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claims and their art were , like his , a gross imposture . It is so far from being " probable ' ( as Mr . G . pleases to fancy ) that *« to many of these persons was communicated , not only an insight into futurity and a consequent spirit of predicting happiness or misery , but a power of conjuring into open view , apparitions of the most hideous monsters ; of forms that perhaps had never nny real existence ,
arid even the V / 5 o ; A £ , or images of the dead / ' that the fact is directly the reverse . They had " power , " indeed , •* ' to cheat the eye with blear illusion , " a power derived partly from their own skill in legerdemain and in part from the credulity of their votaries : but this , was all . The ca ^ e of the
sorceress of Endor , has been explained , though on mutually different principles , by Dr . Chandler and by Mr-Farmer : and either of the interpretations is far more consistent with itself and with scripture than the vulgar hypothesis . Scripture uniformly discriminates between " the lying wonders" of men and the miracles which
demonstrate a prophet ' s mission . The latitude of belief in which Mr . G . indulges on this matter , is little honourable to revelation , is subversive of its evidences and inconsistent with its authority .
Yet certain modern missionaries , it would seem , are of the annotator ' s opinion : he even adduces their sentiments as corroborating his own . Speaking of a " sick man in one of the South-Sea islands , they say , " We are informed , that the condition the
brethren saw him in , was owing to his having been cursed by the priest , v / ho was chanting over him for his recovery . There is such a mystery of iniquity in the execrations used by thenatives , that the wisdom which is
from beneath is very manifest by them . Though we cannot credit all that is reported concerning them , yet we think that the powers of darkness are busy agents with the execrators am ] execrated , in a man nor beyond their common influences , and that the
bodies of the execrated are in reality affected thereby . " Transactions of the Missionary Society , Vol . i . The motives of those who labour for the conversion of the Heathens , we , assuredly , respect ; and we wish success to all measures for this purpose which are framed with wisdom
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and executed by men of enli ghtened piety . Let our readers judge of the qualifications of the missionaries who could gravely form and transmit the opinion recorded in the preceding paragraph 1
Mr . Good waives an examination into " the nature of the causes" of the ancient and general " belief in divination or enchantment . " Such an undertaking , he tells us , " would lead ' him 1
" too far from the object of 1 his " pursuit . " In truth , however , the inquiry is neither long nor difficult . All these causes may be summed up in one word , and that is — ignorancf ,
When we observe that certain effect ? disappear under a particular state of things , we can have little hesitation in determining to what circumstances the former existence of them should be attributed . On Christianity being preached with success at Ephesus
( Acts xix . 17 , &c . ) " many of them who used curious arts , brought theii books together , and burned them before all men ; so mightily grew the word of God , and prevailed ! " It
was the triumph of Christian knowledge over the miserable artifices of men who gratified their avarice at the expense of the deluded rabble . This passage represents the character and the overthrow of " the Jewish
exorcists at Ephesus : " and the same victory has been gained in other countries and ages since the publication of the gospel . Let Mr .-Good say , how it happens that we read of divination and sorcery in periods and regions distinguished by mental darkness , while these wretched
pretensions are seldom advanced , and never with general and permanent success , in spots where science and genuine religion take up their abode ?
" In the deep winding's of the grove , nr > more The hag- obscene , grisly p hantom dwell ; Nor in " the fall of mountain-stream , roar ^' Of winds , is heard the angry spi i its yel ; No wizard mutters the tremendous sp « J > Nor sinks convulsive irt prop hetic
swoon . We must not dismiss the note whi * has called forth these remarks , before we declare that we are far from being satisfied with Mr . G ' s rendering , " » c sorcerers of the day . " The puolic translation is not only more Jrterw *
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172 Review . —Good ' s Translation of the So oh of Job
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 172, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/44/
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