The History of the Church of England; From the Death of Elizabeth to the Present Time Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 edition. Excerpt: ...not professing to explain all the statements of Scripture to the level of a human understanding, but advocating an implicit and trusting faith. This brought into the field the famous pam-Dr..Conyers. phlet-writer, Dr. Conyers Middleton, who attacked Middleton. Waterland with great vehemence for what he considered a dangerous defence of Christianity, and endeavoured to show that the only way to meet the Deists was to give up the defence of the parts of Scripture to which they objected, and to rest the whole case upon the strange argument that granting Christianity to be an imposture, it would be wrong to impugn it because of its antiquity and usefulness. Another able writer now came to the assistance Dr. Zachary of Dr. Waterland. This was Dr. Zachary Pearce, Pearce Rector of St. Martin's, London, and afterwards Middleton Bishop of Rochester. Dr. Pearce wrote a reply to Middleton, in which he set forth "the many falsehoods, both in the quotations and historical Chap. XLI. facts, by which the letter-writer had endeavoured '723-I74I. to weaken the authority of Moses." The controversy continued between the two Doctors, and Middleton's views and statements were clearly shown to be inconsistent with any real belief in revelation and the divine authority of the Scriptures. Meantime, Dr. Waterland published a second and a third part of his Scripture Vindicated, which, together, make up a complete defence of those portions of the Holy Scriptures which were usually assailed by the Deists. The progress of the Deistical controversy introduces us to another great writer of the English Church--a man of vast reading and brilliant genius, though as an exact scholar, a divine, and a bishop, he may not occupy the foremost place. William William Warburton was bred...