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MISCELLA3NJEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
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( 270 >
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A Dissertation concerning the Pew * and Authority by which Moses acted * ( Ftom the unpublished M . SS . qftke Rev . Sanwt&l Bourny qf Norwich . J rr may be tliougfct an indispensable part of the oi&ce of an historian , to assist the reader ' s judgment , ia
dis-£ jj » giu&bing real from fictitious events , aad to throw all the KgM be is able upon such periods , of time , as seem more obscure a » d uncertain in proportion to their antiquity , an < I to the \ vaat of contemporary or subsequent authors , capable of refuting or
confirmuig whatever have been related . This will be more expected in tbe present case , as the credibility of m \ t racles in general , must fee deeply effected by deciding whether Moses acted with t ^ e direction and assi&t&r ^ of a supernatural power aqd wisdom
or not . To the prevailing belief in all Chris ^ tiaa nations of the miracles s # id to have been performed ia Egypt 3 © d in the wilderness ; , the followiiig objections aad answers are offered for the reader ' s satisfaction .
It may be pleaded against such belief ( l ) * that it hath been almost the universal practice of ijatiojis in former ages to magnify tjbep antiquity , and to deduce tbe ^ r origin and first settlement , from the interposition and assistance of spnjue Deity or Deities ; such « ms yrere $ fterwar < fe acknowledged
and worshiped in each nation , and that the writers in times Jong after , vainly pretending to give some account of what had passed in remote and obscure periods , ajnd finding themselves in a painful want of materials for real history , have studied to relieve themselves and amuse their
readers with fables , instead of facts , and to embellish their narration with prodigious incredible events . * The substance of this may be admitted , yet easily ^ nswered , if considered as an objection , for it is in that view no better than mere flourish
or misrepresentation . The narrators pf the Mosaic miracles , were not writers of a late age , prying into a remote and dark antiquity , and inventing or adornihg fables , for want of facts j but were contemporaries , and witnesses from their own knowledge and experience , and appealing to the
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like knowledge of a whole nation , or of their immediate predecessors ' not flattering or amusing them with * wonderful tafes , fc * rt warmly expostulating with theip , severely reproach * ing them , and denouncing dreadful threatening ? against them for % jr ingratitude , stupidity , obstinacy and disobedience . As to the heathen
miracles , they come to us , not only like Hamlet ' s ghost in a questionable shape , but in a shape so distorted and deformed , or so fantastic and ridiculoui , as to surpass even the most foolish vulgar tales of apparitions , in pur ( Jajs . ( 2 ) " Tba * the mem ^ y of such a
series of public and i ^ peudous . event * would have been perpetuated among the Egyptians , if apt the ^ rabipjw , Phenicians or Syrians , by sqme luting signs or monuments , or ^ vnften records , or at least by oral tradition-For the accounts of prodigies are the
most natural subjects of eager attention and curiosity , and most likely to be delivered in substance though not without some variation from father to son through a long succession , yet it does not appear that any such testimony was ever discovered of the reality of those miracles . '
To this wemay answer—That there are maiiy places whose modern names in the Arabic language mentioned by travellers have a significant reference to the miracles recorded in the Hebrew writings as performed at those places y andT ( exclusive of those
writings , and of those religious custom ? of the Jews , at present , ill # they profess to commemorate t | i £ W * signal of those miracles ) these Jpay-ft ajl the memorials we can rea ^ pp # y expect to find , of events which W pen 4 ? d in such remote antiquity . * ° [
it seems by iio means probatt ^ ™ & those nations , especially the Egyp * ^ who suifered such dreadful c ^ m }* % and to whpm the Hebrews were botj an nbojniriation ajcid a terror , w oiuv ever er ^ ct or pr ^ erye any puWjc ro £ - morials jpf events so inuch to V&F ? and
nour of the Heb ^^ vs oi v *» God ; and to the disgrace of W ** selves find to their own deities , that they would wisfe to p ^ an y remembrance if tiiem by ditiop . It seems much mare P *^ . that the Egyptians , rather than ^
Miscella3njeous Communications
MISCELLA 3 NJEOUS COMMUNICATIONS
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 270, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/6/
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