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extreme , and have exposed revelation and its advocates to die scoffs of un-]> elievers . It would be far better to crive up the point as untenable . The author , as we have seen , is right in liiq theology , but erroneous in his
philosop hy" And that Mr . Belsham is not satisfied with Mr . Frend ' s able reply to his objections , I perceive by his reply . Without having the least pretence to the learning or acquirements of either of those gentlemen , I
hope it will not be considered as presumption on my part to attempt investigating the truth of this opinion of Mr . B . ; an opinion which , on my mind , if established , would have very important results as to the truth of a revealed religion .
Moses appears to me to have been raised up by the providence of God , to preserve the knowledge of and reverence to the Universal Creator , that , in the light of the nation of Israel , all nations might see the folly and wickedness of worshiping the creature instead of the Creator . If , therefore ,
Mr . Belsham could establish the truth of the above proposition concerning the philosophy of Moses , I should think that I had strong grounds for doubting the truth of his theology .
The lirst objection of Mr . Belsham to the philosophy of Moses appears to be , that Moses believed that light might exist in the absence of the sun ; and every smuggler believes this with iMoses : for if he has a choice of
weather for his deed of darkness , he chooses a night when the moon is absent and the wind blows , the agitation of the aerial fluid in the absence of the solar light or its reflection from the lunar orb , giving as much as he
wants to perform his deeds , without being sufficient to make his occupation dangerous . Mr . Frend has well reasoned this point , and it would have been well for the defence of his proposition had Mr . B . replied to him .
But Mr . Belsham has , before he r establish his proposition , first to prove that Moses says any thing about tlie creation of the light , or the sun , as it respects the order of time in which either was created . I do not
bonder at a careless reader supposing that he has , but I do wonder at Mr . "elsham having any such idea . Prejudiced men , cabalists , as Mr . B . calls th «" , such as Mr . Hutchinson , Mr .
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Parkhurst , &c . &c . > persoti 8 who sttppose that when the l 5 eity is , in Gen . il , represented as creating the world , that he not only formed tbfe world , but formed it out of nothing , —that they should so believe is not dtirpri&ing , but
that Mr . Belsham should so believe is , at least to me , a mattef of great surprise . If Ovid ever read the Book of Genesis , as every one who reads the first book of his Metamorphoses will think he had , he did not so read the language of Moses , for he says ,
* While yet not earth nor sea their plac possest . Nor that cerulean canopy which hangs Ov ershadowing all , each undistinguish'd lay , And one dead form all nature ' s features bore , — Unshapely , rude , and chaos justly nam'd . "
The word * O ! l , to create , no where signifies to form something out of nothing , but to form that which before existed , into something more perfect and beautiful than it was before . Thus God is said to create man from
the dust of the earth ; to create the family of Israel into a nation ; to create the desolated Jerusalem into a glorious city , the joy of the earth . When , therefore , Moses says , that
' * in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth , " he does not say more than that in bringing into being the present order of terrestial
nature , " in the first place , or at first /* for it may justly be rendered either way , " God formed the earth and its atmosphere . " The second verse proves this to be no forced construction of the passage , and that Moses from the beginning to
the end of this chapter , was only describing the creation of the earth , and of the celestial orrery of which it forms a part . He says , " The earth was chaotic and hollow , and stagnation on the face of the deep , " or , in the language of Ovid ,
" Together struggling laid , each element Confusion strange begat . Sol had wot yet WhirFd thro' the blue expanse his burning car ; Nor Luna lighted yet her burning lamp , Nor fed with waning light her borrow ed
rays , I have a better opinion of Mr . Belsham ' s candour than to suppose that , for the sake of supporting an opinion
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Mr . Teuton * n ike Mosaic History of the Oreatim * 331
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/39/
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