The Character of the Genuine Theologian [pp. 158-170]

Character of the Genuine Theologian.
of divine truth immediately from the Bible itself, using the
compositions of men simply as indices, alloting these passages
to the several topics of theology, from which we may learn
the doctrine of the Lord.
And here, I cannot forbear adducing the opinion of the
subtile Twiss, with reference to John Piscator, and his method
of study. After hlaving stated what was remarkable in his
doctrine and religious science, he proceeds thus: "I shall
only add, that I look with high regard upon the Theologian,
who, professing sacred letters alone, and using the ordinary
discipline of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, (in which he is a
proficient) as merely subsidiary, has attained to such a method
of treating theology, not in a popular but scholastic way, as
leaves him without a superior, and almost without an equal
among the schoolmen. As if, in this speculative age, so ambitious to blend secular with sacred erudition, it had pleased
the Father of mercies to afford us an example of what we
might attain of accurate and scholastic learning, in things pertaining to life, by the simple study of the Scriptures, assiduous meditation, and exposition-with the total neglect of
all the schoolmen, summists, and masters of sentences."
(Vind. Grat. 254. col. i. c.) So thought, and so spake this
undaunted champion, concerning the method of study which
we commend. His words are not cited with-the view of banishing the commentaries of the learned from the hands of the
Theologian, and thus leaving him to learn from the worst of all
teachers-himself, that is, from mere presumption, with the
Scriptures misunderstood as a cloak for his errors. Great
men of the Church, raised above the cares of life and devoted
wholly to God, loving him, and beloved by him, have diseerned many things in Scripture, which they have extracted,
and presented in the clearest light. Amidst the darkness of
life, these things might have remained forever hidden from
us; and we might never have discovered them, by our unassisted powers, in the depths of their concealment. And although, we may discover much by our own study of the
Scriptures, it is, nevertheless, delightful, and corroborative of
our faith, to see, that the manifestation of the same truth,
from the same source, has been previously granted to others
by the same Lord, who has vouchsafed to shed light on our
difficulties. We admire the modesty of Jerome, who professes that, with regard to the sacred volume, he never confided in his own single abilities, nor formed an opinion from
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