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to a mind like his , of the keenest mental and moral sensibility , could not fail to encircle the scourge and the cross with tenfold horrors . But did he shrink from the dreadful ordeal ? " God called , and did the Son of God refuse to answer ? " * He well knew that nothing short of all this would decisively prove that those things
which are so highly esteemed among men , a life of ease , of sensual enjoyment , great riches , high station , worldly honours and distinction , are of no estimation in the sight of God ; that the truest humility may be united with the greatest dignity of character , and the acutest sensibility with the most unshaken fortitude . He knew
that his public death in this dreadful manner , in which there could not be any deception , was requisite to demonstrate its reality : —That on this wholly depended the proof from fact , first , by his triumphant resurrection , that death is not the end of man ; and secondly * by his ascension to the right
hand of God , and from thence dispensing the gifts of the spirit , to prove also from fact , the reality of a future retribution ;—to convince his faithful followers that those " who by patient continuance in well doing , seek for glory , honour and immortality , " should finally attain everlasting life .
Can we wonder then , when we seriously reflect upon all these things , that the apostles , who were the living witnesses of such transcendant virtue , filled with the highest admiration , and impelled by holy ardour , should speak of their ascended Lord in the
highly figurative , hyperbolic eastern phraseology , as having been made " sin for us "—of having been made a willing sacrifice—as giving himself for our sins y not indeed to make God propitious , but to render his erring imperfect creature , so liable to
transgression , so incapable of knowing his tri ^ e interest , more worthy of the divine favour ' j of raising him higher in the scale of intellectual being , and of rendering him meet , when all sublunary things shall have lost their influence , for that eternal felicity which
* See . on the Great Importance of the Public Ministry of Christ , Discourse XX . page 998 > of a volume of Sermons by the late' Rev . Newcome Cappe ; edited by C » tli . C ^ pe . UU .
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" eye hath not seen , nor ear beard , neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive . ' * Thirdly , the power of deliberating upon and of choosing between two different modes of action in respect of all their various and complicated
results , is not only taken for granted , but more strongly , more promptly , and with greater authority called into action by revelation , than by the slow * deductions of reason , although eventually it perfectly harmonizes with them .- " Thou shaltnot steal , " "Tbou
shalt not commit adultery , " are prohibitions , which the most ignorant , if acquainted with the meaning of the terms , cannot fail to comprehend ; ; whereas , on the contrary , to see the foundation on which they rest , to feel the importance whether to the
individual or to society at large , or holding the right of private property sacred , fully to appreciate the misery , the wretchedness , the jealousies , the endless mistrusts , together with the whole train of baneful , malignant , passions engendered and excited by a
breach of the nuptial tie , requires a . very considerable degree of previous mental and moral progress ; and hence the unspeakable importance of a positive divine command to the great bulk of mankind , at all times and in all ages .
It is readily admitted , that there have occasionally arisen sages and philosophers who have been capable or making some of these important deductions without the aid of divine
revelation , and of thence becoming the guides and instructors of others ; but notwithstanding the praise so justly due to their virtuous exertions * it is very obvious to anticipate how very small would be the fruit of their labours
without consulting the page of history , not bearing the stamp of divine authority . t Again . A written history of the series of extraordinary interposition * of divine providence for the guidance and improvement of the human , race , presupposes and requires the possession of those faculties which form the
fourth line of demarcation between man and the inferior animals , and is therefore exclusively suited to them .
t See Vol . iv . p . 71 , of Dr . Co £ ifcu ft admirable treatise . ' ' - ' ' " 40
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32 Mrs . Cappe , on the Adaptation of Divine Revelation to the Human Mind
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 32, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/32/
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