Theology of the Reformed church in its fundamental principles /

Front matter

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The

Theology of the Reformed Church in its Fundamental Principles

Prefatory Note

— * —

The volume now published consists of a course of six lectures delivered by the late Professor Hastie in the Tron Church of Edinburgh in the spring of 1892. By the delivery of the lectures he fulfilled one indispensable condition of tenure of the Croall Lectureship. The publication of them is, however, an equally indispensable con¬ dition, although the term of publication is to some extent a matter of arrangement between the lecturer and the members of the Trust. At the time of Dr. Hastie’s delivery of his course of lectures he had other literary work either in con¬ templation or in hand ; and his appointment to the Glasgow Chair of Divinity in 1895 led to longer delay of the publication of his Croall Lectures, as he, naturally enough, desired to utilise them for class work and also for a closer and more comprehensive study of the subject of them. In the circumstances Dr. Hastie was kindly allowed by the Croall Trustees, as in vi Prefatory Note

analogous circumstances some other lecturers had been, to take his own time in the publication of his book. For that kindness his many friends may well be cordially grateful to the Croall Trustees.

The work so long looked for is now published, and it is to be hoped that it will be widely and kindly received. No intelligent reader of it can fail to find in its pages much information, eloquently stated, regarding both the history and the characteristics of the Reformed Theology. All who have had any lengthened intimacy with Dr. Hastie cannot but be aware that to endeavour to show the superiority of the Reformed Theology over all other forms of theology, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Arminian, or Socinian, etc., must have been to him a most congenial task. He held it to be the only theology with which, to use his own words, “ we can face, with hope of complete conquest, all the spiritual dangers and terrors of our time — Atheism, Agnosticism, Materialism, Pantheism, Pessimism, Nihilism ; but deep enough and large enough and divine enough, rightly understood, to confront them and do battle with them all in vindication of the Creator, Pre¬ server, and Governor of the World, and of the Justice and Love of the Divine Personality” ( vid . Theology as Science , p. 98).

Prefatory Note vii

The Theology of the Reformed Church had early taken possession of Dr. Hastie’s mind and heart, and it absorbed his interest more and more as the years went on. He confessed to have no higher nor other aim in all his theological work than to ascertain, vindicate, and apply anew the fundamental and essential principles which he regarded as those of our National Church. The characteristic Reformed Principle of Predestina¬ tion was the subject of the very last lecture he gave to his senior class. It is much to be regretted that he did not live to complete the elaborate and comprehensive work which he had in contemplation.

The Rev. W. Fulton, a student and friend of Dr. Hastie, has carefully edited the work now given to the public. He has substituted the form of chapters for that of lectures as the more appropriate ; filled up a considerable number of gaps ; verified most of the quotations, and given references to the more important. In the quota¬ tions from John Knox’s works he has retained the modernised spelling found in the MS. In a word, he has done what he could in order that Dr. Hastie’s views should be correctly stated in his own words.

The author of this brief preface feels bound in justice to his own convictions to add that viii Prefatory Note

although he fully believes in the Biblical teach¬ ing as to predestination, he does not believe in the metaphysical predestinarianism of Augustine, Calvin, or the Synod of Dort.

ROBERT FLINT.

Contents

CHATTER I.

Introductory.

The Reformed Church and the Reformed Theology — Need of re-examining the Traditional System ; in view of the doctrinal divisions, anti-dogmatic indifference, and shallow theologising of the time, and the influence of new theological studies and modern scientific thought — The Historical Method : the Principle of the Vital Continuity of the Reformed Faith to be discovered and elucidated — Pre-eminence of the Reformed Theology in the Past — The recent German Development — The Ritschlian Theology : its merits as Biblical and Christocentric ; its defects as a System of Religious Agnosticism, with a narrow doctrinal basis and a utili¬ tarian conception of religious truths — Its insufficiency a confirmation of Need of recultivating the Reformed Theology — Nature of the Problem before us — Contri¬ butions to the Problem from Scotland and America — The more scientific Discussions on the Continent — Spirit in which we approach our task, at once con¬ servative and progressive ......

Chapter II

The Protestant Principle of the Reformed Church stated and authenticated.

Division of Principles into Formal and Material .

