as on other days; whereas all that Jefus did was to correct a fuperftitious punctilio in the obfervance of it. The man who carried his bed to his own house, was not labouring to earn his livelihood. Befides, in that age at leaft, your own people allowed more labour than Jefus here authorized, as to lead their cattle to water, and relieve them if they fell into pits, &c. though it might require great labour; and they defended themselves when they were attacked on the fabbath-day. But if what Jefus ordered had been a change in the law, furely he who could heal the fick by a word speaking, fhewed that he was authorized to do it.

Mr. Levi alfo charges it as a contradiction to Mofes, p. 26, that Jefus did not pronounce fentence of death on the woman taken in adultery. But in bringing this woman to Jefus, your ancestors only meant to enfnare him. If he had paffed fentence of death on her (which it was no more his bufinefs, than it was of those who brought her to him) they would very juftly have accused him to the Roman governor, as one who

3

had

had affumed temporal power. Befides, Jefus did not fay that the woman ought not to have been ftoned; but, acting in his proper character, as a prophet, he bid her go away, and fin no more.

The laft inftance that I fhall mention is one with refpe&t to which Mr. Levi is still more evidently mistaken. "He faid, John "v. 39, The Father himself who hath fent "me bath borne witness of me. Ye have nei"ther heard his voice at any time," Mr. Levi fhould have added, nor feen his shape, and then he could not have made the remark which follows. Pray Sir," p. 88, "What " do you think of this expreffion, which is "fo contrary to what both Jews and chrif

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tians believe, viz. that God fpake to the

Jewish nation face to face, as recorded by "Mofes." But what Jefus faid related to the very perfons whom he was addreffing, none of whom had heard God fpeak from mount Sinai, and certainly had not feen any form, or shape, there, as Mofes himself repeatedly declared. But, perhaps, Jefus fpake interrogatively, Have ye not

heard

beard his voice, and feen his shape? alluding to the voice from heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove, which fome of his auditors might have heard and feen.

Such are the contradictions which Mr. Levi has charged on the founder of the christian religion. Do you now judge whether they will authorize you to pronounce him to be a falfe prophet.

LETTER V.

Of the Sufferings of the Jewish Nation.

A

S an argument of your nation having offended God beyond any thing that is recorded in the books of the Old Teftament, I requested you to attend to the extreme severity of your prefent fufferings, and the long continuance of your banishment from your own country; and I faid that a captivity of feventy years was deemed a fufficient punishment for all your tranfgreffions preceding that event.

Mr.

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Mr. Levi replies, that the Babylonish captivity was not a punishment for all the fins of the preceding period. They were car"ried away to Babylon," he says, p. 45, "for the fin of not keeping the fabbath of "the land, agreeable to what Mofes fore

" told. But for their other fins, viz. ido"latry, murder, and whoredom, they did not "receive any punishment during the Baby

lonifh captivity," p. 49, by reafon of

"the shortness of its duration, and therefore "this longer captivity was neceffary to "finish tranfgreffion, that is, idolatry, and to "make an accomplishment for fin, i. e. "whoredom, and to make an atonement for iniquity, i. e. murder.

Thus does Mr. Levi interpret Daniel's famous prophecy of feventy weeks, of which he gives the following account, p. 40.

Daniel, judging that the fins of his na"tion would be done away by the seventy

years captivity at Babylon, the angel in"forms him, that their fin would not be "atoned for by the feventy years. But

vérily, as to Ifrael, he would not only

PART II.

D

"wait

"wait feventy years, but feven times seventy

years; after which their kingdom fhould "be cut off, and their dominion cease, and they return into captivity, to finish an "atonement for their tranfgreffions."

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But the language of the prophecy clearly indicates that the termination of this longer period of feven times feventy years would be fome joyful event, and not a calamitous one. For it was "to finish tranfgreffion, to make "an end of fin, to make reconciliation for "iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righ"teousness, and to feal up the vifion" (which Mr. Levi renders, p. 55, by publicly authenticating it) " and to anoint the most holy." Could this be the beginning of forrows?

If by the most holy, we understand the holy prophet, or prince, whom we fuppofe to be mentioned afterwards, under the character of Meffiak the prince, thefe four hundred and ninety years will terminate at the time of his being appointed to his office. This I think we are authorized to infer from the manner in which the angel immediately proceeds to explain himself. Know there

fore