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of the eighteenth many eminent theologians and scholars, such as Bull († 1710), Pearson († 1686), Ussher († 1656), Selden († 1654), Beveridge († 1708), Cave († 1713), and Bingham († 1733). Among those who rendered the highest services to criticism and history may be mentioned Bryan Walton, whose Polyglott appeared in 1657; the Arabic scholar Pococke († 1691), Castell, Hyde, Spencer, Shuckford, Prideaux, and especially Lightfoot († 1675) whose Talmudic annotations still retain their value. Bishop Lowth in his De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum (1753) and his Isaiah (1779) rendered to the English Church some of the services for which Europe was afterwards indebted to the works of Herder. The Novum Testamentum of Mill laid the foundations of New Testament criticism. Whittaker, Hammond and Whitby wrote commentaries which contain much that is of permanent interest. Men like Fowler, Leighton, Tillotson, and Burnet, adorned the pulpit. Among the nonconformist communities Baxter, Bunyan, Owen, Howe, and Isaac Watts helped to keep alive the flame of spiritual life, while Hales and Chillingworth, Locke and Cudworth, Smith and Whichcote the Cambridge Platonists and other "moderate divines abusively called Latitudinarians," showed how large a share must always be contributed to the development of truth by wide sympathies and unfettered thought. The work of Tindal called forth Butler's Analogy; that of Morgan was answered in Warburton's Divine Legation. Wesley and Whitfield did for England what Pietism effected for Germany. By such men-each in his own way and measure, each according to the proportion of his faith-it may be fairly said that all which was anti-Christian and perilous in the writings of the English deists was defeated all along the line. II. And step by step, in every Protestant country of the Continent, the unbending system of creed-bondage, with its idolatrous letter-worship, was was gradually broken down. Freer movements of all kinds began. These, even when they were purely spiritual, were opposed by the dominant orthodoxy with every weapon in their power;-but they were

opposed in vain. The true exposition of the Bible which had freed men from the tyrannies of a decadent Romanism was powerful enough to free them once more from the renewed tyrannies of orthodox scholasticism.

And the deliverance came, as it always comes, not from majorities, but from the few; not from multitudes, but from individuals; not from the favourites of erring Churches, but from rebels against their formalism and their tyranny; not from the smooth adherents of conventional religionism, but from its inspired martyrs and heroic revolutionists. In other words the deliverance comes always from the prophets and the children of the prophets: spiritually, from an Antony, a Benedict, a Francis; socially and morally from a Howard, a Clarkson, a Wilberforce; doctrinally, from an Athanasius, a Wiclif, a Hus, a Luther, a Wesley. And so it came to the "ghastly smooth life, dead at heart" of this age of disputatious dogma and loveless religionism. And so it always will come. It will come, not always from men whom Churches bless, but from those whom they anathematise: not only from those whom churchmen praise, but from those whom they call Beelzebub; not always from those whom Bishops have ordained, but from men who have heard voices which others cannot hear, and have felt upon their heads the hands of an unrecognised and invisible consecration. In such conditions it has been said men become electric. They flash in upon the hearts and consciences of others something of their own enthusiasm. Even in the deadest ages there are always more persons than we suppose who revolt against the prevailing fashions, who take courage from one another, and support one another, until communities are led into higher moral principles and purer intellectual beliefs. As their numbers multiply they catch fire with a common idea and a common indignation, and ultimately burst out into open war with the falsities that surround them. So it was in the days of Elijah and in the days of Jeremiah. So it was also in the days of the Son of Man. So it was in the last century. Seven influences helped one by one to redeem the age from its false develop

ment; and those seven movements were mainly due to seven men-Arminius, Spener, Calixtus, Descartes, Böhme, Cappell, and Cocceius. All the movements were not equally pure and spiritual, but all were wholesome in their effects, and through them, to quote the words of St. Augustine, "Christ appeared to the men of a decrepit age, that they might receive a new and youthful life."

1. About the year 1600 Holland succeeded Geneva in the Hegemony of Calvinism. But although the views of Zwingli had been silenced they were not wholly repressed. The hedge of flourishing Dutch universities,1 reared by the new Pharisaism, could not exclude the milder theology of ARMINIUS († 1609). Refusing to explain the Bible by creeds, he found rigid Calvinism to be Scripturally untenable. Even the fulminations of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) were ineffectual against so splendid a succession of Arminian theologians as Episcopius († 1643),2 Grotius († 1645), Limborch († 1711), Clericus († 1736), († 1645) Wetstein († 1754), Many of these theologians were not afraid to agree with Romanists and Socinians who alike rejected the idol of verbal infallibility. Although the works of Grotius were

1 Dutch universities and their theologians:

FRANECKER: Lydius, Drusius, Maccovius, Amesius, Amama, Cocceius, Vitringa, Witsius, Gürtler.

UTRECHT Voetius, Hoornbeck, Leydecker, Lampe.

GRONINGEN: Gomarus, Maresius, J. H. and Jac. Alting.

LEYDEN Junius, de Dieu, Rivet, the Spanheims, G. J. Voss, Erpenius, Burmann, Witlich.

For details see Dorner, ii. 9-12.

2 In 1610 Episcopius drew up the Remonstrance in five articles against the Gomarists, who charged the Arminian school with Pelagianism. Hence the name "Remonstrants.'

3 Limborch was author of the Theologia Christiana. He opposed an extravagant allegorising and typology, and is consequently censured by Rambach, Hermeneutica Sacra, 155, 8q.

