So the New Testament everywhere; as Rom. iii. 2; coll. ix. 4; and i. 19, 32; which shows how the light of nature given to the heathen had been misimproved by them.

Vide Psalm xix., where ver. 1-6 treat of the knowledge of God derived from nature; ver. 7-11, of that derived from revelation. Cf. Acts, xiv. 17; Rom. i. 19, seq.; coll. ii. 12, seq.

5. It pleased God, as the Bible represents, to give men, from time to time, such direct instruction as they needed. He taught them in this way many things which they might never have discovered of themselves, and which they would not, at best, have discovered for a long time; and many things in which, perhaps, they had already erred. By this immediate revelation he confirmed, illustrated, and perfected that revelation of himself, as the invisible creator, preserver, and judge, which he had already made in the external world, and in the conscience of man. By this immediate revelation, he thus causes the revelation of himself in nature, which is commonly too little regarded, and often wholly neglected, (Rom. i. 21; Acts, xiv. 16,) to become intelligible, impressive, useful, and welcome to man. Ps. xix. 7-14.

The studious and learned among the Greeks and Romans retained almost the sole possession of all that was valuable in the schools and in the writings of the enlightened philosophers. Resting, as their doctrines did, upon long, artificial, speculative, and abstruse reasonings, they accomplished very little for the religious and moral improvement of the most numerous class of society; though this class stood most in need of instruction. Add to this the observation, that it is easier to find proofs for a truth when once discovered than to discover the truth itself in the first instance. The nations of Europe and other parts of the world were destitute of just ideas of religion before they embraced Christianity; but no sooner had they learned the truths of religion from Christianity than they began to prove and establish thern by reason, which they could now do in a more convincing manner than Instruction given by God to men on subjects any of their predecessors could have done with- of which they are ignorant and incapable of disout the light of revelation. Hume said, very covering the truth by reasoning, is called positive justly, that the true philosophy respecting God (arbitraria) instruction; by which is meant simwas only eighteen hundred years old. Respect-ply, that we cannot show the necessity of the ing the partial diffusion of divine revelation, truth revealed by the principles of our own reavide s. 121. Cf. Morus, s. 8, seq. p. 4—6. son, and not that God proceeds capriciously and Vide Reimarus, Abhandlung von den vornehm- unreasonably in this case, which is not suppossten Wahrheiten der natürlichen Religion; Zieg-able. Morus, p. 7, s. 1. When God thus imJer, Theol. Abhand. Num. I., über Naturalismus und positive Religion, Gött. 1791, 8vo; and Stäudlin, Ideen zu einer Kritik des Systems der christlichen Religion, Gött. 1791, 8vo.

parts to men the knowledge of those religious truths of which they are and must remain ignorant if left to their own reason, he is said in the scriptures to reveal the mystery of his will, the 4. But although natural religion must appear, deep things of the Deity. Morus, p. 8, s. 3. from what has been said, to be defective and But revelation (φανέροσις, ἀποκάλυψις) is used, imperfect, it should not be despised or under-even in the Bible, in a wider, and in a more valued. Notwithstanding all its imperfections, limited sense. Morus, p. 9, s. 4. (1) In the it is, in itself considered, a true religion. As Paul teaches us, Rom. i. 20, we acquire even from nature a knowledge of the invisible things of God. In ver. 19 of the same chapter, he says, God has revealed himself even in nature

i. e., in the wise constitution which he, as Creator, has given to our minds and to the external world. Vide supra, No. 1. Through this wise constitution, according to the express testimony of scripture, God addresses himself to all men, from without and from within. He is not far from any one of them, and leaves himself without a witness in none, Acts, xvii. 27; coll. xiv. 17. Genuine and pure natural religion can therefore never contradict revealed religion. Such a contradiction would prove clearly that the religion pretending to be revealed was not so in reality. God cannot contradict himself, nor exhibit himself in one light in nature, and in an entirely different light in revelation. The knowledge of God acquired from nature is recommended and honourably mentioned in the Bible.

