It was from Shaftesbury, however, that he borrowed common sense as a philosophic principle.

Shaftesbury had indirectly drawn it from Locke, and through Hutcheson it became the source and sponsor of the Scottish philosophy of that century.

This was a weapon exactly adapted for dealing with a theology that was discredited in the eyes of all cool observers by the hysterical extravagances of one set of religionists, and the factious pretensions of their rivals.

And no other weapon was at hand.

The historic or critical method of investigation was impossible, for the age did not possess the requisite learning.