DAVID LEVI made a judicious selection of the prophecies respecting the Messiah, and I have prefaced it with requisite observations. I have made but little alteration in the body of the work, except to amend the orthography, or correct grammatical inaccuracies.

Ir would have been fortunate for the world, if you had undertaken to edite this work; you would have deduced reasoning from our ancestors, that would have astonished those who are ignorant of Rabbinical wisdom, and disclosed theological knowledge, that would have convinced the most inveterate Sceptic. Every persecution was attended with the destruction of works, which illustrated the excellence of a religion that excited such umbrage. Those who prefer'd temporal to spiritual benefits, hated precepts that seemed rigorous and painful, and what they were too sensual to adopt, they endeavoured to abolish-yet many books escaped the frantic ravage. The resolute people whom no danger could detach from their faith, contrived to conceal many sacred and invaluable tracts;

tracts; and you possess some that escaped the vigilance of former fanatics, and comprehended only by proficients in our traditionary law.

THE mercy of our Creator is mistaken for his desertion of us ;-some men delude themselves into notions that God is regardless of their acts, because he is compassionate and long-suffering. From the calamities under which the virtuous suffer, from the prosperity of those who do not merit it, from the impunity of miscreants who dare the arm of vengeance; because he endures their temerity without asserting his Omnipotence they doubt his providence. Some ancient heathens had more perfect and exalted notions of providence, than many modern pretended religionists; they painted Divine providence plumbeis pedibus et ferreis manibus, with leaden feet and iron hands, symbolical of the slow vengeance that followed the sinner, yet when he is overtaken its severity would compensate for the delay. How arrogant for mortal man to pretend to dive into the incomprehensible mystery of the Divine government; I may quote Pagan

authors

authors when they are learned and virtuous. PINDAR speaking of the eternal Ruler and Lord of all things, gives him the title of the most perfect artificer, as being the great author and distributor of justice, to whom it properly belongs to determine at what time, in what manner, and to what degree to punish every particular offender. Let us, my dear Sir, rejoice that we were initiated in the worship of the true God, and profess his religion.

I KNOW how your luminous mind is occupied in the contemplation of inspired writings, yet you will not disdain the reflections of a learned author, who however erroneous in some notions, was profound and judicious in these: Burnett says, in his theory of the Earth-What is this "life, but a circulation of little mean actions? "we lie down, and rise again; dress, and un"dress; feed, and wax hungry; work or play, "and we are weary; and then we lie down "again, and the circle returns. We spend the "day in trifles! and when the night comes, we "throw ourselves into the bed of folly, amongst

"dreams

dreams and broken thoughts, and wild im"aginations; our reason lies asleep by us, and "we are for the time as arrant brutes, as those "that sleep in the stalls, or in the fields. Are "not the capacities of man higher than these? "and not his ambition and expectations to be

greater? let us be adventurers for another "world, 'tis at least a fair and noble chance, "and there is nothing in this worth our thoughts "or passions. If we should be disappointed, we "are still no worse than the rest of our fellow "mortals; and if we succeed in our expectations "we are extremely happy."

As there is a God whose providence governs the world, and all the creatures in it, is it not reasonable to think that he has a special care of man, the noblest part of the visible world, and that having made them capable of eternal duration he has provided for their eternal happiness, and sufficiently revealed the way to it, and the terms and conditions of it. Now, let any book be produced to the world, that pretends to be from God, where the doctrines are so useful,

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the precepts so reasonable, and the arguments so powerful, and the truth of which is confirmed by so many great and unquestionable miracles; the relation of which has been transmitted to posterity, in public and authentic records, written by those who were eye and ear witnesses of what they wrote, and free from suspicion of worldly interest and design, with Jerusalem where the Divine oracle chiefly spake, still retaining numerous vestiges, and exhibiting structures and monuments of biblical relation. Let a book like this be produced with such doctrines, (if there is such a one,) and that prevailed so miraculously in the world, in opposition to all the discouragement which no other religion ever encountered; but if there is no other such book we must embrace and entertain its sacred doctrines, and recognize them as emanative from Divine authority.

Moses as an inspired author, is the only one who could instruct us in the formation and unfoldings of the world; he is not an Epicurus, who has recourse to atoms; a Lucretius, who believes matter eternal; a Spinosa, who admits