pertractationem luculentam exhibens_. The author tried faithfully to
redeem his pledge; and though he asserted that he had aimed at
conciseness, his work only terminated with the twelfth quarto volume!
The subject of the first part was the nature of Theology, Religion,
Divine Inspiration, Holy Scriptures, and the articles of Faith. He
defined Theology to be, that practical skill in the knowledge of true
religion, as drawn from divine revelation, which is calculated to lead
man after the fall through faith to eternal life. One of the important
questions propounded is:

"Are the Calvinists to be considered heretics, and do they not teach
very dangerous errors?" Of course an affirmative reply is returned with
cogent reasons therefor. At the end of this part there is a prolix
recital of the many errors of George Calixtus and his followers. Calov
conformed to the _causal_ method of composition. There were two systems
of arrangement in vogue, the _causal_ and _defining_. Under the former
were grouped the _causae principales, et minus principales,
instrumentales, efficientes, materiales, formales, finales_. Under the
latter, a definition was prefixed to each article, which comprised the
whole doctrine of the church and all the opposed heresies. This was then
redundantly illustrated until the subject was supposed to be exhausted.
Schertzer, in his doctrinal work, begins with a definition of Christ,
and occupies three quarto pages with one sentence. We venture only its
commencement: "Christ is God-man; God and man, born of his heavenly
Father and his virgin mother; and Christ is according to his humanity
the natural son of God, constant in his unity to one person, his divine
and human nature impeccable." The favorite class-book of those times was
Koenig's _Theologia positiva acroamatica synoptice tractata_; and it
does but partial justice to this work to say that in dryness and
meagreness it almost defies a parallel.

There was a lamentable decrease of exegetical works and lectures toward
the middle of the seventeenth century. The Reformation was the signal
for Scriptural study; and the Reformers declared the word of God to be
the origin of their gigantic movement. All the ordinances of the early
Lutheran Church were in strict keeping with this principle. The Elector
Augustus, in his church order of 1580, established professors _solely
for the elucidation_ of the Scriptures. He appointed two to lecture on
the Old Testament, one