On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
The object of the present communication will be to determine the authenticity and credibility of the prophetical writings contained in the Jewish Scriptures ; and the importance of this object must appear evident to all who feel interested in the fate of Revelation ; for , if these books were not
the productions of the persons to whom they are attributed , or it they were written after the events of which they are said to contain predictions , not only would the Jew and the Christian lose all advantage which the argument from prophecy furnishes , but the Unbeliever would have just cause to triumph in its failure , and might reasonably enough contend that the system which stood in need of such artifice , to secure it a favourable reception in the world , must rest upon a tottering and precarious foundation .
It must be confessed , indeed , that all the direct evidence of which the subject admits is derived from Jews and Christians , whom the ignorant and the prejudiced may regard as incompetent witnesses : nor can it be for a moment doubted that the evidence would have been more complete , and more likely to have carried conviction to the mind of the unbeliever , if a catalogue of Heathen testimonies could have been added to those which are furnished
in such abundance by Jewish and Christian writers . But the absence of these , it may be presumed , is sufficiently accounted for by the peculiar circumstances of the case ; by the character which the Jews maintained as the chosen people of God through a long series of ages ; by their comparative indifference in making proselytes to their religion ; by the language in which their sacred books were written being but little known among heathen nations ; and by the destruction , in ages far remote , of those works
which alone could have supplied the desired testimony . In cases of historical inquiry , however , we cannot expect all the exactness of mathematical demonstration . If the evidence adduced be unimpeachable as far as it goes , nothing further can in reason be expected . Nor is it very material , in an investigation like the present , whether the evidence be furnished by Heathen or by Jewish and Christian writers , since the sources from , which it is derived , and the indirect manner in which it is supplied , afford the most
effectual security against fraud or collusion . Had all the authors to whom reference will be made by and by , written with the intention of proving that which it is the object of the present communication to establish , it would have been but fair to receive their testimony with some degree of caution ; but , so far were some of them from aiming to prove the authenticity and credibility of the prophetical writings , in the references which they made to them , that they uniformly took these points for granted , as matters about which no doubt ever had existed or ever could exist . Our sources of
information on the subject are neither so clear nor so copious as theirs were ; but , if we can trace the writings in question backwards through a regular series of periods , and prove that they have always been received as the productions of those to whom they are now ascribed , the utmost demand of curiosity will be satisfied , and their authenticity will be confirmed by the most undeniable
evidence-It will be admitted on all hands that the descendants of Abraham , notwithstanding their dispersion over every part of the globe , both civilized and uncivilized , have always kept themselves a distinct people , and entertained the deepest and most rooted abhorrence of the Christian name . The former of these facts is confirmed by our own daily observation , combined with the testimony of historians and travellers , whose veracity has
Untitled Article
CANONICAL AUTHORITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE PROPHETS .
Untitled Article
244 )
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 244, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/12/
-