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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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jnnflfoadi of the sun connected with tfclifcht of day ami Ma depasture « &k mgh *> ***** ^ rery person capable of r © flecti * m frote the beginning of tune to the present tour , mast have associated tbera i » his mind as * cause and effect ; am * to suppose tha * Moses did not form the same association , is to suppose btm a child or aa idiot ^ when he composed his narrative .
It is reascaiablfi t& coselsde , that creation , as the effect of Qnmipotencey was a simple , undivided airty a » d the words of Moses fevour the -conclusion . "In the beginnings God created the heavens and the earth . " This statement , be it observed , represents the
works of God , the sun and the light , the moon and the stars , the land , the sea , the air , together with all animated » atnre as aow in beinef ; but it is toa summary for aa author who vraked to
divide creation §» to steps- and stages , and to enable die slow eye of human imagination to accompany the motioiss of Omnipotence . ** This renders a Am tail necessary , and all that follows * from the first verse to the ead of the
chapter , is but a detail . In perusing this detail , indeed , the reader is apt to impose on himself , by regarding those as acts of creation , which are but the developement of things alread y created . The narrative , however , is
altogether anthropomorphitical , and has no more reality than the motion of a body which , though really at r&ty appears to change its position merely because the eye which beholds it is hxelf in motion . In this very chapter occurs an example which : readers my assertion obvious and conclusive .
Moses represents man as mdde in the image of God ; and thcragk Adam and Eve were already created , we meet m &e sequel with two successive accounts which , detached from , the pne
cedmg kfelory , would imply that they were nofc yet in betngv but wlricfe are , m reality , intended to be fuller and wore adequate details of their crea tfon .
Now , when Moses , after stating thg general propositiop that God crested « te he ^ enft and tte « artli , etttw < $ oo Jf ^^ i : he begin * with thtt h » aS Z ****> « tep r tlwka eof ^ jftnadnur to a * !^ jpA ^* m ^ 2 « L ¥ ! Sf'P ^ ^ m ^^ k tortm-Hmt wiit ^ fuv ^ Am mmkion . «*
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Us- ideas , he separates fhe ligkfc from the sun , it& prknary source ; A $ dB 4 « ing cm the good sense of his readers for comprehending their necessary connexion , and the occasion of their being thus detached and inverted in the narrative . It may , however , be
observed , that as Moses began , his detail with the light , soy after going through the round of inanimate area * tion , he ends with , the sun > thus lead ing the imagination to recognize their connexion , and to join them as cause and effect , like the two extremes of a
circle , coalescing' in one common pokrt . This process appears to me to have been dictated by the most exalted wisdom ; and surely it must be deemed extremely incongruous to consider the
Jewish lawgiver , ( as Mr . B . does con * sider him , ) as having delivered the sublimes t truths of natural religion , with a simplicity and majesty unrivalled amidst the productions of the human mind , and at the same breath
to charge him with vulgar errors * which , if true , sink him below the level of common sense . Whoever is acquainted with ancient eamf ^ sitions , must be aware , that to uadaratand them ia many parts it is neee&sarjf to know * the circumstance
of their respective authors ; and t& investigate the opinions aad practices to which they allude and on which they are grounded , k the principal obfeet of enjigjbtened criticism . It is not easy to find a passage more illustrative of the truth of tctis assertion ,
than tha following words * of Moses : " And he made the stars , ** From this Mr . B . takes occasion to say , that " the stars he ( Moses ) regarded as ornamental spangles , the formation an * collocation of which wadlkardly worthy of hia notice / ' I wonder , that as Mr
Bl makes Moses to suppose that tile ntmameat was a solid arch , st ^ poi ing the waters above , hedidooirp | ceed a step farther , and make iiim duppose theai to be iff ^ d ^ nwgmg frwn the leivest spr ^ trf the celcs
ing hakde , ftwn their gweat MeratiQi ^ to fi » 5 e « e and to reflectr tiie fartre of tite > : sna which stltt sMne » « m » tb ^ nt ttow ^ t ^ sit with vej ^ inrd ton * . TW » wottw make the system palmed oil the hiitdria ^ of cffeanioa xutifobm * n& it&litmf * waft tlM * u £ kv from it * tari ^
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Men Dmmd $ fc tk * -M < meie H&t&y qf the € * h < ition . &p
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vol . kvh . * „ a ik-.
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1822, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2509/page/33/
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