My remarks, therefore,
on this subject will be as few and brief as I believe to be consistent
with an acknowledgment of the principles upon which this work has been
conducted.
The foundation, then, on which, to be safe and beneficial, the duty of
private judgment, as we maintain, must be built, is very far indeed
removed from that common and mischievous notion of it which would
encourage us to draw immediate and crude deductions from Holy Scripture,
subject only to the control and the colouring of our own minds,
responsible for nothing further than our own consciousness of an honest
intention. Whilst we claim a release from that degrading yoke which
neither are we nor were our fathers able to bear, we deprecate for
ourselves and for our fellow-believers that licentiousness which in
doctrine and practice tempts a man to follow merely what is right in his
own eyes, uninfluenced by the example, the precepts, {4} and the
authority of others, and owning no submissive allegiance to those laws
which the wise and good have established for the benefit of the whole
body. The freedom which we ask for ourselves, and desire to see imparted
to all, is a rational liberty, tending to the good, not operating to the
bane of its possessors; ministering to the general welfare, not to
disorder and confusion. In the enjoyment of this liberty, or rather in
the discharge of the duties and trusts which this liberty brings with
it, we feel ourselves under an obligation to examine the foundations of
our faith, to the very best of our abilities, according to our
opportunities, and with the most faithful use of all the means afforded
to us by its divine Author and finisher.
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