4 Le Clerc (Ars Critica, 3 vols. 1696; Dissertatio de Opt. Gen. Interpretum, 1693) carried too far his theory of accommodation, and is severely dealt with by Rambach. He represents the strong reaction against the extravagances of the Cocceian school, as also do Turretin, Werenfels, &c. Turretin († 1737) was a Professor at Geneva. He protests against the assumption that "an inner light," which was able to discover indefinite meanings in Scripture, was of value, and in his Tractatus de S. Scr. interpretandae methodo he lays down the rule that the interpreter requires "animus vacuus.. instar tabulae rasae ut genuinum sensum percipiat.' He was a friend of Burnet, Tillotson, and Wake, and endeavoured to unite the Lutheran and Reformed Churches.

received with a storm of disapprobation, his classical learning, his masterly good sense, his brevity, independence, and incomparable lucidity make his annotations more valuable than those of any one of his immediate contemporaries.1 In the writings of Le Clerc and Spencer there was a misplaced ingenuity and an extravagant utilitarianism, but even these faults have not robbed their learning of all its value, and their works exercised a permanent influence equally removed from disputatious dogma and intolerant self-satisfaction. 2

2. Another breath of fresh life came from the Pietists. To the icy stiffness of orthodoxy not only the dreams of Böhme, but even the glowing holiness of Arndt had been offensive. But the influence of Arndt was revived by PHILIP JAMES SPENER, a man at once learned, profound, and tolerant. He was chosen minister at Frankfort in 1666, at the age of thirty-one. He became court preacher at Dresden in 1686, and provost at Berlin in 1691. He had read the works of Baxter, and translated into German two books of Molinos. A faithful Lutheran, he yet could not help seeing that living holiness was being buried under dead formalism and a sterile theology of words.3 "The Lord mercifully keep us," he

1 On Grotius, see Bayle; Simon, Hist. Crit du V. T. p. 443; Des Comment. du N. T. p. 803; Buddeus, Isag. 1517: Herder, Briefe d. Stud. Theoi. p. 357; Meyer, Gesch. der Schrifterklärung, iii. 435. Grotius was largely followed by Hammond in his Paraphrase and Annotations, 1675; Psalms and Proverbs, 1684. There was a current saying "Grotium nusquam in sacris litteris invenire Christum, Cocceium ubique." It is not true. On Ps. xv. 10 Grotius says, "Latet sensus mysticus. . ut in plerisque Psalmis." Some of his freer views may be seen in the notes on Gen. i. 26; iii. 15; Ps. ii.; xvi.; Is. vii 14; ix. 6; xi. 1; Mic. v. 1; Matt. i. 22; iii. 15; vi. 13, &c. Grotius was called a Papist because he would not call the whole Roman priesthood "ministers of Antichrist"; a Socinian, though he refuted Socinus; and (by Calov) an atheist, though he was the author of the De Veritate. In the learning and good sense of his notes he has in multitudes of instances antici pated the conclusions of modern exegesis. His view of inspiration was "A Spiritu Sanctu dictari historias non fuit opus. Satis fuit Scriptorem memoria valere." Vot. pro pac. Eccles.

2 Bahr says (Symbolik. i. 41) that in their system "God appears as a Jesuit using bad means for a good end."

3 The Lutheran Churches had produced nothing of first-rate importance in exegesis since the death of Flacius in 1575. The most important Lutheran Theologians of the 17th century were Gerhard, S. Glass, Dannhauer, A. Pfeiffer, Camerarius, Chemnitz, Chyträus, Hunnius, Tarnov, and G. Calixt. The chief exegetes of the Reformed Churches were Arminius, Episcopius,

prayed, “from interpreting Scripture solely from our creeds, and so erecting the genuine popedom in the midst of our Church." He desired to add an inward life to the outward profession, and in his Pia Desideria (1675), and Spiritual Priesthood (1677) he pointed out with touching humility the necessity for reform. He recalled the forgotten doctrine of the priesthood of every Christian believer, and by his Collegia pietatis or, as we should call them, Bible classes and prayer meetings, he revived a sincere religion in many hearts. He was no separatist; but Pietism was passionate for the holiness about which orthodoxy was indifferent, and indifferent about the formulae for which orthodoxy was passionate. Spener early despaired of doing more than to found ecclesiolam in ecclesid, and to lead back Christian doctrine from the head to the heart. Part of the great and good work which he effected was the revival of that gift of preaching which is known in the New Testament by the name of "prophecy." Even preaching had withered into inanition amid the combats of theology. It had become almost exclusively dogmatic, controversial, and scholastic in its spirit, and it therefore failed to elevate the life or to touch the heart. It followed various methods known by the barbarous and pedantic titles of Pancratian, Porismatic, Hoppnerian, Zetetic, and Ursinian,1 and was in fact everything except edifying and spiritual. But Spener's example helped to sweep away this mass of artificial rules, and by reintroducing the genuine Homily he gave a fresh impulse to the careful study of Scriptural thoughts. The views of Spener were adopted by three young Masters of Arts, A. H. Francke, Anton, and Schade, who held Bible meetings at Leipzig.2 They tried to do at Leipzig exactly what the Wesleys tried to do at Oxford. Even so pure and spiritual a movement as this 3 was violently denounced by all who mistook Chamier, Sixt. Amama. Grotius, A. Rivet, Drusius, L. de Dieu, Gomarus, Cappellus, Cocceius, Lipsius, Bochart. Among the Socinians, F. Socinus († 1562) Crell, Schlichting. 1 See Herzog, Art. Ev. Homiletik.

These collegia philobiblica resembled those of Wesley and the young Methodists at Oxford.

3 Pietism was defined as follows:

"Was ist ein Pietist? der Gottes Wort studirt

Und nach demselben auch ein heilig Leben führt."