The Faith as Unfolded by Many Prophets; An Essay (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OF THE PROPHETS. When Eber again approached his friend, he found him meditating on what he had read. Havilah pointed to the portion of the Gospel of John where Jesus is declared to have told the Jews that he was sent to fulfil the covenant made with Abraham. The Jews were then, even as now, said he, slow of heart to believe what the prophets had spoken. Thus did Christ describe them, and thus have they ever been. See! they scoffed when the Christ spoke of Abraham as of one less favored than himself; and were ready to stone him, when he declared that Abraham saw his day, or knew that he should come. Yet they might have known as we know, that since there is One God, there is but one truth; and that to this truth, given in many forms, all the prophets of every age were sent to testify. 1 arnglad, replied Eber, that while we cannot agree whether or not Mohammed was one of these prophets, we are of one mind respecting the truth of God, and the purpose for which it has been so many times revealed. Six times, replied Havilah, has God spoken from heaven by his chief prophets; and each time has his eternal word been the same,though it was spoken in proportion as men could understand; as we should tell the same truth in one manner to my child this day, and in another when he shall be of mature age. Several times has God thus spoken, replied Eber; and each time more fully and plainly than the last; so that the Jews who cursed the Christ had no excuse for their blindness concerning him. But what were the six dispensations? Havilah replied, When Adam was formed from the dust of the ground, and became alive, who should tell him whence he came but He who brought him forth from nothing ? At first the angels only gazed on him from afar, and no living beings were beheld by him who...