Protestantism commonly misunderstood — Not the asser¬ tion of the Right of Private Judgment — Nor a System of Rationalism — Nor Subjectivity in Religion — The Protestant Principle a Clmrch-reforming Principle

ix rAGE

1-22

2 3, 24

24-32

X

Distinction between the Lutheran and Reformed Protestant Principles, as worked out by Schweizer— Luther and Zwingli — Confessedly a relative Distinction — Authenti¬ cated by the reforming work of the Reformed Church — Justifies its Historical Difference from the Lutheran Church (Doctrines of the Lord’s Supper and Person of Christ) — Intolerance of the old Lutheran Polemic The Scottish Reformation a striking Authentication of the Anti-Pagan Principle — Lollards of Kyle, Hamilton, Wishart — John Knox’s fundamental Grasp and vigorous Application of the Principle — Principle of No Idolatry the Historical Principle of the Church of Scot¬ land, as purified, and as acknowledged by the State — The Scottish Reformed Church recognised from the first as a genuine Branch of Reformed Protestantism — Its Reforming Principle maintained through its History, and still constitutionally intact ..... Positive Side of the Church-reforming Principle set forth in the Reformed Doctrine of the Church ; clearly expounded in the Scottish Confession of 1560— The Idea of the Invisible Church — Vindicated by Knox against the Jesuit, Tyrie — Strength of the Doctrine ; especially in the Freedom of the Relation to Church Government and Order — Divine-Right Episcopacy or Presbytery unheard of in Age of Reformation The Reformed Protestant Principle still a corrective and formative Principle — Romanism and Protestantism ; Mediacy of the Religious Relation in the former, Immediacy in the latter — This Immediacy of Relation essentially the Reformed Protestant Principle

CHAPTER III. The Protestant Principle of the Reformed Church

APPLIED TO PRESENT ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS.

The Reformed Protestant Principle both purgative and organising — The purified Theology the accompaniment of the purified Church — Whence Need of finding again the Historical Standpoint of the Church I. Duty of polemically applying the Protestant Principle to the Roman System — Spirit of the new Polemic more

PAGE

32-44

44-58

58-70

70-75

76-78 xi

PAGE

Humane — The Polemic better exhibited in the Lutheran than in the Reformed Church — Excellence of the Church of Rome in the Practical Sphere .... 79-83

II. Duty of applying the Protestant Principle to the Church

of England especially, among the Branches of Pro¬ testantism — Lightfoot’s repudiation of Divine-Right Episcopacy — Church of England in its early period essentially at one with the Reformed Church in Polity, as in Doctrine — Laud’s High Church Exclusivism —

The “ St. Bartholomew’s Act ” of the English Church — Tractarian Movement a revival of Laud’s Episcopalism — Weakness of Anglo-Catholicism — Its Arro¬ gance, Idolatry of the ancient dogmatic forms, and superstitious Ritualism — Church of England’s Need of regaining the Purity and Catholicity of its Reformation period — Its merit and possible influence . . . 83-98

III. Application of the Protestant Principle to the Scottish Reformed Church — The Rival Branches — 1. As regards Worship. Purity of the Original Application — Reformed Church not averse to Liturgies ; Knox’s Liturgy — Their Liturgies preserved by the Continental Branches ; Knox’s Liturgy out of use — -A compulsory Liturgy to be deprecated in Scotland .... 98-103

2. As regards Constitution : — (1) Disestablishment. Stand¬ point of Church Protestantism alone considered —

Roman, Lutheran, and Reformed views of the Relation of Church to State ; Difficulty of delimiting in Practice the Co-ordinate Jurisdictions of the Reformed view — Anabaptist theory of Absolute Separation — This the basis of a consistent Disestablishment Policy — But the theory opposed to Reformed Church Polity— Being refuted also by Legal and Political Science — Hesitancy of the Advocates of Disestablishment to push their position to its logical issue — The Grounds that would justify Disestablishment ; the Alternatives that would thereafter present themselves to the State. . 104-118

(2) Absolute Spiritual Independence. The Watchword of the Secession Church of 1843 — The theory developed after the Disruption into an Anti-Establishment Principle — Divine Right of Presbytery and even an Infallible Administration involved in the theory — Two Practical

Xll

PAGE

Consequences of it — No Authoritative Support for the theory of the Divine Institution of an exclusive Presbyterial Jurisdiction — The sense of the fallibility of Church as well as State counteractive of the Unpractical, Separatistic Tendency — Absolute Spiritual Independ¬ ence an overstrained, purblind development of the Scottish Reforming Principle — Hardly a Churchorganising Principle ; by no means superior to the established Formula of Spiritual Jurisdiction . 119-128