wider sense it is the annunciation of such truths as were, indeed, unknown to men, but at the same time within the reach of their minds. Thus pavepovv is used in respect to the knowledge of God derived from nature, (Rom. i. 19,) and ȧяoxɑhúяτew, Phil. iii. 15. (2) In the narrower sense, it is instruction respecting things which are not only unknown, but undiscoverable by the human mind. (3) In the narrow est sense, it is divine instruction on the truths of religion concerning the salvation of men, which neither have been, nor can be, taught by natural religion, and which cannot be derived from reasoning on the nature of things.

Revealed religion, then, is not opposed, but added, to natural religion. It repeats, confirms, and illustrates many of the precepts of natural religion, and at the same time brings to light much that was before unknown.

All this admits of an easy application to the Christian religion. Although the doctrines of the Christian religion must not be contradictory

to reason, they need not be precisely the same | as the doctrines of natural religion, as many at the present day contend. Although the Christian religion is perfectly reasonable, it is still a positive religion, because it rests on positive instruction. That it is a revealed religion cannot be doubted, as long as the yet uninvalidated miracles of Jesus, and other proofs, are sure How, then, can we, who are so weak, attain evidence of his immediate divine mission. To the strength which is requisite for the practice exhibit the great and peculiar doctrines of Chris- of virtue? Jesus and the writers of the New tianity as constituting a system of revealed truth, | Testament everywhere answer, By believing on is the object of the present work.

Note. The division of religion into natural 6. Any one who would attain to a settled and revealed is entirely rejected by Socinus, assurance of the divine origin of the Christian Ferguson, Gruner, and some other theologians. religion must begin his examination with the Vide Gruner, Theol. Dogm. p. 9, and Diss. moral system of Jesus. He will find, on an censura divisionis religionis et theologiæ in naunprejudiced inquiry, that this system is more turalem et revelatam, Hal. 1770. These mainexalted and reasonable, and more decidedly use- tain that we owe all our knowledge of God, ful, than any other system of morals. But when originally, to divine revelation, such as our first he comes to put it into practice, he will soon parents received in paradise, and thence transfind that he is no more able to obey its require-mitted to their descendants. They deny that

we have any knowledge of God, which, as to | faculties. Vide Locke, Essay on Human Units origin, is natural.

derstanding. The soul may be compared in this respect, according to Aristotle, to an unwritten leaf, (tabula rasa,) upon which any thing of which it is naturally susceptible may be written. The mistake on this subject origi

nature, and attributes of God does not depend upon speculation, of which but few men are capable; the idea of God is not admitted to be true, because it is proved by theoretic, speculative reason, but rather because it perfectly agrees with the principles of moral reason, with moral consciousness, or conscience; and because it is demanded by these principles, as has been abundantly shown by Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, and elsewhere. This is the reason that the belief in the Divine existence always precedes the knowledge of any theoretic proof

The scriptures do indeed teach that God revealed himself to men even in the earliest ages of the world; and much of this original revelation has doubtless been transmitted from age to age until the present time. But still this di-nates in this way: The belief in the existence, vision is not to be rejected. For (a) many religious truths which have been revealed are discoverable, and have actually been discovered, by reason and the light of nature. In this division, then, we have respect, not to the actual source of our knowledge of these truths, but to the ground on which we rest our knowledge of them. (b) The elements only of many revealed truths were communicated to our first parents. Men were left to examine, in the diligent use of their powers, the grounds of the revelation given them; to build higher upon the foundation already laid; and to deduce the proper of it. Speculative reasoning must be awakened consequences from what had been already taught. They obtained this additional knowledge by the study and contemplation of nature; and why may not this religious science, thus derived from nature, be called natural religion?

SECTION IV.

and improved before we shall begin to inquire for the theoretic proof of the truths already made known to us by practical reason, or conscience.

