8 Aug 1815 A

Jug True

I. Prolegom

Summary

 Make a catalogue of the passages which at present are inexplicable but by this interpretation will be explained

Ex. gr. 1. Lord’s Prayer power and glory 2. Strait Gate— many who seek to enter shall not be able [Luke 13: 24.]

Temporal was the kingdom announced in all the prophecies. At the outset and for a long time afterwards temporal and none other was the kingdom announced by Jesus. At length, as progress lingered, hope slackened, fear predominated and the prospect of the issue MS orig. ‘fate’. which there as every time at that time as at all times, law and government has provided for such enterprizes grew more and more vivid, an interpretation of refuge was provided the idea of spirituality was raised up to save as far as it could be saved the reputation of a sinking cause—a cloud of ambiguity was thus exposed, the kingdom had two sides a temporal or spiritual one, held up to view, the one or the other, or to different persons the same time according to the occasion till at length when the temporal kingdom had expired, with the expiring king, and evaporated upon the cross, what remained was the spiritual kingdom alone—the spiritual kingdom alone in all its spirituality and all its purity.

Suffer yourself to admitt this conception— forbear if possible to shut against it an inexorable door—Old or New, which ever be the Testament—every thing you read will be plain, clear and natural—free from every kind of difficulty. Compel yourself instead of this temporal kingdom to understand a spiritual one—clouds gather over the whole, every word swarms with difficulties—and every difficulty is insurmountable.

How forced so ever were in many instances the interpretations it gave birth to—the device was in the state of things which gave birth to it a natural one, and it was the only one that the nature of the case admitted of. Unexperienced, uncultivated, and ignorant, full of imagination, the minds of the people were prone to superstition: Scanty and unmanageable figures upon figures were to their language a necessary resource. Imagination being strong, judgment and discernment weak, continually was the plan more confounded with the figuration. In every part of the field of morals and politics, discourse was throughout a Comedy of Errors: at every turn like two Amphitryons or two Sosias, Shakespeare’s play The Comedy of Errors contains two pairs of twins, Antipholus and Dromio. Bentham refers to the characters of Amphitryon (a Theban prince) and Sosia (his slave), whose shapes are assumed by Jupiter and Mercury in John Dryden’s play, Amphitryon, so that Jupiter may seduce Amphitryon’s wife, Alcmena. the plan and the figuration were mistaken for each other.

Kingdom: first temporal /[...?] [...?]/ purely temporal then between temporal and spiritual—after

death of Jesus purely spiritual.