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Untitled Article
attention was directed to objects not immediately present , how the future was linked with the present in the excitement of hope and fear . The promise of a land flawing with milk and honey was coupled with the hope of deliverance from the bondage of Egypt . A threat of punishment to the third and fourth generation was the sanction of the second commandment , while the promise of long life was the inducement to the observance of the
fourth . With the blessing in basket and store , in the fertility of the field and the abundance of the stall , is coupled the curse of distant captivity and protracted wanderings in a strange land . While Balaam pronounced that the tents of Israel were goodly , he declared that a sceptre should be raised in Israel , that a star should arise out of Jacob , before which the nations should bow down . The lustre of David ' s reign was in part derived from an anticipation of the glory which the Holy One of Israel should shed back on
his ancestor ; and the woes of the captivity were yet further embittered by the fear that the great national promise had been forfeited . The predictions of the inspired servants of God usually bore a relation to very distant as well as to approaching events ; and the grand object of the national hope , always steadfast , though at first vague , became more definite , not so much through the lapse of time , as by means of the more enlarged views of the expectants .
When sufficiently denned , this hope supplied the place of lower motives , and inspired a contempt of meaner desires , a disregard of present objects , an energy victorious over pain and fear , which testified that the 6 rst dispensation had answered the purpose of its Author , and that its subjects were now prepared for a wider range of spiritual objects , a higher rule of duty , a purer and more ample flow of the waters of life .
The enlargement of the comprehension of the human mind was thus promoted at once b y the gradual purification of religious doctrine , the gradual elevation of religious hope , the gradual improvement of religious obedience under the recognition of a divine moral government . The peculiarities of the forms in which prophecy was delivered have been the subject of as much study and interest as any thing connected with revelation ; but it has not been sufficiently observed that the other methods of
divine communication by language were equally remarkable . A prediction is compounded of obscurity and clearness . Some points in it are sufficiently obvious to fix the attention and excite expectation , while , as a whole , it is left in sufficient obscurity to occasion doubt and uncertainty up to the moment of its accomplishment . Its appropriation is decided at last by the explanation of one enigmatical expression or allusion , visually so hidden or so apparently trivial as to have escaped previous notice ; but subsequently
so apt , so decidedly appropriate , as to leave no doubt respecting the true explanation , or the design of the framer of the prediction . A prophecy may be plausibly interpreted beforehand by the light of reason ; but this light will shift upon a variety of objects as circumstances change , and as the time of accomplishment draws nigh , no two minds will agree in their expectations of the predicted events , or will be able to make all parts of the prophecy correspond with their interpretation . No sooner is it fulfilled , however ,
than the agreement of all minds is involuntary , for the conviction is irresistible . A strong light is cast on some clause not considered important enough to engage particular attention , or obscure enough to invite conjecture ; and now this disregarded expression affords a key to all the rest , and by its coincidence with an actual event , shames the most plausible speculations , puts to flight all conjecture , whether bold or -cautious , and impresses the same conviction on every mind . Such an enigmatical mode of cxpres-
Untitled Article
The Education of the Human Race . 371
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 371, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/11/
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