Even Dr. Edwards misuses
texts of Scripture thus. The Bible is to be interpreted as other books
are. Men are not to hide themselves in the mist of a hidden meaning, and
shock the common sense of the world. Preachers should go on the
supposition, that in every congregation there are shrewd and sagacious
men, who can appreciate a good argument, and see the weakness of a bad
one; men who can appreciate a good sermon, if there be a good sermon to
be appreciated. For such, he may be assured, is the fact.'
All these unwise things had a tendency to shake my faith in writers on
the evidences, to lessen my interest in the subject, to abate my
confidence in the knowledge and integrity of the authors, and to
diminish my faith in the supernatural origin of the Bible and
Christianity.
18. The evidences that had most weight with me were the internal
evidences. But these were often handled in an unsatisfactory way. The
greater part of Soame Jenyns' little work was good, as far as it went;
but it went only a very short way. It took a step or two, in the most
difficult, doubtful, and uninviting part of the road, but it left the
vast paradise of internal evidences unexplored, and even unapproached.
His work was rather an apology for Christianity, proving that it was not
open to censure, than a demonstration of its incalculable worth and
power.
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