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Untitled Article
very remarkable in documents of such high antiquity . Whp can dpub } . ^ h ^ t it owed its origin to Revelation ? WJfet ' w ^ r ^ acj vi ? p ipa ^ y modern wo # , that the knowledge of the one Gocl d ^ vel ope ^ ^ I ^ n ^^ i yf r ^ m ppl y ^ teifm , is obviously contrary not onl y to s ^ cre ^ but e ^ en 1 9 pyofane history , Ipnp one instance has the knowledge of tbq Creator issued frpm polytheism . Even the philosophers did so little to advance the belief inone Gfod , that when polytheism was attacked by the followers of Jesus they took it unc ^ r their protection . IJut whatever may h # ve bee , n { he ; source of this priraa ^^ ai knowledge of God in the Bible , there at least it is , _ and so pure and correct , that the opinions of spme few of the ancient G ^ eek philosophers , whotaught the existence of a Plastic Nature , a soul of the worli must be admittea to
have been far inferior to it . It is . true , this ^ knowledge of Gpd , though correct , is not perfect , and from this very circumstance it was the beti , er adapted to the conceptions of mankind m so remote an ag § . Its very imperfection , and the sensible , simple , anc [ figurative language of these fragments in which it is preserved , are a prqpf that neither Moses , nor any one else in later times , has forced them , apd then attributed to them an
earlier date than really belpngs to them . This Remarkable knowledge of God must have been preserved in its purity from { he mpst venerable antiquity , or from the very beginning of things in a few families , and the collector of the fragments which are found in the first book of the Bible designed by placing them together , tp oppose something certain , and solid to the fictions and distortions of other , nations in mpre recent times . In what other nation of antiquity is even a ray preserved of that gr ^ t truth which the first chapter of Genesis proclaims ?
, "In every country mythology has been allowed the freest scope in the earliest ages , where imagination could be indulged without tear of its dreams being contradicted by fact , and has dwindled aw ^ ty by Agrees , till at length it ceased altogether , and history beg ^ tn . The ancient documents of the Hebrews , on the contrary , are mpslt meagre in tjie remotest times , and gradually become more copious . Efc | d jt been the purpose of the collector of these fragments to give us uncertain } egen 4 s , fictions , and mythi , he
would either have been most copious on | he remotest times , or he would have exposed himself to detection , by referring his fables to an age of which we possessed historical accounts by which to expose their fabulousness . The scantiness of his earliest history , as it now appears , can only have arisen from his scrupulous rejection of every thing which was extravagant , exaggerated , and embellished , as unworthy of being handed down to posterity . He has related no more , because this was all that he could relate with certainty .
" This scantiness in early , and copiousness in later , times is nowhere more remarkable than in the accounts of miracles , supernatural appearances , and prophetic anticipations . Among other nations they are most abundant in antiquity , and cease ^ s we come downward ; in the Scripture this order is reversed , for there is scarcely any thing miraculous in the oldest fragments , while in later times such events become more common ; and long periods elapse without a recorded miracle , succeeded by others in which they
abound . " Now , the periods in which the miraculous abounds , the age of Abraham , of Moses , of the idolatrous kings , of Jesus ' , and the apostles , are precisely those in which such a dispjajf of supernatural agency was necessary to establish or confirm the knowledge of fclod and of religion . The miracles of Scripture have , therefore , every where a grand ana worthy atyect , the
Untitled Article
On the Mythical Interpretation of tfoe Ifible . § 39
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 639, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/7/
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