Happily, the result has generally been favorable; and let no
friend of evangelical truth fear that Rationalism will not meet its
merited fate.
We must not imagine that, because the term Rationalism has been
frequently employed within the last few years, it is of very recent
origin either as a word or skeptical type. The Aristotelian Humanists of
Helmstedt were called _Rationalists_ in the beginning of the seventeenth
century, and Comenius applied the same epithet to the Socinians in
1688.[1] It was a common word in England two hundred years ago. Nor was
it imported into the English language from the German, either in a
theological or a philosophical sense. There was a sect of Rationalists,
in the time of the Commonwealth, who called themselves such exactly on
the same grounds as their successors have done in recent years. Some one
writing the news from London under date of October 14, 1646, says:
"There is a new sect sprung up among them [the Presbyterians and
Independents], and these are the _Rationalists, and what their reason
dictates them in church or state stands for good until they be convinced
with better_.
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