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of his works . —If , " he proceeds , " this paragraph were to be taken absolutely and without restriction as a key to the other parts , our inquiry would be answered ; and it would be summarily decided that all those other attributives are nothing but personifications and allegories , thus variously and fancifully representing the single idea of the original and eternal plan or design of the Infinite Intelligence . "—Script . Test . Vol . I . p . 595 , 2 nd ed .
Such has , in fact , been the decision of some of the ablest men who have applied themselves to the subject—of Basnage , Souverain , Nye , and , above all , of Mosheim , * not now to mention others . What then is the argument by which Dr . S . attempts to resist this conclusion ? *' This hypothesis / 5 he says , ** would involve the charge on the writer before Us of an extravagance and luxuriance of imagination and diction , which might challenge all parallel among authors having the smallest pretensions to
sobriety of thought . —But Philo was no such preposterous writer . Unjustifiable and of injurious tendency as is his favourite principle of interpretation , that principle may be traced to the ambition of moulding- revealed theology according to his system of philosoph y * It is , likewise , observable that his doctrine concerning the word is , in a great measure , conveyed in the form of interpretations of the supposed allegories of Scripture : and those interpretations are professedly given as the literal meaning of the allegories . But no sane writer could give interpretations of alleged enigmas in terms equally enigmatical with the things to be interpreted , or even more so . "—Ibid , p 596 , 2 nd ed .
" We cannot say what may be the value of Philo ^ s pretensions to sobriety of thought , but we have quoted at length a passage in which he represents the six cities of refuge as really meaning the Divine Logos and five other divine attributes ; yet we have also quoted his own declaration , that neither this divine logos nor these attributes are in any strict sense distinct from God himself , or have any existence but as properties of bis nature . Perhaps to those who consider the distinction be draws between popular and
philosophical modes of speaking on the subject , and wfco call to mind the extravagancies and inconsistencies with which his allegories abound , there may not appear any thing very wonderful in what Dr . S . regards as impossible ; at all events , the fact is before us . In accommodation to a favourite system of philosophy , and under the idea that the doctrine of the pure and simple unity of God could only be comprehended by the most refined and contemplative minds , Philo habitually attributed to certain qualities and energies of the
Divine nature a sort of figurative personality , and never scrupled in forming his allegories to speak of them as , in a certain sense , distinct ; but we must take his own explanation of what he really meant by this language , from which we learn that the word , the creative , and other powers , stand in much the same relation to the Divine Mind , that thoughts and volitions do to the human mind .
The reason given by Dr . S . for identifying the logos of Philo with the Messiah , that " otherwise it must be admitted that this writer has made no mention of the Messiah at all , " is most extraordinary , the want of other notices than can be imagined to be conveyed by his use of this term being , in fact , a sufficient proof that he either was not much impressed with the hope of his countrymen , or had some reason for avoiding its introduction in his phihraophical allegories .
# The learned reader will immediately perceive how much we are indebted to the note of this distinguished man on the opinions of Philo , in his edition of Cud worth ' s Intellectual System .
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468 Dr . J . P . Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 468, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/36/
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