CHAPTER IV. The Theological Principle of the Reformed Theology

The Reformed Theology, like the Reformed Christian Life, based directly upon the idea of God (whose Existence an unquestionable fact of the Religious Self-Conscious¬ ness) — Recovery of Reformed Standpoint, with its immediate Certainty of God, a deep Need of our Age — The Theological Principle to be determined in its distinctive essence and character — The Reformed Theology characterised by a special Theological Prin¬ ciple — Recentness of the Attempts to formulate it . 129-135

Tentative and Superficial Theories : Reformed Type of Doctrine said to be explained by 1. The peculiar Character and Idiosyncrasies of the early Reformed Theologians — 2. Their special Culture and Training — 3. Their Democratic Spirit and the Re¬ publican Constitution of the Swiss Cantons — 4. The Free Scope given by them to Reason, and the Attitude adopted to Tradition ...... 135-142

Scientific Theories. 5. Schweizer’s view, carrying out the Difference between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Protestant Principle — Validity of the Principle of Absohite Dependence — 6. The Principle anthropological in statement ; Baur’s Formula — His Authentication of the Theory of Absolute Causality —

But Reformed Protestantism denied to be the true un¬ folding of the Principle of the Reformation — Schweizer’s Reply to Baur — 7. Schneckenburger’s view of the essential Identity of the Lutheran and Reformed xm

PAGE

Systems — Reformed Doctrine of Predestination a re¬ gressive Inference to God ; Breadth and Fulness of the Doctrine — The Reformed System theoretically the superior— 8. The Result so far reached — Scholten’s Formula — His Vindication of the Reformed Anthro¬ pology — The Principle of Absolute Sovereignty at one with the traditional view of our Scottish Theology 142- 159 9. The Love of God as the Principle of Theology — A narrow Principle compared with the Universal Principle of Sovereignty — In the Reformed System the Divine Love the Consummation of the Divine Sovereignty —

10. Externality of the term Sovereignty, corrected by the Universal Teleology of the System — The world re¬ garded as panentheistic , manifesting in all its spheres the Glory of God — The culminating Idea of Sovereign Grace, as connected with the spheres of Creation and Providence, the Key to the Reformed Theology . 159-166

11. The Principle of Divine Sovereignty (i) in harmony with modern Science, as recognising, along with the Transcendence of the Divine Personality, the Imman¬ ence of the Divine Power and Purpose — (2) In harmony with all true Philosophy — Abstract Objectivity of the Ancient Philosophies — Abstract Subjectivity of the Middle Ages — Modern Speculation an attempt to reconcile the Real and the Ideal — The true Principle of an Ideal Realism contained in the Reformed Theo¬ logy — (3) In harmony with the higher tendencies of modern 7'heology — Overcoming Agnosticism — Deism —Pantheism — Pessimism — and gathering to itself all that is best in our Christian Life and Thought . 166-177

Chapter V

The Anthropological Principle of Religious Development in the Reformed Theology,

SUBJECTIVELY AND OBJECTIVELY REGARDED.

The Reformed Theology broad and progressive — As shown by the record of its History — And by its embodying the Principle of Evolution — Religious Development here regarded from the anthropological standpoint 178-182

XIV

PAGE

I. The Subjective Principle of Religion. Innateness and

Naturalness of Religion maintained by the Reformed Theologians against the Negative Theory of the Socinians — Zwingli and Calvin — Maintained also against the Roman and Lutheran Churches — In the Roman view, the Natural Knowledge of God lost by the Fall — In the Lutheran, completely obscured by the Fall — Modern Psychology of Religion under obligation to the Reformed Theologians — Their fundamental con¬ ception of the Principle of Religion not transcended 182-189

II. The Objective Development of Religion. The abstract Deistic Theology alien to the Reformed System — Which is profoundly Historical and Developmental — The Federal Theology ; typical of the Reformed System — The Covenant of Works or Nature expressive of an Ideal immediately unrealisable — The Covenant of Grace dependent on an Eternal Covenant of Redemp¬ tion between the Father and Son — -Relation between the Covenants of Works and Grace — The Stages in the Historical Realisation of Redemption by the deter¬ mining power of Grace — The Movement normal only by the vital inworking of Grace — The Idea of the Federal Representation of the Race in Adam the Basis of the Federal Theology — Historical Development of the Covenant Idea — The Federal Theology expounded in the “Marrow”; the Marrow Controversy — The Resolution of 1722 against the “ Representers ” to a large extent heterodox — The Ascendency of the Moderate Party, and the Evangelical Secessions — Moderatism and Evangelicalism — Necessity of grasping

anew the Historical Principle of Development . 189-210

An adequate History of Religious Development desiderated : the Unhistorical Rationalism of the eighteenth century — Issuing in the Moralistic view of Religion : Kant —

