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The apparent inappositeness of many of the passages cited from the Old Testament by the writers of the New , in such a manner as to lead to the general belief that they intended to represent them as predictions of the
events to which they were thus applied , has been the occasion of no small perplexity to theologians ; to those , more especially , who insist upon the plenary inspiration of these writers in the highest sense . The mystical interpretations , double senses , &c , to which they have had recourse in order to relieve themselves from the difficulties arising from this arbitrary and unfounded hypothesis , are among the most remarkable examples to be met
with of the perversion of scripture in order to make it speak a language conformable to the doctrines and speculations of fallible men . It seems , however , to be now pretty generally . agreed by all rational interpreters , that the greater part of these citations are to be regarded merely as accommodations or allusions , and by no means as implying that they were imagined by the writers who employed them to be in any sense of the word prophetical of the events or circumstances to which they are applied .
This view of the nature and intention of the quotations from the Old Testament enables us to clear away a considerable portion of the difficulty which otherwise overhangs this subject ; for example , we may avail ourselves of it to vindicate St . Paul from the charge of inconclusive reasoning which is brought against him in some instances from his alleged erroneous application of such passages . Thus in the third chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans , he cites a variety of expressions from different parts of the Jewish Scriptures which appear to have been intended to apply in some cases to particular individuals , real or supposed enemies to the writer or to Jehovah , or to the Jewish people ; in other cases to hostile nations ; in others , to the idolatrous and wicked among the Jews themselves ; in others , to wicked men in general . These expressions he employs to form a
description of the state of depravity to which the then present generation of the Jews were abandoned . But from its being taken for granted that he intends a direct appeal to the authority of the writers quoted , and that he is to be understood as taking the passages cited in their original and proper sense , his argument is thus represented by some learned commentators : " Your own writers give such a description of the wickedness of your nation in
their time as must necessarily lead to the conclusion that men of such a character had justly forfeited all the privileges of the Mosaic covenant . But you will not pretend that the Jews of the present day are better than their ancestors in the times of David and the prophets ; consequently they also have forfeited all their peculiar privileges , and can be received at present upon no better grounds than the despised and idolatrous heathens . "
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REMARKS ON THE CITATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT BY THE WRITERS OF THE NEW .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 699, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/47/
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