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429 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Thomas of CSelaao Thomasius After following a mercantile course for some years, he turned to theology, and studied at Newport Pagnel, now Cheshunt College, Buckingham, under T. B. and J. Bull; was minister of the Congrega tional Church at Chesham, 1841-44; of Stockwell Independent Church, London, 1844-77. He founded in 1855 the National Newspaper League Company, for cheapening and improving the daily press, which numbered ten thousand members; also the Working Men's Club and Institute, 1861, and was originator of the University of Wales, at Aberyst with, 1862. He was a man of broad ideas. In all his writings he recognized the fact that as Christ is the only revealer of absolute truth, he is not to be interpreted by the Old-Testament writers or by the apostles, but they are all to be interpreted by him. He conducted The Homilist (50 vols., London, 1852 sqq.); contributed to various volumes of The Pulpit Commentary (London and New York, 1880 sqq.); and was author of a homiletical commentary on Matthew (London, 1864), and on the Acts (1870); The Crisis of Being. Six Lectures to young Men on religious Decision (1849) The Core of Creeds, or St. Peter's Keys (1851); The Progress of Being. Six Lectures on the true Progress of Man (1854); Prob lemata Mundi. The Book of Job exegetically con sidered (1878); and his complete works appeared as the Homilistic Library (1882 sqq.). BIBLIOGRAPHY: English Congregational Year Book, 1896, pp. 237-239; DNB, Ivi. 177-178. THOMAS, JESSE BURGESS: Baptist; b. at Edwardsville, Ill., July 29, 1832. He was educated at Kenyon College, O. (A.B., 1850). After prac tising law for a number of years, he held pastorates at Waukegan, Ill. (1862-64), First Baptist Church (now the Baptist Temple), Brooklyn, N. Y. (1864 1869), First Baptist Church, San Francisco, Cal. (1869-70), Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, Chicago, III. (1870-74), and was recalled to the First Baptist Church, Brooklyn; in 1874, serving until 1888. From 1888 to 1905 he was professor of church history in Newton Theological Institute, Newton Center, Mass., and in 1905 he was made professor emeritus. In theology he is a progressive conservative. He is the author of The Old Bible and the New Science (New York, 1877) ; and The Mould of Doctrine (Philadelphia, 1885). THOMAS, NATHANIEL SEYMOUR: Protestant Episcopal missionary bishop of Wyoming; b. at Faribault, Minn., June 20, 1867. He was educated at the University of Minnesota (B.A., 1889), the University of Cambridge, and the Theological School of the diocese of Kansas, and was ordered deacon in 1891 and advanced to the priesthood in 1893. After being stationed at Ottawa, Kan. (1891-93), and Topeka, Kan. (1893-94), he was professor of New-Testament exegesis in the Theo logical School of the diocese of Kansas, dean of the Atchinson deanery in the same diocese, and priest-in-charge of St. John's and St. Paul's,. Leaven worth, Kan., until 1897, when he became rector of St. Matthew's, Wheeling, W. Va. From 1900 until 1909 he was rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles, Philadelphia, and in 1909 was conse crated missionary bishop of Wyoming.
THOMASIUS (THOMAS), to-md'si-us, CHRISTIAN: German Lutheran; b. at Leipsic Jan. 1, 1655; d. at Halle Sept. 23, 1728. He studied philosophy at Leipsic (M. A., 1672), and jurisprudence at Frankfort, 1675-78; was lawyer and privat-docent at Leipsic, advocating with great boldness the natural law of Samuel Pufendorf (q.v.). In a disputation, De crimine bigamice (1685), he asserted that ~ polygamy was not contrary to nature. In the footsteps of Pufendorf he published Institutiones jurisPrudezztiee divin,ce (1688), in which he advanced his views on natural right, disclaiming that it was derived from the primitive state of nature. His caricature of the pedantry of the scholars and the intolerance of the theologians, as well as personal attacks, led to many complaints and finally to an order, in 1690, from the superior consistory forbidding him to lecture or to publish. Cut off from all self-support, he went to Berlin, where Elector Frederick appointed him to the council and to lecture at Halle. Thomasius quickly gathered a large number of students, and laid the foundation for the University of Halle, which was dedicated in 1694, of which he became second professor of jurisprudence, and first professor in 1710.
Thomasius was not a creative spirit, but with a firm grasp he seized the progressive thoughts of his time and stood for them with intrepid courage. Endowed with a thorough, open, warm-hearted nature, he, too impulsively sometimes, combated and ridiculed the current prejudices, faith in authority, pedantry, and intolerance, thus becoming the first successful champion of the Enlightenment (q.v.) in Germany. ,His weapon was reason; but he was not a profound thinker going back to ultimate principles; his reasoning was that of common sense. He held the syllogism in contempt; and the mathematical method of Christian Wolff Thomasius regarded as merely a revised scholasticism. . He was an empiricist, mentally related to Locke, by whom he was influenced in more than one respect. He was a typical representative of the practical tendency of the Enlightenment, the highest aim of which was common utility and happiness. Against speculation and logic in religion he defines faith as " trust of the heart in God," and is fond of lauding the influence of providence in the incidents, of his life. He depreciates the Fathers, rejects the dictation of the creeds, regards the churches as sects, and scourges the heresy-hunting and ; domineering theologians. . He was long regarded as a colleague of the Pietists at Halle. Agreeing with Pietism.in his opposition to theological systems and the philosophy of the schools, the emphasis upon practical piety, recourse to Scripture, and liberality on the creeds, and choosing Franeke as his confessor, and admiring Spener very. highly, yet he was not in touch with the, central points of Pietism, sin and grace.
His efforts in behalf of the Enlightenment were untiring. His services to learning were in the fields of jurisprudence and philosophy. His only basic philosophical activity was his psychological groundwork; the investigation of man's nature is to him the basis of all science. Otherwise his philosophy is popular, practical. Testimonies of his practical tendency are, Einleitung zu der Vernunftlehre (1691);
