THEOLOGY.
719
nevolent over-ruling divine system of doctrines, and such pre-cepts of practical wisdom, as the ingenuity of man could neverliave discovered. The Christian , with the scriptures in his hands,can regulate his conduct by an infallible guide, and rest his hopeson the surest foundation.
Of the Divisions of Theology.
In every civilized country the popular system of theology hasclaimed its origin from divine revelation. The Pagans of anti-quity had their augurs and oracles; the Chinese liave their inspir-ed teachers, Confucius and Fold; the Hindoos have their sacredbooks derived from Branva; the followers of Mohammed liavetheir koran dictated by an angel; the Jews have, the scriptures of theOld Testament, and the Christians liave those of the Old and NewTestaments, which they believe to have been written by holymen of old, who spake and wrote as they were moved by theHoly Ghost. That the claims of ancient Paganism to a theologyderived from heaven, as well as the similar claims of the Chinese ,Hindoos, and Mohammedans, are ill-founded, lias been shewn invarious articles of this work. See Hindoos, Mohammedanism,Mythology, Polytheism, Religion, Prophecy, Revela-tion, and Bible . In these is sufficiently proved the divine in-spiration of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, and of course thedivine origin of Jewish and Christian theology. These indeed3re not two systems of theology, but two parts of one system, which^vas gradually revealed as men workable to receive it: and there-fore both scriptures must be studied by the Christian divine.Artificial systems of theology are commonly divided into two greatParts, the theoretic and the practical; and these again are subdi-vided into many inferior branches. Under the theoretic part areSometimes classed,
1. Dogmatic Theology ; which comprehends an entire sys-tem of all the dogmas or tenets which a Christian is bound to be-lieve and profess. The truth of these the divine must clearly per-ceive, and be able to enforce upon his audience: and hence theNecessity of studying what is called,
2. The Exegesis, or the art of attaining the true sense of theholy scriptures ; and,
3. Hermeneutic Theology, or the art of interpreting andexplaining the scriptures to others; an art of which no man canbe ignorant who knows how to attain the true sense of themhimself.
4. Polemical Theology, or controversy ; and,
5. Moral Theology , which is distinguished from moralPhilosophy, or the simple doctrine of ethics, by teaching a muchhigher degree of moral perfection than the mere light of reasoncould ever have discovered, and adding new motives to the prac-hceof virtue.
liie practical sciences of the divine are,
T Homiletic, or Pastoral Theology , which teaches himto adapt his discourse from the pulpit to the capacity of his liear-and to pursue the best methods of guiding them by his doc-ril 'e and example in the way salvation.
. 2 - Catechetic Theology, or the art of teaching youth andSoorant persons the principal points of evangelical doctrine, as well"'dll regard to belief as to practice.
, 3. Casuistic Theology , or the science which decides onc oubttu 1 cases of moral theology, and that cairns (lie scruples ofpnscieiice. which arise in the Christian ’s soul during his journey
tin-
tcie
‘IJA'gh the present world,."e liave mentioned tiles
these divisions and subdivisions of the
“j-ience of theology, not because we think them important, butthat our readers may be at no loss to understand the termssh'?!' ,he y meet with them in other works. Of such terms wedi i' ou . rs<? lves make no use, for the greater part of them indicate^ deletions where there is no difference, and tend only to perplex
tile
student.
