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exist , and such a compensation exactly proves what that at ** sence seemed to deny . S . 25 . It was well that Warburton could neither corroborate nor render probable this permanent miracle , in which he set the essence of the theocracy of the Israelites ; for if hf | could
have done this , he would then m truth have first made the difficulty , to me at least * indissoluble ; for what ought to have proved the divinity of the legation , would ^ on the contrary ^ feavre mad ? the thing itself doubtful ^ which God did not and would not , indeed , then communicate , but the knowledge of which he assuredly would not render more difficult * S * 26 * I wiH explain myself by supposing what might occur in education , ^ he im age of revelation . An elementary book for children may properly enough pass over in silence some important topics in the Science or art of which it treats , which
the teacher may judge to be not adapted to the faculties of those lie is instructing : but it ought on no account to lay impediineats in the way of their acquiring a knowledge of those important topics . On the contrary , all the avenues to knowledge jnust be carefully left open , and were but one of those passages shut up > or were it but the occasion of their attaining such knowledge later , this would render the incompleteness of the elementary work an essential fault * Sv 27 . It could therefore well happen that the books of the
Old Testament , elementary works for a people rude and unused to thinking , did not contain the doctrine of the immotv tality of the soul , and future retribution : but they ought on bo account to contain any thing which dould retard the people for whom they were written , upon their way to this great truth . And it is saying little to ask , what could have more re- » tarded them , than if that wonderful retribution had been promised them in this life , anef that too from him who promises
nothing which he does not perform } S , 28 , For though the unequal distribution of the goocjs of tins life , in which so little reference appears to be made to virtue and vice , does not lead to a very decisive proof of the immortality of the soul , and another life , b ^ which the difficulty arising from the contemplation of that distribution here is to be solved , it is still certain that without that difficulty the imman understanding would not for a long while , perhaps never , have been led to better and more strict proofs : for wh ^ t
should lead man to seek such proofs ? Mere curiosity ? S . 29 . It is , in truth , possible that now and then an Israelite might apply the divine promises and threats , which had refo itr . ee to the collected state , to each individual ^ nem her of it f and have the firm belief that he who was pious would also nQ *
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4 IS The Education of the Human Racel
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1806, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1727/page/24/
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