were given, the conviction and conversion of sinners, and the consolation and encouragement of believers. It was in pursuance of these objects that Franke delivered his "Lectiones Paræneticæ," which were followed by more real and lasting benefit, than any other part of his Academical labors. They were first delivered by him in his own study, and afterwards in the public hall of the Theological Faculty, one hour a week, viz. from 10 to 11 o'clock on Thursday, when other exercises were suspended, that all the Students in the Theological department might be at liberty to attend. In the Preface to the first collection of these Lectures, Franke gives the following account of them. "I have not been accustomed to follow any particular method in these Lectures, but have made it my rule to say, on each occasion, what I saw then to be most necessary to the Students in Theology, either to promote their thorough conversion and Christian walk, or the wise and orderly prosecution of their studies, that they might be at length sent forth as faithful, wise, and useful laborers in the vineyard of the Lord; each according to the gift granted to him by God."

Such were the principles of the founders of the University at Halle respecting the study of Theology. And it deserves to be remarked, that on these principles, and these alone, Theology is a distinct and independent science. On these principles, it is the science of truths revealed by God, and received by faith; and is thus, in a two fold sense, divine; viz. as to the original source of its truths, and the organ through which they are transmitted to the reflecting mind,-that faith which the Holy Spirit produces in the heart. It is in this way distinguished from all human sciences;—not that the scientific effort of the mind (the effort to bring connexion and unity into our various experiences), is different in the two cases, for this is not supposed; but that the materials about which this scientific effort is employed, are different in theology and in human sciences. This is a distinction which the immortal Bacon acknowledges, in a passage which deserves careful consideration at the present time. "Scientia aquarum similis est; aquarum aliæ descendunt cœlitus, aliæ emanant e terra. Etiam scientiarum primaria partitio sumenda est ex fontibus suis; horum alii in alto siti sunt; alii hic infra. Omnis enim scientia duplicem sortitur informationem. Una inspiratur divinitus; aliter

oritur a sensu.

Partiemur igitur scientiam in Theologiam et Philosophiam. Theologiam hic intelligimus inspiratam, non naturalem."* By this division of the sciences according to their sources, a perfect independence of all others is secured to theology. The believer in Revelation draws the doctrines of his creed from a higher source, and so holds them with perfect certainty, without waiting for the results which may be attained in the lower sphere of philosophy. Indeed he considers them not only as true, but as the test and standard of all truth; and so he looks, without fear for the stability of his faith, upon the highest advances of light and knowledge. Are any discoveries alleged, or any hypotheses maintained in opposition to the truths of Revealed religion, he presupposes the latter to be true, and concludes that the former, however plausibly supported, are false. In short, he acknowledges the correctness of the principles of science and philosophy only so far as they admit a source and order of truth above their measure; and the validity of their results, only so far as they illustrate and confirm, or at least are consistent with, the doctrines and facts of Revelation. This is indeed an elevated stand; but one which the believer in Revelation is entitled to assume, and has always been able to maintain. Where is the declaration of Scripture, which has been fairly disproved by philosophy, or by any of the sciences, most of which have begun to exist since the Bible was written? On the other hand, how universally have the theories and alleged discoveries, which were supposed to invalidate the Scriptures, proved in the end false and imaginary! From every attack of an infidel philosophy, the truth of Revelation has come off triumphant, justifying the confidence of those who implicitly receive it, and putting to shame the exultation of unbelievers. So far from bringing up the rear, the science of Revelation has led the van, in this general march of knowledge and improvement, and has in many cases from the first held forth truths, which philosophy afterwards adopted, when it became more enlightened.t

How unworthy, then, of the dignity and independence of the true Theologian, is the procedure of some of the modern Professors of theological science, who are ready to relinquish the clearest doctrines of the Bible on the first semblance of discrepancy between

* De dignit. et augm. Scientia. L. III. cap. 1.

+ Consider, e. g. the doctrine of creation from nothing, long a doctrine of Theology, but only lately of philosophy.

