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miracles of the Supreme might be nullified by a combination of inferior powers . The impression produced by the most sublime displays of supernatural might , was weak and transient till a comparison of the true religion with a variety of superstitions , of a theocracy with every other mode of
government , changed the religious character of the Jewish people , by rendering unquestionable the strict unity and unrivalled supremacy of Jehovah . Such a comparison was made during the captivity , when the institutions of even the enlightened Persians were found to be mean , childish , and inconsistent , in contrast with the provisions of the Jewish law and the grandeur of its sanctions . The Israelites looked back to the records of their theocracy and saw all things in a new light . They beheld with astonishment intimations of celestial truth which had been unnoticed , manifestations of power which they had contemned , of beauty which they had disregarded , of glory to which they had been blind . With themselves rested the shame of their
ignorance , their caprice and ingratitude ; for the revelation had been sufficient . It was complete , but it had been misapprehended . The nation assembled as one man , and eagerly sought the wisdom they had so long undervalued . They listened from morning till mid-day ; their ears were attentive to the words of the law ; they stood up and responded Amen , Amen , to the ascriptions of the priest ; they bowed their heads and worshiped in a new spirit , and never afterwards apostatized . They had frequently deserted a national deity , insulted the Mightiest by a partial allegiance , and
even rebelled against the one God ; but , becoming fully aware of the peculiarity of their position and the superiority of their privileges , they believed in Jehovah with the heart and the understanding , and believed in him for ever . Due weight was now ascribed to the miracles which had been beheld , and the prophecies which had been accomplished . The faith which it was their object to generate was now established . Their exhibition was less and less frequent , till at length it ceased , its moral purposes having been completely answered .
Though the establishment of faith was the principal object in the exhibition of miraculous power , another important purpose was also fulfilled . The minds- of the people were not only enlarged by loftier conceptions of duty , and the immediate consequences of a regard to it , but their attention was fixed on distant objects—on objects more and more distant as the scheme of revelation was more fully developed . Such an extension of views is a
necessary consequence of the exhibition of prophecy , in individuals , if not in nations . It may be traced from the very beginning of the Jewish dispensation . Abraham was superior to the greater number of his descendants because his conduct was governed by higher and more various motives . He was swayed not only by hopes and fears respecting the present , but by the insight into futurity with which it was his honour and privilege to be favoured . While gifted with great wealth , and surrounded by his innumerable flocks and herds , he built an altar to the Lord and called upon his name , as
m . his posterity did in the infancy of the national mind : but he was also influenced to a higher obedience by a loftier motive : he left his country and his kindred on the promise that the whole earth should be blessed in his seed ; he prepared to resign his best possession , in the belief that his posterity should outnumber the stars . Promises so vast were not afforded to the Israelites on their deliverance from Egypt , nor for long afterwards , as it did not consist with the Divine purposes to raise them at once to such a degree of maturity of mind as had been wrought in their progenitor ; but from the beginning of the Mosaic administration , we may observe how the popular
Untitled Article
370 The Education of the Human Race ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/10/
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