Reader, I have now fulfilled the task I undertook. Labouring under that imputed mental incapacity which the science I cultivate has been stated to produce, I have brought from the recesses of that science the reasonings and illustrations by which I have endeavoured faintly to embody the human conception of the Almighty mind. It is for you to determine whether the trains of thought I have excited have lowered or exalted your previous notions of the power and the knowledge of the Creator.[172/173]
That prejudice which I have endeavoured to expose is not a merely speculative opinion, it is a practical evil; and those whose writings have been supposed to give support to it, will, I am sure, feel grieved when they learn that it is used by the ignorant and the designing, for the injury of the virtuous and the instructed; that it is employed as a firebrand, to disturb the relations of social life. They will also, if the arguments I have used have the same effect on their minds which they have had upon my own, lament still more deeply that they should have contributed, in any degree, to throw discredit on that species of knowledge which is now found to supply some of the strongest arguments in favour of religion. I will, however, hope that the opinions I have combated are not shared or even countenanced by the higher authorities of our Protestant Church; and I cannot better conclude this Fragment, than by recalling to the reader the words of one, whose power of reasoning, and whose love of truth, add [173/174] dignity to the high station he so deservedly fills:—
"Lastly, As we must
not dare to withhold or disguise revealed religious truth, so, we
must dread the progress of no other truth. We must not imitate the
bigoted Romanists who imprisoned Galileo; and step forward Bible in hand
(like the profane Israelites carrying the Ark of God into the field of battle)
to check the inquiries of the Geologist, the Astronomer, or the Political-economist,
from an apprehension that the cause of religion can be endangered by them.1
Any theory on whatever subject, that is really sound, can never be inimical
to a religion founded on truth; and any that is unsound may be refuted by
arguments drawn from observation and experiment, without calling in the aid
of revelation. If we give way to a dread of danger from the inculcation
of any scriptural
doctrine, or from the progress of physical or " moral science, we manifest
a want of faith in " God's power, or in his will, to maintain his own cause.
That we shall indeed best further his cause by fearless perseverance in an "
open and straight course, I am firmly persuaded; but it is not only when we
perceive the mischiefs of falsehood and disguise, and " the beneficial
tendency of fairness and candour, that we are to be followers of truth: " the
trial of our faith is, when we
13 December 2008