"[189]
The old methods of interpretation, Jowett concludes, must give place to
this new and perfect system, for the growing state of science, the
pressing wants of man, and his elevated reason demand it. If this
liberal scheme be inaugurated we shall have a higher idea of truth than
is supplied by the opinion of mankind in general, or by the voice of
parties in a Church.
It is interesting to notice the opinions of the evangelical theologians
of Germany, who have long been accustomed to attacks upon Christianity,
concerning these English critics. "The authors of the essays," says
Hengstenberg, "have been trained in a German school. It is only the echo
of German infidelity which we hear from the midst of the English church.
They appear to us as parrots, with only this distinction, common among
parrots, that they imitate more or less perfectly. The treatise of
Temple is in its scientific value about equal to an essay written by the
pupils of the middle classes of our colleges.... The essay of Goodwin on
the Mosaic cosmogony displays the naive assurance of one who receives
the modern critical science from the second or tenth hand.
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