On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
of Eastern imaginations . —And where , let me ask , did your correspondent obtain the novel information , that " the Jews who lived in the time when the Pentateuch was written ,
were not themselves deceived by the language of their sacred writers , " and that " it was left for Christians in the 19 th century to add to the Mosaic history miracle upon miracle" ? Let him read Psalm cv . and cvi ., and he will find that so early at least as the time of David these narratives were
understood according to their obvious meaning . What , indeed , was the ground of that inordinate spiritual pride for which the Jews were so remarkable , but the fond belief which
they cherished , that they were the favourite people of God , and that his partiality for them had been manifested by " signs" and " wonders " wrought in their behalf ?
With respect to those quotations from the prophecies of the Old Testament which so frequently meet us in the New , the doctrine of those who consider them as merely intended to shew a casual coincidence of
circumstances has always appeared to me no better than a miserable shift to get rid of an insurmountable difficulty . To every one not biassed by a system , the language used in these " quotations plainly imports that the passages quoted were bona fide predictions of the events to which they are applied . To say that the authors meant no such
thing , is not only to wrest plain language from its plain meaning , but to impute to them a solemn trifling altogether unworthy the historians of a divine revelation . Prophecy , I again contend , constitutes the very foundation of the Christian religion . It is
not a mere appendage which may be dispensed with , if found cumbersome , but the basis on which the whole safety of the superstructure depends : for it is not only referred to in a few passages here and there , but implied in the very nature of that office or
character in which Jesus is industriously bold forth in the New Testament . Whatever embarrass me nt , therefore , the subject may occasion , the ground of prophecy must not be deserted by those who would uphold the divine authority of the Christian religion . That your correspondent may no longer be at a loss in what ligbt to
Untitled Article
A " Long-Lost Truth . " Ljsttbr I . Str , Sept . 25 , 1825 . OIR ISAAC NEWTON somewhere
ij speaks of " a long-lost truth in religion . " This has been supposed to relate to the doctrine of the simple unity of the Deity ; a sentiment which it is believed he had espoused . But
there may be more * ' Iong-lo 9 t truths " in religion than one ; and if with regard to one of its grand and leading motives , the doctrine of Future Punishment , we may , from prejudice or
inadvertency , have adopted crude and indigested notions , it behoves us , in a case of such manifest importance , to examine ourselves and prove our own work , " both for our own sakes and
to enable us to withstand the attacks of scoffers and gainsayers in this sceptical and inquiring age . All sane and
serious persons agree that our reasoning faculties are to be employed in investigating the evidences of revelation , but there are many pious men doubtful as to the extent or application of this rule to some of its peculiar doctrines , and there are others
who directly oppose it . Reason , say they , is the handmaid to conduct us to the porch of the sacred temple , and then she is to retire : as though the Almighty had given us one lawin our minds and a contrary one in his
written word , furnished us with a great light on purpose that we should put it out , or required us to divest ourselves of reason , in order to be filled with faith . But where will they find this line of distinction in the Bible ?
Certainly our Lord never intended it , when he severely rebukes his disciples as " without understanding / ' and not
able " of themselves to judge what was right ; " nor St Paul when , treating" on the subject before us , he says , " We are made manifest to God , we trust also in your consciences . To this omission , as it should seen ) , is in a # reat measure owing the multiplicity of religious errors ' that hatn
Untitled Article
660 A " Long-Lost Truth :
Untitled Article
regard the querist , and avoid in future the additional inconsistency of rating me as a bigot in one sentence , while in the next he suspects me for an infidel , I beg leave to change my former signature for that of A CONSISTENT SCEPTIC .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 660, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/20/
-