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Untitled Article
simple faith was continually more clothed in imagery by hards and seers : The Divinity was shrouded in sensible forms , in mythologies , in religious usages , and in creations of the fine arts . Only in the mysteries of antiquity something of spirituality was preserved , but very defectively ; and through the confusion of the image and the spiritual conception , and the blending of all sorts of foreign representations , the primitive religious ideas were commonly
shaped into gross superstitions . With the advancement of intellect , these superstitions were no longer able to satisfy the people . They began to discover their absurdity and contradictions . They felt at the same time the emptiness of a merely animal existence , and the nothingness of all that is terrestrial . Moral corruption , which always accompanies alienation from God , followed rapidly . The mind was disquieted with doubt , or resigned to a comfortless unbelief , with a deep sense of mental wretchedness . Hence sprang an earnest , inward desire of deliverance , the wish for higher light ,
which should be sufficient to convince the understanding and satisfy the heart , to give an object and an end to human life worthy of the capacity of man . The sense of the need of redemption shewed itself in various ways , and this was one , that the Jewish faith , which declared an invisible God , obtained many proselytes among the Gentiles , although , having lost much of its original spirit and virtue , it had been fashioned into a mere slavery to the letter of a written law , and could no longer raise the affections of the heart but
through the hope of an approaching redemption . To desiring and expecting man the Eternal was pleased to reveal himself in truth and holiness by him who was his image , who was in God , and in whom God was , in whom the fulness of the Divine Spirit dwelt , and its fruits were gloriously displayed , eternal truth , moral purity , and heavenly love ; by him who is become the commencing point and living centre of a holy community , his universal church , in which his spirit , the spirit of God , quickens , enlightens , and sanctifies all its members , and raises them to a blessed , to a divine life . In the
institution of this holy community , which is denominated the kingdom of God , the high destiny of all its members , and of all mankind , was first plainly declared by Jesus Christ . Mankind were now assured of the end of human existence , the conviction was called into active life , and the promise and the proof were thus given , that the kingdom of God , founded by Christ , shall gradually unite all men into itself , and shall reach its final accomplishment . The more men felt the need of a moral redemption , the more gladly they received the word ; and in fact the seed grew in the different lands in which
it was scattered into a thousand germs , and after a few centuries the Greek and Roman paganism , with all its dazzling pomp , disappeared before the plain and simple religion of Jesus , —the religion of the spirit and the heart . Thus Christ is the great centre of the history of mankind . Through him , that of which antiquity had only weak glimpses in its mythology , or obscure conjectures in its mysteries , has been made plain ; through him , a creation
Iras been established in which the Divine Spirit conducts men to truth , virtue , and peace ; and through him , love is proclaimed as the sanctuary of the soul , the bond between God and man , the root of all that is great and good , as true virtue and blessedness . In hi on this love was displayed in a glory never before manifested , that proceeding from him it might flow through all the members of the new creation till the whole race of man shall be made a
holy temple consecrated 4 o God . What in modern times of the sublime and beautiful has been developed , has all come out from the bosom of Christianity . Science , arts , education , the domestic and public life , all the present social state , has grown up on Christian ground . This religion , the elements
Untitled Article
Letter * from Germany . 297
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 297, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/9/
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