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    i P . r 5 «— " Investigation , k is said , frequently lead * to doubts , where there were none before . —So much the " better . If a tiling Is failse , it ought not to be received . If a thing is true , it can never lose in the end by inquiry : on the contrary , the ¦ conviction of that man , who has perceived difficulties and overcome

    them , is always stronger . than the persuasion of . him who never heard of their existence . The danger , which is apprehended , arises from superficial knowledge , ¦ w hich carries a man just far enough to enable him to perceive difficulties ., and there leaves him . In fact , it is not learning , but want of learning , which leads

    to error in religion . It was the want of learning which occasioned the abuses of religion in the middle ages ; it was the learning of our early reformers , by which those abuses were corrected ; nor is that variety of religious sentiment ) . by which this nation is distracted , to be ascribed to learning . On the contrary , the leaders of that sect , which is now the mo ^ t numerous , rather reprobate , than encourage

    learning . ' 'Pp . 26 , 27 . < c It is not the object of sacred criticism to expose the word of God to the uncertainties , of human conjecture ; its object is not to weaken , and much less to destroy the edifice , vwhicH for ages has been the subject of just

    veneration . Its primary object is to shew the firmness of that foundation on which the sacred edifice is built ; to prove the genuineness of the mate . ials , of which the edifice is constructed . It is employed in the confutation of objections , which , if made by ignorance , can be removed only by knowledge . On the other hand , if in the progress of inquiry excrescencies should be discovered , which violate the

    symmetry of the original fabric , which betray a mixture of the human with the divine ; of interpolations , which the authority or artifice of man has engrafted

    on the oracles of God , it is the duty of sacred crifici rti to detect the spurious , and remove ii from the genuine . For it is not less bl&meabie to accept what is

    false , than to reject what is true ;—so far is sacred criticism from exposing the word of God to the uncertainties of conjecture , that there is no principle more finnly resisted in sacred criticism than the admission of conjectural emendation , of emendation not founded on documents . " P . 30 . We must learn to understand the Bible , before we can judge of its pretensions to divine authority . Eut , if

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    while we are ascertaining the justice of thsse pretensions , we apply rules . of interpretation , which , if applicable at all , can be applicable only , when these pretensions are confirmed , we are continually moving in a circle , and never find an end . It is not sufficient , that a proposition be true , to warrant our arguing from the truth of it ; we must not only know it to be true , but we must be able to prove it independently of the proposition to which we apply it . "

    Pp , 40 , 41 , 4 a . — " A numerous sect of Christians in tni . 3 country have a much mors easy and expeditious mode of studying divinity . No literary apparatus 3 s there necessary $ either for the interpretation of the Bible , the establishment of its truth , or the elucidation of its

    doctrines . Inward sensation supplies the place of outward argument ; divine communication supersedes theological learning . —To those who seek for conviction in certain inward feelings , which the warmth of their imaginations represents to them as divine . * I would recommend the serious consideration of this

    important fact , that the foundation which they lay for the Bible , is no other than what the Mahometan is accustomed to lay f r the Koran . If you ask a Mahometan , why he ascribes divine authority to the Koran f his answer is , because ,

    when 1 read it , sensations are excited , which could not have been produced by any work , that came not from God . ' From some passages in these lectures , we are constrained to withhold our assent and praise .

    P . 9 . " The attempt /' says Dr . M . c € to generalize Christianity , in order to embrace a variety of creeds ^ will ultimately lead to the exclusion of all creeds ; it will have a similar effect with Spinosa's doctrine of Pantheism ; it will produce the very opposite to that which the name itself imports . "

    We cannot accept a comparison from the ingenious Professor in the place of argument . To hold forth Christianity as more general than it really is , must no

    doubt , be dangerous ^ and ^ in some circumstances , would be criminal . On the other hand , the religion of Jesus Christ ought not to be restricted within narrower limits

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    404 Review . —Dr . Marsh ' s Lectures and Letter .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1810, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2407/page/28/