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Untitled Article
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¦ ever corruptions may have afterwards sprung up amongst idolaters . But the serpent , for some reason or other , perhaps for that sagacity for which he has been so much
celebrated by Mr . Bryant in his Ophion , and by others before him , and for having 6 C wisdom and intelligence no way inferior to man , ' was preferred by the
early Pagans as the proper representative of Deity in their temples . The serpent is therefore made the iirst moving instrument of mischief .
The history informs us that he tempted Eve . The Jews , and all the eastern nations , considered the tender sex as much inferior in understanding to the males : and ,
as the running into idolatry was a strong mark , of weakness , the ^ writer supposes that the woman would be first disposed to this weakness , and would be a proper instrument to lead her husband
irito it . Or , may it represent a weaker and more ignorant race of rhankind , who first abandoned themselves to the worship of idols , and wiiose example was dangerous to the Israelites ?
This supposition on the account of the fall , is much corroborated by the consideration of the time when , and the person by whom it was written . It has been sup . posed to have been written by Moses ; and at a period when the subject of idolatry seems to have
occupied all the thoughts of both leaders and people among the Jews . The former using all their Energies to deter the congregation from idolatry , and the latter exhibiting the strongest predilection for that vice . They had taken theiiMdve of false gods frqm the ? Bc&yetWa ^ kp will .
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Egyptians , a wise and a learfted people ; therefore , perhaps , the fruit was said to be of the tree of knowledge , and amqng the Egyptians it was that the serpent was held in the highest esteem . It wast the design of the author of this allegory to intimate that amongst the evils which followed in the train of this greatest of crimes , the disrobing man of his innocence and his immortality were the first and the greatest *
The unwillingness of the niaa and his wife to meet the Lord in the garden after they had been guilty of so great a sin is now become a proper and a beautiful part of the history , and the sewing of fig-leaves
together to cover their nakedness , strongly marks the weak and in * sufficient arguments by which jthe Israelites were disposed to justify their departure frovi the worship of the God of their fathers .
Without pursuing these thoughts farther , or attempting to explain the less important features of the story , I am , Sir , Your obedient Servant , J . W .
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An ancient New Year ' s Gift . Islington , Jan . 1 st , 1812 . Sir , I lately met with an old book , entitled " Priestcraft in Perfection ^ or a Detection of the Fraud of
inserting and continuing this Clause —The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith , in the Twentieth Article of the Articles of the Church of England . London . 1710 . * In
running my eye over its . contents , I found the following curious note , which I transcribe without qny remarks for the use of your Mis-
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An ancient . New Year ' s Gift . 21
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/21/
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