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Essay on the Evidences of the Jewish Rev...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Essay On The Evidences Of The Jewish Hev...
Can any great stress therefore be fairly laid on their testimony in behalf of the Old Testament t » The objection is oot undeserving of notice : and I reply—that the repeated transgression by the Jews of the command " Thou shalt
worship no other God but me" is a proof not of their disbelief of the divine authority of their law , but simply of their contempt of ite sanctions ; just as the vices of many professors of Christianity
imply practical rather than speculative infidelity . Further ; the people of Israel were reclaimed ( rom idolatry by the severest judgments executed in conformity with threatenings denounced by their legislator , and contained in their
scriptures : consequently , this fact is presumptive of the divinity of thar religion . OnCc more ; had the Jews been uniformly obedient , and of course uniformly prosperouSj their condition and history would nat hav & exhibited to man *
kind so Striking a view of an im * mediate divine and moral govern * m § nt as was presented in the exact correspondence of their outward circumstances with the fluctuations irt their religious conduct . Let us next examine into the
nattire and weight of the evidence arising from the miracles and prophecies pf which their sacred books furnish an accouau It were an useless attempt to separate the miraculous from the com .
mon facts * The narratives of both are so blended together that if we admit the one we must admit the other , if we reject the one we
must reject the other . It would be extremely difficult to shew how the Israelites could have left Egypt , how they coiild « haVe " tufoteted in the wildemeS ^ ' how tliey could
Essay On The Evidences Of The Jewish Hev...
have subdued Canaan , without real and successive miracles . The historians of these events , accordingly , inform us that the laws of nature were suspended and controlled for their defence , support and accommodation . There are
those who hare asserted that the Winders which Moses wrought ( as he himself declares by the com ** mand and energy of Goa ) j < Ji ( J
not surpass human sagacity and power . They have made the assertion : but they have declined the proof . Whatever were the abilities and skill of the Hebrew
legislator , there is no Evidence that he was so superior in these respects to the most learned of the Egyptians as to be qualified for resisting their collective efforts to ascertain whether or not he was
an inrtpostor . We behold hir 6 even reluctant to undertake the deliver * ance of his countrymen and to have an interview with Pharoali
till he is again and again enjoined by God to dismiss his fears , and assured of special aid . Let us do the same justice to the pretensions of the Jewish that we render to
those of the Christian revelation . If the claims of Christ are allowed to bave been substantiated by miracles , so are the claims of Moses : we have in both cases the
testimony of history and of pre - sent appearances * Is Jesus shewn by recorded and accomplished prophecy to have been a teacher sent from God ? By the like argument Moses is proved W have
been a divine lawgiver . I content myself with glancing at one class of predictions found in the Old Testament , those which foretel that the Jewish nation should lie prosperous or afflicted in ( he exact degree of th ^ jr obedience dt'tiisft *
Essay On The Evidences Of The Jewish Rev...
Essay on the Evidences of the Jewish Revelation * 327
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1814, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02061814/page/7/
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