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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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It b n&t , however , tte ipae di&ifi of even fttrw Halt , wMch can cauvert Trulh into Erros , or Error into Truth . Let him . deBions t ^ ate ^ if ke is able , that freedom of inquiry and
impartiality of i&structian produce evil fruits * that they issue in consequence generally and extensively pernicious . In the meafi time , it may be useful to look back an " the mode 3 a which
theology waa ** actually ** taught ** at Hinckley , by Mn Jennings , at Northampton , by Dr . Doddrulge , and at Daventry , by Dr * Askwortli and his
successors . With ' * the course of lectures ** delkeced by the second of the individuals whom we have mentioned , a large portion of the public is familiar . This work , even if it possessed no other recommendation than the coi ) i ~ oxaer recommenaauon man xne
copiousness of its references , would / richly deserve a place in every theological library . Nevertheless , sufficient attention does not appear to have been bestowed by the generality of readers , On the circumstances of its origin ,
form and tendency . The plan and the materials , were not altogether those of Doddridge , whose tutor , the Rev . John Jennings , of Hinekley , had drawn up , in Latin , a work of the same kind , in manuscript , from which the mathematical form of "the course
of lectures , ** &c , was taken , and from which , too , some of the propositions and demonstrations , especially in the former park > were borrowed . * The method , though extremely curious , has not <{ nite so friendly an aspect on free investigation m Mr . H . imagines . Both sides of a question—the orthodox and the heretical- —are indeed
discussed : but ia what manner I Current and popular doctrines , form the subjects of the propositions , or of what may be styled the leading articles ; while those which Mr * EL would stigmatize $ s erroneous ^** are consigned to scholia . &c . and thus marked a » to scholia&c . and tttis marked as
, , subordinate , in point of claims and evidence . It is the slightest objection to Ooddridge ' s Lectures , that they exhibit the . shadow of mathematical proof , without any approach to the reality : a far more serious evil is that to generally-received tenets * Siee tlte Editions ( the > Btev . S * € lark ) Ad ^ vaauwcut to the original edition o
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they gt ^ e proiraneaiy which we have desirribcd ^ ai ^ by this me » as produce or eiwrrish undue prepossess sions and prejudiced in the student's mind . On tlie other hand , the multitude and fairness- of the references to books , may be stated as a counteracting cauae , a » favourabte ta the ?
exercise of an honest jtidgmeat f though it be a cause which operates for more &towly thaa that t » whidi it is opposed * Cerlam rt isy aiwi we acknowledge with lively gratitude and satisfaction , that , uoiwithstanding Coward , the patron of the aeademy ,
w ^ s excessively devoted fco * human creeds , and notwitUstanditig the arrangement of the theological lectures was singularly well calculated to recommend his ovvu articles of faith , Inquiry received encouragement , and found an ample field in which to
exercise itself . This ^ encouragement it obtained from Doddridge , in wbofti Orthodoxy ( so men call it ) was ^ united with charity , and of whose ffcaajfer , * integrity and good sense ixk his h ^ tWts of lecturiiigf , our readers will- " better * judge , when we have placed Mfor ^ them a few sentences frotn the
memoirs of him by Orton : * Speaking of Dr . D . s pupils , lhat biographer says , * ' He never expected nor desired , that
they should blindly follow hU sentiments , but permitted and encouraged them to judge for themselves * To assist them herein , he laid before them what he apprehended to be the Truth with alt perspicuity , aad impartially stated all objections to it . He never concealed the
difficulties which affected any question * but referred them to writers on both sides , without hiding any from their inspection . He frequently and . warmly urgfed them , not to take their system of divinity from any man or body of menf but from the word of God . The Bible
was always referred and appealed to , upon every point in question , to which it could be supposed to give any light , " ' Free inquiry after truth , characterised , accordingly , most of Dr . Doddridge ' s pupils > and , whatever sentiments they einbrace < 3 > they
exer-? P . 86 , 2 nd edit , and Kippifft Lift * of Doddridge , pp . lx . l £ viu How widely dbes the opinion of these valuable- rjiographer& difltor from- Mr * H % ' ^ on the subject of a theological tutor ' s duty !
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Revi ^^ M&noir of Rett . T . N . Toller . 231
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/39/
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