crown. God said, Go thou, and be lessened.The Moon said, Lord of the world, because I 'have spoken what is right before thee, shall I 'therefore be diminished. God said, Go thou, 'and rule by day and by night.-The Moon said, 'What honour and dignity will this confer upon 'me? Of what use is a candle at noon-day? God 'said, Go thou, and Israel shall compute their days and years by thee.-The Moon said, They 'will also compute them by the Sun, nor is it possible to compute the four seasons of the year any otherwise; for it is written, "And let them 'be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years." God said, Go thou, and just men shall 'be called by thy name: as Jacob the little, Samuel the little, and David the little.-God saw that the Moon was not satisfied, and he said,

להאל)

Bring ye a propitiation for me, because I have 'lessened the Moon. And it was on account of this, that Simeon the son of Lakish said, Why is 'the goat that used to be offered at the new moon spoken of differently from others, as it is written, (an on) for a sin-offering for the Lord? 'Num. xxviii. 15. It is as though God had said, 'That goat shall be a sin-offering for me, because I have lessened the moon.'*-Another part of the Talmud represents God as having contracted impurity by the burial of Moses, and as washing in fire in order to cleanse himself. 'An infidel ' asks Rabbi Abuhu, Since your God is a priest,

* Talmud. Cod. Cholin. c. iii. fol. 60. apud Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. i. p. 633, 634. Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. c. xxii. p. 478, 479. Jewish Repos. vol. i. p. 453.

for it is said, "Bring me an offering:" (Exod. XXV. 2) when he buried Moses, and became unclean, with what did he wash himself? Num. 'xix. 11, &c. It could not be with water; for it is said, "Who hath measured the waters in the 'hollow of his hand;" that is, the waters would 'not suffice for him to dip in. R. Abuhu replied, 'He washed himself in fire: "for, behold the 'Lord will come with," or in "fire." (Isai. lxvi. 15.) How, asked the infidel, is there such a thing as

washing in fire to be found any where? R. Abuhu replied, Certainly, the chief washing is with fire : "All that abideth not the fire," that is, that 'would be consumed by fire, "ye shall make go through the water.” (Num. xxxi. 23.)'*—Deity polluted, and requiring ablution! God confessing sin, and wanting an atonement! How applicable, to a writer of such fictions, is the reproof which Asaph represents God as addressing "to the wicked! "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an "one as thyself!" What a deplorable consideration, that the professed worshippers of Jehovah have disgorged impieties and blasphemies, never exceeded by the votaries of Baal, Jupiter, or Brama!

Those things which have been condemned as absurdities and fables, the admirers of the Talmud extol as beautiful apologues, conveying in parabolical language the sublimest lessons of heavenly wisdom. To this it is replied: that though some of these stories may admit of being explained as allegories or parables, yet this cannot be justly

* Sanhedrin, fol. 39. col. 1. cited in Jewish Repos. vol. i. p. 478.

regarded as their general character. The Talmudists frequently urge the truth and certainty of their accounts, which is not usual in parables. Thus after a relation which rivals the ravings of insanity, one of them gravely declares, I could not have believed this, if I had not seen the place myself. They often meet tacit objections, endeavour to vindicate their stories from inconsistency, and labour hard to support the principal circumstances from the text of the scripture.—They add no moral to their fables, which are often so constructed as not to admit of any. The applications of some later writers are, if possible, more absurd than the fables of their predecessors. To attempt a moral application of every fable in Ovid's Metamorphoses would not be a more hopeless task than a rational construction of the monstrous romances of the Talmud.*

Princes and pontiffs of former ages, supposing the perusal of these volumes to be favourable to the promotion of Judaism, and their very existence to be dangerous to the interests of Christianity, issued various decrees, prohibiting them from being read, and directing all the copies of them to be committed to the flames. Many were burnt at Rome, Ancona, and other places; but many were concealed by the Jews, and these decrees were only partially executed. The invention of print

*Pseif. Theol. Jud. Ex. i. Thes. 27-33. Hulsius De Theol. Jud. p. 445. Wagenseil. Tela Ignea Sat. Præf. p. 61, &c. Leusden. Philol. Heb. Diss. xiii, xiv.

Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. iii. p. 731-748. Wolf. Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 931-934.

ing supplied the means of multiplying these as well as all other books. There is reason to believe, however, that many passages, which were contained in the earlier impressions, have been omitted by the Jews themselves in the later editions. The following account of the matter is given in a work published at Amsterdam in the year 1723, by Christian Meyer, a learned Jew, who, after having held the office of a rabbi at Hamburgh, had embraced Christianity, and after his conversion lived many years, uniformly sustaining an unblemished reputation.

He states that a complete edition of the Talmud had been printed by the Jews at Cracow in Poland, and circulated all over that country: that after this, many Jews being converted to the Roman Catholic faith, they made their new friends acquainted with all that was said in the Talmud respecting Jesus of Nazareth that in consequence of this the Jews suffered a dreadful persecution, during which, in Cracow and other parts of Poland, thousands of them were killed: that the terror of those who escaped was very great, and induced them to think of some expedient to prevent the recurrence of such a calamity. After the storm had subsided, an assembly was convened, consisting of the principal Jews of Great and Little Poland, Lithuania and Russia. They met at Jareslow in Little Poland, in the months of Elul and Tisri ; the latter of which was the first in the Jewish year 5391, and answers to September in the year of our Lord, 1630. They agreed on the following eircular letter to be sent to all their brethren.

6

'Great peace be to our beloved brethren of the 'house of Israel.

Having received information that many Chris'tians have applied themselves with great care, to acquire a knowledge of the language in which

our books are written; we therefore enjoin you, ' under the penalty of the great ban, to be inflicted 6 upon such of you as shall transgress this our decree, 'that you do not, in any new edition of either the 'Mishna or the Gemara, publish any thing relative to Jesus the Nazarene; and that you take espe'cial care not to write any thing concerning him, ' either good or bad, so that neither ourselves nor 'our religion may be exposed to any injury; for 'we know what those men of Belial have done to us when they became Christians: and how their ' representations have obtained credit. Therefore let this make you cautious. If you do not pay 'strict attention to this our letter, but act contrary 'thereto, and continue to publish our books in the same manner as before, you may occasion, both to us and to yourselves, greater afflictions than we have hitherto experienced, and be the means of our being compelled to embrace the Christian religion, as we were formerly; and thus our latter 'troubles may be worse than the former.-For these reasons we command you, if you publish any new edition of those books, let the places relating to Jesus the Nazarene be left in blank, ' and fill up the place with a circle like this O. But 'the rabbies and teachers of children will know how to instruct the youth by word of mouth. Then Christians will no longer have any thing