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express purpose of deluding , F > y fallacious statements , the analogy ceases ; ndr do the effects produced by dialogues of so very extraordinary a nature , appear to furnish proper grounds for the general denunciations and promises which followed in the respective
cases . Is the existence of a speaking serpent " walking erect , " and afterwards * ' deprived of feet / ' more " clearly the doctrine of this chapter" than that of Satan or the devil assuming a visible shape and conversing with Jesus , is the doctrine of three of the
Evangelists ; or than that " he walketh up and down in the earth , " and " goeth about as a roaring lion , seeking whom he may devour , " is the doctrine of Peter and the author of the book of Job ? But since that " old serpent , which is also called the Devil and
Satan , " is identified , Rev . xii . 9 , with " the great red dragon , whose tail drew after it the third part of the stars of heaven ; " is it not clear , that these terms must all sustain the same symbolical character ? Mr . W ., indeed , appears to be influenced by the assertion of Josephus , " that at that period all animals partook of the gift of
speech with man , " &c . ; as expressing the general opinions of the Jews , and of the writer of the third chapter of Genesis in particular . But is a writer , whose credulity or desire of amusing his readers appears to have led him to record such puerilities as these , or that of the fruit of Sodom beinp- full
of ashes , —of a cow calving a lamb in the Temple , —of extracting demons from the nose , and the like , to be taken as the standard of the sentiments of an author who r $ recording the circumstances of an actual
interposition from God , of great importance to the general interests of the human species ? Dr . Laftiner \_ lVorkS i I . 488 ] has , with ' great reason and judgment , contH&te'd the ridiculous statements of J « jte < ephua' ¥ fespecting the
cure of demoniacs , wWh the simple but rational narratives of the Evangelists ; but the accounts which they give ot our Saviour's temptation resemble , in ma * iy particulars , that of our primitive mother , and is probably but the counterpart of it , or another act of the
same sfcenic representation . Taken literally , like all other symbols , they arc attended with insuperable difliculties ,
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but under the allegorical form of m ^ exposed to temptations , tkey g ^ susceptible of a very rational and instructive interpretation . Mr . W . has himself , in his Note on Gen . i . 26 , appealed to the vision of Micaiah , ( 1 Kings xxii . 1 $ —24 , ) as an
instance of the determinations of the Divine mind being * represented by the figure of * be » Deity sitting in council with an assembly of spirits . This pass&ge is , indeed , a remarkable case of the figurative use of visible imagery and dialogue , to convey a livel y idea of rneatal operations . Mr . W .
probably regards the dialogue of the Supreme Being with Satan ( Job i . 7—12 ) as of the same figurative descri ption as his dialogue with the evil spirit in Micaiah ' s vision ; and analogy requires that it should be of the same description , differing only with the nature and circumstances of the mind
to which it relates , in the case of the temptation of Jesus . Now that Satan and " the old serpent" are identified , appears not only from Rev . xii . 9 , but from Rom . xvi . 20 , and Luke x . \ $ , 12 ; and hence it follows , that the dialogue between Eve and the serpent is in like manner descriptive of the operations of her mind , and that the wounds to be inflicted on the serpent ' s head are of the same figurative nature , kTJ as those of which Christ and his apostle
speak . The serpent must , upon this principle , represent temptation or moral evil , as the lying spirit in Micaiah ' s vision represents this propensity in Allah ' s pretended prophets . Upon this supposition the sentence passed upon it will be of unspeakable importance to the best interests of
markind , as well as far more credible m itself , and conducive to the glory ot the Creator , than that the venomous qualities of the serpent tribe , their power and disposition to injure mankind , " &c . are to be attributed to the part which the serpent took in leading Eve into the first tra « tSfifre ^ i (> n-
The manner in ** fiich the Apostle Paul personates sin , in the Epistle to the Romans , particularly chap , vn vers . 8—17 , so strongly rcsemD ^ and is such an evident allusion to tn - story of Eve and the serpent , th at furnishes a stroner confirmation or above interpretation . He represen ie
sin as " taking occasion . by ^ c ^ niaudmcnt to work all manner
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208 On M )\ TTsllbeloved ' s hiterpretatian fyc .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/16/
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