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

1Systems of Thzeology.
statements, it will leave you aground. The Bible does not
come round, and ask your opinion of its contents. It proposes to us a Constitution of Grace, which we are to receive,
though we do not wholly comprehend it. "* In this argument
the premises are stated with sufficient clearness, but we confess
ourselves unable to make the necessary deduction of the conclusion. This was the position of the Anabaptists and the
Quakers.t It may mean either, that divine truth is in its own
nature insusceptible of a regular scientific arrangement, or
that it is impracticable for human minds so to arrange it. We
contend that so long as it is granted that the propositions contained in Scripture are so many truths, that these are harmonious and accordant, and that some flow by necessary inference from others, it follows that the doctrines of revelation
may be topically arranged, exhibited, and discussed. Some
religious truths do, indeed, surpass our reason, but it is a mere
sophism to argue that they are therefore thrown beyond the
limits of any conceivable system; for this very characteristic
may designate their place among ultimate propositions. If it
is asserted that the imbecility of human minds is such that
they cannot arrange and classify the whole of divine truths,
inasmuch as these are absolutely intractable, and refuse to arrange themselves under any of our general topics,-we reply
that this would put an end to physical philosophy itself, for
the same remark holds good in nature. There are exempt
cases, extreme phenomena, which are, as yet, explicable by
no laws of science, and which must remain beyond the range
of all systems as elementary facts. Such are the attraction of
gravitation, and the principle of animated life. Still there are
a thousand truths which continue to be free from these difficulties, and which may be methodized with profit.
If it should be urged that the simple method in which God
has been pleased to arrange truth in the Bible is the only proper method, and that this beautiful simplicity is vitiated by
the artifice of systems, we reverently acknowledge that the
order of divine revelation in the Scripture is the best conceivable for the immediate end proposed. Yet the nature of
truth is not altered by a change in the arrangement of propositions; nor is its simplicity taken away by scientific disposi
*Remains, p. 118.
t Barclay's Apology, Orig. Thes. x. ~. 21. Van Mastricht. lib. 1.
c. i. ~ 6.
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