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BIBLICAL CRITICISM, " ?- ' AND INQUIRIES AND DISQUISITIONS ON ECCLE-Sl'AS" > . TICAL HISTORY.
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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.
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Untitled Article
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Biblical Criticism, " ?- ' And Inquiries And Disquisitions On Eccle-Sl'as" ≫ . Tical History.
BIBLICAL CRITICISM , " ? - ' AND INQUIRIES AND DISQUISITIONS ON ECCLE-Sl'AS " > . TICAL HISTORY .
Untitled Article
On the altedged Universal Depravity of Human Nature . fFftXtt « JJnitartan Pieces and 'Traits /* n 6 W { JubHshirig ^ in America , ilo . X . ) Every one of them is gone back ; ihev are altogether become fil - thy : there is rt , one that doeth good , noy not one . —Psalm liii . 3 .
The variety , and even opposition of sentiment contained in the 1 st , 53 d and 112 th psalms , ought to operate as a caution against citing select and detached portions of scripture , and , without a
proper regard to the connection in which they stand , making them authority for doctrines inconsistent with the general sense of revelation , and contrary to common observation and experience . Such an use has been made of
certain parts of the 14 th and 53 d psalms , which are almost verbatim alike . From them it "has been inferred , that human nature is utterl y depraved—that it is a soil to which jjpthing grows but the rankest and foulest weeds—and
lhat , if any thing better be produced y it is by the immediate and ^ pernatural influence of th § p ity . Let us consider a little * ° far such an opinion is really ^ nteriaticed by tnb passages refe % ato . \ la the poetical compositions of < r * dwthere is great inequality . ^ $ wr&' lie rises the utmost ^ J ^ of 3 u $ iihity in the contem . Potion of the divine nature and
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works . At other times he speaks in the character of an inspired prophet ; but often , merely ias it man * subject , as his History sufficiently evinces , to many infirmities ; and when under the irritation produced by enmity and op * position , he . expresses himself in a manner which no Christian
coulil consistently take for an ex * ample . He himself owns ( ps « cxvi . 11 ) that he sometimes " . spake unadvisedly with his lips ; " and though we should not put . that construction on the general sentence of reprobation which he here appears to pass on his species ^ yet it is well enough known that poefs ^ both ancient and modern , assume
and are allowed what is termed a licence of expressing themselves in a way somewhat beyond tHe strict limits of fact . Such apparently is the case in the texts under consideration .
The-particular occasion upon which these psalms , or either of tliem , were composed , is not referred to ; but it was probably at the beginning of David's reign , before the kingdom was confirmed in His hand ,
and while he met with much trouble and opposition froip . t { ie adherents of the house of Saul , the greater number of whom might be
irreligious and atbeistica } persons * The probability of this conjecture will receive additional weight , if we look into the subject of tfte adjoining psalms , as expressed hi their titles froin the 52 d to tKe 5 91 b . 11 n 3 er a keen sense of the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1811, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2414/page/39/
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