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and dogmatical manner, that the attentive reader is inclined to think, that he sometimes achieves more than he had led us to expect.

On questions that have been rendered intricate by using scriptural terms in a sense merely modern, and of such questions the number is not small, Dr. Campbell's clearness of apprehension, critical acuteness and patience of research, have enabled him to throw a good deal of light. The Lectures on Ecclesiastical History afford some striking examples of his success in this way. And his work on the Gospels abounds in illustrations of scripture, that may be of great utility in reforming our style in sacred matters, and in shortening, if not deciding, many theological questions. Some good judges have no hesitation in saying, that they never saw the scripture terms heresy and schism, well explained, till they read Dr. Campbell's Preliminary Dissertations. Former writers had been so far misled by the common and modern acceptation of the terms, as to include error in doctrine as essential to the notion of heresy, and to make a separation from communion in religious offices the distinguishing badge of schism. The primitive and genuine import of the words is so clearly ascertain⚫ed by the author, that if a person unacquainted with the ecclesiastical and comparatively modern language were to read the dissertation, he would wonder, that there should ever have been any difficulty or difference of opinion on the question. This is only one instance out of many that might be produced from the same work, in which the reader will find the obscurity, wherein a subject was formerly involved, vanish entirely, and the genuine conceptions of the most venerable antiquity unfolded to his view. When that great work is understood and studied with the attention it merits, may it not be expected to have considerable influence, in leading men to look for the good old paths, that may have been long untrodden, and known but to few?

In the preface to the work above quoted, speaking of expositors of Scripture, the author has the following remark, "If I can safely

reason from experience, I do not hesitate to say, that the least dogmatical, the most diffident of their own judgment, and moderate in their opinion of others, will be ever found the most judicious." To judge by this criterion, few authors have a better claim to our confidence than Dr. Campbell. Few have seen the right track so clearly, and few have advanced in it with a firmer step.

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LECTURES.

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

Of the Science of Theology, and its several Branches.

THAT we may discover what is necessary for the acquisition of any science, we ought to consider attentively the end for which it is made the object of our pursuit. If the ultimate end be knowledge, or that entertainment which the mind derives from the perception of truth, the properest plan of teaching must be very different from that which ought to be adopted, when the end is practice. And as this last admits a subdivision (for there may be practical ends of very different sorts) the method best adapted to one sort may not be the best adapted to another.

I explain myself by an example, which comes directly to the point in hand. The Christian theology may be studied, first, like any other branch of liberal education, in order to gratify a laudable curiosity; or, secondly, to qualify us for acting the part of Christians, by practising the duties of the Christian life; or, lastly, to qualify us for discharging the office of Christian pastors. It is manifest, that if, for answering properly the first of these purposes, a good deal more is requisite, than would suffice for attaining the second, yet much less is necessary for the accomplishment of both these ends, than for answering the third. With regard to the first, which terminates in the acquisition of knowledge, theology is now very rarely, if ever, in this country, studied, like other sciences, purely for its own sake, as a part of genteel education, which, (abstracting from its utility) is both ornamental and entertaining.

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