On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
" ' -.-¦¦¦ ¦ ... : ^~ ¦ - - - - — , .......- - - - r ii .i - . ¦¦ ¦ . ii _ ¦ ¦ ¦ i Original Letters from Mr. (afterwards Archbishop) Seeker to Mr. John Focc
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
From Mr . Seeker . London 9 July 28 , 1716 . Dear Sir , SINCE the receipt of yours I have been pretty much upon the ramble ,
and amongst other places , at Oxford : which has kept me something longer from writing to you , without being able to afford any entertainment to make amends for it . At Oxford the
people are all either mad or asleep * and it is hard to say which sort one could learn most from : only the former sort break out sometimes into flights , which , because the by-standers laugh at them , their fellows take for wit .
But you have provided me a task of a very different nature from telling stories , that I ought to apply myself to , viz . to inquire whether the prophets really understood their own writings or no , to which the hones test answer
perhaps would be , that really I don't know ; but since ignorance of anything is now-a-days no great bar to talking upon it , I shall wave this plea . And , therefore , 1 . That they might not know the circumstances , as the time and manner
of the accomplishment of those things which they sometimes prophesied of , is very possible in itself , and pretty clearly asserted in Dan . xii . 4 , and especially 1 Peter i . 10—12 . But this is being ignorant , not of what they said
, but of what they did not say : and yet these general predictions might be very justly applied to the particular cases when they happened . Of this nature , perhaps , the prophecy of Joel is , which you mention . i
-. ihat they did not understand their own words cannot well be concluded from the obscurity of them , though it may be from thence probable that we shall never understand them : because a language so different in . genius , and so remote in time 9 ind pl ^ ce from our ow % at * $ contained < ig jthe
compass of one siinail l ? pok > #$ ji * t well be other wise , especially in those things winch are delivered with some emotion voi
Untitled Article
of mind , such as poetry requires , and prophecy ( for what reason we are not now to inquire ) always had accompanying it . The book of Job is as obscure as any of the prophets , and yet I think nobody Beeds question , whether the author understood himself .
The' like may be said of Ecclesiastes , And , therefore , whether a figurative way of writing passed for elegant then > as it does now in China , or whether it was appointed to try the diligence of
men and raise the worth of their faith , or however it be \ we have no reason to suspect ( as some do ) that the prophets wrapt themselves in darkness to cover a cheat , since the poets and moralists , who had no cheat to cover , did the same thing .
3 . If- the distinction ( which Grotius takes so much notice of ) of the literal and mystical sense of prophecies be just , we have no great reason to question but the prophets and people too
understood the literal sense ; and the reason is plain , because the language was their native tongue , and the thing delivered in it , concerned them immediately , either for direction ,
encouragement or terror . 4 . But the main difficulty , I suppose , is concerning those prophecies that relate to the Messiah , or are applied to him in the New Testament ; and here , that David did not only speak
some words that related to Christ , but actually understood them of him , which yet seem to have as obscure a reference that way as most in the prophets , the Apostle Peter asserts most positively , Acts . ii . 25—34 . And I dare not take
upon me to contradict him . But as it is nowhere said the case is the same in all the other quotations , some have supposed that when a prophecv is said to be fulfilled , nothing niore is sometimes meant , than that the thing which
then happened was very properly expressed ia the words of that prophecy ; winch they prove not only from the strange force that must otherwise , ; be put upon several texts of Scripture , but from several instances of the like
Untitled Article
Untitled Article
No . CXC . l OCTOBER , 1821 . [ Vol . XVL ' ¦ ¦ ¦¦
Untitled Article
. xvy , 4 k
" ' -.-¦¦¦ ¦ ... : ^~ ¦ - - - - — , .......- - - - R Ii .I - . ¦¦ ¦ . Ii _ ¦ ¦ ¦ I Original Letters From Mr. (Afterwards Archbishop) Seeker To Mr. John Focc
" ' -.- ¦¦¦ ¦ ... : ^~ ¦ - - - - — , .......- - - - r ii . i - . ¦¦ ¦ . ii _ ¦ ¦ ¦ i Original Letters from Mr . ( afterwards Archbishop ) Seeker to Mr . John Focc
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1821, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2505/page/1/
-