ivation.
The works of Schleiermacher or Dorner in doctrine, of De Wette or Ewald in
criticism, of Neander or Baur in history, are works of power as well as
erudition, and contain a treasure-house of information and suggestion for
those who know how to use them wisely, and separate the precious from the
untrue. While I have endeavoured to present a fair history of the whole
movement, I should feel inexpressible pain if these remarks were the means
of leading unwary students to plunge unguardedly into the study of many
parts of it. Its original connexion with the deist and ethical points of
view, and the constant sense of living in an atmosphere of controversy,
have impressed even some of the more orthodox writers with a few
peculiarities, of which a student ought to be made aware:--for example,
with a slight tendency to a kind of Christian pantheism; a disposition to
reduce miracle to a minimum; and in the department of Christian doctrine
to consider Christ's life as more important than his death, and to regard
the atonement as an effect of the incarnation, instead of the incarnation
being the means to the atonement.

If then a young student would avoid a chaos of belief, and pursue a
healthy study of the German writers, there are two conditions which he
ought to observe. First, care should be taken to understand the precise
school of thought which his author represents, in order to be able to
allow for the possibility of prepossession in him;--a remark true in
reference to all literature, but especially important in that which marks
a particular phase of controversy. Secondly, a student's duty to English
society, and to the church of which he is a member--as also, I humbly
venture to think, to his own soul--requires that he shall first listen
thoughtfully to the vernacular theology of England. Let him learn the
chief affirmative verities of the Christian faith before meddling with the
negative side. Let him master the grand thoughts or solid erudition of
Hooker and Pearson; of Bull, and Bingham, and Waterland; of Butler and
Paley;--the seven most valuable writers probably in the English church;--and
then reconsider his opinions by the light of foreign literature. Each one
of us is on his intellectual as well as moral trial. None whom duty calls
need be afraid to encounter it in God's strength, and with prayer to
Christ for light and truth and love.

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