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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
it consist . For , as to what ir said of God ' s having blessed , sanctified ,, hallowed , or ordered them to keep holy the sabbath day , it does not appear that any thing of a religious nature was implied in this ; since the words themselves import nothing more than setting apart any thing , whatever it be , from ordinary uses ; and no other purposes for which this day was set apart is so
Mr . Manning thinks that the sabbath became a day devoted to religious services ^ not from any divine command , but that persons ordered to separate one day in seven from the common business
of life , would naturally be led to that kind of reflection and meditation on the Creator , his works and providence , which would induce religious habits and at lensth
religious worshi p * consisting of praise and thanksgiving for benefits already received , and of prayer and supplication ^ for future blessings .
< c Under the impression of these , " says our author , < c it u ' ould naturally occur to them , the leaders of the peo ^ pie ) as a measure of general use and importance to diffuse , among the people at large , their own sense of these
maiter * , and this probably was what first suggested , as the most obvious method of doing it , the reading and interpreting of their law in their public assemblies . All this , I say , seems Very natural , but we have no authority
for saying how far it was the case in feet ; for the scriptures which make no mention of any precept to this purpose , are totally silent also as to any practice of this sort in the earlier period of the Jewish dispensation . " *
Our readers will hence observe that Mr . Manning ' s theoFy is , that the sabbath as a day of rest , as a sign to distinguish the Jews from other people , was of divine
apmuch as intimated m the law , but that alone of cessation from their usual labours . * In it thou shalt do no manner of work , * was the whole of the commandment . *'
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pointment ; but that the setting it apart for religious services was a matter of human expediency . He contends also that Christians , not being at all bound By Jewish ceremonies * are not enjoined to separate one day in seven as a day of rest , and that the
consecrating the first day of the week to religious services , depends not on express command , but that it had its origin , and has been continued from the consideration of
the utility of such an institution . He traces the practice to the time of the apostles , and thinks their example , in ibis respect , equivalent to any precept they could have handed down to us on the subject .
We shall notice only one other of the Discourses before us , viz , that On the Works of God , and of their tendency to produce general happiness . From this we shall transcribe a paragraph which will shew the author ' s mode of reasoning on this important sub . ject .
" When we pronounce of the works of God , in general terms , that they arc good , it is always to be understood as spoken with a view to the whole of his design . With respect to any particular persons indeed , exclusively of the rest of mankind , —or , to our present situation and interest , independently of a
future state , —or , to the immediate effects of second causes , without regard to their remoter consequences , —in this view of our condition , many of the events of life may certainly be considered as real evils ; which yet , in a mere extensive view of their influences
upon the general state of mankind , or upon our own particular aud separate interests , in some distant period of time , may be the greatest and most inestimable blessings What we affirm therefore , with lespect to the appointments of Providence , is , nrt that every particular dispensation , considered in itself , is a blessing , but that there is
Untitled Article
Review . —Martning > s Sermon ** 407
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1813, page 407, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2429/page/51/
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