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Untitled Article
first , its magnitude , and afterwards its illimitable nature . Revelation having been employed in accelerating the progress of reason , was now , m its turn , enlightened by reason , while it was still used as a means of further improvement . We nowhere learn that the strict unity of Jehovah was made an express object of revelation previous to the appointment of the Jaw ; but materials were , from the first , offered to the reasoning power from which
this great truth might be and was inferred . This reciprocal influence , characteristic of the entire scheme of providence , and of each individual dispensation , was productive of the most important consequences in the present instance . The conceptions of the worshipers of Jehovah were enlarged , corrected , and ennobled . A new light was cast on the records of their history , and on the purpose of their separation from the rest of mankind . The existence of a divine moral government , which had been perceived long before , was now more justly apprehended , and understood in a larger sense .
The unity of the Moral Governor is clearly essential to the perfection of his government . If he be not supreme governor , his administration must be weak in some point or another ; if he be not sole governor , it must be inconsistent . While his power is supposed to be limited or divided , the confidence of his subjects will be partial and wavering . While , therefore , it is generally and justly supposed that the Jews were rendered a peculiar
people for the purpose of preserving and spreading in the world the knowledge of the Divine unity , it should be remembered that this great truth is itself made subservient to an ulterior object , —the exhibition of a divine moral government . A fundamental doctrine is useless till something is built upon it , and the conviction of the unity of the Godhead derives its sole value from the inferences which may he deduced from it . It is because these inferences are all-important , that the truth is of surpassing value .
The exhibition of a moral government had immediately followed , as a necessary consequence , the revelation of the attributes of Deity , or rather it accompanied that revelation , for the two objects are so closely connected that it is almost impossible to separate them . Those attributes were displayed in the administration of the government , and the provisions of the government were explained by a reference to the Divine attributes . The one attribute
of Deity which led to the conviction of his strict unity was power , and this belief in his unity , —the perception that good and evil , threats and promises , wrath and mercy , proceeded from the same ruler of human affairs—generated that union of love and fear which renders men the subjects of a moral government . Thus the knowledge of God's nature and providence were acquired together .
In the first stages of moral discipline , before the faculties of comparison and inference are developed , the mind must be governed by absolute and direct precepts , and not by general principles . We give a particular command to a child , where we should propose a general principle to an adult . Therefore , as the subjects of the Mosaic administration were infants in mind , a precise ritual was ordained as the object and test of their obedience . Such
moral instructions as could not be embodied in an external ritual were yet connected with it by the penalties to which the disobedient were sentenced . Reason had not yet advanced so far as to be capable of forming a rule or even a clear conception of duty , and it was therefore assisted by the imposition of a law which could not be essentially misunderstood or perverted . The law was made efficient for this purpose by sanctions peculiarly adapted to the condition of the Jewish people . As they had not attained sufficient
Untitled Article
804 . Education rfthc Human Rue * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 304, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/16/
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