Discussions, Vol. II: Evangelical

'A discourse delivered at Dr. Dabueys Induction into the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History and Polity in Union Theological Seminary, Hampden-Sidney, Virginia, May 8, ISo-i.

siastical Histoiy and Polity. I propose to discuss, therefore, the ^proper uses and results of the study of church history.

must cleanse tliese lying records with fire, even as of old the draperies of Asbestos were cleansed, and must quicken them into regenerated life."

ready been done, if not in technical form, in actual result, by the reflection of mankind and the labors of previous writers. We hope that much more of this "will be done in future by the gradual labors of many hands. But we believe that the complete digesting of history into the shape of an inductive science, and the realizations of all these splendid anticipations of its professed admirers, will be beset with peculiar difficulties.

theDi as they appeared to the annalist through the medium of his own mind and heart. And at every stage in the stream of tradition we must expect to find additional misconceptions and errors infused. How can there be an accurate and reliable induction from facts which cannot all be accurately verified?

at -^-liicli the liurried messeDger was dispatclied, and tlie speed at which he rode ? It is nearly thus that the true causes, indications and remedies of the diseases of nations have been passed by, to record the external incidents of their catastrophe.

must have definite limitations, to prevent its becoming despotic ; that its tendency is to absorb other powers to its own centre ? From the history of states. How do we know that republicanism is better than despotism ? From history. How do we know that presbyterianism is more favorable to true Christianity than prelacy? How do w^e know that prelacy tends to beget arrogance in the higher and obsequiousness in the lower clergy? How do we learn that prelacy incliites to popery? How that heresy begets moral corruption, and moral corruption social ruiu? All these are the obvious lessons of church history, not j)erhaps of history' ^^Titten in learned folios, but of the record of past events, written in the experience, the traditions or the books of the age. If we extend the definition of history a little, so as to embrace, not only those past events of which we learn from the testimony of others, but those also which have happened under our own limited observation, then the statement will be literally true, that to the lessons of history we owe all our experimental knowledo;e of human affairs.

person most concerned. Here the narrow but increasing experience of the young man, united with caution, may protect him from all ruinous errors. But public institutions or influences, whose operations are far-reaching, whose right conduct involves the welfare of many j^assive persons subject to them, should never be committed to any man who has not gained a wide experimental knowledge of similar institutions in all former times. The man who undertakes to teach, to legislate, or to govern, either in church or state, without historical wisdom, is a reckless tyro. His wicked folly is like that of the quack who should venture upon the responsibilities of the physician without having either seen or read practice. For, a series of human generations constitute but one lifetime of a political or ecclesiastical institution. The incidents of one human lifetime, or one era, constitute but a single "case," a single turn of the diseases of society. And no man has experience of those diseases who has not studied the symptoms and results through many generations.

lias been stamped with the reprobation of Christendom in ages long past. To affix just reprobation to a wicked thing is often its most effectual punishment.

judgments of men. It teaches lis to beware of tlie estimate whicli the seductive brilhancy of present success might entice us to make of the doubtful acts of our cotemporaries, by pointing us to the end of simihxr acts and principles in others. In the tangled web of Ufa we often see a crooked policy crowned with apparent success, specious but vicious principles of action applauded and leading to the goal of wealth or fame, and sturdy honesty branded with reproach or cold neglect for its opposition. Amidst the tumult of success and a]:)plause, the warning doubt is too often suppressed, conscience is silenced, and the unreflecting, unread multitude are seduced first into admiration, then into approval, and finally into imitation. But here, to the mind of the instructed man, history intervenes and forbids the heai*t to be depraved by the example of prosperous vice, or misled by the seeming success of dangerous measures. She lifts the veil of the past and unrolls similar scenes, showing not only the gaudy beginnings, but the gloomy end, to which these principles have conducted. It is hers to show us " the end from the beginning." It is hers to correct our judgments and reestablish our tottering rectitude, by setting before us the whole instead of a part, by leading us to contemplate not only the specious summer of prosperity which often shines for a time upon false principles, but also the winter of adversity, in which, in the righteous dispensation of providence, they finally issue.

man mIio, travelling in some newly discovered islan 1 of the Sontli, finds a tree loaded with productions of golden hue and seducing fragrance. He plucks and eats, and the taste is equal to the promise of its appearance. Thereupon he pronounces it a delicious fruit. But after a little he is moved with violent nausea, prostrated with weakness, and seems at the verge of death. He recovers at length, but now he retracts his judgment and pronounces the specious fruit to be a dangerous poison. But again, upon the more delilierate observation of the succeeding weeks, he discovers that his frame has an unwonted vigor, and is freed from chronic disorders which had long lurked in it. And now he again reconsiders his opinion, and comes to the final judgment that it is a potent but wholesome medicine.