and mutual relation. It is only thus that we can satisfactorily exhibit their truth, vindicate them from objections, or bring them to bear in their full force on the minds of men.
Fourth, Such is evidently the will of God. He does not teach men astronomy or chemistry, but He gives them the facts out of which those sciences are constructed. Neither does He teach us systematic theology, but He gives us in the Bible the truths which, properly understood and arranged, constitute the science of theology. As the facts of nature are all related and determined by physical laws, so the facts of the Bible are all related and de- termined by the nature of God and of his creatures. And as He wills that men should study his works and discover their wonderful organic relation and harmonious combination, so it is his will that we should study his Word, and learn that, like the stars, its truths are not isolated points, but systems, cycles, and epicycles, in un ending harmony and grandeur. Besides all this, although the Scriptures do not contain a system of theology as a whole, we have in the Epistles of the New Testament, portions of that system wrought out to our hands. These are our authority and guide.
§ 2. Theological MetJiod. Every science has its own method, determined by its peculiar nature. This is a matter of so much importance that it has been erected into a distinct department. Modern literature abounds in works on Methodology, i. e., on the science of method. They are designed to determine th-e principles which should control scientific investigations. If a man adopts a false method, he is like one who takes a wrong road which will never lead him to his destination. The two great comprehensive methods are the d priori and the d 'posteriori. The one argues from cause to effect, the other fi'om effect to cause. The former was for ages applied even to the in- vestigation of nature. Men sought to determine what the facts of nature must be from the laws of mind or assumed necessary laws. Even in oui own day we have had Rational Cosmogonies, which undertake t» construct a theory of the universe from the nature of absolute being and its necessary modes of development. Every one knows how much it cost to establish the method of induction on a firm basis, and to secure a general recognition of its authority. According to this method, we begin witli collecting well-established facts, and from them infer the general laws which determine their occurrence. From the fact that bodies fall toward the centre of the earth, has been inferred the general law of gravitation, which
4 INTRODUCTION. [Ch. I. — Method.
we are authorized to apply far beyond the limits of actual experi- ence. This inductive method is founded upon two principles : First, That there are laws of nature (forces) which are the proximate causes of natural phenomena. Secondly, That those laws are uniform ; so that we are certain that the same causes, under the same circumstances, will produce the same effects. There may be diversity of opinion as to the nature of these laws. They may be assumed to be forces inherent in matter ; or, they may b« regarded as uniform modes of divine operation ; but in any event there must be some cause for the phenomena which we perceive around us, and that cause must be uniform and permanent. On these principles all the inductive sciences are founded ; and by them the investigations of natural philosophers are guided.
The same principle applies to metaphysics as to physics ; to psy- chology as well as to natural science. Mind has its laws as well as matter, and those laws, although of a different kind, are as perma- nent as those of the external world.
The methods which have been applied to the study of theology are too numerous to be separately considered. They may, perhaps, be reduced to three general classes : First, The Speculative ; Sec- ond, The Mystical ; Third, The Inductive. These terms are, in- deed, far from being precise. They are used for the want of better to designate the three general methods of theological investigation which have prevailed in the Church.
§ 3. The Speculative Method. Speculation assumes, in an a priori manner, certain principles, and from them undertakes to determine what is and what must be. It decides on all truth, or determines on what is true from the laws of the mind, or from axioms involved in the constitution of the thinking principle within us. To this head must be referred all those systems which are founded on any a priori philosophical as- sumptions. There are three general forms in which this speculative method has been applied to theology.
Deistic and Rationalistic Form. 1. The first is that which rejects any other source of knowledge of divine things than what is found in nature and the constitution of the human mind. It assumes certain metaphysical and moral axioms, and from them evolves all the truths which it is willing to admit. To this class belong the Deistical and strictly Rational- istical writers of the past and present genei'ations.