A commentary on the Epistles of St. John - The Preterist Archive

TRANSLATORS PREFACE. Vll
jecting it to such laws as the exact sciences re-
cognise, and ever ought to recognise. From this
view, it follows, that if we recognise two modes
or forms of Divine revelation : one physical^ and
the other moral or special,^ the problem : of ana-
lysing the whole of matter down to dynamical
atoms, and of displaying all imaginable physical
laws in a perfect system, is, as to magnitude, a
very insignificant problem indeed, when compared
with that other problem which embraces the
clear and perspicuous display of the moral rela-
tion existing between God and man.
It is clear, that where theology is thus viewed,
it may indeed be subject to an endless variety
of changes in mode, form, and fashion, but it is
equally clear, that the opinions of the vulgar can
never have the slightest influence upon it. In
all theological fashions in Germany, flocks and
congregations must always /o/Zözo their teachers,
but can never take the lead. The Germans are
thus completely secured against gainseeking sec-
tarianism : Religion can, w ith them, never, in
any shape, become an article of traflic. And it
also is altogether owing to this view of theology,
as a sublime speculative science, that the German
ecclesiastical establishments are so firmly
secure and so popular.
That the Germans consider divinity as a
liberal, and speculative, and unlimited science,
^ Rom. i. 20. b Rom. i. IC, 17-