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    verse 20 , it is written in the Book of Psntws ; chap , xxviii . 25 . theHoly Ghost spake by Isaiah the prophet ; i . e . it was foretold by D « tvid the prophet ; there are in the prophecies of Isaiah , words applicable to this matter ; it was of 'he Holy Spirit : hat some did , and some did not believe ,

    agreeing to his suggestions , to the premunition , or the prefiguration of Isaiah . —There was nothing in this unbelief to overturn the faith of those who had believed the gospel

    because il bad been foretold , ( as Paul believed , ) that it should be so : —there was found in that prophet what was applicable to this circumstance ; what prefigured it . In Heb . iii . 7 , ix . 8 , 1 Cor . xi .

    13 1 words taught by the Holy Ghost , probably is 4 language of the Old Testament * ( See Grothis in loc ) . In Luke xxiv . 25 , " that the Prophets ^ ' &c . might have been expressed by Spirit of God , Holy Spirit * &c .

    " It is true that the Spirit , my Spirit &c . does signify sometimes God , or some attribute of God ; and , indeed , so it might be explained here ; and any of the four preceding interpretations might have been put upon either phrase « 4 of the spirit / ' or 4 i of God . "

    " Now all such interpretations of holy spirit , ' as carry in them the idea of miraculous birth being set aside , which of the four above enumerated shall we adopt for this passage ? Any of them would be true ; and perhaps one might be

    taken , which would carry along with it the rest ; and to such a sense the evangelist , as it appears to me , directs us . The pregnancy of Mary was " of the Holy Spirit /' being according to the scripture ,

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    —an event so modified and * circumstanced , that it might , appear to have been described bv an ancient prophet . For this implies in it , that it was something more thari common ; and probably , alsoy that it was in consequence of di . vine care and blessing . " Having thus collected the different senses which this phrase bears in scripture , Mr . Cappe draws some general reflections ,

    which appear to my mind so important , that I shall transcribe them for the Monthly Repository , sending you the first , along with this letter . In reference to the

    interpretation briefly stated above , which he gave to this passage , Mr , Cappe observes " 1 st , that if the truth of the interpretation be admitted , it must be allowed as a reasonable inference in tbis , as if * innumerable other instances , that

    the most obvious is not always the real sense of scripture . With respect to any book in a foreign and ancient language , there are many causes which may put distance between our ideas and the conceptions of the writer . The most

    obvious import of ancient terms and phrases , is that which approaches nearest to the import of like terms and phrases in the language of the reader . This is the sense which

    they will first suggest to his mind ; but if difference of climate or lapse of time or any civil revolution has introduced a difference into modes of thinking or of living , it is by no means certain that by this road we shall be led to the true

    meaning of the writer . To an interpretation of a passage in any foreign or ancient author , it is not an objection to be sustained ; that it is not the most obvipus meaning nevertheless , it may ha whftt bis

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    40 Mr . Cappe on the Miraculous Birth of Christ .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/40/