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of faith quite as rational as could be expected from such a process . The Bible purports to be- —not , indeed , the word of God , as vulgarly supposed , but—a history of the word of God , of the communications of his will to mankind . Yet , strange to say ! this is the only book of popular celebrity which the bulk of mankind do not think it necessary to read in its
connexion . It is fresh in my recollection that , when I had reached the conclusion of the Old Testament , I made a long and deep pause , succeeded by a soliloquy : " It is not then , it seems , under the old dispensation that the mystery of the Trinity can be traced ; for the
burthen of the communication is the absolute unity of the Supreme Cause of all effects , and the most jealous , uncompromising assertions of it . If , therefore , such a doctrine be the truth ,
I must proceed with the New Testament , and find it there . But , in proportion to the distinctness of the former revelation in the Old Testament , I must expect to find that of the clashing doctrine in the New . The Deitv . in doctrine in the New . The Deity , in
mercy to the faculties of man , did not reveal Himself obscurely under the old dispensation . He would not brook , in the fundamental article of the Divine code , the slightest aberration , any glance to the right or to the left in
quest of any other abject of worship than Ms single , unassociated Self , pervading the universe , besetting' every individual of his rational offspring c behind and before , and attracting to the centre of his divinity the converging adorations of Ins-creatures . After such
solemn , such explicit , such abounding declarations of Himself , in terms at once level to all capacities , and identified with the sublimest conceptions of tha * reason which is Jbeaven ' s best gift to man , He could not— -if it were ills
sovereign will to establish jsl new xefigious faith , x > ne that should supersede the primeval om ^ &o long reverenced , and so awfully . sanctioned—He could not propound it & | terms susceptible of two kiterpretafions . The new ' Mflh must be-as clear and visible , its mani festation as lujjuncais as tine ancient
about to toe merged or qualified ; so that ' he who runs may read * his dutjf in I ^ vparamtmntr article of religious lvwshipj " Sir ! I pursued » r task with in *
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creasing avidity , \ rith the fear anci trembling natural to so solemn an inquiry , and will not attempt to describe what I felt in its accomplishment . The privation of the ark could not be a greater blow to the Israelites . Its restoration could not be more
animating than my convictions when , after recovering from the dejection oceasU oned by the shock to my old prejudices , I found myself in possession of a new covenant , simple , cheering and intelligible , harmonizing with tibe old , and demonstrating that in the Almighty
there is ** neither variableness nay shadow of turning . " For I had * found the long-predicted Messiah , the Christ of that jealous God , who proclaimed that he would not " give his glory to another , " affirming , reiterating , . and
laying all possible stress upon this grand and fundamental truth £ referring all his might and potency to his heavenly Father , whose gracious purposes he was instrumentally fulfilling ; and declaring—after his resurrection , when , if Ins human nature had been
assumed , it must have been discarded ; and on the cross he had declared his mission to t ) e * ' finished ? ' that he was ascending to " his Father and our Father , his God and our God . " I had found , indeed , two or three scattered passages in no connexion , flowing in emblematical terms from the warm
imagination of an apostle , which might bear , and only bear ( without the context ) two senses ; the literal , ascribing to Jesus , though he had disclaimed all original power , a physical creation ; the other , and onl y rational one , triumphantly advocating him as the author of the new spiritual ^ creation , ) or
gospel dispensation , which , ainder God , he unquestionably was , Some , notoriousl y mistranslated , may ' adso involve a double sense , and others are , perhaps , . after a lapse of nearly two thousand years , of difficult interpretation , and therefore at the mercy of expositors * It is tlie iate of all writing's of
equal antiquity * But is the worn of God in its simplicity ; # re all ^ is prouiulgatione of ifc to < the Jews , the chosen > d ^ posito ^ y if # jtfit word , and insulatjed for Jfls preservation ; are all our S ^ j ^ rt ^ r ^ i ^ gtiitions of it to be setat-jfoy ^ upon inferences iiWflM at variance with the full -sfertSm ' " ' and tenour of the Sacred Writings > jNo , Sir !—to *» y
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94 Brief Notes on the Bible . No . X .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/30/
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