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Untitled Article
I pensations of Divine Providence in support of religion fcrna a regular antf unbroken series . They are parts of one magnificent whole 9 which accurately correspond , tis they were wisely adapted , to each other . What wonder , then , if , in recording the earlier stages of the progress , there should be sometimes an explicit , but more frequently a tacit and implied , reference to the grand result ? Thus all Christians agree that the Mosaic system was
intended to prepare the way for the more complete and glorious revelation of the gospel * AH the circumstances attendant on the call of Abraham , the selection of a portion of his posterity to be a peculiar people * destined to preserve the knowledge of the true God , and to exhibit a pattern or specimen of his moral government of the world ; the multiplying of this family , till they were at length raised into a great and powerful nation ; and
all the details of the moral and ceremonial law which they were required to observe , appear to have had a reference to the final completion of the great plan of Providence , by the introduction , when the fulness of time was come , of the new and more excellent dispensation of Christ . This is , as it were , the consummation or full attainment of the great object , with a view to which all the former parts of the plan were admirably adapted , and which
is itself a wonderful display of the Divine Wisdom , of the unspeakable goodntess and mercy of God to sinful men , by communicating on the surest evidence knowledge of the noblest kind , relating to the character and perfections of God , and his will and intentions concerning roeo , fitted to pro * mote the religious and moral improvement of the human mind , and its preparation for another and more perfect scene of being , and thus to make
us wise unto salvation . Here we have an object proportioned in value and importance to the long and costly series of miracles , prophecies , and other express interpositions of Providence , by which it was at length established . This being the case , how can it be a subject of surprise , if we should find in the prophetical writings of the Old Testament frequent incidental
references to this final completion of trie great scheme—references , which it is not unnatural to expect to find occasionally introduced by slight and casual associations , so as frequently to present themselves in places where , to a critic who does not take this circumstance into the account , and who is besides not surBcieptl y accustomed to make the requisite allowance for the sudden and abrtipt transitions of Hebrew poetry , they may appear very remotely , if at all , connected with the main subjecU ff we pay due
attention to all these considerations , f think we may find ourselves prepared to admit , not only that the language of the prophetical writings is capable of being applied both to the temporal deliverances of the Jews from their state of political oppression , and to the spiritual deliverance of all mankindiTotn the more grievous thraldom of ignorance , superstition , and sin , but afeo thai the prophets themselves occasionally had both these objects in their view at the same time . If w « suppose , what we are surely authorized to suppose , that these inspired servants of G * od had the eyes of their under ^
Untitled Article
702 Remarks on tie Citations from the Old Testament .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 702, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/50/
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