ate passover cakes of flour and water, at first, from necessity; because they went out of Egypt in such a hurry, that they could not make common bread; and every year after, they were commanded to do this, on pain of death. If, therefore, there ever had been a period when this practice had not been known, it would have exposed the whole story to ridicule and contempt.

Now, I perceive by your looks, that you are racking your invention to find an answer, and devise a way to get out of this difficulty. Well, think onthe more you think, the better I like it. There is nothing of which I am so much afraid, as your talking without thinking, or turning away, and saying, "I will neither think nor care about the matter." The more you think, the more you will feel yourselves compelled to say, "I know not what to make of these cnnning Jews; they perfectly confound me. I shall be afraid to look them in the face, lest they should compel me to blush for my infidelity." But now the change in your looks, and your brightening countenance, seem to bespeak some new and bright thought, to help you out of your difficulty. Well, let us have it. You exclaim, with triumph, "If I should be obliged to admit that the existence of the Jews, with all their peculiarities, is a living witness to the truth of their religion, it is no proof of the truth of yours: if it proves the truth of the Old Testament, that does not include the New." Well, if I admit your reply, in all its extent, it includes a proof that Deism is false. You say, that God never gave any revelation to man, but has left

us all to the light of nature; and here you are compelled to admit, that there is a whole nation of living witnesses to the truth of a revelation from heaven. Never, therefore, must you utter another word against revelation, till you can tell what to make of the Jews.

But I have another word to say to you on this subject. If you cannot confront my witnesses, nor deny the divinity and truth of the Jews' religion, and of the Old Testament, in which it is contained, you must, for the love of truth and consistency, as an honest man, become a Jew, and worship the God of Abraham. Nay, do not laugh, nor exclaim, "What! I go to the synagogue! no, never." Why not? If you love truth, as you boast of doing, you will follow her wherever she may lead, even though it should be to the synagogue. Any truth, however humbling, is better than any error, however proud. To settle down into a firm belief of the Old Testament, is preferable to being tossed in everlasting scepticism. You will find it happier far, to let your mind repose in something that is true, as far as it goes, than to be tossed in the limbo of vanity--

Of all things transitory and vain,

Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd.

But, before I drive this nail as far as it will go, I would again intreat you to think a little more about the Jews. Did you ever see their Bible? It is in a very singular language, which is not now spoken in any country, or by any people under heaven. What is called Hebrew, as spoken by the

Jews, is a mere gibberish, composed of other languages, with a slight sprinkling of Hebrew words. Their Bible is the only book of pure Hebrew in existence. Is not this a singular fact? Here is a people that had the knowledge of letters, hundreds of years before the surrounding nations, and whose oldest history is a thousand years more ancient than that of Herodotus, the father of profane history, and yet the only monument of their literature in existence is that book, which they esteem divine. Does not this intimate, that they guarded it with especial care; so that it remains, when all their other books have perished? The language has all the marks of the simplicity of an original tongue; not derived from any other, as our English language is, from the Saxon and the Norman French, and as the Italian is from the Latin. The only living language which resembles it is the Arabic; and the Arabs are known to be a most ancient nation, which had a kindred origin with the Jews, to whom they were near neighbours. The most famous Arabic work, the Koran, of Mahomet, composed about six hundred years after the setting up of the Christian religion, admits the truth of the Jewish history, and confirms, while it perverts, all the great facts of Scripture. But if I could only persuade you honestly to follow truth, even though it should make you a Jew, I should then hope soon to make you a Christian too. For the sacred books of the Jews prove the religion of the Christians to be divine. You often shoot with a long bow, and speaking in the gross, without reflecting on particulars, assert

G

sacred books are The Jews would

that the whole Scriptures are inventions of the Christian priests. But, go, consult the Jews, and they will convince you that their not the invention of Christians. not read in their synagogues any thing that came from a follower of Jesus, whom they pronounce accursed. And they can prove to you, that their Scriptures were known and read in their synagogues, long before the Christian religion existed.

There is a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, called the Septuagint, or Seventy, from the supposition that it was the work of seventy translators. This is known to have existed before the New Testament was written; and as soon as the Christian religion was introduced into the Roman empire, the Septuagint was translated into Latin, that the Christians who spoke that tongue might have the benefit of reading it. Other translations of the Old Testament into ancient languages, that are now no where spoken, attest the high antiquity of the Jewish Scriptures, and prove superabundantly that they are no modern invention. The same fact is proved by the Samaritan Pentateuch.

Now the Jews, who bitterly hate the religion of Christ, and would more willingly invent things to prove it false than to prove it true, carry about with them, into all nations, the books which contain a complete demonstration of the Christian faith. These books show that they, from their earliest era, expected a great deliverer, whom they call Messiah, or the Anointed One. A slight inspection will show, that they had a right to expect such

a personage. They still expect him. This they call the hope of Israel. The Messiah was to come at a certain time; and we Christians can show that this time is now past; which is indeed so obvious, that it is confessed even by Jews. You ask, "How do they account for it, then?" They say, the time is deferred, on account of their sins; and Messiah delays his coming, till they shall be found worthy of receiving him. But, perhaps you say, "At that rate, he may never come, for we see no signs of any alteration in the Jews." Well, we Christians think that God did not defer the coming of the Messiah; but when "the fulness of the time was come, sent him forth, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us who were under the law." For Christians think, that Jesus Christ was the person promised. He came, at the time fixed for this event, before the sceptre of national dominion had passed away from the Jews, and as soon after the re-building of Jerusalem as Daniel had foretold. Jesus bore all the marks of the person promised. He was born in the Holy Land, as Isaiah had predicted, and in the very town of Bethlehem, from which Micah, hundreds of years before, said the deliverer should come. He descended from Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob and Judah and David and Solomon, the exact genealogical line marked out for him. He answered to the character which the prophets had given, though it was made up of features which would previously have been thought contradictory, and therefore impossible to be found in one person. He