the departed. Such fanatics 

 or impostors have appeared, not only among the 

 Greeks, but among all uncultivated nations, of 

 whatever religion. 



THEOPHANE ; a daughter of Bisaltus, whom 

 Neptune changed into a sheep to remove her from 

 her numerous suitors. The god afterwards as- 

 sumed the shape of a ram, and under this form had 

 by the nymph a ram with a golden fleece, which 

 carried Phryxus to Colchis. 



THEOPHANY (from ens, God, and pa/v^a*, I 

 appear) ; a festival at Delphi, celebrated on the an- 

 niversary of the day when Apollo had revealed him- 

 self to the Delphians. At a later period, revela- 

 tions and appearances of deities to particular indivi- 

 duals were so called, and, finally, the general mani- 

 festation of revelation in the world. See Epiphany. 



THEOPHILANTHROPISTS (from e>;, God, 

 $i\is, friend, and atfyavos, man) ; friends of God 

 and man ; the title assumed by a religious society 

 formed at Paris during the French revolution. The 

 object of its founders was to revive public religious 

 ceremonies, which had altogether ceased during the 

 reign of terror, without returning to the doctrines 

 and rites of Christianity, which were incompatible 

 with the deism professed by the Theophilanthropists. 

 In 1796, five heads of families Chemin, Mareau, 

 Janes, Haiiy (brother of the celebrated philosopher), 

 and Mandar associated themselves, and, Decem- 

 ber 16, held their first meeting for the purposes of 

 divine worship and moral instruction, according to 

 the dictates of natural religion. These assemblies 

 were held weekly : the exercises consisted of prayer, 

 moral discourses, and singing, and the numbers of 

 the society rapidly increased. The directory granted 

 them the use of the ten parish churches of Paris, in 

 which their services were performed at first on De- 

 cadi, and afterwards on Sunday, at the hour of noon. 

 The temples were appropriately fitted up, and 

 adorned with religious and moral inscriptions, an 

 ancient altar, with a basket containing flowers, as 

 an offering to the Supreme Being, a pulpit, and al- 

 legorical paintings, and banners, with inscriptions 

 and emblematic devices. The Theophilanthropists 

 had no peculiar spiritual order ; but the officers of 

 the society were an overseer, a president of the 

 temple, a reader and an orator, who wore a long 

 white robe over a blue dress, with a sash or girdle 

 of various colours, during the performance of divine 

 worship, but who enjoyed no privileges and received 

 no pay. Their dogmas consisted solely of a belief 

 in the existence of God, and in the immortality of 



