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No. CCXLII.] FEBRUARY, 1826. [Vol. XXL
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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.
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Observations on a Passage in the History of Naaman s Conversion . *
« —* c ' est une sorte de cas de conscience qu * il lui propose . " Lettres d $ quelques Juifs , &c . "— - his [ Naaman ' s ] whole behaviour , both before and after the cure of his
leprosy , shews him to have been very free from the esptit forty which scorns all religious offices ^ as marks of a weak understanding . " Findlay . SOME part of Naaman ' s language to Elislia , illustrates the case of conformity to worship that even the offerer pf it de $ m $ uhfcrifittcraL
This Synmi general , in the ardour of his gratitude ^ a ^ ntf untfer the natural influence of bis juster sentiments of religion , had been urging oh the man of God the acceptance of a present . Elisha , with the disinterestedness be ^
longing to his character , declined to receive any : yet Naaman was not the less earnest to give undoubted proof of his attachment to Jehovah , and asked for two mules' burden of the soil pf the land ' of Israel , with which
he designed to erect an altar 9 erroneously imagining that none other would . be pleasing iri the sight of the Being to whpm it was . to be consecrated , and who , henceforth , was to be the sole object of his religious ho « -
mage . , Here , nevertheless , a difficulty , before lint nought of , occurred to Naaman . He was a great man with his master , the king of Syria , whom he hud been in the habit of accompanying to an idol-temple . It would still be expected from him to attend the
monarch thither : on that spot , and in the act of his own worship , this prince would still lean on the hand of Naaman , who , together with him , would bow himself down in the house of Himmon ; + because , say some of the * 2 Kings v . 18 .
t Who this Syrian divinity was , appears uncertain : according to some ( Findlay , Vindication , &c , p . 122 , and Houbigant , iu Joe . ) the same with Jupiter Cassius ; according to others , ( see Le Clerc , in loc ., ) Saturn .
No. Ccxlii.] February, 1826. [Vol. Xxl
No . CCXLII . ] FEBRUARY , 1826 . [ Vol . XXL
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commentators , * the king could not well bow , if Nahman stood upright , and did not incline his body with his sovereign's . The explanation is doubtr ful : nor can I easily determine whether Naaman ' s posture was significant
of religious homage , or simply of civil obedience and duty . f Let the case be put as favourably as possible fox the new-born convert . One thing is certain : Naaman himself was appre ~ hensive that the action of whicji he
speaks might be cteeqoed at varia ^ ice with his r ^ cept ayowal of belief in Jehovah . Ther ^ fo ^ e he frankly states the matter to the prophet , an 4 solicits the permission and forgiveness wluch he considers himself as needing .
Naaman's compliance , however interpreted , will not justify any Cfiris-. tians in stated or occasional conformity to worship known by them ^ o be unacripturaU Christians possess religious advantages to which Naamaa was a
stranger : they have a written law before them , and see thp path of truth and duty in ail its length and breadth . The examples of Jesus , his evangelists and his apostles , are fully in , their sight : the precepts , to vvhich they
avowedly render pb ^ djence , . &re sanctioned by promises and threateijings the most fixed and solemn . Naaman , at the point of time that av £ $ re contemplating , was unacquainted with even the law of Moses . It was but at
this instant that he knew any thing concerning religious virtue , excepi from the light of nature ati ( J of reason . In 6 uch circumstances , how can his compliance , whether real ov seeming , with an idolatrous ceremony , bear upon the case of Christians , or justify , on their part , any similar compliances ?
# Bishop Patrick , in loc . + 2 Kings vii . 2 , 17 , would seem , to determine for its being an act of civil obedience and duty . But the phrase , or , at least , the custom to which the phrasq refers , is obscure .
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VOL . XXI . K
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/1/
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