In the nineteenth century the Universal Principle of Religious Development comprehensively expounded by Hegel ; his view of Religion and Religions open to objection — Hegel’s Three Stages in the Development of the Religious Idea — His view akin to that of the Federal Theologians ; its defects attributable to the Traditional Lutheranism — Material for the History of xv

PAGE

Religion lying to the hand of our Theologians — Max Muller’s valuable Contributions ; but the old Reformed view of the relation of the Christian to the Ethnic Religions not superseded by him — Access to the Holy of Holies only through Christianity . . . 211-222

Chapter VI

The Principle of Absolute Predestination in the Reformed Theology, historically formu¬ lated AND SCIENTIFICALLY ESTIMATED.

Absolute Predestination the Heart of the Reformed Church — This view repudiated even within the Reformed Church ; but the Principle demonstrably Cardinal from the first in all the various Branches — In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a ruling Principle in the whole Christian Life and Thought of Scotland . . 223-230

The Principle as Historically Formulated — 1. Lutheran Material Principle anthropological, expressive of the immediate subjective Consciousness of Salvation — Re¬ formed Principle of Divine Grace theological, ground¬ ing the Assurance of Salvation ultimately and objectively in God — The purpose of God conceived to be Absolute and Unconditioned, foreordained prior to time — Election and Reprobation its special Manifestation on the re¬ ligious side ; the former a display of the Divine Mercy — The Dualistic Issue of Calvinism — Electing Grace related, by a general Application of the Federal Idea, to the Trinitarian Dogma ; an Economic Trinity — But Predestination not limited to the sphere of Redemption ; the Decrees of God manifested for His Glory in the whole variety and complexity of the World — The World the perfect Realisation of the Eternal Ideal . . 230-242

2. Early Controversies of the Reformed Theology, as estab¬ lishing the Calvinistic Principle — (1) Calvin and the Romanists — (2) Calvin and the Socinians — (3) Syner¬ gism and Universalism of the later Lutherans — Doc¬ trine of Universal Grace repudiated by the Calvinists as derogating from the power and wisdom of the Divine Purpose — (4) The Absolute Principle asserted against the Five Points of the Arminians — (5) Amyraldus’

XVI

PAGE

Hypothetical Universalism also condemned — (6) Infralapsarianism and Supralapsarianism — The former a concession ; the latter the logical position . . 242-252

3. Objections refuted by the early Reformed Theologians, and the Principle further elucidated — (1) Said to be pantheistic — (2) to be fatalistic — (3) to make God the Author of Sin — (4) to leave no room for Free-Will 252-259

II. The Principle Scientifically Developed, in order to remove its Limitations — Conservative and Liberal Extremes among us — Scientific Treatment of the Prin¬ ciple on the Continent ..... 259-261

1. The Principle, the Synthesis of the Theological Principle

and the Principle of Development — In the old Theology, mechanical separation of the Decree from its embodied Reality — And mechanical conception of the World- Process — Terms, Predestination, etc., more or less anthropomorphic — This recognised by the great Re¬ formed Theologians ...... 261-266

2. The Principle, and the Spheres of the Covenant of Grace

— Predestination and the Federal Idea related concep¬ tions— (1) Sphere of Nature, the First Stage of Grace — A view needed in this Age— The Divine Purpose displayed in the Inorganic and Organic Worlds — Nature a universal Medium of Common Grace— The Reformed Panentheism — (2) Sphere of History now recognised as a Sphere of Immanent Power and Purpose — This the Faith of the Hebrew Prophets — In terms of the Re¬ formed System, the Sphere of Divine Predestination —

(3) Sphere of Redemption, the culminating Sphere — Predestination in its anthropological expression equiva¬ lent to Absolute Dependence upon God . . 266-277

3. Doctrine of Reprobatioti being modified now — The

Doctrine in keeping with the old Dualistic Eschat¬ ology — Yet in three early National Creeds Election alone formulated — Principle of Predestination larger than the dogmatic rendering of it — Unsatisfactoriness of Modern Popular Theories — Ideal of the Reformed Eschatology the Ideal of Endless Development . 277-283

The

Theology of the Reformed Church in its Fundamental Principles.

