On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
cised unaffected candour . * The lectures of that eminent man , first in manuscript and afterwards in print , continued to be the text-book in the academy } . and the opinions of the
respective divinity tutors , down to the year 1789 / f were Calvinistic ; while the abilities , the assiduity , the worth and manners of those gentlemen , were singularly calculated to prepossess the students in behalf of prevailing and established creeds . In such
circumstances was not the triumph of orthodoxy to be most securely and confidently expected ? What could be wanting to ensure its victories ? Why , the tutors were enlightened and
consistent Protestants , and , therefore , did not forbid impartial , unbiassed investigation . Hinc illas lacrimee : hence " the erroneous opinions , " which Mr . H . fancies and laments .
Now will he maintain the converse of the proposition , which he has virtually laid down ? Will he affirm or intimate that Truth cannot be embraced by the pupil , unless he read upon only one , and that the reputedly orthodox side of the question , unless the tutor interpose his own sentiments , nor hold the balance " betwixt the
contending systems" with steady impartiality" ? Mr . H . ' s principle and reasoning , if they be correct , lead to this conclusion , which , once admitted , is fatal to his cause , in the eyes of all who believe that the Bible , interpreted by itself , is the religion of Protestants .
The mode of teaching theology at Daventry , was , for the most part , inauspicious to free examination ; and this , as the tendency of the structure and arrangement of Doddridge ' s lectures to firing orthodox sentiments
into fuller view than any other tenets . But the spirit of the tutors was such as we have described it , fair , manly and truly liberal : it graced their characters , endeared their labours , and will contribute to embalm their memories . The venerable survivor of
them , within the two or three last year 3 of his connexion with the Academy , introduced an elaborate and a far more impartial plan of lecturing * See Mr . Robins' very pleasing and instructive Memoirs of Strange , pp . xxiii . xxiv . f Belsham ' s Calm Inq ., &c .
Untitled Article
on a much controverted d ofctriiie ; For the nature and the effects of this consistent endeavour to do justice to both sides of the question , we shall Tiiake a reference to some of his own
writings . * It was an obvious arid a great improvement on the text-book , that hitherto had been employed with very little reserve . However , a stiJJ more excellent—we must indeed subjoin , the most excellent—method of
teaching the doctrines 6 f the Scriptures , is the critical study of the original Scriptures themselves * Not that it constitutes the whole of a theological
education : but then the theological education which does not include it , vvill be wretchedly superficial and in ^ complete . We cannot be satisfied with any mode of teaching divinity , which comes short of this : and we hail the
existence of an academical institution among us , which illustrates the practicability and the advantages of lectures that are exclusively scriptural f What is styled the religious world , will never
become thoroughly Protestant and Christian , until the Records of Revelation are investigated by the light which themselves afford and reflect ; and not by systems which men have previously framed . . .
Mr . H . c ? uls the Academy at Daventry ts this vortex of unsanctified speculation and debate . " Does he mean to assert or insinuate , that the
students pursued their inquiries with an irreligious spirit ? In this and in every sense , his accusation falls pointless to the ground : and , in his cooler moments , he will surely blush , that it was framed by his prejudices and recorded by his pen . Perhaps , there
was , after all , less of speculation and debate than our biographer ' s imagination has conceived . Be this as it may ; we deny that they were "
unsanctified . " The greater proportion of the students , were far troua being remiss in cherishing religious habits : the prescribed allotments of their time , and the voluntary societies which they instituted , aided those habits : and
who among the pupils at Daventry can look back on the devotional lee-* Belsham ' s Memoirs of Lindsey , p . 286 , &c . Calm Inq ., &c . Preface t Mon . Repos . XI . 406 / 407 ; and see Dr . J . Jebb ' s Works , - Vo } .-I * 1 ; Vol . II . 237 , &Co
Untitled Article
532 ReQieWtr-Memtir of Me Rev . T . N < Toller ;
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/40/
-