been laid
aside since the Wolffian philosophy, of endeavouring to find a philosophy
of religion.(716) From this time in German theology we shall find the
existence of the twofold movement; the critical one, the lawful descendant
of Semler, examining the historic revelation; and the philosophical one,
the offshoot of the system of Kant, seeking for a philosophy of religion.

During the next twenty years, from 1790 to 1810, when so many influences
were operating in common, it is not easy to measure the effect of the
speculative philosophy upon particular minds with such exactness as to
ascertain which ought properly to be classed in the destructive tendency,
and which gave signs of the reaction. We must however be careful to
exclude those younger minds(717) that were already appearing on the field,
to become the heroes of the subsequent history, whose tone was so
decidedly affected by new influences as to belong to the age of reaction.

In this sub-period we may name three tendencies: (1) the continuation of
the Exegesis inaugurated in the last epoch by Semler, until about the end
of the century it found its utmost limit in Paulus,(718)--the result of the
age of illumination; (2) a dogmatic tendency, more or less the growth of
new influences introduced by the new philosophy, which attempted to
reconcile reason with the supernatural, and may be represented in its
nearest approach to orthodoxy, at the end of this period, by
Bretschneider;(719) and (3) the awakening of a distinct expression of the
appeal to the supernatural which had never quite died out in the church,
in the Arminianism of Reinhardt in the north, and of Storr in the
south.(720) The last needs no further investigation; but we shall consider
briefly the other two.

The exegetical method which formed the first was that which is now usually
called the old or common-sense rationalism.(721) This form of rationalism
differed from the English deism and French naturalism, in not regarding
the Bible as fabulous in character, and the device of priestcraft;(722)
but only denied the supernatural. By them the apostles had been regarded
as impostors; and scripture was not only not received as divine, but not
even respected as an ordinary historical record; whereas rationalism was
intended as a defence against this view. It denied only the revealed
character of scripture, and treated it as an ordinary history; and,
distinguishing broadly between the fact related and the