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attributed to Satan , who is there spoken of as a voluntary , independent agent . That any evil spirit can controul the will of the Almighty , t ( iat evil entered into the world by means of such a malignant being , is a doctrine which cannot indeed be found by a diligent perusal of the sacred writings ; we must look for its origin somewhere else . Our author next considers the belief of the ancient Hebrews with re-SDect to the doctrine of the Trinity ! He very justly observes , that % i
1 a a " — in all investigations of this nature , we ought to confine our inquiries to the writings and religious usages of the Israelites themselves , as we find these recorded in the canonical books of Scripture , placing ourselves as nearly as possible on the very ground which they occupied at the particular period in which the history is to be examined . Many authors , neglecting this indispensable rule , have had no difficulty to discover in the creed of the Hebrews all the articles of the Christian faith ; and proceeding on the footing
which they have thus assumed , they interpret the writings of the earliest ages upon principles which were entirely unknown both to those who composed those writings and to those who were to read them . Others , again , have sought a . basis for the profoundest doctrines of our holy religion in the uncertain deductions of verbal criticism , drawing from the grammatical properties of a language which is no longer clearly understood , a system of belief which ought to have for its authority the plainest declarations of inspired truth . "
To this statement we can readily assent ; but we can hardly come to the same conclusions at which Dr . Russell afterwards arrives , that the Hebrews entertained the notion of a plurality of hypostases in the Godhead ; nor that the gospel supplied what is wanting to a distinct conception of the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity . Blow it can be apparent that what he calls the true doctrine relative to the Divine nature was known to the patriarchs and the inspired teachers under the law , we cannot well conceive . We may think it possible that the inspired Father of the Hebrew tribes , who predicted the
blessings to be poured on the world by the Prince of Peace , knew the relation in which the Deliverer stood to the Sovereign Ruler of the world ; but it is also at least possible , that he had not any idea of a Trinity in Unity in the Godhead , Nor can we readily accord with him , that if we confine our attention to the institutions of the religion established by Moses , and to the devotional exercises directed by his successors ' , we can find
intimation of a plurality of persons in the Divine nature . From the facts which Dr . Russell has adduced—the divine appearances to various individuals , the visit of the three angels to Abraham at Mam re , of two to Lot , of another to Jacob , of the captain of the Lord ' s Host to Joshua—we cannot see how the candid reader is to agree with Dr . AHix , that the Jews had grounds for acknowledging plurality in the Deity .
The next section of this chapter is devoted to an inquiry into the opinions of the ancient Hebrews with respect to the Immortality of the Soul . In the wilderness , and for a long time after their settlement in Canaan , they had no ideas of the future existence of the soul , connected with the expectation of reward or punishment . Whatever knowledge Moses might possess upon this subject , " the doctrine of immortality , and of reward and punishment
in the unseen world , was not employed by that inspired legislator as the sanction of his laws , nor as the motive of obedience to the government which he established , among the descendants of Jacob . " It was not till a period considerably later , that the doctrine of immortality was comprehended by the worshipers of Jehovah , nor for many centuries after the death of their 'divine legislator did they seek any other evidence that ( hey were under the special protection of Heaven , be $ ides abundance ih their harvests
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560 Review . —Russell ' s Sacred and Profane History .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 560, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/48/
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