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"Essays & Reviews" : Their Origin, History, General Character

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'ESSAYS AND REYIEWS.' DE CABDONNEL AND FARUEE WILSON " ESSAYS & REVIEWS. THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY, GENERAL CHARACTER & SIGNIFICANCE, PERSECUTION, PROSECUTION, THE JUDGMENT OP THE ARCHES COURT,-REVIEW OP JUDGMENT. BY THE REV. R. B. KENNARD, M.A., OXON. HECTOR OF MARNHULL, DORSET. Vere rem reputanti, Philosophia naturalis, post verbum Dei, certissima super- stitionis medicina est; eademque probatissimiim fidei alimentum. BACON, Nov. Org. 1 Aph. 89. LONDON: ROBERT HAKDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY. 1863. " When signs of the times are beheld, foretelling change, it behoves those who think they perceive them to indicate them to others, not in any spirit of presumption or of haste; and, in no spirit of presumption, to suggest inquiries as to the best method of adjusting old things to new conditions." MR. WILSON, Essays and Reviews, p. 148. " There can hardly be a case in which the spirit of intolerance shows itself in a more unamiable light, or with more pernicious effects, than when it confounds the advocates with the assailants of Christianity, and not only repels their services in behalf of the common cause, but charges them with treachery and apostacy, because they would wage the contest on a different ground from that in which it has itself been used to take its stand." BISHOP THIRLWALL, Charge, 1857, p. 70. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. " " Origin of Essays and Eeviews in the application of the Inductive Method of Inquiry to the subject matter of Theology ... ... ... ... page 1 CHAPTER II. The Immediate Antecedents and Special Provocatives of the Work in the Theological Literature of the Day 16 CHAPTER III. The General Character and Significance of the Work, tending to confirm the Divine Inspiration and Authority of Holy Scripture ... ... ... 31 CHAPTER IV. The Persecution its Origin in the Misapprehension of the Principle of Authority in the Church its Imme diate Occasion in the Excitement of Religious Parties created by the appearance of two Articles in " " " " the Westminster and Quarterly Reviews ... 136 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. The Prosecution ... page 174 CHAPTER VI. The Judgment Review of Judgment 238 APPENDIX 287 PREFACE. THE following pages are put forth in the hope that they may help to dispel the cloud of prejudice and mis representation through which the volume of "Essays and Reviews" has hitherto been regarded by what is commonly called "the religious world." For this end the writer has endeavoured to point out the true place of that work in the history of religious thought its origin in the inductive method introduced by Bacon, and its more immediate antecedents and special provocatives in the literature of the present day. In the outcry first raised against the book, and the prosecution to which two of its authors have been subse quently subjected, the reader will be careful to notice the hand of that Divine Providence which is ever evoking good out of evil over-ruling the angry passions and per verse designs of ignorant men to the diffusion of His Truth and the setting forth of His manifold Wisdom in the world. Already the immediate consequence of that outcry has been the calling men's attention to, and awakening their interest in, the great problems of human history and Divine Providence discussed in this now cele brated volume; while the first result of the prosecution Till PKEFACE. is a judgment in the Court of Arches, proclaiming the freedom of the clergy in all matters touching the inter pretation and criticism of the Scriptures, and thereby inaugurating a new era of Biblical criticism in the history of the Church of England. Henceforth the clergy of our National Church may rest assured that there is nothing in the laws or constitution of that Church, which fetters the free and unbiassed exercise of their reason in the dis charge of that duty so solemnly laid on them by their " ordination vow, to be diligent in reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the know ledge of the same/' What, indeed, may be the ultimate result of this newly-proclaimed freedom we will not ven ture here to anticipate. Suffice it to say that, as we believe in God as a God of Truth and of Love, we believe that nothing but good can flow from the progress of inquiry and the clearer elucidation of Truth. Let us only be walking as children of Light and of God in the of and of and te pathway Light Love ; then we may go forth to meet the shadowy future" with good hope and unshaken confidence in Him who foresees the end from the beginning, who came into the world that He might bear witness unto the Truth, and who has given us His Holy Spirit to comfort us and to lead us into all Truth. Let us only, in short, be faithful to the light of Reason and of God within us, and we shall find that our progress, both in knowledge and in love, will be marked by no uncertain that our will obscure, signs ; march onward be, indeed, like "the path of the Just," which "is as a shin ing light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." PREFACE. IX " We have heard a great deal lately of the danger of free inquiry/' but it may reasonably be questioned whether the real dangers, which threaten the peace and prosperity of our Zion, do not arise from another and directly oppo site quarter from that spirit of insolent dogmatism which claims to dispense with inquiry, and, substituting reckless assertion for argument, and denunciation for proof, affects an authority which it is forsooth dangerous to question and impious to reject. "The fullest and worst demonstra tion of this intolerant spirit (observes the Bishop of St. David's) is an eagerness for the making of new heresies, an endeavour to contract the terms of admission into the Church or its ministry, so as to exclude or disquiet all who do not belong to the favoured party. If such attempts should succeed, it is easy to see the nature, though impossible to measure the extent, of the calamity which would ensue. In the meantime, the contests to which they give rise waste the Church's strength, shake the confidence, and chill the affections, of her most intel ligent children and attached members, and afford not only matter of exultation and triumph, but real advantage to her adversaries." * To talk of "the danger of free inquiry" is, indeed, singularly inconsistent with the claims of Protestantism, which consists in nothing so much as in the unqualified assertion of the right and duty of free inquiry. It is also opposed to the interests of all true religion, which has everything to gain and nothing to lose from the result of such inquiry. It is no less inconsistent with the actual * of Charge the Bishop of St. David's, 1857, p. 6. X PREFACE. history and progress of Christianity in the world. "It " was ushered into the world/* we are reminded, with the injunction. Go and teach all nations, and every step of its progress is to be ascribed to instruction. The first churches were planted in cities, and those the most cele brated and enlightened. In remote villages its progress was extremely slow, owing, unquestionably, to that want of mental cultivation which rendered them the last resort in the fifth of superstition ; insomuch that, century, the abettors of the ancient idolatry began to be denominated Paaani, which properly denotes the inhabitants of the country in distinction from those who reside in towns. At the Reformation, the progress of the reformed faith went hand-in-hand with the advancement of letters ; it had everywhere the same friends and the same enemies, and, next to its agreement with the Holy Scriptures, its suc cess is chiefly to be ascribed, under God, to the art of print ing, the revival of classical learning, and the illustrious patrons of science attached to its cause. In the representa tion of that glorious period, usually styled the Millennium, when religion shall universally prevail, it is mentioned, as a conspicuous feature, that men shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. That period will not be distinguished from the preceding by men's minds being more torpid and inactive, but rather by the consecration of every power to the service of the Most High. It will be a period of remarkable illumination, during which the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and * the light of the sun as that of seven days" * Eobert Hall's "Works, vol. i. p. 205. PREFACE. XI Such is the testimony of a celebrated Nonconformist divine to the benefits arising from the alliance of true Religion with free inquiry, sound learning, and real science of whatever kind. And we, Christians of the Church of England, are more especially bound to bear our witness to the sanctity of that alliance which the Church has herself confirmed and consecrated in the Festival of the Epiphany, bidding us, year by year, to behold in the " " coming of those Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem the symbol and the pledge of the manner in which the wise and learned of this world shall come from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, there to pay the glad homage of their highest wisdom to " " Him who of God is made unto us Wisdom," in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge," who " " " came as a Light to lighten the Gentiles to teach the way of God in Truth," and who was and is Himself the very Truth.
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