XVI.

der, and Martin Chemnitz, whose Harmonies ofCENT. the Evangelists are not void of merit. To these SECT. III. we may add Victor Strigelius and Joachim Cam- PART II. erarius, of whom the latter, in his Commentary on the New Testament, expounds the scriptures in a grammatical and critical manner only; and laying aside all debated points of doctrine and religious controversy, unfolds the sense of each term and the spirit of each phrase, by the rules of criticism and the genius of the ancient languages, in which he was a very uncommon proficient.

XVI. All these expositors and commentat is The respec abandoned the method of the ancient interpreters, of the sa who, neglecting the plain and evident purport of cred interthe words of scripture, were perpetually torturing preters. their imaginations, in order to find out a mysterious sense in each word or sentence, or were hunting after insipid allusions and chimerical applications of scripture-passages, to objects which never entered into the views of the inspired writers. On the contrary, their principal zeal and industry were employed in investigating the natural force and signification of each expression, in consequence of that golden rule of interpretation inculcated by Luther, That there is no more than one sense annexed to the words of Scripture throughout all the Books of the Old and New Testament [c]. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the examples exhibited by these judicious expositors were far from being universally followed. Many, labouring under the old-and inveterate disease of an irregular fancy and a scanty judgment, were still seeking for hidden significations and double meanings in the expressions of Holy writ. They were perpetually busied in twisting all the propheVol. IV. cies

X

[a] This golden rule will be found often defective and false, unless several prophetical, parabolical, and figurative expressions be excepted in its application.

XVI.

CENT. cies of the Old Testament into an intimate conSECT. III. nexion with the life, sufferings, and transactions PART II of Jesus Christ; and were over-sagacious in find

ing out, in the history of the patriarchal and Jewish churches, the types and figures of the events that have happened in modern, and that may yet happen in future times. In all this they discovered more imagination than judgment; more wit than wisdom. Be that as it may, all the expositors of this age may be divided, methinks, with propriety enough into two classes, with Luther at the head of the one, and Melancthon presiding in the other. Some commentators followed the example of the former, who, after a plain and familiar explication of the sense of scripture, applied its decisions to the fixing of controverted points, and to the illustration of the doctrines and duties of religion.— Others discovered a greater propensity to the method of the latter, who first divided the discourses of the sacred writers into several parts, explained them according to the rules of rhetoric, and afterwards proceeded to a more strict and almost a literal exposition of each part, taken separately, applying the result, as rarely as was possible, to points of doctrine or matters of controversy. Concerning XVII. Complete systems of theology were far the didactic from being numerous in this century. Melanc doctrine of thon, the most eminent of all the Lutheran the Luther- doctors, collected and digested the doctrines of the church, which he so eminently adorned, into a body of divinity, under the vague title of Loci Communes, i. e. A Common Place Book of Theology. This compilation, which was afterwards, at different times reviewed, corrected, and enlarged by its author, was in such high repute during this century, and even in succeeding times, that it was considered as an universal model of doctrine for all those, who either instructed the people by

theology or

an church.

XVI.

their public discourses, or promoted the know-CENT. ledge of religion by their writings [b]. The title, SECT. III. prefixed to this performance, indicates sufficiently PART II the method, or rather the irregularity, that reigns in the arrangement of its materials; and shews that it was not the design of Melancthon to place the various truths of religion in that systematical concatenation, and that scientific order and connexion, that are observed by the philosophers in their demonstrations and discourses, but to propose them with freedom and simplicity, as they presented themselves to his view. Accordingly, in the first editions of the book under consideration, the method observed, both in delineating and illustrating these important truths, is extremely plain, and is neither loaded with the terms, the definitions, nor the distinctions, that abound in the writings of the philosophers. Thus did the Lutheran doctors, in the first period of the rising church, renounce and avoid, in imitation of the great reformer, whose name they bear, all the abstruse reasoning and subtile discussions of the scholastic doctors. But the sophistry of their adversaries, and their perpetual debates with the artful champions of the church of Rome, engaged them by degrees, as has been already observed, to change, their language and their methods of reasoning; so that, in process of time, the simplicity that had reigned in their theological systems, and in their manner of explaining the truths of religion, almost totally disappeared. Even Melancthon himself fell imperceptibly into the new method, or rather into the old method revived, and enlarged the subsequent editions of his Loci Communes, by the addition of several philosophical illustrations, designed to expose the fallacious

X 2

[6] See Jo. Franc. Buddeus, Isagoge ad Theologiam, lib. ii. cap. i. sect. xiii. tom. i. p. 381.

XVI.

But

CENT. fallacious reasonings of the Roman Catholic SECT. III. doctors. As yet, however, the discussions of PART II. philosophy were but sparingly used, and the unintelligible jargon of the schoolmen was kept at a certain distance, and seldom borrowed. when the founders of the Lutheran church were removed by death, and the Jesuits attacked the principles of the Reformation with redoubled animosity, armed with the intricate and perplexing dialectic of the schools; then, indeed, the scene changed, and theology assumed another aspect. The stratagem employed by the Jesuits corrupted our doctors, induced them to revive that intricate and abstruse manner of defending and illustrating religious truth that Luther and his associates had rejected, and to introduce, into the plain and artless paths of theology, all the thorns, and thistles, all the dark and devious labyrinths of the scholastic philosophy. This unhappy change was deeply lamented by several divines of eminent piety and learning about the commencement of the seventeenth century, who regretted the loss of that amiable simplicity that is the attendant on divine truth; but they could not prevail upon the professors, in the different universities, to sacrifice the jargon of the schools to the dictates of common sense, nor to return to the plain, serious, and unaffected method of teaching theology that had been introduced by Luther. These obstinate doctors pleaded necessity in behalf of their scholastic divinity, and looked upon this pretended necessity as superior to all authorities, and all exThe state of amples, however respectable.

mong the

morality a- XVIII. Those who are sensible of the intimate Lutherans, connexion that there is between faith and practice, between the truths and duties of religion, will easily perceive the necessity that there was of reforming the corrupt morality, as well as the superstitious doctrines, of the church of Rome.

It

is

XV.

is therefore natural, that the same persons, who CENT. had spirit enough to do the one, should coink szer. II. themselves obliged to attempt the other. This Par II. they accordingly attempted, and not without a certain degree of success; for it may be affimed with truth, that there is more genuine piety and more excellent rules of conduct in the few practical productions of Luther, Melancthon, Weller, and Rivius, to mention no more, than are to be found in the innumerable volumes of all the ancient Casuists and Moralisers [c], as they are called in the barbarous language of these remote periods. It is not, however, meant even to insinuate, that the notions of these great men concerning the important science of morality were either sufficiently accurate or extensive. It appears, on the contrary, from the various debates that were carried on during this century, concerning the duties and obligations of Christians, and from the answers that were given by famous casuists to persons perplexed with religious scruples, that the true principles of morality were not as yet fixed with perspicuity and precision, the agreement or difference between the laws of na ture and the precepts of Christianity sufficiently examined and determined, nor the proper distinctions made between those parts of the gospeldispensation, which are agreeable to right reason, and those that are beyond its reach and comprehension. Had not the number of adversaries, with whom the Lutheran doctors were obliged to. contend, given them perpetual employment in the field of controversy, and robbed them of that precious leisure which they might have consecrated to the advancement of real piety and vir

[c] The moral writers of this century were called Moralisantes, a barbarous term, of which the English word Moralisers bears some resemblance.