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

Systems of Theology.
such is the assumption of certain modern writers. It is
highly usefill to be informed as well of what has been held
to be true, as of what has been proved to be false. For lack
of the latter knowledge-the knowledge of preceding errors
-our improved theologians are daily venting, with all the
grave self-consequence of discovery, the stale and exploded
blunders of the dark ages; which the perusal of any single
work of systematic divinity would have taught them to despise.
The impartiality of the mind is in no degree secured by the
banishment of all previous hypotheses. There is a partiality
of ignorance, a partiality of self-will and intellectual pride,
a partiality of innovation, no less dangerous than the predilections of system. Or, to bring the whole matter to a speedier issue, the condition of mind in equilibrio, which it is pro.
posed to secure, is utterly impossible-the merest ens ratiohis
-which was never realized, and never can be realized by any
one in a Christian country. It is like the chimerical scepticism of the Cartesians, the creature of an overheated imagination. For when you have carefully withheld all orthodox
systems of theology from your pupil, he comes to the study
of the Scriptures, emptied indeed of all coherent hypotheses, but teeming with the crude and erroneous views which
spring up like weeds in the unregulated mind.
The true light in which a system of theology should be
viewed by one who uses it as an aid in scriptural study, is as
a simple hypothesis, an approximation to the truth, and a directory for future inquiries. Every position is to become
the subject of a sifting examination, and comparison with
what is revealed. Without some such assistance, in the
mind, or in writing, the student might spend a life-time in
arriving at souie of those principles, which, if once proposed
to him, would commend themselves instantly to his approbation.
But it is queried: "c What if your system should be false?"
Let us then go so far as to suppose that it is false. It would
be no very difficult task to prove that, for this purpose, even
a false system, if scientifically arranged, might not be without
its uses. Every one who commences the study of the Scrip.
tures, does so with some system, true or false, symmetrical or
crude, written or conceived. If he is influenced by no living idols in the world of theologians, and bows to no Calvin
nor Arminius, he has within him those causes of error which
spring from his own character and education, (or to use Ba
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