On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    19 AQeg ^ i ^ l ^ iiteTpretations Scripture . thc ^ su | tble

    Untitled Article

    £ Jor ^ lf vc ^ - fP ! ^^ ^ to their . purpose , or less prpauettve oftspiriti ^ al meaning" , JEsther x . 3 * Mordecai v the Jeyw ^ \ Yas ^ xtuciitjo ti iig Anasueyus , and great aniong / tn e Jews , an < T accepted < $ , t ^ e multitijde of his brethren , seeking the wealth of his peoplr , and speaking peace to all his seed . Ahatsuerus here has bef * n made to typify Gad tb ^ Father * and Mordecai , God the Son , and the rest the mutual love of Christ and his people . An instrument often string , in Psalm xciu 2 . has also been curiously played with by our allegorizing orators , I he instrument has been made to signify man , ti > - ten strings his five bodily senses and the five faculties of his soul , all employed in the adoration and praise of God /

    Even that passage in Isa . xl . 20 . " He that is so imppyer--ished that he hath no oblation , chooseth a tree that will not rot ; and that in chap . xliv . 17 . " Ht wor ^ hippeth it 3 and prayetn unto it , and sailh , Deliver me , for thou art my God , " have been most wonderfully allegorized for spiritual ' instruction . The impoverished man that hath no obfation is the awakened or sensible sinner ; the tree that will not rot , is Jesus Christ ; the falling d ^ wn befo re it , and worshipping \ i 3 imply the believer ' s views of Christ and veneration for him ^ belief of bis dignity , &c . , ;

    In the hands vf th ^ se people , the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jcrichp , and fell . among thieves , has been made , spiritually , to meaii mankind in their fallen state ; the priest ^ the moral law ; and the Invite , the ceremonial law ^ the good Sapiantan , Jesus Christy the inn , the church ; and the two penc f 4 the law and ^ gospel , t * r Old and New estament , 8 cc . Nay ^ yep the nine-ancKtwenty knives in Ezra i . 9 . and the two legs ^ nd piece of an ear , in Amos iii . 12 . have been all converts ed by these teachers into some deep doctrines and important spiritual truths .

    All this , p o doubt , and much more of the same kind that might be added , jnay very justly be denominated " deceitful working / * « corrupting the word of God / ' and Cl handling it deceitfully ; ** as it is very certain that the Sacred Writers , x > r tbt Holy Spirit that inspired them , had no such meaning in any of those passages . It is therefore devoutly to be wished that those teachers u > ig ht be prevailed with to give up this allegorizing and spiritualizing practice ; or , at le ^ st , that they would agree not to exercise this ingenuity or wit of theirsiupoix the Scriptures . It is certainly not a harmless or blameless practice . If they must be still doing in this way , let them ratber by all means take their subjects ortexts from the pagan poets , or heathen mythology . If they should be at a loss for a model or directory for the purpose , 1 can assure them they

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/12/