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been to them as their God, and they have been his people. It also follows, that the Christian Gentiles, being corrupters of the doctrine of the pure unity, and worshippers of a deceiver or enthusiast, God has never stood in a covenant relation towards them, and they have never been his people. Having thus seen what is the opinion of David Levi, and the consequences of his opinion, I shall proceed to examine how far it is agreeable to the Hebrew Scriptures.

In a preceding chapter, various passages were quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures, to show that the cause of the Jews being led into their present long and dreadful captivity, was their having grievously sinned against the Lord their God. I shall now bring forward such passages as seem most directly to bear upon the question, i. e. whether the Jews have, during their long captivity, been the true worshippers of God? And here I would premise, that, to worship God, to serve God, to seek, or to obey, or love, or knów God, are all terms,

which, in the Scripture language, are nearly synonymous: at least, any one of these actions or affections certainly implies, in itself, all the rest; and, on the other hand, the negation of any one of them implies the absence of all.

Moses prophesied as follows, in Deuter. xxx. And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call (them) to mind among all 'the nations whither the Lord thy God hath 'driven thee; and shalt return unto the Lord

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thy God, and shalt obey his voice, accord

ing to all that I command thee this day, 'thou, and thy children, with all thy heart,

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and with all thy soul, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, &c.' (ver. 6.) And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy

heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the

'Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy

soul, that thou mayest live.'

The inference I draw from the above passage,

is this: as the restoration of the children of

Israel from their long and dreadful captivity, is to take place as soon as they return unto the Lord their God, and not before, it follows, that, during this captivity, they have been afar off from God; for a people that is already near to God, cannot be called upon to return to him. Now, to be afar off from God necessarily includes in it the absence of his true fear, and love, and worship, from the heart of those who are thus afar off. Therefore, as the Jews have been, during their long captivity, and still are, afar off from God, it follows that they have not, and do not, truly love and worship him; and, consequently, they do not know him. And hence we may see the suitableness to their present condition, of the promise contained in Hosea ii. 20, that the children of Israel shall, upon their return from captivity, "know the Lord. '

From this we may also see the absurdity of the reasoning of David Levi, in Vol. I. page 32, of his Dissertations; for he there represents one party among the Jews as having con

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"stantly adhered to the true faith," and always continued in the covenant; and yet he says that this party of true worshippers are, at the period of their restoration, to return to God by a sincere repentance in a public manner! But if they have always adhered to the true faith, and to the covenant, then they have always been near to God; and there can be no need of a public and solemn returning to God, such as is necessary for those who have apostatized. According to Levi, the Christian nations, among whom these Jews dwell, have corrupted the doctrine of the pure unity of the Godhead; and the Jews are witnesses and martyrs for this true doctrine. Now, if Levi were right in this opinion, we certainly might have expected that the restoration of the Jews to their own land would have been promised to them, not upon their returning to God, (for, on this hypothesis, they have never departed from God,) but as a reward for their long and faithful adherence to the worship and the covenant of God, in the midst of the

most trying, and adverse circumstances. The language of Moses is, therefore, quite inconsistent with the scheme of David Levi; for, by promising their restoration upon their return to God, it supposes that they have departed from God, and from his covenant.

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There is a passage in the xxviii. of Deuteronomy, the 28th and 29th verses, which is no less inconsistent with Levi's scheme. It is as follows: The Lord shall smite thee "with madness, and blindness, and astonish'ment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness.' This is one of the judgments denounced against the children of Israel for their disobedience; and the only question which arises in considering the passage, is, What is the nature of the blindness here threatened?

The following is Levi's explanation of the blindness mentioned in the first clause of Isaiah xxxv. 5, Then shall the eyes of the 'blind be opened." "In this figurative lan

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guage," (says Levi,) "the prophet, in a most

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