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peculiarly necessary, from the challenge which the author offers to the whole Christian world. I cannot help auguring well from this challenge. It shows that a spirit of inquiry has arisen among the Jews; and as candid and fair discussion is always favourable to the progress of Truth, they who believe the Christian revelation, will see new reasons from it to hope that the day is near at hand when the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and turn away iniquity from Jacob. How animating and encouraging is the hope, that the Day Spring from on high is at length about to re-visit that highly-honoured people, who are Israelites, to whom is the adoption, and the glory of the covenants, and the giving of the ' law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers; and of whom, as con'cerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, • God blessed for ever. Amen!'

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Whatever may be the feelings of infidels and men of the world towards the Jews, no true Christian can harbour towards them a cold or indifferent thought. He must regard them with

the tenderest and warmest affection, as his elder brethren in the church of God; and though now apparently cast off because of their unbelief, yet reserved to be the channels of new communications of grace and glory to a lost world. He will therefore hail with rapture the approach of that day, when ten men shall take hold out of 'all the languages of the nations, even shall take • hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that

God is with you.' (Zech. viii. 23.) Such, O highly-honoured and beloved children of Abraham, are the sentiments and feelings of the person who now takes the liberty of requesting your candid and patient attention to the following pages, in which he proposes to offer some concise remarks upon the reasoning of David Levi from prophecy, and to lay before you some of the evidences of the divine character and mission of Jesus.

It is of a controversial work, as of a building; if the foundation be weak or unsound, the superstructure must fall. Should it therefore be made

out, that the fundamental principle of David Levi's reasoning against Christianity from the Old Testament prophecies is unsupported by the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as contrary to the whole analogy of the divine government, or that it is a taking for granted the very question at issue between Jews and Christians, then the whole superstructure which he has raised on it must fall to the ground, and the Jews must have recourse to other arguments, to justify their continued rejection of Jesus, as the promised Messiah.

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Upon an attentive perusal of David Levi's work, it will be found that nearly his whole reasoning from prophecy against the divine mis

sion of Jesus, resolves itself into the following argument. "That since the glorious events "which are predicted by the Old Testament "prophets, as to take place in the times of the "Messiah, were neither accomplished by Jesus "during his abode upon earth, nor have been "brought to pass during the eighteen centuries "which have elapsed since his coming, there

"fore Jesus could not be the promised Messiah.” Now this argument itself rests upon the following principle, That the glory of the Messiah's kingdom upon earth was to take place immediately, or very speedily after his first appearance in this world.

I propose, in refutation of this principle, to show-That it is a taking for granted the very question at issue between the Jews and Christians-That it is contrary to the whole analogy of the Divine government of the world-That it is contrary to the express intimations of the Hebrew Scriptures, with respect to the nature and progress of Messiah's kingdom - That it is expressly opposed to those prophecies which foretel a suffering Messiah. And I shall next call the attention of the Jews to some other arguments in support of the divine mission of Jesus.

As there were Sadducees among the Jews, who denied the resurrection of the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits, thus limiting the hopes and fears of man, and the promises

of God, to the present state of existence, so there have been, and still are, in the Christian church, many persons who run to a contrary extreme; who deny the obvious meaning of all the prophecies which relate to the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and the glory and happiness which there await them. This mode of spiritualizing the prophecies respecting the Jews, seems now, however, to be rapidly losing ground; and nearly all the later interpreters receive these promises in their plain and literal meaning. Between these Christian interpreters and David Levi, there is therefore no difference of opinion with respect to the certainty of the accomplishment of the prophecies of the future restoration of Israel; the difference between them respects the person by whom they are to be accomplished. The Jew, deny

ing the divine mission of Jesus, asserts that the Messiah is not yet come; and that, at his first coming, he is to restore the whole house of Israel. The Christian asserts that Jesus is the Messiah promised to the fathers; and that, at

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