were devoted and made subservient. The principles which he followed in his criticism, have, as is well-known, introduced a new era in this territory. The exposition of the New Testament which he gave in his Gnomon, is thus characterised by himself:-" I shall add to the original revised text exegetical remarks, in which I shall act neither as a sytematiser, nor as a controversialist, nor as an ascetic, etc., and yet, in a certain sense, I shall combine all these. Every single passage I shall explain according to its peculiar requirements; in the first instance, according to the words of the text themselves, and the connexion of the periods, or of the whole book, or of even the whole New Testament." In conformity with these principles, he listens to the text with philological impartiality, and, with wonderful skill, hears, not the fundamental key-note only, but also the collateral tones, and, by his significant precision, stimulates to farther thinking, It was by his situation, as preceptor in the Monastic school (Klosterschule) at Denkendorf, that Bengel found himself induced to undertake those critical, as well as exegetical labours. They are, just as his edition of Cicero's Letters ad familiares, and of Chrysostom's book on the priestly office, fruits and memorials of his official conscientiousness. Bengel's disposition for precise investigation of details carried him to chronology. Assisted by his chronological eye, he now imagined that he had attained to an understanding of the Revelation of John. Out of those mysterious pictures he composed the history of the kingdom of God with the assurance of an historian. History has refuted him. The 18th of June 1836, on which the Lord was to come (Rev. xix. 11-21), has passed; but although time has refuted his apocalyptic calculation, it has confirmed many of his glances into the future, and will yet, in all probability, confirm many

Not

more. Agreeing with Pietism, Bengel asserted the reality of the millennial kingdom, in opposition to the dislike with which orthodox theology had, from the very outset, viewed this point; and from this position he transferred into the exposition of the prophetical portion of Scripture a realism which looked to a more literal fulfilment than the ordinary exposition admitted. The school which Crusius in Leipzig represented, may well be designated by the name of a Philosophico-Biblical Realism. withstanding all his originality, Crusius never denied the school of Bengel. Like Bengel, he was a Bible-theologian, and yet strongly addicted to the doctrine of the Church. Like Bengel, he brought to the study of Scripture a living, humble faith, an earnest desire after holiness; and he was of opinion, that, to such a disposition only, an understanding of Scripture would be opened up. But, while in Bengel a philological talent manifests itself, in Crusius it is a philosophical one. As a philosopher, Crusius maintained, in opposition to the idealism and mechanism of the Leibnitz-Wolffian Philosophy, a realism which brought spirit and body into an organic unity; while, as a Bible theologian, he maintained, in opposition to the spiritualism and mechanism of the exposition, the right of the letter and body, in the connexion of a history of salvation of the Old and New Dispensation organically developing itself.1 While in Crusius the speculative element has the character of the rational, it has, in Oetinger, that of the Theosophical. It is only in modern times that this theologian, too, has been brought before us, especially

1 The image of this theologian had become dim to the present age. Delitzsch, in his book: Die biblish-prophetische Theologie, ihre Fortbildung durch Chr. Crusius, etc., Leipzig, 1845, has acquired the merit of having him again, in due time, placed before us.

through the merit of Hamberger and Auberlen. It is a mixed impression, indeed, which the image of his life, drawn by himself, makes upon us.1 His development, a retreat from the snowy regions of Wolffianism, leads through the misty lands of the intuition of Jacob Böhme, of central visionaries, of the alchymists, of Swedenborg. And then, after all, we are again attracted to this Magus of the South, by the wonderful life in prayer, by the mysterious intercourse with a higher world, by his thoughtful living and moving in the mystery of Scripture. As the fundamental error of his tendency, there appears the disposition to seek in Scripture proofs for views which he had found out without Scripture. Like Crusius, he assumed in every man an organ for truth, the sensus communis, that which his age called common sense. When this proceeds from what exists, all being will represent itself to it as life; but the sensus communis is not cognizant of the divine life. The divine life, the revelation of which is laid down in Scripture, opens up to the spiritual sense only. This spiritual sense is, in some elect ones, raised into an organ for higher, for new revelations. This mixture of practical philosophy, Christian speculation, and ghost-seeing, was then to be defended by Scripture! As long as we shall take in Scripture the words as they stand, we shall be obliged to confess, with the whole visible Church, the eternity of the punishments of hell; but theosophy could not agree with this thought. The school-rector Schill, Oetinger's godfather, a ghostseer, had in vain endeavoured to convince prelate Oechslin of the restoration of all things. "The condemned shall go away into everlasting punishment" was too strong a text for him. But he had to suffer for it severely after

1 Oetinger's Selbstbiographie, edited by Dr J. Hamberger. Stuttg., 1845.

death. Schill was just going out of the door of the room when he heard, in a half whisper, the voice of Oechslin, who addressed him by the word "Brother," and told him that, after death, he had come into a darkness in which he did not know what would befal him. Anguish and fear, therefore, fell upon him, because his conviction of the eternity of hell-torments was following him. He reproached Schill for not having, with the utmost pertinacity, endeavoured to reason him out of his opinion. He had passed a long time in his despair, until God had at length heard his prayer, and had made light to arise upon him, when he saw his error, and said,-" Oh, you theologians, how blind are you in the narrow sphere of your theses!" 1 Swedenborg saw even more than Schill. He perceived Luther and Melanchthon in the condition of a kind of purgatory. Luther was teaching in a place which looked like Wittenberg, and Melanchthon was writing; the former was teaching, and the latter was writing, "Justification by Faith." And yet the former is told that this doctrine was thoroughly false, and what the latter wrote is extinguished; they are in purgatory on account of this doctrine, and refuse to acknowledge this. An angel, however, opens up to Swedenborg the prospect, that Luther would come right in the end. Who does not see, that the spirits which these enthusiasts saw were their own spirits, which would not submit to the word of Scripture? Up to this day, Wurtemberg has remained the country of a living, but subjective piety. Bengel's spirit continues to live in those who, with a Christian conscientiousness, bring out of the Word of God doctrines which, although not agreeing with the systematical books of the Church, yet come very near them. (Beck may be viewed

! Selbstbiographie, S. 80 ff.

as the representative of this class in the present; while the great number of theosophists, ghost-seers, apocalyptics, prophets, etc., have their leader in Oetinger.)

A second school of this transition period is the Wolffian. Wolff, consecrated, even before his birth, by his pious father, to the service of the Lord, devoted himself to mathematical and philosophical studies, in the belief that he would be able, by means of them, victoriously to demonstrate the truth of Christianity. "Having been devoted to the study of theology by a vow, I also had chosen it for myself; and my intention has all along been to serve God in the ministry, even when I was already Professor at Halle, until at length, against my will, I was led away from it, God having arranged circumstances in such a manner, that I could not carry out this intention. But having lived in my native place, Breslau, among the Catholics, and having perceived, from my very childhood, the zeal of the Lutherans and Roman Catholics against one another, the idea was always agitating my mind, whether it would not be possible so distinctly to show the truth in theology, as that it would not admit of any contradiction. When, afterwards, I learned that the Mathematici were so sure of their ground, that every one must acknowledge it to be true, I was anxious to study mathematics, methodi gratia, in order to give diligence to reduce theology to incontrovertible certainty." If we consider, that in the last period of Protestant Scholasticism, the method of proceeding by definitions and demonstrations was very much in use (Scherzer, Hollaz); if we consider, that in the bosom of Pietism, which had arisen in opposition to Scholasticism, the mathematical method was made

1 Wuttke, Christian Wolff's eigne Lebensbeschreibung (1840), S. 120.