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be stated , or the awful accusation ought not to have been made . " [ I ] Let the reader then compare the passages adduced by A ., p . 438 , with the following , which are faithful translations to the best of my ability . I am obliged to include more of each passage than A . has done , for much of the unfairness which not he , but his leader , has shewn , lies in the omissions .
** * The conquest of Canaan is described to us in the book of Joshua ; and , in the book of Judges , the long - protracted struggle for the possession of the country which had been conquered from the heathen tribes . The judges were extraordinary magistrates or warriors . In times of peculiar distress , even heroic women put themselves at the head of their tribe . The whole book breathes a
warlike spirit , united with an unshaken and often superstitious confidence in God . What was unusual in the feats of the judges should not surprise us . Extraordinary times raise up extraordinary men . Probably their actions were first celebrated in triumphal songs and poetical ornament . These poems were probably the sources from which the later composer of the book derived his narratives and his manner of describing them . '
"By the word ' superstitious , * Dr . H . probably refers to some parts of the history of Jephtha , Samson , Micah and the Levite of Mount Ephraim . It appears hence , that he assigns to the book an entirely human origin : a theory which , in my opinion , there is satisfactory evidence to disprove . " * The Psalms contain a collection of one hundred and fifty hymns , originating at different times and from different
authors ; but among these David holds the first rank as the founder of the Israelitish Psalmody . Many psalms refer to his own private circumstances , the history of which is to us in some cases obscure . They are an effusion of the feelings which powerfully engrossed his mind , in many of the remarkable occurrences of his life , with alternate joy and sorrow ' , hope and
fear ; sometimes in penitential and mournful strains , and sometimes expressing confidence and gratitude for deliverance and help . Others are songs of war and victory , and bear , in part , the impress of the yet imperfect moral notions of an early age . David curses his
enemies , who were at the same time the enemies of God and of his people ; Christ teaches to pray for them and to bless them . Others are poems of instruction and consolation , appointed to be sung , accompanied with musical instruments ,
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at the grand solemnities of the temple . Ail the psalms excite to a firm and vital faith in one only God , and to the rendering of honour to Him by righteousness of practice , and a pure and sincere love to every thing that is good . Let any one compare with our Psalms , the hymns and praises which have come down to us from Heathen antiquity ; and he will be
impressed , even in spite of himself , with the observation , how little the polytheistic belief , but how exclusively the belief in the only God , can elevate him to the sublimest thoughts , the purest feelings , and the noblest sentiments and resolutions . This book of Psalms , from
which pious minds have ever drawn so much consolation and instruction , so much confidence and hope in Divine aid ; was very properly called by Luther , the [ puchleiri ] pocket-book of all holy persons . Much of the spirit and energy of the original is transfused into his trans * lation . '
" Here it is painful to observe , that no mention is made of prophetic Psalms , the reality and application of which Dathe has well vindicated . I find it impossible to pursue this plan of giving the whote of each article . For the following , I must be confined to only the necessary context .
" ' The Prophets were men whom God endowed with preeminent gifts of the Spirit , inflamed with a never - cooling zeal for the advancement of his will , and called for the purpose of purifying the religious ideas of his people from error , and confirming those which were just . Their [ scherblick ] prophetic glance disclosed to them the near futurity , and enabled them to anticipate that which lay
in the farther distance . The prophecies which their writings contain , are sometimes threatening , and sometimes consolatory . To Christian readers , those prohecies are especially worthy of attention , which announce that better period , when the knowledge and worship of the only true God should extend through the earth , and which were to obtain their full accomplishment in Jesus . '
" In his introduction to the Gospels , after a course of observations on the character and circumstances of the Evangelists , many of which are very useful and important , and in which occurs a definite avowal of belief in the miraculous events , the author proceeds : — ' This life of their Lord , the purity of his character , his devotedness to God , the sublime lessons of wisdom which flowed from his lips ; this , must Christian readers ever choose as the chief object of pious contemplations ,
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Intelligence . —German Rationalists , 131
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/51/
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