THEOLOGY is the science which treats of the nature and character of God, and of the religious duties and hopes of man.
All mankind are interested in knowing some thing of the God whom they profess to worship. From the power which they ascribe to him, they must necessarily conclude that their fate is in his hands, and that their happiness or misery depend on his pleasure. It cannot, then, but be deeply in teresting to inquire into the character of the su preme Ruler, that we may know how to secure his favour, and how to avoid such actions as may be displeasing to him. These considerations have al ways operated, and induced an anxious desire to become acquainted with the nature of God, as ly ing at the foundation of the duties and hopes of men.
In rude states, theology, in the form of supersti tion, is the only species of study which engages the attention. The priests, augurs, and divines, are thought to be the only persons possessed of useful knowledge; and they have, in general, great in fluence in the state, either by swaying the public counsels, or by lending the sanction of religion to the measures adopted. Of all the nations of anti quity, the Romans had the highest character as a religious people; and they were well entitled to their pre-eminence, in so far as regards the forma lities of worship. As they arrived at vast power, without going through a previous process of refine ment, their history exhibits the curious pheno menon of a most splendid system of external wor ship, connected with the most absurd and irrational creed.
The Greeks thought more deeply on the subject, though not to much better purpose. Many of their sages were substantially, if not professedly, atheists; for they denied the providence of God, and questioned the wisdom of his arrangements in the system of nature: others of them were panthe ists, believing the universe to be God, and conceiv ing that all things were ultimately absorbed into his essence; an opinion which differs not widely from atheism, in its practical consequences; and the greater part of even the most orthodox among them, were fatalists, conceiving that the gods were only instruments in the hands of Fate, and that Jupiter himself had only the power of ascertaining, not of altering its determinations.
Almost the whole literature of Hindostan is theo logical. The national poetry turns on the incarna tions and exploits of the gods; and the order of the priesthood enjoys a pre-eminence superior to roy alty itself, having managed to retain the chief hon our and consideration in the state, whilst it has transferred to another class all the trouble and odium of government.
These facts show the importance which has al ways been attached to the study of theology; and considering how intimately the subject is connected with the best interests and hopes of men, we can not but perceive that the importance of the study has not been overrated. In fact, society cannot ex ist without some religious influence. The princi ples of rectitude have never been found, nor indeed have they ever been supposed to be sufficiently strong to resist temptation, when separated from considerations of religion; and imperfect as its in fluence is, the security of society arises more from the influence of religious belief, and the conscien tious scruples which it produces, than from prohi bitory statutes and penal enactments.
A subject of such deep and universal interest, must naturally have engaged the highest faculties of the human mind: but it is melancholy to observe to how little purpose they have been exerted. They who have left the most indubitable monuments of genius, and specimens of taste and eloquence which must serve as models; so long as elegant literature has any value in the world, have betrayed the most incredible ignorance on the subject of religion; and the value of revelation is manifest in this, that a school boy in a Christian country, and educated in Christian principles, has more accurate and more philosophical information respecting the nature and government of God, than is to be found in all the writings of the wise men of Greece and Rome put together.