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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
Instruction , probably at the new moons and on the sabbath-day , which some have thought , as a day of rest , was instituted in Paradise . We find , soon after , that " Enoch was translated without seeing death : " and Jude
informs us , that he " prophesied" and preached to the people . Whether the sacred writer here refers to a genuine document or to an apocryphal writing , the book itself existed long before Christianity , and the quotation proves that Enoch , or the author of the book ,
( which is all one in this case , ) believed " in the unity of God , and his natural and moral perfections , the essential difference of moral good and evil , and a day of future , impartial retribution . " " Behold the Lord eometh
with his holy myriads . " * Noah ^ likewise , " was a preacher of righteousness while the ark was preparing . " In the frequent supernatural revelations with which Abraham was
favoured , ( called , in Scripture language , which is never to be taken literally , * ' talking with God , and seeing God , " ) among other tokens and assurances of the Divine regard , it was announced , that " all the nations of the earth
should be blessed in him . " Melchiaedech " was a priest of the Most High God / ' which , in the primitive sense , conveys an idea of every thing excellent and sublime , awful and alluring ! " How charming , upon a primitive mountain , beneath the shade
of a venerable grove , the voice of a Melehisedeck , the father , the friend and priest of his people , publishing good tidings of salvation ; and then , with holy hands , calling upon the name of the JLord , the everlasting God ! "t Although " the law came by Moses , " both the moral and the ceremonial , enforced by additional divine sanctions ; yet , in reality , Moses
preached and taught something beyond the law : he taught the essential goodness and placability of the Deity , ascertained by the symbol of sacrifices , and the promise of a mediator and restorer , like unto himself . Prophets and seers , in succeeding ages of the church , were all " preachers of * Robinson ' * Notes on Claude , Prof , t I hid .
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righteousness / ' in opposition to the errors and superstitions of the sur rounding nations , and to the false pro " phets , the blind leaders and visionary enthusiasts of their own land the pastors that " destroyed and scattered the sheep , " instead of nourishing and
sustaining them . After the Mosaic law was committed to writing , it became the standard of sound doctrine . In the course of time , synagogues were erected and " in the days of our Saviour , public preaching was universal ; synagogues
were multiplied ; there were thirteen at Tiberias , and at Jerusalem , they say , four hundred ; including , perhaps , the proseuchas , or small places for private prayer . We have onl y short memoirs , analyses or abrid gments of the primitive sermons , which were , doubtless , delivered more at
large ; but what is recorded is sufficient to prove , that they taught the primitive truths of natural and of the then revealed religion , which included the necessity of repentance , of devotion and conformity to God , and the doctrine of a future Redeemer and Restorer . " *
Now supposing that there is do record in the Pentateuch sufficiently explicit to prove , that the doctrine of a future state constituted a part of the public instructions of the patriarchs , of the
or law of Moses , as it was proclaimed amidst the lightnings and thunders of Sinai ; yet , is not the probability on the other side of the question ? Were not the mysterious promises to Adam and to the . father of the
faithful , to Moses and to the succeeding prophets , indicative , to their minds , at least , of something greater and better than mere earthly power and dominion , prosperity and glory ? What were pardon of sin , conformity to ( iod , and a . sense of his favour , if the effects of them were to terminate with
the present state , and be finally lost in the land of darkness and forgetfalness ? What did the sacred historian intend by his favourite phrase , that the primitive saints " were gathered to their fathers" ? Did he mean only , that their ashes should be ming led together ? Was this the ultimate hope * Robinson ' s Notes on Claud *? , ?***•
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142 Relief of the Patriarchs and Israelites in a Future State .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 142, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/14/
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