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tended reformers. And before we pronounce decisively on the supposed shortsightedness of the old Divines, it may be proper to consider, whether modern Divines have not carried their boasted talent for discernment, to a blameable extreme; by pretending to see further into some subjects, than it was ever intended they should see, and by attempting to draw meanings out of words and actions, which they were never intended to convey. How far the force of this remark ought to extend, sound judgement alone must determine.

To place subjects in a different point of view from that in which they have been hitherto seen, and to strike new lights out of materials already worn, as it were, smooth by frequent collision, seems at first sight to denote a superior understanding; and the laudable ambition of appearing to possess such an understanding, has tempted many ingenious and learned men, unguardedly and unadvisedly, to forsake the plain beaten road of science, where they were constrained to tread for the most part in the steps of those who had gone

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before them; for fancied paths of their own tracing, which presented a more unbounded scope for the indulgence of their own peculiar notions, and for a more liberal display of their own particular attainments. That singularly able man, the late Bishop Warburton, presented the world with an illdigested mass of heathen learning, which by a vigour of intellect peculiarly characteristic, he had industriously brought together for the purpose of proving that the Jews, the chosen people of God, were really less informed with respect to the spiritual concerns of another life, than the most ignorant of the idolatrous nations that surrounded them. To have demonstrated the divine legation of Moses by a regular method of proof drawn from a consideration of the tenor of the history, the life, and miraculous acts of that great prophet, would have been natural, but it would not have been singular. Something new and surprising was to be attempted, which might astonish mankind. The comprehensive but visionary genius of a Warburton was displayed, and the public has marked the success of the paradoxical undertaking. "Litera

nimiæ et disputandi fervor, hominum eruditorum animos a sensu communi avocant, nimisque intendendo oculos cæcutiunt."--Eichhorn.

By these general remarks on the progress of Divinity, considered as a science, we are prepared the better to appreciate the present state of it in this country; which, though it confessedly wears more the appearance of a Christian science than it did at some former periods of our history, is still too much adulterated, to be acknowledged for the genuine produce of the Sacred Writings. The discourses from our pulpits are still too often disgraced with a profane mixture of heathen philosophy and natural religion; whilst even those among them which are intended to inculcate the essential doctrines of Christianity, do it, at times, in a manner calculated to lead the hearer to the conclusion, that the Sacred Records are, of all other, the Records most at variance with themselves.

The fact is, knowledge in divinity is not so often derived from the Bible itself, as from some intermediate source at se, cond

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cond hand. The perfection of it therefore must correspond with that of the medium through which it passes. Private judgement, in this as in most other cases, is not original in itself; but derived, in a great degree, from the books we read, or the parties with whom we converse. Thus it is that truth and error beget their own likeness; and as the attachment is placed, so will the progeny be continued. Hence it follows that men of education, from a settled bias to the authority of great names, are perhaps as liable to take up with erroneous opinions, as the more vulgar and illiterate.

"It is the fate of scholars to fall early in life into the company of their elders or their equals, from whom they imbibe a set of principles, to which they are soon attached; either because those principles flatter their pride, or encourage their idleness, or agree with their inclinations or appetites; and unless they are blessed with natural strength of mind and rectitude of intention, and favoured by some happy incidents which bring new thoughts to their minds, their reading and conversa

tion flows generally in the same channel through the whole course of their lives; they turn away with scorn from every thing which contradicts their favourite traditions, and thus they live and die dupes of the first information they received."

The foregoing observations, made by one* well acquainted with the workings of the human mind, applies particularly to Divines; whose professional exertions wear the stamp of whatever system has been early established in their heads. Hence it is that opinions, erroneous in themselves, have received a kind of prescriptive authority, by being handed down from one celebrated writer to another; the fallacy of which it required, it should seem, but a small portion of sound judgement, had men been in the habit of directing their judgements to such objects, to discover.

By attending to the writings and discourses of many, otherwise well-informed, Divines, we shall find two points, generally speaking, taken for granted; and

* Rev. W. Jones. "Letters from a Tutor to his Pupils,"-Letter 26-" on Private Judgment." C

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