§ 5. The temptations to this fault are so great, the occurrence of it so frequent, and the mischief of it so incalculable, that I cannot, perhaps, better close these remarks, than by classing, under a few comprehensive heads, the cautions to be observed in avoiding it.

(1.) First, then, one who would cherish in himself an attachment to truth, must never allow himself either to advance any argument, or to admit and acquiesce in any when advanced by another, which he knows or suspects to be unsound or fallacious; however true the conclusion may be to which it leads,-however convincing the argument may be to those it is addressed to, -and however important it may be that they should be convinced. It springs from, and it will foster and increase a want of veneration for truth; it is an affront put on "the Spirit of Truth;" it is a hiring of the idolatrous Syrians to fight the battles of the Lord God of Israel. And it is on this ground that we should adhere to the most scrupulous fairness of statement and argument. He who believes that sophistry will always in the end prove injurious to the cause supported by it, is probably right in that belief;

but if it be for that reason that he abstains

from it, if he avoid fallacy, wholly, or partly,

through fear of detection; it is plain he is no sincere votary of truth.

S

(2.) On the same principle, we are bound never to countenance any erroneous opinion, however seemingly beneficial in its results, to connive at no salutary delusion (as it may appear,) but to open the eyes (when opportunity offers, and in proportion as it offers) of those we are instructing, to any mistake they may labour under; though it may be one which leads them ultimately to a true result, and to one of which apparently they might otherwise fail. The temptation accordingly to depart from this principle is sometimes excessively strong; because it will often be the case that men will be in some danger, in parting with a long-admitted error, of abandoning, at the same time, some truth they have been accustomed to connect with it. Accordingly, I have heard censure passed on the endeavours to enlighten the Roman Catholics, on the ground that many of them had become atheists, and many, the wildest of

s See Errors of Romanism, chap. iii. § 3.

fanatics. That this should have been in some instances the case, is highly probable; it is a natural result of the pernicious effects on the mind, of any system of blind uninquiring acquiescence: such a system is an Evil Spirit, which we must expect will cruelly rend and mangle the patient as it comes out of him, and will leave him half-dead at its departure.

Again the belief in the plenary inspiration of Scripture, its being properly and literally the "Word of God," merely uttered, or committed to writing by the sacred penmen, in the very words supernaturally dictated to them, and the consequent belief in its complete and universal infallibility, not only on religious, but also on historical and philosophical points, these notions which prevail among a large portion of Christians, are probably encouraged or connived at by very many of those who do not, or at least did not originally, in their own hearts, entertain any such belief. But they dread "the unsettling of men's minds;" they fear that they would be unable to distinguish what is, and what is not, matter of inspiration; and, consequently, that their reverence for Scripture and for religion

altogether would be totally destroyed; while, on the other hand, the error, they urge, is very harmless; leading to no practical evil, but rather to piety of life.

On a like principle I have known some pious persons object to any alteration of those passages of our (in general excellent) version of the Bible, in which they admit that our translators have mistaken the sense of the original. It has a tendency, they think, to unsettle the minds of the vulgar; who had better be left to receive the Bible, i. e. our authorized version of it, as the Word of God, without any suspicion of the possibility of error in any passage they read ; since if once (it is urged) they doubt the infallibility of our translators, they may go on to doubt whether this, and that, or any passage of Scripture may not be mistranslated; till at length the Bible will be, to them, no revelation at all.

This procedure is of a piece with that of the Church of Rome in pronouncing the infallibility of the Vulgate version: a step which proved a convenience for the moment, and has placed them in a dilemma ever since; either the

E

admission, or the denial, of any error in the Vulgate, being equally dangerous to the Church's claim of infallibility. The inexpediency, in the end, of our proceeding on such a principle in respect of our translation, is to me very clear; but I despair of explaining it to the satisfaction any one who chooses to try the question on that ground. To any one who is resolved to follow honesty for its own sake, it may easily be made to appear in this case, that it is the best policy also.

of

And, doubtless, such feelings as I have been alluding to had a share in inducing the Roman Catholics to retain the Apocrypha in their Bible, Many of the learned among them must surely have known, that these books have no title to be considered as part of the Holy Scriptures; "but they are on the whole," they may have thought, "rather edifying than hurtful; and to reject them might shake men's faith in the whole of Scripture." The same reasoning probably operates with many of them, to induce them to maintain the infallibility of the Church, the authority of their Traditions, &c. Indeed, the fault I have been speaking of is of the very essence of a system of