Experience, too, stands in the way of the belief that the idea of God is innate. The most uncultivated men, those in whom practical reason has not yet been sufficiently exercised and developed, have no idea of God and religion, and of course no words standing for these ideas. Vide Robinson, History of America; Steller, Beschreibung von Kamtschatka, s. 268; Oldendorp, Geschichte der Mission auf den Caraibischen Inseln, s. 64. The same has been found true of individuals who have grown up in the woods, entirely separated from the society of their fellow-men.

IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD INNATE? THE natural knowledge of God has been divided, especially by the ancients, into innate (insita, congenita, čupuros) and acquired, (acquisita, inixτntos.) The acquired knowledge of God is that which we obtain by the use of reason and by the observation and study of the world. By the innate knowledge of God the ancients understood an idea of God actually innate in all men, brought directly into the If the innate knowledge of God means what world with them, and obtained neither by in- Musæus, Buddeus, and others, understood by struction nor reflection. Pythagoras, the Pla-it, a natural capacity of the mind, (potentia protonists, and many ancient philosophers, believed pinqua,) by means of which the knowledge of in these innate ideas, (anteceptæ animo notiones.) Vide Cic. De Nat. Deor. I. 11, seq.; Seneca, Epist. 117. This opinion was connected by Plato with his theory respecting the existence of the human soul before its union with the body. He taught that all our ideas previously existed in our minds; and that learning was only the recollection of what belonged to our former condition. Des Cartes also advocated this innate knowledge; and many theologians considered it as a remnant of the Divine image in man.

This opinion doubtless arose from the known fact, that the belief of the Divine existence always precedes the knowledge of any theoretic proof of it. The conclusion then was, that because men do not derive their belief in God from speculation, the idea of God must be innate. But the mind possesses no such innate ideas. It obtains all its ideas by the use of its natural

God is easily attained, then, indeed, we possess such innate knowledge. This natural capacity consists in the practical reason, which begins to act before the other powers of the mind. This natural capacity, however, is very improperly called cognitio insita.

Some have endeavoured to prove this innate knowledge from the writings of Paul. But they mistake his meaning. The doctrine of Paul, contained in the two passages referred to, entirely agrees with the theory just stated.

1. Rom. ii. 14, 15. The subject of this passage is the moral sense or feeling which appears in all men, even in childhood, as soon indeed as the practical reason is developed. This feeling renders it impossible for men, whether extremely barbarous or highly cultivated, when free from prejudice and passion, to withhold approbation of right and admiration of virtue. But this moral feeling, as was remarked above,

stands in close connection with the idea of God,

and leads directly to it. Paul says that even

SECTION V.

the heathen (un vóμov Exovtes) have this feeling oF THE ARTICLES OF FAITH; AND THE ANALOGY

They, indeed, have no direct revelation (vóμov); but they know from their own nature (poɛ) that the saine things are right and wrong which revelation declares to be so, and they act accordingly. In ver. 27 he presents the same contrast, and in ver. 15 he explains his meaning. They show (Evdeíxvvvvai) by their judgments and actions that the precepts of the law (rò pyor Toù vouov, what the moral law commands to be done or avoided) are written upon their hearts. This last expression is frequently cited in proof of innate knowledge; but it denotes merely an acquaintance with a subject so fixed and thorough that it cannot be obscured or obliterated from the mind. So, Heb. viii. 10, God wrote his commands in the hearts of the Israelites; and Cic. Acad. IV. 1, Res in animo suo insculptas habere. Vide Wetstein, ad h. 1. "Their conscience condemns them when they do wrong, and acquits them when they do right. They cannot, therefore, be destitute of the certain knowledge of right and wrong."

