On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
lected an Israelite ; but , tearing him early from his rude people , procured for him the advantages of Egyptian learning ; and thus a Hebrew , with an Egyptian education , became the instrument by which this nation escaned from bondage .
After having related the exposure and preservation of the infant Moses , the author continues : A second time the mother received her son , and now dared to bring him up publicly and without peril ; thu 3
he learned the language of his nation , and became acquainted with her customs , whilst his mother probably did not fail to engrave on his tender soul a truly moving image of the universal wretchedness . When he had attained
those years in which a mother ' s fostering care was no longer needful , and when it became necessary to separate him from the common destiny of his people , his parent restored him to the
princess , and to her committed the future fate of the boy ; the ( laughter of Pharaoh adopted him , and named him Moses , because he had been saved from the water .
Thus , from being the child of a slave and the destined sacrifice to death , he became the son of a princess , and , as such , participated in all the advantages enjoyed by royal children . The priests , to whose order he belonged on being incorporated in the kingly family , now undertook bis education , and instructed him in the whole circle
of Egyptian lore , the exclusive privilege of their profession ; yes , it is probable that they withheld none of their secrets from him , since a passage of the Egyptian historian Manet ho , in
which he describes Moses as an apostate from his religion , and a runaway priest of Heliopolis , leads us to suppose that he was destined for the priestly station .
In order , therefore , to determine what Moses must have acquired in this school , and what share the education he received among the priests had in ins subsequent conduct as a legislator , we must enter on a closer
examination of this institution , and hear the testimony of old writers on what was there taught and implanted . The Apostle Stephen declares him to have been " skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians : " the historian Philo says , that Moses was initiated by the
Untitled Article
priests in the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics , as also in the mysteries of the sacred animals . This testimony many confirm ; and on casting a glance over what are called Egyptian mysteries , and the subsequent acts and ordinances of Moses , a striking similarity will appear .
The religion of the ancients ( as it is well known ) soon passed into idolatry and superstition ; and even with those very nations , named by Scripture as the worshipers of the true God , the ideas of the highest Being
were neither pure nor noble , and founded on nothing less than a clear and rational judgment ; but as soon as , through a better arrangement of civil society , and the formation of established states , classes were separated .
and the care of divine matters became the business of a particular station ; as soon as , in this freedom from all distracting cares , the human mind enjoyed leisure to surrender itself
wholly to the consideration of itself and of nature ; as soon , finally , as clearer glimpses were obtained of the physical oeconomy of nature , reason of necessity triumphed over every gross error , and the conception of the Highest was ennobled . The idea of an
universal dependence of things must unquestionably lead to that of one Supreme Mind ; and where should this idea rather germinate than in the head of a priest ? As Egypt was the first cultivated state known to history , and
the most ancient mysteries are delivered originally from thence , so was It here , ia all probability , that the first idea of the Unity of the Highest was conceived by the human intellect . The fortunate discoverer of this
soulelevating idea , now sought , amongst those by whom he was surrounded , fit subjects to whom he could confide the precious treasure y and thus was it handed down from one thinker to
another , through I know not how many generations , until at length it became the property of an entire little society , worthy of comprehending , cultivating and diffusing it .
But as a certain measure of knowledge and refinement of understanding was required rightly to grasp and apply the idea of one God , and as a be-Jief in the Divine Unity must be accompanied by a contempt for the Polytheism which was the prevailing
Untitled Article
The Mosiae Mission . 197
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1825, page 197, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2535/page/5/
-