CHAPTER I. Introductory

By the Reformed Church is meant that widely distributed branch of Protestantism, distinct from the Lutheran Church, which originated in the Reformation that was inaugurated, independently of Luther’s work, in Switzerland by Zwingli and carried on by Calvin and other reformers there ; which also took shape in France, in certain parts of Germany, in Hungary, in Holland, and in England ; and which is of supreme import¬ ance to ourselves as including, through the Reformation of John Knox, our own Scottish Reformed Church and its great and evergrowing offshoots in America, in our colonies, and elsewhere. The Theology of the Reformed Church, as developed in its various branches, presents a distinct and well-defined type of doc¬ trine, characterised by certain common funda¬ mental principles, and clearly distinguished in all its modifications and forms from the special doctrines of the Roman, the Lutheran, and other Churches. As a system of doctrine it has been authoritatively exhibited in more than thirty public creeds or confessions, and it has been expounded in a vast theological literature, pro¬ duced by its leading theologians during more than three centuries and a half. It has been made familiar to us by its authoritative symbolical representation in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was adopted by the Scottish Church in 1 647, and afterwards sanctioned as the creed of the Church by the Revolution Settlement of 1690 and by the Act of Security of 1707. It is commonly known under the designation of Calvinism from the greatest scientific exposition of it in the age of the Reformation, although this name is too individual to indicate its uni¬ versal historical character, and is quite inadequate to embrace the manifoldness and variety of its development. We speak of it rather as the Theology of the Reformed Church as such — a

Church which, unlike the Lutheran Church, has refused to be designated by any human name, however honoured, or to be confined within any one national designation or boundary, and which claims to be more truly catholic than the Roman Church because it is none other than the Church Reformed, now purged of its human corruptions and individual limitation and elevated into the truly catholic universality of the Invisible Church, with immediate divine communion in all its members.

There are many reasons now pressing upon us which make the examination of the theological system of the Reformed Church one of the most urgent tasks in the sphere of theological science. The controversies which are being carried on, both in this country and in America, regarding some of its particular doctrines as formulated in the Westminster Confession, cannot but arrest the attention and command the interest of every earnest student of theology. These keen and anxious discussions may be regarded, notwith¬ standing their usual accompaniment of passionate controversy, as the most hopeful and encouraging signs of the continued vitality and progress of our doctrinal theology. They not only show that “ the ancient spirit is not dead,” but hold even in the bosom of the present antagonisms the fertile conditions of a greater future. In other branches of the Reformed Church there is to be seen a conspicuous increase in the indifference of many of its representatives towards the fundamental doctrines of the system, and a tendency, more or less perceptible, away from its characteristic type of doctrine. This tendency is showing itself in a growing despair of any universal agreement or fruitful progress on the lines of the old formulated doctrines, and in the substitution for them of a few theological commonplaces that have no deeper root than the personal feeling or culture of the individual and the easy acquiescence of the com¬ munity. This condition, again, has given occasion to the rise among us, and the inflow from foreign — especially Lutheran — sources, of many new theological views or opinions that arrest without satisfying the popular mind, and, indeed, are generally found to be the reflection of crude opinions or tendencies which have been emphatic¬ ally repudiated by the great Reformed theo¬ logians as inconsistent with their fundamental doctrines, and which, having no deepness of earth to grow in, are soon scorched by the fierce heat of criticism, and wither away.

Hence there has arisen a large amount of confusion and uncertainty regarding the fundamental ideas of our theology, even in the minds of those who are most in earnest with theological truth. Moreover, we are experiencing the disturbing and dissolving influ¬ ence of new theological sciences and studies, such as the modern Biblical Criticism that has been absorbing the energy of most of the recent theo¬ logical activity, and startling and perplexing con¬ servative students by new views and hypotheses that seemingly threaten the whole foundation upon which the traditional system of doctrine was reared. Such a new science, also, as the Philo¬ sophy and Comparative History of Religion has been fascinating many by its promise of brilliant new discovery and the settlement of the old controversies in a seemingly more philosophical and universal way. And more forcible and irresistible still, has been the influence of the new scientific thought which has so largely extended the range of our empirical knowledge of the real world, and has at the same time been training the modern mind to an apparently new view of cosmical order and relations. This scientific habit of thought has latterly taken up the most antagonistic attitude towards the definite super¬ naturalism of the Reformed Theology, and has been claiming to supersede it by developing the scepticism of the eighteenth century into a com¬ plete and reasoned system of agnosticism. And even beyond this, and carrying it to its utmost issue, we have the agony of the despairing pessimism of our time, which, besides denying the reality of an eternal supernatural good, denies even the possibility of a natural or social good, and in view of what are called “ the idealistic illusions of the past ” advocates in Schopenhauer and Mainlander not only Buddhistic resignation and vacuity but an act of universal suicide, as the only rational issue of all the struggling and suffering and toiling of mankind.