2. Rom. i. 19, 20. The doctrine advanced is, that the heathen are as liable to punishment, when they transgress the law of nature, as the Jews when they transgress the precepts of revelation: for the knowledge of God (zò yvwozòv τοῦ Θεοῦ for γνώσις Θεοῦ) is attainable even by the heathen. It is evident even to them, (pa#epóv ¿stu ¿v avrois for avrois;) for God has revealed it to them-i. e., has given them the means of attaining it in the natural world. So that even they (passing to the last clause in ver. 20) cannot excuse themselves with the plea of ignorance, (ɛis tò elvai avtoùs ávaroλoyrtovs.) The words là gặp. Secórns are parenthetical, and explanatory of the declaration that God had revealed himself to the heathen, ver. 19. They show in what manner this revelation was made. The attributes of God, in themselves invisible and inscrutable, (aópara autov,) his omnipotence and other divine perfections (SELÓTS), can be discovered, since the creation of the world, (azò xrisɛws xósμov, while the world stands, cf. Luke, xi. 50,) by the observation of the things that are made, (onμast, by reflection upon the works of God.) The knowledge here spoken of is, therefore, acquired knowledge, (cog-1 nitio acquisita.)

The first of these passages treats, then, of the moral sense which the heathen, the civilized, and the savage, alike possess. The second treats of the knowledge of God acquired from the creation; such knowledge as the enlightened heathen philosophers had obtained by the study of the natural world; for with these had Paul, and his readers at Rome, at that time, to deal, and of these, therefore, he here principally speaks.

OF FAITH.

1. Of the Divisions of the Doctrines. THE particular parts which compose the system of theoretic religion are called doctrines of faith, (articuli fidei, capita fidei Christianæ :) also, loci, from the sections and rubrics into which they are collected; whence the phrase loci theologici. The whole sum of the truths of theoretic or doctrinal religion, exhibited in their proper order and connection, constitutes a system of doctrines, or a system of theoretic theology. The articles of faith are divided—

1. Into pure and mixed, in respect to the ground upon which our knowledge of them rests. Pure, are those truths which we learn wholly from the holy scriptures; mixed, are those which we not only learn from the scriptures, but which we can discover and demonstrate by reason. Morus, p. 10, ad finem.

2. Into fundamental or essential, and unessential or less essential, in respect to their internal importance, and their connection with the whole system of Christian truth. Vide Morus, p. 12, s. 3, 4. This division has been rendered more accurate by the controversies which have arisen in relation to the different doctrines of theology. The fundamental doctrines are those without which the system taught in the Bible is unfounded, and with which it must stand or fall. Such are the doctrines enumerated by Morus, p. 8. They may also be defined to be those which cannot be denied or contested without subverting the ground of Christian faith and hope. The unessential doctrines are those which do not concern the vitals of religion, and which we are not required to believe in order to salvation. Vide s. 4. The fundamental doctrines are subdivided into primary and secondary.

We subjoin the following remarks to this important division of the doctrines into essential and unessential:

(a) This division was first distinctly stated in the first half of the seventeenth century, by Nic. Hunnius. It was afterwards adopted by Calovius, Musæus, Baier, and others.

(b) The term fundamental is taken from Cor. iii. 10, 11. Paul here compares himself and other Christian teachers to architects; the Christian community to a building; the doctrines of Christianity to the materials for building. The elementary truths of Christianity, which Paul and other teachers preached at the establishment of churches, are here called the foundation, in opposition to the superstructure, which some other one at Corinth had built upon this foundation, (ixoxodoμɛi, and ver. 6, 7.) Cf. Eph. ii. 20, where the same comparison is found.

Paul calls the instruction which he had given | represented by the apostles as the author, preserver, and governor of all things.

If we would determine what doctrines were regarded by the apostles as essential to Christianity, and were preached by them as such to Jews and Gentiles, we must consult those pas-Sadducees. sages in which Christ and his disciples inten- 6. The doctrine of the destination of man. tionally introduce the elementary truths in which all were instructed. Such passages are those in Acts, which describe the founding of new churches by the apostles, that in Matt. xxviii., which contains the commission given by Christ to his disciples; and those in which the writers distinctly profess to give the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Cf. 1 Cor. ; iii. 1 Thess. i. 8-10; Heb. vi. 1, seq. The following doctrines are in this way ascertained to be fundamental.