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To judge from some parts of his book , we should deem him the most unprejudiced and dispassionate of men . Take for instance the following : " The Scriptures must be read with a freedom from all undue bias of sentiment , and with an upright intention of submitting to the whole will of God . " Where this is not , all efforts will be lost . But how greatly is it to be feared that multitudes of persons , in whose hearts God has excited a desire for divine knowledge , suffer themselves to be deprived of the object of their labour and their prayer , by not carefully attending to this rule ! The Bible
is the exclusive depository of divine truth ; and no sentiment derived from other sources has the sanction of heaven , or warrants its possessors to expect the approval of God . But how fearfully do men , and Christian men , too , suffer themselves to lose sight of this important truth ! Pre-occupied with some favourite notions which are fondly cherished as the doctrines of the Bible , that book is resorted to rather for arguments to confirm and support these previously-acquired sentiments , than to learn with simplicity and without reserve the whole will of God . Is there not reason to think that there
are but few , comparatively , who can adopt , in the integrity of their heart , the confession of the great but humble Boyle—* I use the Scripture , not as an arsenal , to be resorted to only for arms and weapons to defend this party , or defeat its enemies ; but as a matchless temple , where I delight to be , to contemplate the beauty , the symmetry , and the magnificence of the structure , and to increase my awe , or excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored' ?"—Pp . 174 , 175 .
Or the following , as quoted from Dr . Campbell : " Rica having been to visit the library of a French convent , writes thus to his friend in Persia , concerning what had passed . ' Father , ' said I to the librarian , * what are these huge volumes which , fill the whole side of the library ? ' ' These / said he , ' are the interpreters of the Scriptures . ' s There is a prodigious number of them , ' replied I ; c the Scriptures must have been very dark formerly , and very clear at present . Do there remain still any doubts ? Are there now any points contested ? ' 'Are there ! ' answered he
with surprise , * are there ! There are almost as many as there are lines / c You astonish me , ' said I ; * what then have all these authors been doing ?' ' These authors / returned he , * never searched the Scriptures for what ought to be believed , but for what they did themselves believe . They did not consider them as a book wherein were contained the doctrines which they ought
to receive , but as a work which might be made to authorise their own ideas . For this reason , they have corrupted all the meanings , and have put every passage to the torture , to make it speak their own sense . It is a country whereon people of all sects make invasions , and go for pillage ; it is a field of battle , where , when hostile nations meet , they engage , attack , and skirmish in a thousand different ways . '"—Pp . 145 , 146 .
And he follows up this quotation by some admirable observations , of which we can only find room for a very short extract : " By adopting these human expositions , b y taking up these systems of theology , we go to the Bible with the most inveterate prepossessions ; we take it for granted , before looking into its pages , that such and such is the
religion which it propounds ; and then our only object in reading it—whether we . be conscious of it or not—is to accommodate it to our notions , and adapt it to the support of our system . O ! the curse which this has been to religion ! the evils it has generated ! the fierce and sanguinary passions it has fomented ! and the triumphs it has given to infidelity !"—P . 147 . To judge from these and other similar passages , ( see pp . 298 , 299 , ) the
Untitled Article
Carpenter ' s Lectures on Biblical Criticism . 759
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 759, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/15/
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