AN ESSAY ON THE OFFICE OF THE INTELLECT IN RELIGION, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EVIDENCES OF A REVELATION, AND THE PROOF OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. BY WILLIAM EDWARD SCUDAMORE, M.A. RECTOR OF DITCHINGHAM, AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE. AN ESSAY, &c. CHAPTER I. THE reader of the following Essay will not be surprised to find that the sanction of authority is claimed for the principles which it maintains, because it is apparent from the nature of the subject that novelty could only be admitted at the expense of truth. A merited suspicion of grave error, as well as the certain guilt of presumption, would be incurred by one who should set forth new theories, in a matter so near to the vital centre of religion, as its relations to the mind of man. if we were able to suppose that no clear judgment on this subject could be obtained from Holy Scripture, so full and distinct as it is allowed to be on every point of practical importance, it would yet appear to us incredible, that eighteen centuries should have elapsed, during which a divine revelation has been known and obeyed by the wisest and 134134 B For, |