This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811 Excerpt: ...I am certain that no mistakes have been made by me, with the intention of misleading my readers. I fairly confess, that I consider the style of the Old Testament to be altogether figurative; and it seems to me not a little strange, that Christians should think it necessary to insist upon literal interpretations with ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811 Excerpt: ...I am certain that no mistakes have been made by me, with the intention of misleading my readers. I fairly confess, that I consider the style of the Old Testament to be altogether figurative; and it seems to me not a little strange, that Christians should think it necessary to insist upon literal interpretations with the same zeal as if they were Jews. It may satisfy the vanity of the Jews to make it be believed, that the Deity actually abode in the Tabernacle, or Temple, which their ancestors constructed for his residence; but I do not see why Christians should think themselves obliged to maintain so monstrous a proposition. When the Christian looks into the Hebrew Bible for the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, he does not hesitate to throw aside the shackles which the Jews would impose on him; and he finds abundance of types illustrative of the truths, for which he is seeking. But this is to admit, that the Hebrew Bible is a typical book; and if it be so, why should we not reason freely concerning what may be true, and what may be typical? When we meet with passages, that either are, or seem to be, irreconcilable to reason, why should we not exercise reason, in examining whether the author be speaking symbolically, or not? When Isaiah, for example, describes his vision of God in the temple, it seems, to me at least, that he spoke typically. Let us suppose the temple to be the type of the universe, and then surely the vision of Isaiah will appear in a very different light from what it must do, if the Jewish place of worship were literally meant. We know that wings were the hieroglyphic, by which the Egyptians expressed spirit and intellect; and that a serpent was the symbol by which they denoted the revolutions of the stars. Now Seraphim signifies serpen...
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