THEOLOGY

(Gr. Osos, and ^oyog, discourse.) The science which treats of the nature and attributes of God, of his relations to man, and of the manner in which they may be discovered. Lord Bacon divides the science under the following heads: I. Inspjred. 2. Natural, which he calls the first part of philosophy. 3. Appendices Theologian Inspiratte: sc. Doctrina de legitimo usu ration is humantc in divinis; doctrina de gradibus unit at is in civitate Dei; emanationes scripturarum. 4. Theologian tain inspiratan quam natural is appendix: Doctrina de angel is et spniKibus. {De Jiugm. Sci., 1. ii., ch. 1.) • Natural Theology is the inquiry into these subjects prior to the idea of revelation, and conjectures concerning them from data furnished by the constitution of nature alone. It is only by the conclusions arrived at by this proce that we are put in a proper condition to examine the evidence of revealed religion, the basis of which is the satisfaction it affords to the demands of the human reason and affections. A pure system of natural theology, looking no farther for the evidence of divinity than the marks of it displayed in the creation, is deism — the belief in God as a superintending Providence, which seems to require as a corollary the idea of a future retribution. Those who can discover no design in the constitution of the word, i. e., no trace of God's hand therein, are atheists, or deniers of a Deity. Again, the most common form of religion deduced by the heathens from their researches in natural theology is the supposition of numerous gods, each manifesting himself to us in the various functions and qualities of the animate and inanimate world, and sometimes, according to ancient legends and traditions,by direct communication in various ways. Opposed to this is monotheism, which recognises more distinctly than deism the unity of the godhead, and gathers up under one volition and agency the attributes which the polytheist dispersed among a vast number of divinities. Of monotheist religions the Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan lay claim to expre revelation by the word of God. [s. 1252]