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    Allegorical Interpretations of Scripture . 1 i

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    ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF SCRIPTURE . To the Editor oj the Monthly Repository . Sir ,, cc Deceitful workers , " and men who € C handle the word of God deceitfully , " are characters which the Scripture marks out with the most pointed disapprobation and abhorrence ; and they seem to be contrasted with , and opposed to those who cc rightly divide the word of truth / ' That there have been many such characters in the religious world in former times , there can be no doubt ; nor can it be supposed that they are now become extinct . On the contrary , they are probably as numerous as ever , and seem to have crowds of admirers almost every where . There may be said to be very many , and different sorts of them ; but it is the design of this paper to point out only one of those—the ailegorizers or spiritualizers of

    Scripture . In the hands of these the Bible becomes a mere plaything , or childish riddle . They may be said to make whatever they please of it : even the historical parts are by them turned and twisted , spiritualized and tortured , without mercy and without shame . No portion of the Bible , perhaps , has furnished them with more ample materials for the exercise of their presumptuous invention than the book of Qanticles . There they have found clearly and fully all the parts and depths of evangelical knowledge . The book of Ruth also , and that of Esther , are fields where they have often excercised themselves very industriously and successfully . Indeed no part of Scripture appears to have escaped their foul handling * In Genesis xxxv . 8 . we read that Deborah , Rebekah ' s nurse , died and was buried under an oak . Our spiritualizers have made Deborah hereto signify the law , and Rebekah the church , and the death of Deborah the abolishment of the law , and the oaktree the cross of Christ . * i

    Leah ' s tender eyes , Gen . xxix . 17 . have been made to typif y the blindness of the Jews , who could not see clearly , and therefore rejected Christ . ' - " . The great pot , the wild vine and wild gourd , and death in the pot , and the healing of it by casting the meal into ttfe pot , have furnished our atllegorizers with rich materials for spiritual instruction , which they have dealt out with ari mispafitig and liberal hand .

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    P . S . —If this be favoured with a place in the Repository , which you profess to keep open to all parties , I shall send you a defence of the doctrine of tramsubstantiation , founded upori modes of argument admitted by orthodox Protestants .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/11/