On the Use and Abuse of Systematic Theology [pp. 171-190]

Systems of Theology.
when the question was mooted, whether theology is a science,
but that time has gone by, and wvith it should have vanished
the occasion of the present argument.
There is danger, however, that we shall be charged with
disrespect to the understanding of our readers, in offering serious proof of a position so tenable, and which, but for party
zeal,' would never have been controverted. For what are all
theological discussions, but so many systems? Every didactic sermon is a systematized chapter of the great book of revelation. Every essay or discourse upon any scriptural truth is
an attempt to arrange, under certain topics, and with conclusive arguments, the scattered testimony of inspiration in favour of that truth. The only effect of banishing professed
systems would therefore be, to repress all endeavours to present the subject as a harmonious whole, and to leave us in
possession of schemes characterized by undigested crudity.
The logical and systematic arrangement of a science has
various important uses. It affords aid to the memory; since
a thousand insulated and disjointed truths can scarcely be
kept in remembrance, while, in their regular connexion and
mutual dependency, they may be tenaciously retained, and
clearly communicated. The knowledge of a subject may be
said to be adequate, onlywhen it is thus known. The heterogeneous mass is clarified and reduced to order, by being ranged
under topics according to the inherent differences of the several species, and set off into departments, with reference to the
distinction of elementary, secondary, and inferential positions.
Thus, in the study of natural history, although the classification of the received systems is in a measure arbitrary, (that is,
independent of the philosophical connexion of cause and effects) those things which are homogeneouts are placed together, and the mind is enabled to comprehend what would
otherwise be "a mighty maze, and all without a plan." In the
progress of study, as knowledge is augmented, it is highly advantageous to have a predisposed scheme, to some niche of
which every new acquisition may immediately be referred, as
to its proper place in the system. This is true, even when the
scheme is framed in a merely technical and arbitrary manner.
Such was the classification of minerals, as practised before the
late discoveries in crystallography; and such the science of
'chemistry continues to be in many of its departments. But the
advantage is immensely greater, when, as is true of theology,
the subject admits of a natural, exact, and philosophical dispo
173