^ The Jewish lawgiver, who records the earliest revelations thatand 0 1 - llat ' e t0 mal, > begins his history with a display of the powerfor VVls .'* om °f God in the creation of the world, lie does not in-thy" 1 bis countrymen, and expect them to believe, upon the au-k n nt y of his divine commission, that God exists; for lie wellH 0t - W that the being of God must be admitted, and tolerably just0,13 entertained of his attributes, before man can be required
to pay any regard to miracles which afford the only evidence of aprimary revelation. “ In the beginning (says he) God createdtlie heavens and the earth.” Here the being of God is assumedas a truth universally received; but the sentence, short as it is, re-veals another which, as we shall afterwards shew, human reasoncould never have discovered. But before we consider the crea-tion of the world, what the scriptures say of it, with the opinions oftlie most enlightened ancients on the same subject, it will be pro-per to attend to tlie appellation which is here given to God ; andinquire what light is thrown upon it by subsequent revelations.The passage in tlie original »T3 mwtna, where it is remark-
able that the Creator is denominated by a noun in the plural num-ber, signifying literally “ persons under the obligation of an oathto perform certain conditions.” This is certainly a very extraor-dinary denomination for the one supreme and self-existent Being;and what adds to the strangeness of the phraseology is, that theverb with which this plural noun is made to agree, is put in thesingular number. What now could be tlie sacred historian’s mo-tive for expressing himself in this manner? His style is in ge-neral remarkable for its plainness and grammatical accuracy ; andwe believe it would be difficult to find in all his five books a singlephrase not relating to tlie Supreme Being in which there appearssuch a violation ot concord. To this it has been replied that Moses uses the plural noun to express in a magnificent way the majestyot God , just as it is customary for kings and earthly potentates,when publishing edicts and laws, to call themselves vje and us.But there is no evidence on record that such a mode of speakingwas introduced among kings at a period so early as the sera ofMoses . Let it be observed, too, that whenever this phraseologywas introduced among men, the plural noun was in every gram-matical tongue joined to a plural verb; whereas Moses not onlyputs the noun and the verb in different numbers in tlie verse underconsideration, but afterwards represents the D'nSst as saying, “ Letus make man in our image;” and, “ Behold the man is becomeas one of us.” Such phrases as these last were never used by asingle man, and therefore cannot have been borrowed from humanidioms. Is there then a plurality of gods? No; there is nothingwhich the scriptures more freqently or more earnestly inculcatethan tlie unity of tlie divine nature. The texts asserting this greatand fundamental truth are almost numberless. “ Unto thee (saysMoses to his countrymen) it was shewed, that thou mightest knowthat tlie Lord is God ; there is none else besides him. Knowtherefore that tlie Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon theearth beneath : there is none else.” And again, “ Hear, O Israel,tlie Lord our God is one Lord,” or, as it is expressed in tlie ori-ginal, “ Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,” one Being to whomexistence is essential, who could not liave iiad a beginning, and can-not have an end. In the prophecies of Isaiah, God is introduced asrepeatedly declaring, “ I am Jehovah, and there is none else;there is no God besides me; that they may know from tlie risingoi tlie sun and from tlie west, that there is none besides me: I amJehovah, and there is none else: Is there a God besides me?Yea there is no God ; ( know not any.” in perfect harmonywith these declarations of Moses and the prophets, our Saviour,addressing himself to his Father says, “ This is life eternal, thatthey might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whomThou has sent;” and St. Paul, who derived his doctrine from hisdivine Master, affirms, that “An idol is nothing in the world ;and that there is none other God but one.” The unity of the divinenature, which, from the order and harmony of the world, appearsprobable to human reason, these texts of revelation pul beyond adoubt. Hence tlie first precept of the Jewish law, and accordingto their own writers, the foundation of their whole religion, was,“ Thou slialt liave none other gods before Me.” Hence, too*the reason of that strict command to Jews and Christians to givedivine worship to none but God : “ Thou slialt worship tlie Lordthy Gcd, and Him only shall thou serve;” because he is God alone. Him only must we fear, because. He alone hath infinitepower; in Him alone must we trust, because “ He only is ourrock and our salvation and to Him alone must we direct our de-votions, because “ He only knoweth the hearts of the children ofmen.” It will not be contended than, that the word OVlStt indicatesa plurality of gods. In the opinion, however, of many eminentdivines, it denotes, by its junction with the singular verb, a plu-rality of Persons in the one Godhead; and some have con-tended, that by means of this peculiar construction, the Christian
doctrine