Henry More's Theological Works[1]
There are three principal causes to which the imperfections and errors in the theological schemes and works of our elder divines, the glories of our Church, — men of almost unparalleled learning and genius, the rich and robust intellects from the reign of Elizabeth to the death of Charles II, — may, I think, be reasonably attributed. And striking, unusually striking, instances of all three abound in this volume; and in the works of no other divine are they more worthy of being regretted: for hence has arisen a depreciation of Henry More's theological writings, which yet contain more original, enlarged, and elevating views of the Christian dispensation than I have met with in any other single volume. For More had both the philosophic and the poetic genius, supported by immense erudition. But unfortunately the two did not amalgamate. It was not his good fortune to discover, as in the preceding generation William Shakspeare discovered, a
mordaunt
or common base of both, and in which both the poetic and the philosophical power blended in one.
These causes are, —
First
, and foremost, — the want of that logical
, that critique of the human intellect, which, previously to the weighing and measuring of this or that, begins by assaying the weights, measures, and scales themselves; that fulfilment of the heaven-descended