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sreat ability and suceess , and to the promotion and practical influences of which , the arduous work in which he has so laudably , engaged promises upon the whole to be eminently conducive . , m But in exonerating this narrative , or rather allegory , Trojii ' fche char < je of imputing dialTdUcaliip ' oss es ^ ion . to the serpent , he surely ^ ads it with a stil f more palpable l ^ dlt y 5 it Jbeing easier to imag ine , that" therf , might be an invisible influence frorn ah evil
spirit , than to believe tli ^ t an animal , which originally walked erect , and was by nature endowed with Reason and speech , was , in consequence of one criminal act , " deprived of feet / ' and reduced to the condition of a mere reptile in all respects , his whole progeny being involved in the same fate . To adopt such an interpretation is but
adding to the difficulties attending the literal sense of a passage , which can be rendered credible only in the form of allegory . It is the more extraordinary that Mr . W . should attribute such a doctrine to the author of this account , when he very justly rescues him from the imputation of representing any prodigious or very great
change , either intellectual , moral or physical , as being wrought in our first parents on this occasion . The act of partaking- the forbidden fruit , lie observes , ' * was simply an indication that man had not virtue enough to resist the temptation /* so that " he
must have been equally guilty in the S 1 ght of his Judge , had some miraculous interference prevented the commission of it . ' r Now , if the dialogue between the Serpent and the woman » e considered as nothing '" mare than a fi prativc description or * the workings ° » her mind , it furnishes very reason-™}* grounds for thd conclusion Mr .
u - deduces ; but if a literal conversation of our primitive mother witfh a feature of Superior sdbtlety and intelligenc e wcpc nfcunt ., the case would iC i materially altered . His artifices UKl
j ( persuasions might reasonably be xpected to surest ideas and motives ei different from any that would wve occ urred to her , had no such ¦ ^ ordinary seductions been em-L ° . is plain , that in the note iVJ
u * ° » r . W . is reasoning entirely in the supposition that the narramereiy conveys an idea of the
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moral frailty of the primitive pair , and not of their having been misled by so subtle a deceiver , as might juatly be expected in a creature walking erect , and endowed with reason and speech , so artfully accosting the mother of mankind in aU , ner original simplicity . But whence did he derive the former conclusion , but from , the circumstances of the narration .
Cimperceptibly tp | ilfi ) self , p # rhags , ) conveying to him an ide ^ i , t ^ at t ^ e dialqgue was aji ^ oi ] ical , repitpsentingthe secref ; operations , of the mind , just as , I douM . , ? uW 5 t beWs opinion and
or the dialogue whic ( h isvdescribed between the L j or ^ |^ sus Satan , " that old s ^ rs peiit !' in the wilderness ? In both cases certain mental operations are represented under the simile of a dialogue , and there is , perhaps , a general moral intended in each of them . Our primitive mother , allured by the low pleasures of taste , and
captivated by a fond imagination , is easily induced to violate an express command of her Creator , though surrounded by the productions of his beneficence , which she was at free liberty to partake . Our great Exemplar , on the other hand , by the energies of a matured understanding well exercised in the Scriptures which
were then extant , is enabled with ease and dignity to triumph over the most powerful temptations tha ^ could be presented by the joint influences of want , vanity an < J wofl < JIy ambition . In both cases , moral phenomena are represented by symbols taken from the natural creation : the design .
Drobably , being not merely to represent the temptations by * ypc £ tUejse distinguished individuals were respectively exercised , but to convey a general idea of the state -and destination of the human species ,, m th 6 liifanv ^ apa matur ity of * tlferriutellec ^ ual au < J mpral progress ' ., I'his appc ^ aW fhe more probable , as tlxey were s ( pera | ty Jpllowcd bv Senegal resmis o ^ ilie greatest gf
miportaade ;—the deamqueit ^ y our first parents , by the sentence to the ills of mortality coiiimoii to mankind ; and the fidelity of Jesus , by the promises and evidences <> f a universal revival . But if it be supposed that in cither or both of these cases , some bein tf of extraordinary subtlety and address , whether of the visible or the invisible world , was enjmtfed , for the
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Tltree first Chapters in Genesis . 207
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/15/
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