them, and a philosophy which acknowledges no Revelation. There are many styled theologians, who do not hesitate to abandon such truths as the creation of the world, the fall of man, native corruption, vicarious atonement, future resurrection, heaven and hell, on the first flourish of arms from the corps of infidel Dilettanti. But they forget that Geology, Anthropology, and the kindred sciences, which they seem to consider infallible, are from their very nature as experimental, incomplete and cumulative, continually leaving earlier results behind. They forget, that there are other hypotheses equally supported, which tend to confirm Revelation, and that what God has spoken,-the firm prophetic and apostolic Word, is not subject to human revision. By their gratuitous concessions to philosophy and science, they deprive Christian Theology of its proper elements, and Christian faith of the ground of its reliance. They make the great truths upon which the heart must rest for consolation and hope, dependent upon the advances of the experimental sciences. We are thus left to drift about on this dangerous sea, while the holy heights to which we once lifted our eyes, and beheld them kindled with the revealed glory of heaven, to guide us on our passage thither, now burn only with the uncertain fires of this modern illumination. These are, indeed, unhappy consequences; but, we are told, they are inevitable. Theologians, it is said, have no choice left them, and must adopt the splendid results which are every day disclosed in all departments of knowledge; and if they would not suffer Theology to fall into contempt, must admit some compromise between its antiquated doctrines, and the rapid progress of light. To effect this compromise is the office assigned to modern RATIONALISM, by one of its ablest apologists. Rationalism, says Bretschneider,* designs to restore the interrupted harmony between theology and human sciences, and is the necessary product of the scientific cultivation of modern times.-But whence the necessity of this compromise? It is a necessity with which the believer in Revelation can never be pressed, and which certainly was not felt by theologians of the old stamp. They had not asserted their independence of the Pope and the school-men, only to yield it again to the empiric. And as to the advantages of this compromise,-what has really been accomplished by this farfamed Rationalism, after all its promises? It professed friendship for * Vid. his "Sendschreiben," S. 78.

Christianity, but has proved its deadly foe; standing within the pale of the Church, it has been in league with the enemy without, and has readily adopted every thing which infidelity could engender, and as studiously rejected every thing which true philosophy has done to confirm the truths of Revelation. It promised to save Theology from contempt; and how has this promise been performed? In the days of Spener, Theology was the Queen of Sciences, so acknowledged by the mouth of Bacon, Leibnitz, Haller, and others, -their chosen oracles. She wore the insignia of divinity; and "filled her odorous lamp" at the very original fountain of light. But in an evil hour, she took this flattering Rationalism to her boNow stript of every mark of divinity, cut off from her native sources of light, and thrust out into the dark, this Foolish Virgin is compelled to say to her sister Sciences, "Give me of your oil; for my lamp has gone out."

som.

The establishment of the School of Theology at Halle forms, as was above remarked, an epoch in the history of this science. It gave an impulse which is still felt both for good and for evil, and which will probably be still felt for many ages to come. To the direct influence of this School, considered as reviving and perpetuating the spirit of the Reformation, may be attributed all the favorable results of free and unshackled inquiry in matters of faith. To its indirect influence,-to the abuse of the principles upon which it was established, must be ascribed those unprecedented evils which have been lately inflicted upon the German Church. In one way or another, this school stands connected with those great diverging tendencies, whose violent conflict have made the last period of theological developement more interesting and important than any which have preceded. The principles of Spener, made effective by the labors of his Faculty at Halle, are the secret leaven, which has wrought all this commotion in the once lifeless mass of Orthodoxy. -It would be highly interesting to follow down the history of this School, and trace minutely the salutary influence of its principles, as far as they have been observed, and the evils resulting from the abuse of them. My narrow limits, however, will permit me only to describe very briefly the issues of these principles in Pietism on the one hand, and Rationalism on the other, and to show in what points these two opposing directions deviate from the just medium of this Protestant school of biblical and practical theology, to which they both claim to belong.

We have seen, that according to the principles of this school, faith and science, niotis and yvwois, are made essential to the theologian. And in the early teachers of this school, and some of their immediate successors, we have fine examples of the just balance, and mutual influence of piety and learning. Their piety was regular, enlightened, and uniform, through the influence of their knowledge of religious truth; while their knowledge was humble, vital, and sound through the influence of faith and piety. But one acquainted with the imperfection of human nature, and with the history of the Church, could hardly expect that this happy combination would long continue. Piety, which has its seat in the feelings, has ever tended to shun the restraints and regulations which reflection and system impose; and speculation has been equally prone to dissociate itself from piety, and to abandon the Word of God and Christian faith, as the only foundation of religious knowledge. At an early period of the Church we see the practical and theoretical spirit in violent opposition under the peculiar forms and names of Montanism and Gnosticism. At a later period in the Western Church, the elements of noris and yvwots were again separated and in conflict, assuming the new type of mysticism and scholasticism. And in the period now under consideration, the same contention again exists, under the still different aspect of ascetic pictism and Rationalism. The practical tendency of the founders of this school, being unaccompanied in some of their successors by the theoretical tendency, degenerated into a dark, ascetic, bigotted pietism. Their theoretical tendency, being in others of their successors separated from the practical,-the head divorced from the heart, degenerated into that cold and malignant form of speculation, known by the name of Rationalism.

The first instance in the latter period in which we discover the incipient alienation of the practical from the theoretical direction of mind, is the opposition which arose at Halle to the philosophy of Wolf. It was very natural for theologians to feel, that Wolf allowed too much scope to speculative reason, when he attempted to demonstrate the highest problems of metaphysics, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the freedom of the will, etc., with mathematical precision and certainty. And in condemning these assumptions of reason respecting matters of faith, the theologians of Halle only anticipated the sentence which Kant and his followers afterwards pronounced