These, but slightly indicated, are some of the reasons which seem most urgently pressing us to re-examine the foundations of our traditional system of theology. And I am aware of no other method likely to achieve any solid result or real success than that of simply turning again upon the system itself, to look it fairly in the face once more, to examine into what gave it birth and such vitality in the past, and to determine whether it does not still contain within it, when dealt with freely and truthfully, the unextinguished germs of indissoluble life. This is indeed the true historical method in theology, by which our age has been slowly winning strength and depth of conviction for itself in other spheres. The system must thus have an opportunity of again authenticating itself as a living force in our faith and life by laying bare the secret of its strength in the past and quickening its surviving possi¬ bilities. In short, we must re-examine it in its fundamental principles and widest range, and see whether our present weakness is not due to our own unfaithfulness and narrowness rather than to imperfection or limitation in the system itself. Especially must we seek for the principle of vital continuity, in the sense that all reality in the spiritual sphere is conditioned by a progressive apprehension and evolution of essential and fundamental truth. The glory of the Reformed Theology in the past lay undoubtedly in its doctrine of God ; and it is now becoming very clear that all the scepticism, agnosticism, posi¬ tivism, and pessimism of the time, with which contemporary philosophy, and even speculative theism, are battling so largely in vain, will be checked and overcome only by a new and living realisation of the self-manifestation and self¬ revelation of God in a form as direct, intense, and universal as that in which it has been ex¬ pounded in the Theology of the Reformed Church, and kept alive as a sacred fire in the hearts of its members. Our strength in entering upon the investigation before us lies indeed in the fact that the Reformed faith is still real and living among us ; and if theological science is to justify and defend that faith, it must be by finding the source of its continuity in the vitalising condi¬ tions which made the past what it was, and which make the transmitted faith of the past our greatest and surest spiritual possession still.

At the outset be it said, that no student of the history of theology, however catholic his sympathies, however complete his philosophic culture, or however large his intellectual aspira¬ tions, need be ashamed to own allegiance to the Theology of the Reformed Church, to live in the spirit of its faith, or to work in its service. It was undoubtedly the profoundest theological ex¬ pression of the new religious life of humanity that was quickened and unfolded into being by the great creative impulse of the modern world, the Reformation. For two centuries and more it moved in the van of all new theological thought. It led the way in biblical criticism and exegesis ; it introduced distincter ethical reflection into theology, and it systematised the theological thinking of Protestant Europe on the lines of modern science. It has not only embodied the deepest modern thought about God and divine things, but has conditioned the profoundest philo¬ sophy in metaphysics and ethics. It was only in the nineteenth century that it could be fairly said to have been in any measure eclipsed, or in any way oustripped, by the Lutheran Theology. But when accurately examined, the best elements in the new Lutheran Theology are found to have been really of Reformed origin. It is now generally admitted that it was to the influence of Schleiermacher that the revival of the German Theology in the nineteenth century mainly owed the new vital impulse that has worked most creatively in it, and that what was best and most creative in Schleiermacher was largely, if not wholly, derived from the theological influence of the Reformed Church, in which he was reared. Even the magnificent conception of theology unfolded with such marvellous dialectical strength by Hegel, and carried out in the speculative theo¬ logy of his school, was at the highest a formal, philosophical reflection of the Reformed concep¬ tion, and was, therefore, in its best endeavour really alien to the narrow basis and the anti-rational character of the old Lutheran system.

Taken as a whole, the issue of the recent German development is in many respects dis¬ appointing. The canker of mere destructive criticism has gradually eaten out its higher vital faith. From sheer terror of the growing strength of scientific thought, the speculative method has been now almost entirely abandoned in Germany on account of the unregulated excesses and the negative positions to which it led. And although io Theology of Reformed Church